What Does Psalm 55:17 Mean?
Evening, and morning, and at noon, I murmur and roar, and he hears and responds to my voice.
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
Evening, and morning, and at noon, will I pray, and cry aloud: and he shall hear my voice.THE KEY
Prayer here moves from deliberate speech to a moan, and the verse says both reach the One who hears.
THE MEANING
Evening, morning, and noon hold prayer across your changing day. The Hebrew pairs שׂיח (śîaḥ, speaking or musing) with המה (hāmâ, moaning or roaring), so deliberate words and an unsettled sound both belong to the voice that is heard. Even an unpolished cry remains fully audible.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that prayer is heard only when it is composed into clear words: the verse includes a moan alongside spoken reflection.
THE ROOT
אשיחה
ʾāśîḥâ
GROWS FROM
שׂיח
śîaḥ
To muse, speak, or turn thought over in words.
“murmur” in this verse is ʾāśîḥâ. The word translated “pray” carries the sense of voicing what is being turned over within. Set beside a moan, it shows prayer holding both reflection shaped into words and sound that spills beyond them.
ALSO GROWS
śîaḥ: Meditation, inward speech, or complaint.
שִׂיחַ
This branch shows that prayer can include the mind’s ongoing reflection and its complaint.
śîḥâ: Meditation or discourse.
שִׂיחָה
This related word carries the root’s movement from inward musing into expressed speech.
וְאֶהֱמֶה
veʾehĕmeh
GROWS FROM
המה
hāmâ
To murmur, moan, roar, or make a restless sound.
The root behind “cry aloud” can describe a moan or restless roar, not only a deliberate shout. The verse places this less controlled sound beside prayerful speech, and both are heard.
ALSO GROWS
hāmôn: Tumult, noise, or a noisy multitude.
הָמוֹן
The branch carries the root’s sense of sound swelling into a commotion.
yehĕmû: They roar.
יֶהֱמוּ
This form describes roaring waters, showing how the same root can name a sound that rises with force.
THE PATTERN
Being heard includes the whole range of prayer, from voiced reflection to groaning that words cannot carry.
I remember God, and I roar; I murmur, and my breath wraps itself up. Selah.The aligned cry out, and the LORD hears, and snatches them out of all their narrow places.Likewise the breath also takes hold alongside our weakness, for we do not know what we should pray for as we ought; but the breath itself approaches on our behalf with groans too deep for speech.THE THREAD
I remember God, and I roar; I murmur, and my breath wraps itself up. Selah.The word behind “I complained” comes from the same root, המה (hāmâ, to moan or roar), as “cry aloud” here. The shared root links daily prayer with a moan in distress: that groan is already part of prayer’s language.
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