What Does Psalm 77:1 Mean?
To the chief Musician, to Jeduthun, A Psalm of Asaph. I cry out to God with my voice, even to God with my voice, and he bends his ear to me.
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, to Jeduthun, A Psalm of Asaph. I cried unto God with my voice, even unto God with my voice; and he gave ear unto me.THE KEY
The repeated cry meets its answer in God turning an ear toward the voice.
THE MEANING
Your voice can arrive as a repeated cry, and God gives ear to you. The response named here is attentive hearing, even while the cry is still being voiced.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the fear that needing to cry again means you have gone unheard: here the repeated voice is met by God’s attentive ear.
THE ROOT
וְאֶצְעָקָה
we’ets‘aqah
GROWS FROM
צעק
To cry out, especially in distress or need.
“cried” in this verse is we’ets‘aqah. This is a voiced appeal, not a thought kept inside; the verse repeats it. The related noun צְעָקָה (tse‘aqah, “a cry for help”) makes clear how this root gives need an audible form.
ALSO GROWS
tsa‘aq: Cry out.
צָעַק
The same verb root names the cry as an appeal made aloud.
tse‘aqah: A cry, especially a cry for help.
צְעָקָה
This noun shows the cry as distress given voice.
וְהַאֲזִין
weha’azin
GROWS FROM
אזן
Ear; by extension, to listen or attend.
“bends his ear to me” in this verse is weha’azin. The Hebrew verb for listening shares its root with אֹזֶן (’ozen, “ear”). The answer is pictured as attention turned toward the person calling: the voice is received.
ALSO GROWS
’ozen: Ear.
אֹזֶן
The body part names the root from which the act of listening grows.
he’ezin: Listen, give ear, attend.
הֶאֱזִין
This related verb expresses the attentive hearing named in the verse.
THE PATTERN
A voiced cry directed toward God is pictured as entering active, attentive hearing.
I love the LORD, for he hears and responds to my voice and my pleas for favor.Look, the wages of the workers who mowed your fields, stripped away by your fraud, cry out, and the cries of those who reaped have gone into the ears of the LORD of hosts.THE THREAD
The aligned cry out, and the LORD hears, and snatches them out of all their narrow places.The Hebrew word צָעֲקוּ (tsa‘aqu, “they cry out”) comes from the same root, צעק, as “I cried” here. The shared root connects the cry directly with being heard.
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