Psalms 140:6
in Psalms 140I say to the LORD, “You are my God.” Hear, O LORD, my cry for help.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
I said unto Jehovah, Thou art my God: Give ear unto the voice of my supplications, O Jehovah.
KJV
I said unto the Lord, Thou art my God: hear the voice of my supplications, O Lord.
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This verse in Psalms 140
Commentary
10 notes on this verseI said to the Lord: You are my God. Unless a man is holy, he cannot say this little verse; he who is not reigned over by sin, he it is who says, 'The Lord is my portion.'
This site's exposition
You are my God
on Psalms 140:6-8
The stanza opens with a confession, You are my God, and then asks to be heard. The head is covered in the day of battle, and the Hebrew word is nesheq, military equipment, so the day is the day of weapons. He asks God to deny the wicked their desires.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers1 voice
And what remains? What remedy amid such ills, in such temptations, such dangers? "I said unto the Lord, You are my God" [Psalm 140:6]. Loud is the voice of prayer, it excites confidence. Is He not the God of the others? Of whom is not He God, who is the true God? Yet is He specially theirs, who enjoy Him, who serve Him, who willingly submit to Him. For the wicked too, though unwillingly, are subject to Him...."Hear with Your ears the voice of my prayer." He did not say, "Hear with Your ears my prayer;" but, as though expressing more plainly the affection of his heart, " the voice of my prayer," the life of my prayer, the soul of my prayer, not that which sounds in my words, but that which gives life to my words. For all other noises without life may be called sounds, but not words. Words belong to those that have souls, to the living. But how many pray to God, yet have neither perception of God, nor right thoughts concerning God! These may have the sound of prayer, the voice they cannot, for there is no life in them. This was the voice of the prayer of one who was alive, forasmuch as he understood that God was his God, saw by Whom he was freed, perceived from whom he was freed.
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
When his enemies sharpened their tongues against him, did he sharpen his against them? No; adders' poison was under their lips, but grace was poured into his lips, witness what he here said unto the Lord, for to him he looked, to him he directed himself, when he saw himself in so much danger, through the malice of his enemies: and it is well for us that we have a God to go to.
I said unto the Lord, thou art my God,....
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
I said unto the Lord, Thou art my God. Here was David's stay and hope. He was assured that Jehovah was his God, he expressed that assurance, and he expressed it before Jehovah himself. That had need be a good and full assurance which a man dares to lay before the face of the heart searching Lord. The Psalmist when hunted by man, addressed himself to God.
I said unto the Lord, Thou art my God. Here was David's stay and hope. He was assured that Jehovah was his God, he expressed that assurance, and he expressed it before Jehovah himself. That had need be a good and full assurance which a man dares to lay before the face of the heart searching Lord. The Psalmist when hunted by man, addressed himself to God. Often the less we say to our foes, and the more we say to our best Friend the better it will fare with us: if we say anything, let it be said unto the Lord. David rejoiced in the fact that he had already said that Jehovah was his God: he was content to have committed himself, he had no wish to draw back. The Lord was David's own by deliberate choice, to which he again sets his seal with delight. The wicked reject God, but the righteous receive him as their own, their treasure, their pleasure, their light and delight. Hear the voice of my supplications, O Lord. Since thou art mine, I pray thee hear my cries. We cannot ask this favour of another man's god, but we may seek it from our own God. The prayers of saints have a voice in them; they are expressive pleadings even when they sound like inarticulate moanings. The Lord can discern a voice in our waitings, and he can and will hearken thereto. Because he is God he can hear us; because he is our God he will hear us. So long as the Lord doth but hear us we are content: the answer may be according to his own will, but we do entreat to be heard: a soul in distress is grateful to any one who will be kind and patient enough to hearken to its tale, but specially is it thankful for an audience with Jehovah. The more we consider his greatness and our insignificance, his wisdom and our folly, the more shall we be filled with praise when the Lord attends unto our cry.
