to prick up the ears · verb, hiphil imperative, 2nd person masculine singular + paragogic he
voice
לְק֬וֹלle.Kol
H6963
a voice or sound · preposition + noun, common masculine singular construct
cry
שַׁוְעִ֗יshav.'I
H7773
a halloo · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix
King
מַלְכִּ֥יmal.Ki
H4428
a king · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix
God
וֵאלֹהָ֑יve.lo.Hai
H430
gods in the ordinary sense · conjunction + noun, common masculine plural construct + pronominal suffix
pray
אֶתְפַּלָּֽל'et.pa.Lal
H6419
to judge (officially or mentally) · 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 65:2 O thou that hearest prayer, unto thee shall all flesh come.
Psalms 3:4 I cried unto the LORD with my voice, and he heard me out of his holy hill. Selah.
Psalms 145:1 I will extol thee, my God, O king; and I will bless thy name for ever and ever.
Isaiah 33:22 For the LORD is our judge, the LORD is our lawgiver, the LORD is our king; he will save us.
Psalms 84:3 Yea, the sparrow hath found an house, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, even thine altars, O LORD of hosts, m…
Psalms 24:7-8 Lift up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in.
Psalms 74:12 For God is my King of old, working salvation in the midst of the earth.
Psalms 99:1-4 The LORD reigneth; let the people tremble: he sitteth between the cherubims; let the earth be moved.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Psalms 5:1-6
The title of this psalm has nothing in it peculiar but that it is said to be upon Nehiloth, a word nowhere else used. It is conjectured (and it is but a conjecture) that is signifies wind - instruments, with which this psalm was sung, as Neginoth was supposed to signify the stringed - instruments. In these verses David had an eye to God,
I. As a prayer-hearing God; such he has always been ever since men began to call upon the name of the Lord, and yet is still as ready to hear prayer as ever. Observe how David here styles him: O Lord (Psa 5:1, Psa 5:3), Jehovah, a self-existent, self-sufficient, Being, whom we are bound to adore, and, "my King and my God (Psa 5:2), whom I have avouched for m…
Hearken--incline the ear (Psa 10:17; compare Psa 61:2) --give close attention.
my cry--that is, for help (Psa 61:2; Jer 8:19).
my King--thus by covenant relation interested in my cause.
John Gill on Psalms 5:2
Hearken unto the voice of my cry,.... Which seems to intend more than groans or words, even a loud outcry, as of a person in great distress; such as the strong crying of Christ, in the days of his flesh, when on the cross, forsaken by God, deserted by his friends, and surrounded by his enemies, Hebrews 5:7; and such, in some measure, was the case of David. The arguments used by him, that the Lord would hearken to him, are as follow: and the first is taken from his interest in the Lord, and his relation to him,
my King and my God; the Lord was David's King in a civil sense; though David was a king over others, yet the Lord, who is the King of kings, was King over him, and he owned him to be…
Psalm 5:1-2
1. Give ear unto my words, O Jehovah; attend to my speech. 2. Hearken to the voice of my cry, my King and my God: for unto thee will Ipray.
I presume not positively to determine whether David, in this psalm, bewails the wrongs which he suffered from his enemies at some particular time, or whether he complains generally of the various persecutions with which, for a long time, he was harassed under Saul. Some of the Jewish commentators apply the psalm even to Absalom; because, by the bloody and deceitful man, they think Doeg and Ahithophel are pointed out. To me, however, it appears more probable, that when David, after the death of Saul, had got peaceable possession of the kingd…
The Church Fathers
If one grants that indeed each animal recognizes the cry of its own offspring in the largest and most crowded flocks, that though a thousand calves may cry, the mother knows the cry of her own young, that though a thousand lambs may bleat, the female runs to the voice of her own and it does not fall, how much more among a thousand sinners crying out does God know the cry of the just and recognize him as the pure voice of his own child?
