What Does Psalm 6:9 Mean?
The LORD hears my plea for favor; the LORD takes up my prayer.
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
The LORD hath heard my supplication; the LORD will receive my prayer.THE KEY
A supplication is already a plea for favor, and here that plea is heard and taken in.
THE MEANING
Your plea is heard by the LORD, and your prayer is received as something taken in. The first clause names attention already given; the second holds out reception as a promise still unfolding.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that an unanswered moment means an unheard prayer: the verse holds hearing as already true while reception is still promised.
THE ROOT
תְּחִנָּה
teḥinnah
GROWS FROM
חנן
to show favor, be gracious
תְּחִנָּה (teḥinnah, plea for favor) grows from חנן (ḥānan, to show favor); the petition carries its appeal inside the word. The verse joins that appeal to divine hearing and reception, so favor is close to the act of asking.
ALSO GROWS
ḥēn: favor, graciousness
חֵן
This branch reveals the favor sought within the supplication.
ḥānan: show favor, be gracious
חָנַן
The verb names the quality the plea appeals to.
שָׁמַע
shāmaʿ
GROWS FROM
שמע
š-m-ʿ
to hear, listen, heed
“hears” in this verse is shāmaʿ. Here שָׁמַע (shāmaʿ, hear or heed) names attentive hearing; paired with the LORD’s promised receiving, it shows prayer as communication that reaches its hearer. The root holds listening close to taking something seriously.
ALSO GROWS
shemaʿ: hear and respond
שְׁמַע
This familiar form shows the root’s sense of hearing that engages with what is heard.
shemuʿah: report, news; something heard
שְׁמוּעָה
This branch makes hearing the beginning of a message that can be received and carried.
THE PATTERN
A cry voiced in need meets the LORD’s hearing, which holds the promise of response.
The aligned cry out, and the LORD hears, and snatches them out of all their narrow places.And it shall be, before they call, I will answer; while they are still speaking, I will hear and respond.And this is the open speech we hold toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.THE THREAD
But perceive that the LORD has set apart for himself the one held in faithful love. The LORD hears and responds when I call to him.Psalm 4:3 uses the same root שָׁמַע (shāmaʿ, hear or heed): the LORD will hear the speaker’s call. Read beside Psalm 6:9, the verses hold hearing and receiving together as one movement.
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