Psalm 54:2 kjv
Hear my prayer, O God; give ear to the words of my mouth.
Psalm 54:2 nkjv
Hear my prayer, O God; Give ear to the words of my mouth.
Psalm 54:2 niv
Hear my prayer, O God; listen to the words of my mouth.
Psalm 54:2 esv
O God, hear my prayer; give ear to the words of my mouth.
Psalm 54:2 nlt
Listen to my prayer, O God.
Pay attention to my plea.
Psalm 54 2 Cross References
| Verse | Text | Reference |
|---|---|---|
| Pss 5:1-2 | Give ear to my words, O Lord; consider my groaning... Attend to the sound of my cry... | Hear My Prayer: David's direct appeal for God's attention. |
| Pss 17:6 | I call upon you, for you will answer me, O God; incline your ear to me; hear my words. | Hear My Prayer: Confident expectation that God will answer. |
| Pss 31:2 | Incline your ear to me; rescue me quickly! Be a rock of refuge for me... | Hear My Prayer: Plea for swift divine intervention. |
| Pss 34:15 | The eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous and his ears toward their cry. | God's Readiness to Help: Assurance God hears the upright. |
| Pss 66:19-20 | But truly God has listened; he has attended to the voice of my prayer... | God's Readiness to Help: Testimony of God answering prayer. |
| Pss 86:6 | Give ear, O Lord, to my prayer; listen to my plea for grace. | Hear My Prayer: Urgent request for God to listen. |
| Pss 116:1-2 | I love the Lord, because he has heard my voice and my pleas for mercy. Because he inclined his ear to me... | God's Readiness to Help: Personal gratitude for answered prayer. |
| 1 Ki 8:28-29 | Yet have regard to the prayer of your servant and to his plea, O Lord my God, listening... | Hear My Prayer: Solomon's temple dedication, asking God to hear. |
| Isa 59:1 | Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, or his ear dull, that it cannot hear. | God's Readiness to Help: God's unfailing ability to hear and save. |
| Jer 29:12 | Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. | God's Promises: Divine assurance to hear prayers. |
| Jer 33:3 | Call to me and I will answer you, and will tell you great and hidden things... | God's Promises: Invitation to call upon God for revelation. |
| Matt 7:7-8 | Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened... | Call to Prayer: New Testament teaching on prayer's effectiveness. |
| Rom 10:13 | For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” | Call to Prayer: Universal promise for those who invoke God's name. |
| Php 4:6-7 | ...do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication...let your requests be made known to God. | Call to Prayer: Encouragement to present all concerns to God. |
| Heb 4:16 | Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. | Call to Prayer: Access to God's throne through Christ. |
| Ja 5:16 | ...The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. | Call to Prayer: Emphasizes the power of prayer. |
| Pss 6:9 | The Lord has heard my plea; the Lord accepts my prayer. | God's Acceptance: God receives and acts on petitions. |
| Pss 130:1-2 | Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord! O Lord, hear my voice! Let your ears be attentive... | Hear My Prayer: Prayer from profound distress, seeking attentiveness. |
| Lam 3:55-56 | I called on your name, O Lord, from the depths of the pit... You heard my plea: "Do not close your ear..." | Deliverance in Distress: God hears cries from dire situations. |
| 2 Sam 22:7 | In my distress I called upon the Lord; to my God I called. From his temple he heard my voice... | Deliverance in Distress: God's deliverance in dire moments. |
| Pss 4:1 | Answer me when I call, O God of my righteousness! You have given me relief... | God's Responsiveness: Calls for God to answer prayer for help. |
| Isa 30:19 | ...he will surely be gracious to you at the sound of your cry. When he hears he will answer you. | God's Mercy: Assurance of God's grace and answer to cries. |
| 1 Jn 5:14 | And this is the confidence that we have in him, that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. | God's Faithfulness: Assurance God hears prayers aligned with His will. |
Psalm 54 verses
Psalm 54 2 Meaning
Psalm 54:2 is a heartfelt plea from David to God, urging Him to pay close and attentive ear to his desperate prayer and the words he speaks in his distress. It signifies a profound reliance on God as the only source of help in a time of betrayal and imminent danger. The verse is an expression of deep trust that God is not only capable but also willing to hear and respond to His servant's cries.