My King and my God. He has truly dared to say, My King and my God, in whom sin does not reign in his mortal body. My King and my God. Because Thou reignest in me, and sin does not reign, therefore Thou art my God. Thou art my God, because the belly is not my god, because gold is not my god, because lust is not my god. Since Thou art virtue, and I desire to have virtues, therefore Thou art my God, that is, my virtue.
"Attend Thou to the voice of my supplication;" that is, to that voice, which he maketh request that God would understand: of which what the nature is, he hath already intimated, when he said, "Understand my cry. Attend Thou to the voice of my supplication, my King, and my God" (ver. 2). Although both the Son is God, and the Father God, and the Father and the Son together One God; and if asked of the Holy Ghost, we must give no other answer than that He is God; and when the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost are mentioned together, we must understand nothing else, than One God; nevertheless Scripture is wont to give the appellation of King to the Son. According then to that which is said, "By Me man cometh to the Father," rightly is it first, "my King;" and then, "my God." And yet has not the Psalmist said, Attend Ye; but, "Attend Thou." For the Catholic faith preaches not two or three Gods, but the Very Trinity, One God. Not that the same Trinity can be together, now the Father, now the Son, now the Holy Ghost, as Sabellius believed: but that the Father must be none but the Father, and the Son none but the Son, and the Holy Ghost none but the Holy Ghost, and this Trinity but One God. Hence when the Apostle had said, "Of whom are all things, by whom are all things, in whom are all things," he is believed to have conveyed an intimation of the Very Trinity; and yet he did not add, to Them be glory; but, "to Him be glory."
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Nehiloth — Only in the title of Ps. 5. It is probably derived from a root meaning “to bore,” “perforate,” and hence denotes perforated wind instruments of all kinds. The psalm may be thus regarded as addressed…
Blasphemy · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Prayer · To be offered: To God — To be offered: To God
Prayerfulness · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Privileges Of Saints · Having God for their: King — Having God for their: King
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.: 5:2-4) The introit: Prayer to be heard. The thoughts are simple but the language is carefully chosen. אמרים is the plur. of אמר (אמר), one of the words peculiar to the poetic prophetical style. The denominative האזין (like audire = aus, οὖς dare) belongs more to poetry than prose. הגיג (like אביב) or מחיר (like מחיר) occurs only in two Psalms לדוד, viz., here and Psa 34:4. It is derived from הגג = הגה (vid., Psa 1:2) and signifies that which is spoken meditatively, here praying in rapt devotion. Beginning thus the prayer gradually rises to a vox clamoris. שׁועי from שׁוע, to be distinguished from שׁוּעי (inf. Pi.) Psa 28:2; Psa 31:23, is one word with the Aram. צוח, Aethiop. צוּע (t…
Ps 5 This morning prayer (5:3) expresses unwavering confidence in the Lord’s help and protection. The psalmist asks for and awaits God’s response (5:1-3). He describes the schemes of the wicked in detail but does not get lost in his circumstances. The psalmist also knows that the wicked cannot coexist with God (5:4-6, 9; see 1:5). He keeps returning to the Lord (5:7-8, 10; see 5:1-3), and then he prays for the godly community (5:10-12; see 3:8).
5:1-2 The request hear me appears in several prayers as a call for God’s attention during a time of trouble (39:12; 84:8; 143:1), as does pay attention (17:1; 54:2; 130:2). The needy ask their God, “Are you listening?”
Spurgeon's Treasury of David on Psalms 5:2
Hearken unto the voice of my cry, my King, and my God: for unto thee will I pray.
"The voice of my cry." In another Psalm we find the expression, "The voice of my weeping." Weeping has a voice—a melting, plaintive tone, an ear-piercing shrillness, which reaches the very heart of God; and crying hath a voice—a soul-moving eloquence; coming from our heart it reaches God's heart. Ah! my brothers and sisters, sometimes we cannot put our prayers into words: they are nothing but a cry: but the Lord can comprehend the meaning, for he hears a voice in our cry. To a loving father his children's cries are music, and they have a magic influence which his heart cannot resist. "My King, and my God." Obs…
