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.
Parallel translations
- 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.
- BSB 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.
- 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 143:7Hurry to answer me, Yahweh. My spirit fails. Don’t hide your face from me, so that I don’t become like those who go down into the pit.
- Ps 18:2Yahweh is my rock, my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge; my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my high tower.
- Ps 88:4–6I am counted among those who go down into the pit. I am like a man who has no help,
- Prov 1:12Let’s swallow them up alive like Sheol, and whole, like those who go down into the pit.
- Ps 83:1A song. A Psalm by Asaph. God, don’t keep silent. Don’t keep silent, and don’t be still, God.
- Isa 26:4Trust in Yahweh forever; for in Yah, Yahweh, is an everlasting Rock.
- Rev 20:3and cast him into the abyss, and shut it, and sealed it over him, that he should deceive the nations no more, until the thousand years were finished. After this, he must be freed for a short time.
- Job 33:28He has redeemed my soul from going into the pit. My life shall see the light.’
- Ps 22:2My God, I cry in the daytime, but you don’t answer; in the night season, and am not silent.
- Isa 38:18For Sheol can’t praise you. Death can’t celebrate you. Those who go down into the pit can’t hope for your truth.
- Ps 30:9“What profit is there in my destruction, if I go down to the pit? Shall the dust praise you? Shall it declare your truth?
- Ps 35:22You have seen it, Yahweh. Don’t keep silent. Lord, don’t be far from me.
- Ps 3:4I cry to Yahweh with my voice, and he answers me out of his holy hill. Selah.
- Ps 69:15Don’t let the flood waters overwhelm me, neither let the deep swallow me up. Don’t let the pit shut its mouth on me.
- Ps 5:2Listen to the voice of my cry, my King and my God; for to you do I pray.
- Ps 77:1For the Chief Musician. To Jeduthun. A Psalm by Asaph. My cry goes to God! Indeed, I cry to God for help, and for him to listen to me.
- Ps 142:1A contemplation by David, when he was in the cave. A Prayer. I cry with my voice to Yahweh. With my voice, I ask Yahweh for mercy.
- Ps 39:12“Hear my prayer, Yahweh, and give ear to my cry. Don’t be silent at my tears. For I am a stranger with you, a foreigner, as all my fathers were.
- Ps 42:9I will ask God, my rock, “Why have you forgotten me? Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?”
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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.