Psalm 54 2 Context
Psalm 54 is a Maskil, a psalm of instruction or contemplation, traditionally attributed to David. Its superscription provides the specific historical backdrop: "To the choirmaster: with stringed instruments. A Maskil of David, when the Ziphites went and said to Saul, 'Has not David hidden himself among us?'" This situates the psalm during David's desperate flight from King Saul, who was relentlessly pursuing him to kill him (1 Sam 23:19-29). The Ziphites, who lived in Judah, betrayed David to Saul, despite David being part of the tribe of Judah. This act of betrayal by his own countrymen, combined with the relentless persecution, underscores David's extreme vulnerability and sense of abandonment. Verse 2 specifically captures David's initial reaction and foundational plea in this moment of severe distress: a cry directly to God for immediate divine attention and intervention, as his earthly means of escape were failing.
Psalm 54 2 Word analysis
- Hear (שְׁמַע - shema): This is more than mere physical hearing. In Hebrew thought, shema implies attentive listening that leads to action, understanding, and obedience. It's a plea for God to not just register sound, but to acknowledge, comprehend, and ultimately act in response to the prayer. It signifies a desire for God to internalize the plea.
- my prayer (תְפִלָּתִי - t'fillati): This term refers to a specific, reflective communication with God. It suggests a deliberate, often earnest, supplication. David isn't just muttering; he's engaged in a personal, formal address to the Divine, presenting his case and his need.
- O God (אֱלֹהִים - Elohim): This is a general, pluralistic name for God, emphasizing His transcendent power, majesty, and universal sovereignty. David appeals to God's inherent authority and omnipotence as the One capable of intervening in such a dire situation. The use of Elohim rather than YHWH (the covenant name) might underscore a plea to God as the mighty Ruler of the universe.
- give ear (הַאֲזִ֣ינָה - ha'azina): This verb carries a stronger sense of attentive listening than shema. It suggests bending down to listen closely, giving focused, earnest attention, as one might do to discern a faint sound or a crucial message. It implies God leaning in or inclining His ear, an anthropomorphic expression of divine condescension and deep care. It is a more intense, urgent request for full divine concentration on his plight.
- to the words of my mouth (לְאִמְרֵי־פִ֡י - l'imrei-fi): This specifies that the petition is verbal, spoken aloud. It emphasizes the earnestness and clarity of David's spoken appeal. It is not just a thought or a sigh, but an articulated cry, highlighting his intentional act of communicating his profound distress and trust to God through spoken words.
- Word Group: "Hear my prayer, O God": This forms the fundamental direct address and primary plea. It establishes David's profound reliance on God, immediately invoking divine attention for his deepest personal concerns. It's a statement of dependence on God's ability to engage with human pleas.
- Word Group: "give ear to the words of my mouth": This second phrase powerfully reinforces the first, intensifying the appeal for divine attention. By distinguishing "prayer" from "words of my mouth," David perhaps distinguishes his inner, meditative supplication from the overt, audible outpouring of his heart. The repetition with slightly different terms underscores the depth of his earnestness and desperation for God's concentrated presence in his crisis.
Psalm 54 2 Bonus section
The doubling of the petition for God to hear – using both shema ("hear") and ha'azina ("give ear") – is a common poetic device in Hebrew scripture, known as synonymous parallelism. It intensifies the plea, emphasizing the extreme urgency and earnestness of David’s request. It also showcases David's profound understanding of God as an engaged and attentive Listener, contrary to the mute and deaf idols worshipped by surrounding nations (cf. Pss 115:5-7; Isa 44:9-20). This theological contrast indirectly reinforces the living and responsive nature of Yahweh. The psalm's genre as a "Maskil" further implies that David's prayer is meant to serve as an instruction for others in similar times of distress, teaching them where to turn for true help and demonstrating the faithful pattern of reliance upon God even amidst dire circumstances.
Psalm 54 2 Commentary
Psalm 54:2 serves as the opening, raw cry of a desperate soul directly to his Deliverer. David, betrayed and pursued, immediately turns to the ultimate source of help, demonstrating a deep-seated theological conviction that God hears and responds to the cries of His people. The verse is a powerful lesson in prioritizing seeking God's attention first in moments of crisis. It teaches that true prayer is not merely vocalizing words, but an earnest engagement with a living God who bends down to hear. David’s plea for God to “give ear” signifies a desire not just for superficial hearing, but for a divine engagement that perceives the full depth of his anguish and intends to act accordingly. It emphasizes that despite overwhelming human opposition, one's primary recourse should always be the God who attentively listens to and delivers His faithful. Practically, this means cultivating a habit of verbal, intentional prayer, especially when feeling threatened or betrayed, knowing that God delights in listening closely to His children's genuine cries.