1 O LORD, I am calling to You. Please hurry! Listen
when I cry to You for help!
2 Accept my prayer as incense offered to You, and my upraised hands as an evening offering.
3 Take control of what I say, O LORD, and guard my lips.
4 Don't let me drift toward evil or take part in acts of wickedness. Don't let me share in the delicacies of those who do wrong.
5 Let the godly strike me! It will be a kindness! If they correct me, it is soothing medicine. Don't let me refuse it. But I pray constantly against the wicked and their deeds.
6 When their leaders are thrown down from a cliff, the wicked will listen to my words and find them true.
7 Like rocks brought up by a plow, the bones of the wicked will lie scattered without burial.
8 I look to You for help, O Sovereign LORD. You are my refuge; don't let them kill me.
9 Keep me from the traps they have set for me, from the snares of those who do wrong.
10 Let the wicked fall into their own nets, but let me escape.
What a great prayer for our lives. That the Lord would help us guard our lips. That He would help us not to "drift' toward evil, or to enjoy the pleasures of things such as gossip, slander or cheating.
David doesn't stop there. He asks that he could be corrected by the godly, and that he would not refuse it. Can we do the same? Do you have godly people in your life who you would invite correction from?
It's tough, but we all need it.
Cry out to the Lord so He can accept your prayer "as incense" offered to Him.
