What Does Psalm 120:1 Mean in the King James?

A Song of degrees. In my distress I cried unto the LORD, and he heard me.

Psalm 120:1 · KJV

The analysis reads the King James wording.

King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.

THE KEY

The word translated “distress” is a narrowed place, and the verse’s final verb gives the cry an answer.

THE MEANING

Your distress is a narrowed place, and your cry is an act of address to the LORD. The verse holds an answer within that same moment: the cry is met.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

The belief that distress means your cry cannot reach the LORD is undone by the verse’s movement from calling to answer.

THE ROOT

בַּצָּרָתָה

ba-tsarah

GROWS FROM

צָרַר

tsarar

to bind, press, or constrict

The Hebrew word for distress belongs to the language of pressure and narrowness. The cry rises from a constricted place, a picture made vivid when Psalm 118:5 sets distress against being brought into a large place.

ALSO GROWS

tsar: narrow, tight; also an adversary or oppressor

צַר

The word can name both constriction and the one who presses, linking distress with the pressure that produces it.

metzar: a narrow place or strait

מֵצַר

Psalm 118:5 uses this related form for distress before describing the LORD setting the speaker in a large place.

קָרָאתִי

qara'ti

GROWS FROM

קָרָא

qara

to call, summon, or proclaim

“cried” in this verse is qara'ti. The cry is a directed call: the verse says it is “unto the LORD.” The same root extends into calling aloud and assembling, giving the cry the shape of an address rather than an unformed sound.

ALSO GROWS

qeri'ah: a calling or reading aloud

קְרִיאָה

This branch carries the sense of a voice made audible, as the distress becomes a call.

miqra: a convocation or proclaimed gathering

מִקְרָא

The same root can gather people through a call, showing how calling gives sound a direction and purpose.

וַיַּעֲנֵנִי

wayya'aneni

GROWS FROM

עָנָה

ʿanah

to answer or respond

“heard” in this verse is wayya'aneni. This verb carries the sense of answering or responding, giving the LORD’s hearing the shape of a reply. The call and response are held together in one short line.

ALSO GROWS

maʿaneh: an answer or response

מַעֲנֶה

This noun makes explicit the answering that completes the call.

yaʿaneh: he will answer or respond

יַעֲנֶה

This verb form carries the same answering movement into another moment.

THE PATTERN

A cry voiced from affliction is met by God’s hearing and response.

And the LORD said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrows;

Exodus 3:7 · KJVThe LORD sees affliction, hears the cry rising from it, and knows the sorrow within it.

And it shall come to pass, that before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear.

Isaiah 65:24 · KJVThe call and the LORD’s answer are so closely joined that the answer begins before the speaking is finished.

And shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them?

Luke 18:7 · KJVThe ongoing cry is presented as an appeal that God answers with justice.

THE THREAD

I called upon the LORD in distress: the LORD answered me, and set me in a large place.

Psalm 118:5 · KJV

This verse repeats the same roots for distress, calling, and answering. It then names the movement from the narrow place into a large one, opening the constriction in Psalm 120:1 toward spaciousness.

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