to prick up the ears · verb, hiphil imperative, 2nd person masculine singular + paragogic he
hear
וַעֲנֵ֑נִיva.'a.Ne.ni
H6030
properly · conjunction + verb, qal imperative, 2nd person masculine singular + pronominal suffix
mourn
אָרִ֖יד'a.Rid
H7300
to tramp about · verb, hiphil imperfect, 1st person common singular
complaint
בְּשִׂיחִ֣יbe.si.Chi
H7879
a contemplation · preposition + noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix
noise
וְאָהִֽימָהve.'a.Hi.mah
H1949
to make an uproar · conjunction + verb, hiphil infinitive construct, 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
Isaiah 38:14 Like a crane or a swallow, so did I chatter: I did mourn as a dove: mine eyes fail with looking upward: O LORD, I am oppressed; undertake fo…
Psalms 66:19 But verily God hath heard me; he hath attended to the voice of my prayer.
Psalms 77:3 I remembered God, and was troubled: I complained, and my spirit was overwhelmed. Selah.
Psalms 64:1 Hear my voice, O God, in my prayer: preserve my life from fear of the enemy.
Isaiah 59:11 We roar all like bears, and mourn sore like doves: we look for judgment, but there is none; for salvation, but it is far off from us.
Psalms 38:6 I am troubled; I am bowed down greatly; I go mourning all the day long.
Psalms 43:2 For thou art the God of my strength: why dost thou cast me off? why go I mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?
Psalms 102:9-10 For I have eaten ashes like bread, and mingled my drink with weeping,
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Psalms 55:1-8
In these verses we have,
I. David praying. Prayer is a salve for every sore and a relief to the spirit under every burden: Give ear to my prayer, O God! Psa 55:1, Psa 55:2. He does not set down the petitions he offered up to God in his distress, but begs that God would hear the prayers which, at every period, his heart lifted up to God, and grant an answer of peace to them: Attend to me, hear me. Saul would not hear his petitions; his other enemies regarded not his pleas; but, "Lord, be thou pleased to hearken to me. Hide not thyself from my supplication, either as one unconcerned and not regarding it, nor seeming to take any notice of it, or as one displeased, angry at me, and therefore at…
The terms of the last clause express full indulgence of grief.
John Gill on Psalms 55:2
Attend unto me, and hear me,.... So as to answer, and that immediately and directly, his case requiring present help;
I mourn in my complaint; or "in my meditation" (p); solitary thoughts, and melancholy views of things. Saints have their complaints, on account of their sins and corruptions, their barrenness and unfruitfulness, and the decay of vital religion in them; and because of the low estate of Zion, the declining state of the interest of Christ, and the little success of his Gospel; and they mourn, in these complaints, over their own sins, and the sins of others, professors and profane, and under afflictions temporal and spiritual, both their own and the church's. Christ also, in the…
Psalm 55:1-3
1. Give ear to my prayer, O God! and hide not thyself from my supplication. 2. Attend unto me, and answer me. I will wail [293] in my address, [294] and make a noise. [295] 3. By reason of the voice of the enemy, under the affliction of the wicked: for they cast iniquity upon me, and in wrath they fight against me.
1. Give ear to my prayer, O God! From the language with which the psalm opens, we may conclude that David at this time was laboring under heavy distress. It could be no ordinary amount of it which produced such an overwhelming effect upon a saint of his distinguished courage. The translation which has been given of 'ryd, arid, I will prevail, does violence to the co…
The Church Fathers
"I have been made sad in my exercise, and have been troubled" [Psalm 55:2]. Where made sad, where troubled? "In my exercise," he says. Of evil men, whom he suffers, he has made mention, and the same suffering of evil men he has called his "exercise." Think ye not that without profit there are evil men in this world, and that no good God makes of them. Every evil man either on this account lives that he may be corrected, or on this account lives that through him a good man may be exercised. O that therefore they that do now exercise us would be converted, and together with us be exercised! Nevertheless, so long as they are such as to exercise, let us not hate them: because in that wherein any one of them is evil, whether unto the end he is to persevere, we know not; and ofttimes when to yourself you seem to have been hating an enemy, you have been hating a brother, and know not. The devil and his angels in the holy Scriptures have been manifested to us, that for fire everlasting they have been destined. Of them only must amendment be despaired of....Therefore since this rule of Love for you is fixed, that imitating the Father you should love an enemy: for, He says, "love your enemies:" [Luke 6:27] in this precept how would you be exercised, if you had no enemy to suffer? You see then that he profits you somewhat: and let God sparing evil men profit you, so that thou show mercy: because perchance thou too, if you are a good man, out of an evil man hast been made a good man: and if God spared not evil men, not even you would be found to return thanks. May He therefore spare others, that has spared you also. For it were not right, when you had passed through, to close up the way of godliness.
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
Neginoth — I.e., songs with instrumental accompaniment, found in the titles of Ps. 4; 6; 54; 55; 67; 76; rendered “stringed instruments,” Hab. 3:19, A.V. It denotes all kinds of stringed instruments, as the…
Prayer · Should be offered up: With desire to be heard — Should be offered up: With desire to be heard
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).
In this first group sorrow prevails. David spreads forth his deep grief before God, and desires for himself some lonely spot in the wilderness far away from the home or lurking-place of the confederate band of those who are compassing his overthrow. "Veil not Thyself" here, where what is spoken of is something audible, not visible, is equivalent to "veil not Thine ear," Lam 3:56, which He designedly does, when the right state of heart leaves the praying one, and consequently that which makes it acceptable and capable of being answered is wanting to the prayer (cf. Isa 1:15). שׂיח signifies a shrub (Syriac shucho, Arabic šı̂ḥ), and also reflection and care (Arabic, carefulness, attention; A…
Ps 55 The psalmist is faced with adversaries whose leader is a former friend (55:12-14), and he is overwhelmed with anguish. He turns to the Lord in prayer and commits himself to the Lord for redress (55:22-23). Jesus experienced similar suffering when his friend (Judas) betrayed him. He also experienced the answer to the psalmist’s prayer: (1) by taking the place of the wicked and receiving their judgment (Isa 53:7-9), and (2) by committing himself to the Father, who rescued (Luke 23:46) and rewarded him (Isa 53:10-12).
55:1-3 The occasion for this prayer is an attack by an enemy.
Spurgeon's Treasury of David on Psalms 55:2
Attend unto me, and hear me: I mourn in my complaint, and make a noise;
Attend unto me, and hear me. This is the third time he prays the same prayer. He is in earnest, in deep and bitter earnest. If his God do not hear, he feels that all is over with him. He begs for his God to be a listener and an answerer. I mourn in my complaint, and make a noise. He gives a loose to his sorrows, permits his mind to rehearse her griefs, and to pour them out in such language as suggests itself at the time, whether it be coherent or not. What a comfort that we may be thus familiar with our God! We may not complain of him, but we may complain to him. Our rambling thoughts when we are distracted with grief w…
