Psalms 141:5

141:5-10 We should be ready to welcome the rebuke of our heavenly Father, and also the reproof of our brethren. It shall not break my head, if it may but help to break my heart: we must show that we take it kindly. Those who slighted the word of God before, will be glad of it when in affliction, for that opens the ear to instruction. When the world is bitter, the word is sweet. Let us lift our prayer unto God. Let us entreat him to rescue us from the snares of Satan, and of all the workers of iniquity. In language like this psalm, O Lord, would we entreat that our poor prayers should set forth our only hope, our only dependence on thee. Grant us thy grace, that we may be prepared for this employment, being clothed with thy righteousness, and having all the gifts of thy Spirit planted in our hearts.

Psalm 141:5 . Let the righteous smite me — Namely, by reproofs. If at any time, through the frailty of nature, I should be inclined to yield to temptation, let me find, among my attendants or friends, some righteous and faithful person, who, with kind severity, will check and reprove me. It shall be a kindness — I shall be so far from being offended with it, as an act of enmity or ill will, that I shall esteem it an act and mark of true friendship. It shall be an excellent oil — Hebrews שׁמן ראשׁ , the oil of the head, that is, as the oil which is poured upon the head as the manner was in great feasts and solemnities, which shall not break my head — Nor hurt, but heal, and greatly refresh me. For yet my prayer shall be in their calamities — Either, 1st, In the calamities of those persons who reproved and censured him. When they came into such calamities as those wherein he had been involved, he would pity them, and pray for them. Or, he may mean the calamities of his enemies, of which he speaks in the next words. He foresaw that his enemies would be in calamities, and that they would need, and desire his prayers; and he here declares he would willingly grant them: but the Hebrew of this clause may be properly rendered, My prayer shall be against their wickedness.

(5) The difficulties of the psalm thicken here. Render, Let a righteous man smite me, it is a kindness; and let him reprove me, it is oil for the head: my head shall not refuse it though it continue; yet my prayer is against their wickedness. The word rendered “smite” is that used of Jael’s “hammer strokes “(Judges 5:26). (Comp. Isaiah 41:7.) The Hebrew for “reprove” is probably used in a judicial sense, as in Genesis 31:37; Isaiah 2:4; Proverbs 24:25, &c. The greatest obscurity attaches to the word rendered above “refuse,” but in the Authorised Version “break,” probably because in Psalm 33:10 (“ bring to none effect”) it is in parallelism with “break.” The LXX. and Vulg. take it as meaning “anoint,” rendering (from a different text to ours) “let not oil of a wicked man anoint my head.” If we might adopt this reading it would remove the difficulty of this part of the verse, and give an excellent parallelism: “A righteous man may smite me in mercy and reprove me, but let not a wicked man’s oil anoint my head;” i.e., I would welcome reproof from the righteous, but reject even the festive oil offered by the wicked. For the rendering “wickednesses,” instead of “calamities,” comp. Job 20:12; Psalm 94:23. For the sense of “although” given to the conjunction, see Exodus 13:17. The suffix “their” refers back, of course, to the ungodly in Psalm 141:4. The “oil for the head” (comp. Psalm 45:7) is a natural emblem of festivity, and the whole sentiment of the passage is tolerably clear.

Rather than join in the wicked mirth of a profane banquet, the poet would be the object of continued rebuke and chastisement from one of the godly—his prayer meanwhile still rising for protection against the allurements held out to tempt him. We probably have sketched here the actual condition of many a Levite between the apostate and the loyal part of the nation.

