What Does Psalm 88:13 Mean in the King James?

But unto thee have I cried, O LORD; and in the morning shall my prayer prevent thee.

Psalm 88:13 · 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 prayer does not merely reach toward the LORD; its Hebrew says it goes ahead to meet him.

THE MEANING

Your cry is directed to the LORD while distress remains present. At morning, your prayer is pictured as arriving before him, holding anguish and address together.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

This undoes the fear that an anguished cry is too late to reach God: the prayer is pictured as arriving before the LORD at morning.

THE ROOT

תְּקַדְּמֶךָ

teqaddemekha

GROWS FROM

קדם

q-d-m

To be in front, precede, or meet.

The KJV’s “prevent” preserves its older sense of “come before”: the prayer takes the place of what is ahead, meeting the LORD before the speaker does. The root’s frontward image makes morning prayer an arrival already in motion.

ALSO GROWS

qedem: Front, east, or former time.

קֶדֶם

Its senses point to what is in front, whether in space or time, echoing the prayer that goes before the LORD.

qadim: East wind.

קָדִים

This branch preserves the root’s directional sense of the east as the frontward direction.

qiddem: Met, anticipated, or came before.

קִדֵּם

This verb makes the verse’s image explicit: the prayer precedes the one it is addressed to.

THE PATTERN

Prayer moves toward God at the beginning of the day, before the day’s light is full.

My voice shalt thou hear in the morning, O LORD; in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee, and will look up.

Psalm 5:3 · KJVMorning begins with prayer directed toward the LORD.

I prevented the dawning of the morning, and cried: I hoped in thy word.

Psalm 119:147 · KJVThe speaker cries out before dawn, placing prayer at the day’s threshold.

And in the morning, rising up a great while before day, he went out, and departed into a solitary place, and there prayed.

Mark 1:35 · KJVPrayer comes before the day is fully begun.

THE THREAD

I prevented the dawning of the morning, and cried: I hoped in thy word.

Psalm 119:147 · KJV

Both verses use ⁨קדם⁩ (q-d-m): in Psalm 119 the speaker comes before dawn; here the prayer comes before the LORD. The shared root links rising ahead of the morning with prayer already on its way to meet God.

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