3 more voices on this verse
The Nineteenth Century3 voices
A commentator
Charles Spurgeon1834–1892
The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Sermon No. 2527: “David's Five-stringed Harp” (lightly modernized text, CCEL edition) · Written before 1892.
proposed
This Psalm was written by David when he was sorely vexed by many adversaries. These adversaries were bent upon his destruction—they could not bear that the son of Jesse should be favored of God and that he should come to the throne—so they set their wits to work to invent all manner of slanders against him. They misconstrued his actions, they misrepresented his motives. They spat the very venom of asps from their mouths against him and, at the same time, they said to one another, "If we can lead him to do wrong. If we can, somehow or other, entrap him, either in his speech, or in his private character, or in his public actions, then we shall have a weapon wherewith we can smite him." The ungodly are fully aware that slander is, after all, a very dangerous weapon to handle and, like the Australian boomerang, it is very apt to come back to the man who throws it. Stones, hurled into the air, often fall upon the head of the thrower, and slander often recoils upon those who utter it. So, if they can but get a trthflaccusation against a man of God, then they are exceedingly glad. Slander is like shooting at a man with only powder, or with very small shot that can sting, but cannot kill. But, oh, if they can discover some questionable action of the man, or some decided wrongdoing, then they can load their rifles with bullets and have something deadly to fire at the righteous! David was exceedingly troubled by all this malice on the part of his enemies. He was a man who would have liked to go through the world at peace with everybody. Even when Saul tried to hunt him to the death, you remember that he would not lift his hand against his adversary even when he might have slain him.
A commentator
Charles Spurgeon1834–1892
The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Sermon No. 2527: “David's Five-stringed Harp” (lightly modernized text, CCEL edition) · Written before 1892.
proposed
This Psalm was written by David when he was sorely vexed by many adversaries. These adversaries were bent upon his destruction—they could not bear that the son of Jesse should be favored of God and that he should come to the throne—so they set their wits to work to invent all manner of slanders against him. They misconstrued his actions, they misrepresented his motives. They spat the very venom of asps from their mouths against him and, at the same time, they said to one another, "If we can lead him to do wrong.
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
I said unto the Lord, Thou art my God ... - In all these dangers from open war, in all these perils from a crafty enemy lying in ambush, my only refuge was God; my hope was in him alone. From all these dangers, seen and unseen, I knew that he could defend me, and I confidently believed that he would.
The words behind it
8 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| אָמַ֣רְתִּי | ʾamarti | I say | H559 → | 5305 times |
| לַ֭יהוָה | layahweh | to Yahweh | H3068 → | 6520 times |
| אֵ֣לִי | ʾeli | [are] God my | H410 → | 241 times |
| אָ֑תָּה | ʾatah | you | H859 → | 1094 times |
| הַאֲזִ֥ינָה | haazinah | give ear to ! | H238 → | 41 times |
| יְ֝הוָ֗ה | yahweh | O Yahweh | H3068 → | 6520 times |
| ק֣וֹל | kol | [the] sound of | H6963 → | 506 times |
| תַּחֲנוּנָֽי׃ | tachanunai | supplications my | H8469 → | 18 times |
אָמַ֣רְתִּיI say
ʾamartiH559 →5305 times
לַ֭יהוָהto Yahweh
layahwehH3068 →6520 times
אֵ֣לִי[are] God my
ʾeliH410 →241 times
אָ֑תָּהyou
ʾatahH859 →1094 times
הַאֲזִ֥ינָהgive ear to !
haazinahH238 →41 times
יְ֝הוָ֗הO Yahweh
yahwehH3068 →6520 times
ק֣וֹל[the] sound of
kolH6963 →506 times
תַּחֲנוּנָֽי׃supplications my
tachanunaiH8469 →18 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Zechariah 13:9This third I will bring through the fire; I will refine them like silver and test them like gold. They will call on My name, and I will answer them. I will say, ‘They…
it leads to
- Psalms 50:15
Call upon Me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you will honor Me.”
- Jeremiah 29:11–12
For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, to give you a future and a hope.
- Acts 2:21
And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’
- Isaiah 65:23–24
They will not labor in vain or bear children doomed to disaster; for they will be a people blessed by the LORD—they and their descendants with them.
- Isaiah 48:10
See, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have tested you in the furnace of affliction.
- Psalms 50:15
Through
Psalms 119:57The LORD is my portion; I have promised to keep Your words.
it leads to
- Psalms 16:5
The LORD is my chosen portion and my cup; You have made my lot secure.
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Lamentations 3:24
“The LORD is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in Him.”
- Psalms 16:5
Through
Psalms 16:2I said to the LORD, “You are my Lord; apart from You I have no good thing.”
it leads to
- Psalms 73:25
Whom have I in heaven but You? And on earth I desire no one besides You.
- Psalms 73:25
About Psalms
This page draws on Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Augustine of Hippo, Exposition on Psalm 140; Charles Spurgeon, The Treasury of David; Charles Spurgeon, The Treasury of David, Vol. 7; Charles Spurgeon, The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Sermon No. 2527: “David's Five-stringed Harp” (lightly modernized text, CCEL edition); Jerome, Homily 50, on Psalm 139; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763) and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.