What Does Psalm 61:1 Mean?
To the chief Musician upon Neginah, A Psalm of David. Hear and respond to my ringing cry, O God; give ear to 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
To the chief Musician upon Neginah, A Psalm of David. Hear my cry, O God; attend unto my prayer.THE KEY
The Hebrew word for “cry” shares its root with a ringing song, so anguish and praise can rise from the same voice.
THE MEANING
Your cry and your prayer both stand before God now: one rings out from what presses within, and one asks for attentive hearing. The verse holds raw expression and deliberate appeal together without requiring the cry to be polished first.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that only carefully formed words count as prayer: the cry itself is brought before God alongside the prayer.
THE ROOT
רִנָּתִי
rinnati
GROWS FROM
רנן
ranan
To ring out, shout, or sing aloud.
“ringing cry” in this verse is rinnati. The root of “cry” also names a ringing song or shout. English makes anguish and praise sound like separate kinds of voice; this word can hold both within one vocal expression.
ALSO GROWS
Ranan: To ring out, shout, or sing aloud.
רָנַן
This verb shares the sound of a voice raised without being reduced to either lament or praise.
Rinnah: A ringing cry, shout, or song.
רִנָּה
This noun shows why the verse’s cry can be heard as more than a silent thought: it is a voice breaking into the open.
שִׁמְעָה
shim'ah
GROWS FROM
שמע
shama
To hear, listen, and respond.
“Hear and respond” in this verse is shim'ah. The plea asks for more than sound to reach God; the Hebrew hearing-word can carry the sense of listening responsively. The verse’s next appeal for attention deepens that request from reception into heed.
ALSO GROWS
Shema: Hear and respond.
שְׁמַע
This familiar form of the same root makes the responsive sense of the plea visible.
Shomea: One who hears; hearing.
שֹׁמֵעַ
The root can name both the act of hearing and the one who hears, bringing the speaker’s cry into relation with an attentive listener.
תְּפִלָּתִי
tefillati
GROWS FROM
פלל
palal
To intercede, intervene, or pray.
The Hebrew word for prayer grows from a verb associated with interceding or intervening. Alongside the ringing cry, it presents prayer as an addressed appeal that enters what is happening, not merely an inward thought.
ALSO GROWS
Palal: To intercede, intervene, or pray.
פָּלַל
The verb gives the prayer its character as a deliberate appeal placed before God.
Tefillah: Prayer or petition.
תְּפִלָּה
This related noun is the word’s fuller form in the verse: the cry is also shaped into a direct petition.
THE PATTERN
Scripture presents cries and prayers as addressable speech that God hears and answers.
The aligned cry out, and the LORD hears, and snatches them out of all their narrow places.He does the delight of those in awe of him; he hears and responds to their outcry, and delivers them.And said, Cornelius, your prayer has been heard, and your acts of compassion have been remembered before the eyes of God.THE THREAD
The aligned cry out, and the LORD hears, and snatches them out of all their narrow places.“Heareth” in this verse comes from the same Hebrew root, shama (שמע, hear and respond), as the plea “Hear” in Psalm 61:1. Psalm 34:17 pairs that hearing with deliverance, showing attentive response unfolding beyond the cry itself.
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