What Does Psalm 141:3 Mean?
Set a watch, O LORD, before my mouth; keep guard over the door of my lips.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
Set a watch, O LORD, before my mouth; keep the door of my lips.THE KEY
The Hebrew stacks two guard-roots at one threshold: a watch before the mouth and a keeper over the door of the lips.
THE MEANING
This prayer pictures your mouth as an opening where words cross into the world: the LORD is asked to station a watch before it and guard the door of your lips. The two guard-words frame speech as a threshold under attentive care.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that speech is an unguarded outlet: here, the lips are a door under the LORD’s watch.
THE ROOT
שָׁמְרָה
shomrah
GROWS FROM
שמר
shamar
To keep watch, guard, or preserve.
The word for “watch” belongs to the family of שֹׁמֵר (shomer, “keeper, watchman”) and מִשְׁמֶרֶת (mishmeret, “guard duty, custody”). That family gives the prayer’s watch the sense of attentive guarding stationed at the mouth.
ALSO GROWS
shomer: One who watches or guards.
שֹׁמֵר
The watch in the verse is pictured as an attentive keeper at the mouth.
mishmeret: A charge or watch kept over something.
מִשְׁמֶרֶת
It echoes the prayer’s image of speech placed under a guard’s care.
נִצְּרָה
nitsrah
GROWS FROM
נצר
natsar
To guard, watch over, or preserve.
“keep guard over” in this verse is nitsrah. The two guard-words come from complementary roots: שמר (shamar, “keep watch”) and נצר (natsar, “guard, preserve”). The same natsar root guards tongue and lips in Psalm 34:13, making the link between these verses audible beneath the English.
ALSO GROWS
nĕṣōr: Guard or keep; an imperative form of the root.
נְצֹר
Psalm 34:13 uses this form for guarding the tongue and lips.
nōṣēr: One who keeps or preserves.
נֹצֵר
This form carries the same guarding sense found in the prayer’s request over the lips.
THE PATTERN
Scripture repeatedly pictures speech as a threshold to be guarded, naming the mouth, tongue, and lips as places of custody.
Guard your tongue from evil, and your lips from speaking deceit.To the chief Musician, even to Jeduthun, A Psalm of David. I say, I will guard my ways, lest I miss the mark with my tongue. I will guard my mouth with a bridle while the wicked is before me.If anyone among you seems to be devout, not bridling his tongue but deceiving his own heart, this one's service is empty.THE THREAD
Guard your tongue from evil, and your lips from speaking deceit.The verb translated “keep” is נְצֹר (nĕṣōr, “guard, keep”), from the same root נצר (natsar, “guard, preserve”) as “keep” in this verse. Psalm 34 places that same guard over both tongue and lips, making the connection audible beneath the English.
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