Psalm 141 is a prayer of David.  This week I want to learn from his example and incorporate these truths into my own prayer life.  V1-2 speak to the most vital aspect of prayer.  Matthew Henry's commentary says that fervency and earnestness in prayer denote the faith and fixedness of our prayers to God.  David begs God to 1) hear him; and 2) make haste to come to him.  The desperate appeal is for God's Grace - to hear us and to come to us.  This is the foundation of true prayer.  Anything else is just useless, vain repetition.   Oh God, forgive us for making prayer anything else than this. Too often it becomes a list of desires and worries.  Change my heart O Lord.  Teach me to pray.

Hosea 7
"When I would heal Israel..."  God desires to heal, to restore, to forgive, to answer our deepest needs. But... as in David's prayer in Psalm 141, there is a need for rebuke, for sin to be uncovered and exposed so that the sinner can confess his sins and repent, to return to God.  Then God will heal and restore.  So "The iniquity of Ephraim is uncovered" :
They deal falsely.
They are thieves.
They are bandits.
They don't think that God sees or remembers their wickedness.
They lie.
They are adulterers.
They plot evil in their anger.
"None of them calls on Me" v7; "Yet they have neither returned to The Lord their God, Nor have they sought Him" v10;  " And they do not cry to Me from their heart" v14; "They turn, but not upward" v16.
Judgement is coming, sickness, fire, strangers to devour them.   v4-8  use a picture of an oven -
It is heated by the baker, who stirs up the fire v4
Their hearts are like an oven - with anger smoldering in it all night v6
All of them are like a hot oven, ready to consume the rulers and kings, v7
They are like a "cake not turned" v8
He also describes Ephraim as a "silly dove, without sense" v11
They have strayed from God and rebelled against Him and God cries out to them " I would redeem them, but they speak lies against Me"
They have every opportunity to repent, to find help in the One Who can save them.  But they refuse.

The Shepherd's voice speaks clearly, for this is Truth - our sins will be uncovered.  We either confess, agree with God that this is sin and repent, or we refuse and continue in our rebellion, calling Him a liar.  One way leads to healing and restoration.  The other leads to judgement and derision and condemnation.  All the while, God has provided the way of deliverance - Call on Him, Cry out to Him, Turn to Him - He will redeem us. This is the Gospel of Christ!  Hallelujah!