Of David. To You, O LORD, I call; be not deaf to me, O my Rock. For if You remain silent, I will be like those descending to the Pit.
Parallel translations
- WEB By David. To you, Yahweh, I call. My rock, don’t be deaf to me; lest, if you are silent to me, I would become like those who go down into the pit.
- KJV Unto thee will I cry, O LORD my rock; be not silent to me: lest, if thou be silent to me, I become like them that go down into the pit.
- NKJV To You I will cry, O Lord my Rock: Do not be silent to me, Lest, if You are silent to me, I become like those who go down to the pit.
- NASB To You, Lord, I call; My rock, do not be deaf to me, For if You are silent to me, I will become like those who go down to the pit.
- NLT I pray to you, O Lord, my rock. Do not turn a deaf ear to me. For if you are silent, I might as well give up and die.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
David calls to the Lord, his rock, begging Him not to be silent lest David sink like those headed to the grave. It shows desperate dependence on God's answer.
Overview
David addresses God as his 'rock,' the stable refuge in danger, and dreads divine silence as equivalent to death. To be unheard by God would leave him among the doomed. This cry anticipates Christ, who endured God's silence so that His people would always be heard.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 19
- Ps 143:7Answer me quickly, O LORD; my spirit fails. Do not hide Your face from me, or I will be like those who descend to the Pit.
- Ps 18:2The LORD is my rock, my fortress, and my deliverer. My God is my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.
- Ps 88:4–6I am counted among those descending to the Pit. I am like a man without strength.
- Prov 1:12let us swallow them alive like Sheol, and whole like those descending into the Pit.
- Ps 83:1A song. A Psalm of Asaph. O God, be not silent; be not speechless; be not still, O God.
- Isa 26:4Trust in the LORD forever, because GOD the LORD is the Rock eternal.
- Rev 20:3And he threw him into the Abyss, shut it, and sealed it over him, so that he could not deceive the nations until the thousand years were complete. After that, he must be released for a brief period of time.
- Job 33:28He redeemed my soul from going down to the Pit, and I will live to see the light.’
- Ps 22:2I cry out by day, O my God, but You do not answer, and by night, but I have no rest.
- Isa 38:18For Sheol cannot thank You; Death cannot praise You. Those who descend to the Pit cannot hope for Your faithfulness.
- Ps 30:9“What gain is there in my bloodshed, in my descent to the Pit? Will the dust praise You? Will it proclaim Your faithfulness?
- Ps 35:22O LORD, You have seen it; be not silent. O Lord, be not far from me.
- Ps 3:4To the LORD I cry aloud, and He answers me from His holy mountain. Selah
- Ps 69:15Do not let the floods engulf me or the depths swallow me up; let not the Pit close its mouth over me.
- Ps 5:2Attend to the sound of my cry, my King and my God, for to You I pray.
- Ps 77:1For the choirmaster. According to Jeduthun. A Psalm of Asaph. I cried out to God; I cried aloud to God to hear me.
- Ps 142:1A Maskil of David, when he was in the cave. A prayer. I cry aloud to the LORD; I lift my voice to the LORD for mercy.
- Ps 39:12Hear my prayer, O LORD, and give ear to my cry for help; do not be deaf to my weeping. For I am a foreigner dwelling with You, a stranger like all my fathers.
- Ps 42:9I say to God my Rock, “Why have You forgotten me? Why must I walk in sorrow because of the enemy’s oppression?”
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Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
The Psalms are Christ's own prayer book and a gallery of his portraits — the suffering one of Psalm 22, the risen Lord of Psalm 16, the priest-king of Psalm 110, the Son to whom the nations are given.
How Psalms 28:1 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.