to call out to (i.e. properly · 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
heard
וַיַּֽעֲנֵ֨נִיvai.ya.'a.Ne.ni
H6030
properly · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular + pronominal suffix
holy
קָדְשׁ֣וֹka.de.Sho
H6944
a sacred place or thing · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
hill
מֵהַ֖רme.Har
H2022
a mountain or range of hills (sometimes used figurative… · preposition + noun, common masculine singular construct
Selah
סֶֽלָהSe.lah
H5542
suspension (of music) · interjection
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 34:4 I sought the LORD, and he heard me, and delivered me from all my fears.
Psalms 91:15 He shall call upon me, and I will answer him: I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him, and honour him.
Isaiah 65:24 And it shall come to pass, that before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear.
Psalms 34:6 This poor man cried, and the LORD heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles.
Psalms 2:6 Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion.
Psalms 43:3 O send out thy light and thy truth: let them lead me; let them bring me unto thy holy hill, and to thy tabernacles.
Jeremiah 29:12-13 Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you.
Matthew 7:7 Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you:
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Psalms 3:4–end
David, having stirred up himself by the irritations of his enemies to take hold on God as his God, and so gained comfort in looking upward when, if he looked round about him, nothing appeared but what was discouraging, here looks back with pleasing reflections upon the benefit he had derived from trusting in God and looks forward with pleasing expectations of a very bright and happy issue to which the dark dispensation he was now under would shortly be brought.
I. See with what comfort he looks back upon the communion he had had with God, and the communications of his favour to him, either in some former trouble he had been in, and through God's goodness got through, or in this hitherto. Dav…
cried . . . heard--Such has been my experience. The latter verb denotes a gracious hearing or answering.
out of--or, "from."
his holy hill--Zion (Psa 2:6). His visible earthly residence.
John Gill on Psalms 3:4
I cried unto the Lord with my voice,.... The experience which the psalmist had of being heard in prayer, was what gave great encouragement to his faith, as to his interest in God and salvation by him, when his enemies were so increased about him; for crying here is to be understood of prayer, as it is often used in this book of Psalms: and so the Targum renders it, "I prayed"; and this designs vocal prayer. Sometimes there is a crying in prayer and no voice heard, as it is said of Moses, Exodus 14:15; and was the case of Hannah, 1 Samuel 1:13; but this was with a voice, and a loud one, as in Psalm 55:17; denoting ardour, fervency, and importunity; and such prayer avails much with God. The ob…
Psalm 3:3-4
3. And thou, Jehovah, art a shield for me, my glory, and he that exalteth my head. 4. I have cried to the lord with my voice, and he heard me out of his holy hill. Selah.
The copulative and should be resolved into the disjunctive particle but, because David employs language full of confidence, in opposition to the hardihood and profane scoffings of his enemies, [39] and testifies that whatever they may say, he would nevertheless rely upon the word of God. It besides appears that he had previously entertained an assured hope of deliverance, from the circumstance of his here making no mention of his present calamity as a chastisement inflicted upon him by the hand of God; but rat…
The Church Fathers
It is the greatest faith that allows no hesitation for seeking the help of God for himself and that approaches with confidence of his demand.
The preceding psalm calls to mind this mountain when it says, "I have installed my king on mount Zion, my holy mountain." Christ was the one he was speaking of, and now David bears witness that he must be heard plainly by Christ from his holy mountain. Further, he says who is going to hear him except the Lord who has been installed as king upon Zion his holy mountain? Through this statement he [David], now alone, believed that he would be forgiven, that his glory would return and that his head would be lifted up.
"With my voice have I cried unto the Lord" [Psalm 3:4]; that is, not with the voice of the body, which is drawn out with the sound of the reverberation of the air; but with the voice of the heart, which to men speaks not, but with God sounds as a cry. By this voice Susanna was heard; and with this voice the Lord Himself commanded that prayer should be made in closets, that is, in the recesses of the heart noiselessly. Nor would one easily say that prayer is not made with this voice, if no sound of words is uttered from the body; since even when in silence we pray within the heart, if thoughts interpose alien from the mind of one praying, it cannot yet be said, "With my voice have I cried unto the Lord." Nor is this rightly said, save when the soul alone, taking to itself nothing of the flesh, and nothing of the aims of the flesh, in prayer, speaks to God, where He only hears. But even this is called a cry by reason of the strength of its intention. "And He heard me out of His holy mountain." We have the Lord Himself called a mountain by the Prophet, as it is written, "The stone that was cut out without hands grew to the size of a mountain." But this cannot be taken of His Person, unless peradventure He would speak thus, out of myself, as of His holy mountain He heard me, when He dwelt in me, that is, in this very mountain. But it is more plain and unembarrassed, if we understand that God out of His justice heard. For it was just that He should raise again from the dead the Innocent who was slain, and to whom evil had been recompensed for good, and that He should render to the persecutor a meet reward, who repaid Him evil for good. For we read, "Thy justice is as the mountains of God."
Dictionary and topics
Prayer — Is converse with God; the intercourse of the soul with God, not in contemplation or meditation, but in direct address to him. Prayer may be oral or mental, occasional or constant, ejaculatory or…
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
(Heb.: 3:4-5) But cleansed by penitence he stands in a totally different relationship to God and God to him from that which men suppose. Every hour he has reason to fear some overwhelming attack but Jahve is the shield which covers him behind and before (בּעד constr. of בּעד = Arab. ba‛da, prop. pone, post). His kingdom is taken from him, but Jahve is his glory. With covered head and dejected countenance he ascended the Mount of Olives (Sa2 15:30), but Jahve is the "lifter up of his head," inasmuch as He comforts and helps him. The primary passage of this believing utterance "God is a shield" is Gen 15:1 (cf. Deu 33:29). Very far from praying in vain, he is assured, that when he prays his pr…
The psalmist’s eyes turn from his enemies to the Lord.
3:3 The psalmist contrasts the contention of his enemies (3:2) with the Lord’s provision. The Lord is a shield for his people; he turns their defeat and shame into victory and glory.
Spurgeon's Treasury of David on Psalms 3:4
I cried unto the Lord with my voice, and he heard me out of his holy hill. Selah.
"I cried unto the Lord with my voice." Why doth he say, "with my voice?" Surely, silent prayers are heard. Yes, but good men often find that, even in secret, they pray better aloud than they do when they utter no vocal sound. Perhaps, moreover, David would think thus:—"My cruel enemies clamour against me; they lift up their voices, and, behold, I lift up mine, and my cry outsoars them all. They clamour, but the cry of my voice in great distress pierces the very skies, and is louder and stronger than all their tumult; for there is one in the sanctuary who hearkens to me from the seventh heaven, and he hath, hea…
