to shriek (from anguish or danger) · verb, qal imperfect, 1st person common singular
LORD
יְהוָ֣הYah.weh
H3068
Jehovah · proper noun, a title
voice
ק֭וֹלִיKo.li
H6963
a voice or sound · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix
voice
ק֝וֹלִ֗יko.Li
H6963
a voice or sound · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix
LORD
יְהוָ֥הYah.weh
H3068
Jehovah · proper noun, a title
supplication
אֶתְחַנָּֽן'et.cha.Nan
H2603
properly · verb, hithpael imperfect, 1st person common singular
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Psalms 30:8 I cried to thee, O LORD; and unto the LORD I made supplication.
Psalms 57:1 Be merciful unto me, O God, be merciful unto me: for my soul trusteth in thee: yea, in the shadow of thy wings will I make my refuge, until…
Psalms 141:1 LORD, I cry unto thee: make haste unto me; give ear unto my voice, when I cry unto thee.
1 Samuel 24:3 And he came to the sheepcotes by the way, where was a cave; and Saul went in to cover his feet: and David and his men remained in the sides…
1 Chronicles 4:10 And Jabez called on the God of Israel, saying, Oh that thou wouldest bless me indeed, and enlarge my coast, and that thine hand might be wit…
Psalms 77:1-2 I cried unto God with my voice, even unto God with my voice; and he gave ear unto me.
Psalms 28:2 Hear the voice of my supplications, when I cry unto thee, when I lift up my hands toward thy holy oracle.
Psalms 32:1 Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Psalms 142:1-3
Whether it was in the cave of Adullam, or that of Engedi, that David prayed this prayer, is not material; it is plain that he was in distress. It was a great disgrace to so great a soldier, so great a courtier, to be put to such shifts for his own safety, and a great terror to be so hotly pursued and every moment in expectation of death; yet then he had such a presence of mind as to pray this prayer, and, wherever he was, still had his religion about him. Prayers and tears were his weapons, and, when he durst not stretch forth his hands against his prince, he lifted them up to his God. There is no cave so deep, so dark, but we may out of it send up our prayers, and our souls in prayer, to Go…
I cried unto the Lord with my voice,.... With the voice of his soul, in the language of his mind, mentally, as Moses and Hannah cried unto the Lord when no voice was heard, or articulate sounds expressed, since this prayer was put up to the Lord in the cave where Saul was; though it might have been delivered before he came into it, while he and his men were at the mouth of it, which threw David into this distress; besides the cave was so large as to hold David and his six hundred men without being seen by Saul, and who could discourse together, as David and his men did, without being heard by Saul while he was in it; and so this psalm or prayer might be spoken vocally, though he was there;…
Psalm 142:1-4
1. I cried to Jehovah with my voice, with my voice to Jehovah I made supplication. 2. I pour out my meditation before his face: I tell my affliction before his face. 3. When my spirit was perplexed within me, and thou knewest my path: in the way wherein I walked they laid a snare for me. 4. On looking to the right hand, and perceiving, none would know me, refuge failed me, there was none seeking after my soul.
1. I cried [245] to Jehovah, etc. It showed singular presence of mind in David that he was not paralyzed with fear, or that he did not in a paroxysm of fury take vengeance upon his enemy, as he easily might have done; and that he was not actuated by despair to take away…
The Church Fathers
The intelligence of David when he was in the cave, a prayer. This title is prescribed according to history, indeed, when David was fleeing from the face of Saul in the desert of Engaddi, hidden in a cave; and Saul entered, unaware, as if on his own account. But since it has in its heading "The intelligence of David," we ought to understand the psalm spiritually. This psalm is indeed taken also as referring to the Lord, the true David; and Saul is understood as the devil, the cave as this world, and the fact that the devil does not send anything good into this world, but dung, and whatever is rotten. Now this world is understood as a cave, because it does not have perfect light in comparison with what is to come; but the Lord, coming into this world, shone forth like some light. Therefore the Apostle also says: "Who is the light of his glory." Therefore, just as David entered into the cave, hiding himself from Saul, so too the Lord entered into this world, and suffered persecution.
..."With my voice have I cried unto the Lord" (ver. 1). It were enough to say, "with voice:" not for nothing perhaps has "my" been added. For many cry unto the Lord, not with their own voice, but with the voice of their body. Let the "inner man" then, in whom "Christ" hath begun to "dwell by faith," cry unto the Lord, not with the din of his lips, but with the affection of his heart. God heareth not, where man heareth: unless thou criest with the voice of lungs and side and tongue, man heareth thee not: thy thought is thy cry to the Lord. "With my voice have I prayed unto the Lord." What he meant by, "I have cried," he explained when he said, "I have prayed." For they too who blaspheme, cry unto the Lord. In the former part he set down his crying, in the latter he explained what it was. As though it were demanded, With what cry hast thou cried unto the Lord? Unto the Lord, saith he, I have prayed. My cry is my prayer, not reviling, not murmuring, not blaspheming.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
The emphasis of the first two lines rests upon אל־ה. Forsaken by all created beings, he confides in Jahve. He turns to Him in pathetic and importunate prayer (זעק, the parallel word being התחנּן, as in Psa 30:9), and that not merely inwardly (Exo 14:15), but with his voice (vid., on Psa 3:5) - for audible prayer reacts soothingly, strengtheningly, and sanctifyingly upon the praying one - he pours out before Him his trouble which distracts his thoughts (שׁפך שׂיח as in Psa 102:1, cf. Psa 62:9; Psa 64:2; Sa1 1:16), he lays open before Him everything that burdens and distresses him. Not as though He did not also know it without all this; on the contrary, when his spirit (רוּחי as in Psa 143:4;…
Ps 142 The psalmist faces severe persecution, so he cries to the Lord, and the Lord will rescue him.
142:1-7 regarding his experience in the cave: Cp. Ps 57:title.
142:1-3 Though overwhelmed by his persecutors (142:6), the psalmist looks to the Lord for wisdom.
Spurgeon's Treasury of David on Psalms 142:1
I cried unto the Lord with my voice; with my voice unto the Lord did I make my supplication.
I cried unto the Lord with my voice. It was a cry of such anguish that he remembers it long after, and makes a record of it. In the loneliness of the cave he could use his voice as much as he pleased; and therefore he made its gloomy vaults echo with his appeals to heaven. When there was no soul in the cavern seeking his blood, David with all his soul was engaged in seeking his God. He felt it a relief to his heart to use his voice in his pleadings with Jehovah. There was a voice in his prayer when he used his voice for prayer: it was not vox et praeterea nihil. It was a prayer vivo corde as well as…
