O God, listen to my complaint. Protect my life from my enemies’ threats.
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.
- KJV Hear my voice, O God, in my prayer: 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.
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 143:1–3A Psalm by David. Hear my prayer, Yahweh. Listen to my petitions. In your faithfulness and righteousness, relieve me.
- Ps 34:4I sought Yahweh, and he answered me, and delivered me from all my fears.
- Ps 140:1For the Chief Musician. A Psalm by David. Deliver me, Yahweh, from the evil man. Preserve me from the violent man;
- Lam 3:55–56I called on your name, Yahweh, out of the lowest dungeon.
- Ps 141:1A Psalm by David. Yahweh, I have called on you. Come to me quickly! Listen to my voice when I call to you.
- Ps 130:1–2A Song of Ascents. Out of the depths I have cried to you, Yahweh.
- Ps 31:13–15For I have heard the slander of many, terror on every side, while they conspire together against me, they plot to take away my life.
- Acts 27:24saying, ‘Don’t be afraid, Paul. You must stand before Caesar. Behold, God has granted you all those who sail with you.’
- Ps 55:1–2For the Chief Musician. On stringed instruments. A contemplation by David. Listen to my prayer, God. Don’t hide yourself from my supplication.
- Ps 27:7Hear, Yahweh, when I cry with my voice. Have mercy also on me, and answer me.
- Ps 56:2–4My enemies want to swallow me up all day long, for they are many who fight proudly against me.
- Ps 17:8–9Keep me as the apple of your eye. Hide me under the shadow of your wings,
- Acts 18:9–10The Lord said to Paul in the night by a vision, “Don’t be afraid, but speak and don’t be silent;
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.