In the Spotlight

Give ear to my words, O Lord, consider my groaning.  Heed the sound of my cry for help, my King and my God, for to You I pray. Psalm 5:1-2 NASB

Give ear – “In prayer we seek not to make God visible but to make ourselves visible to God.”[1] David doesn’t open his prayer with a “fix things” request. He opens his prayer with a plea that God will acknowledge him. That will be enough. After all, if God is the sovereign ruler of all, it is really unnecessary to give Him a list of our needs or complaints, as we so often do. It is only necessary that the King turn His attention in our direction, an action that David would certainly have known. In the end, isn’t that all we really need—to feel God’s welcome, to know He is looking toward us? Perhaps our most desperate necessity is to know that we are not alone, that someone cares about us.

David’s song uses the opening phrase ‘amara ha-azinah (words give ear to). It is, of course, idiomatic. The phrase is used only in poetry and most often in parallel to šāmaʿ “to hear,” and hiqšîb “to pay attention.” Here David parallels the verb with binah (consider) in the opening verse, and qāšab (heed) and šāwaʿ (cry for help) in the second verse. All of the verbs are appeals for recognition. We should not read one without the others because David’s complete thought is echoed in all of these expressions.

What is David really asking? It’s more than “listen to my words.” It’s “hear me,” and “pay close attention” (consider) my hāgîg, my groaning. hāgîg is also a word for whispering and murmuring. In this case, David is barely able to make any sound at all, and when he does, it isn’t carefully crafted sentences. David is uttering the primal sounds of an infant who needs attention. Yes, we read his poetry, but the words don’t matter here. What matters are the feelings expressed in those words. David is describing what it is like to be at the place where all I have left is the groan of my spirit, desperate for God.

So he follows with qāšab (haqsibah)—“heed.” “This root denotes the activity of hearing, emphasizing either paying close attention or obeying (heeding). Compare it to šāmaʿ (a nearly identical synonym) and ʾāzan ‘to give ear,’ and ʿānâ, ‘to respond.’”^[2] David piles one verb upon another to convey the utter anguish he is feeling, ending with šāwaʿ, a cry for help. It’s important to note that “the verb is used autobiographically more than it is descriptively.”^[3] This cry is very personal. We have left all the flowery oration of common communal prayer behind. We are on the floor, in fetal position, whimpering for God. No “fix it” solution will suffice. This is bleating for acceptance. Perhaps you have prayed like this. Perhaps not. If you have, you know what David is feeling. The memory never goes away.

Topical Index: give ear, heed, consider, cry, Psalm 5:1-2

[1] Abraham Heschel, Moral Grandeur and Spiritual Audacity, p. xxii.

^[2] Coppes, L. J. (1999). 2084 קָשַׁב. R. L. Harris, G. L. Archer Jr., & B. K. Waltke (Eds.), Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament (electronic ed., p. 817). Chicago: Moody Press.

^[3] Hamilton, V. P. (1999). 2348 שָׁוַע. R. L. Harris, G. L. Archer Jr., & B. K. Waltke (Eds.), Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament (electronic ed., p. 912). Chicago: Moody Press.