Hear my voice, O God, in my prayer: preserve my life from fear of the enemy.
Parallel translations
- WEB For the Chief Musician. A Psalm by David. Hear my voice, God, in my complaint. Preserve my life from fear of the enemy.
- BSB For the choirmaster. A Psalm of David. Hear, O God, my voice of complaint; preserve my life from dread of the enemy.
- NKJV Hear my voice, O God, in my meditation; Preserve my life from fear of the enemy.
- NASB Hear my voice, God, in my complaint; Protect my life from dread of the enemy.
- NLT O God, listen to my complaint. Protect my life from my enemies’ threats.
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 asks God to hear his complaint and guard his life from the terror caused by his enemies. It teaches us to bring our fears directly to God in prayer.
Overview
This psalm opens with a plea for God to listen as David lays out his distress over those plotting against him. Rather than retaliate, he entrusts his safety to God, modeling honest, dependent prayer under threat. Believers in Christ share this confidence, knowing the Father hears us through the Son who Himself prayed in anguish and was preserved through death.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 13
- Ps 143:1–3Hear my prayer, O LORD, give ear to my supplications: in thy faithfulness answer me, and in thy righteousness.
- Ps 34:4I sought the LORD, and he heard me, and delivered me from all my fears.
- Ps 140:1Deliver me, O LORD, from the evil man: preserve me from the violent man;
- Lam 3:55–56I called upon thy name, O LORD, out of the low dungeon.
- Ps 141:1Lord, I cry unto thee: make haste unto me; give ear unto my voice, when I cry unto thee.
- Ps 130:1–2Out of the depths have I cried unto thee, O LORD.
- Ps 31:13–15For I have heard the slander of many: fear was on every side: while they took counsel together against me, they devised to take away my life.
- Acts 27:24Saying, Fear not, Paul; thou must be brought before Caesar: and, lo, God hath given thee all them that sail with thee.
- Ps 55:1–2Give ear to my prayer, O God; and hide not thyself from my supplication.
- Ps 27:7Hear, O LORD, when I cry with my voice: have mercy also upon me, and answer me.
- Ps 56:2–4Mine enemies would daily swallow me up: for they be many that fight against me, O thou most High.
- Ps 17:8–9Keep me as the apple of the eye, hide me under the shadow of thy wings,
- Acts 18:9–10Then spake the Lord to Paul in the night by a vision, Be not afraid, but speak, and hold not thy peace:
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
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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 64:1 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.