What Does Psalm 140:6 Mean?
I said to the LORD, "You are my God." Tilt your ear to the voice of my pleas, O LORD.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
I said unto the LORD, Thou art my God: hear the voice of my supplications, O LORD.THE KEY
A plea for favor is not outside the relationship: the speaker says “Thou art my God” before asking to be heard.
THE MEANING
You name the LORD as your God while your need remains audible. “Supplications” carries the sense of pleas for favor, so the request itself is an appeal to favor.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that needing to plead means you stand outside the relationship: the speaker calls the LORD “my God” in the very sentence of asking.
THE ROOT
תַּחֲנוּנָי
taḥănûnay
GROWS FROM
חנן
ḥānan
to show favor, to grant favor
The Hebrew word is “my pleas for favor,” rooted in חנן (ḥānan), “to show favor.” English can make “supplications” sound like a type of speech; the root keeps the appeal for favor audible inside the word.
ALSO GROWS
ḥēn: favor
חֵן
This branch makes explicit the favor sought within the supplication.
ḥannûn: favor-giving, gracious
חַנּוּן
The same root describes one who shows favor, connecting the plea with the nature of the one addressed.
THE PATTERN
A plea can be spoken from belonging: the voice names its relationship as it makes its need known.
I love the LORD, for he hears and responds to my voice and my pleas for favor.Do not be pulled apart over anything, but in everything, through prayer and need, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.For you have not received a breath of slavery to return to fear; but you have received the breath that places us as sons, by which we cry out, Abba, Father.THE THREAD
I love the LORD, for he hears and responds to my voice and my pleas for favor.Psalm 116:1 uses the same Hebrew word תַּחֲנוּנָי (taḥănûnay, “my pleas for favor”) beside “my voice,” as Psalm 140:6 does. The shared root makes both verses present supplication as a voiced appeal for favor.
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