Verse 5. - Let the righteous smite me; it shall be a kindness ; rather, let the righteous smite me kindly , as in the margin. And let him reprove me; it shall be an excellent oil, which shall not break my head ; rather, which my head shall not refuse . The psalmist will prefer the reproof of the righteous to the dainty allurements of the wicked. He will regard their words as an oil of welcome, such as was poured upon the head of favored guests ( Luke 7:36 ), and his head will not refuse it. For yet my prayer also shall be in their calamities ; rather, their wickednesses . This healing oil will strengthen him to continue to pray for his enemies, even though they still continue in their "wickednesses." Psalm 141:5

Smite me, to wit, with his tongue by reproofs, as the next clause explains it, which are called wounds , Proverbs 27:6 . As I pray unto thee that thou wouldst keep me from sinful practices, so I beg it of all just men, that if I do transgress, or if by the arts and slanders of mine enemies any of them are made to believe that I am guilty of evil designs against Saul, or of any other wickedness, that they would freely admonish and reprove me for it. And their reproofs shall please me better than the dainties of the wicked last mentioned, Psalm 114:4 . It shall be a kindness; I shall be so far from being offended with it as an act of entity or ill will, as they may suspect, that I shall esteem it an act and sign of true friendship. It shall be an excellent oil; or, it shall be as the oil of the head , as it is in the Hebrew, i.e. which is poured upon the head, as the manner was in great feasts and solemnities. Not break my head; not Inert or disturb it, but, on the contrary, shall heal and greatly refresh and delight it; which is here understood by a known figure called meiosis , whereby more is intended than is expressed, as Proverbs 17:21 , and oft elsewhere. In their calamities; either, 1. In the calamities of those righteous persons who reproved and censured him.

So this is an evidence of what he last said, that he should take their reproofs for a kindness, because when they came into such calamities as those wherein he was involved, as all righteous men must expect sufferings at one time or other, he would not insult over them, nor censure them, but pity them, and pray for them. Or, 2. In the calamities of his enemies, of which he speaks in the next words. And so this may be added as a reason why he did so freely offer himself to the righteous to be reproved by them, if he or his cause were so bad as his enemies made them, because he was well assured that he was sincere and his cause good, and that God would bring him out of all his calamities, and bring his enemies into such calamities that they should need and desire his prayers, which also he would willingly grant to them; and then all good men would be fully satisfied of the justice of his person and cause.

5 . Let the righteous smite me, it shall be kindness: And let him reprove me, it shall be as oil for the head; Let not my head refuse it: But still let my prayer be against their evil doings. From the prayer of Psalm 141:4 it is clear that the Psalmist had felt the seductiveness of worldly luxury, and apparently (cp. Psalm 141:9 ) godless men had been endeavouring to entice him to cast in his lot with them. On the other hand it would seem that he had been tempted to resent the correction and reproof of the godly, possibly not always offered in the most conciliatory way. He therefore prays that he may welcome correction as kindness, and reproof as the “ointment and perfume” which “rejoice the heart” ( Proverbs 27:9 ), alluding no doubt to the oil with which his head would have been anointed at the banquets of the wicked ( Amos 6:6 ). Smite is of course a metaphor for severe correction. Cp. Proverbs 27:6 , “Faithful are the wounds of a friend.” The Book of Proverbs insists constantly on the value of reproof, which the wise man welcomes and the fool resents ( Proverbs 3:11 f.; Proverbs 13:18 ; Proverbs 15:5 ; Proverbs 15:31-32 ; Proverbs 28:23 ), and the duty of neighbourly reproof is enjoined in the Law ( Leviticus 19:17 ). Cp. Ecclesiastes 7:5 .

The last line is obscure, and the text is possibly corrupt, but the general sense may be, ‘Let me not resent reproof, and associate with the wicked, but let me continue to pray against (or, in the midst of) their evil deeds.’ Neglecting the Heb. accents we might render, Let not my head refuse it, but again! (i.e. let him repeat his reproofs), and let my prayer be against their evil deeds .

Let the righteous smite me - This verse is exceedingly difficult and obscure (compare the margin); and there have been almost as many different opinions in regard to its meaning as there have been commentators on the psalm. A large number of these opinions may be seen in Rosenmuller in loc.