Catholic Commentary on Psalm 141

"May my prayer be set before you like incense; may the lifting up of my hands be like the evening sacrifice." (Psalm 141:2)

Evening Prayer

Psalm 141 is an evening psalm, a petition for God to hear the prayer that rises like incense and to accept the lifted hands like the evening sacrifice. This beautiful image, which the Church adopted into the liturgy of Vespers from the earliest centuries, presents prayer as sacrifice: the offering of the self to God through the medium of word and gesture, rising as incense rises, accepted as the Temple offering was accepted. The Catechism calls incense a symbol of prayer in both testaments, and the image of Revelation 8:4 confirms it: the smoke of the incense together with the prayers of all the saints rose before God (CCC 2581).

The psalm then becomes a petition for interior virtue: set a guard over my mouth, LORD, keep watch over the door of my lips. This is the prayer of the person who knows that the greatest danger to the community often comes from within, from the tongue that flatters, that speaks without thinking, that wounds without intending. Let me not eat of the delicacies of those who do evil; let me not be drawn into fellowship with wickedness. The psalm ends with trust in the LORD as refuge, the eyes still toward him even in distress.

Living the Word

Brothers and sisters, the evening sacrifice of Psalm 141 is the Liturgy of the Hours at Vespers, offered in churches and monasteries and by faithful lay people every evening around the world. Join that great choir even briefly each evening. Light incense if you have it. Lift your hands. Let your prayer rise before God with the whole Church as the sun sets.

Prayer

Lord God, may my prayer be set before you like incense and the lifting of my hands like the evening sacrifice. Set a guard over my mouth and keep watch over the door of my lips. My eyes are fixed on you, LORD my God; in you I take refuge. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.