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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Psalms 3:3 - 3:3
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(Heb.: 3:4-5) But cleansed by penitence he stands in a totally different relationship to God and God to him from that which men suppose. Every hour he has reason to fear some overwhelming attack but Jahve is the shield which covers him behind and before (בְּעַד constr. of בַּעַד = Arab. ba‛da, prop. pone, post). His kingdom is taken from him, but Jahve is his glory. With covered head and dejected countenance he ascended the Mount of Olives (2Sa 15:30), but Jahve is the “lifter up of his head,” inasmuch as He comforts and helps him. The primary passage of this believing utterance “God is a shield” is Gen 15:1 (cf. Deu 33:29). Very far from praying in vain, he is assured, that when he prays his prayer will be heard and answered. The rendering “I cried and He answered me” is erroneous here where אֶקְרָא does not stand in an historical connection. The future of sequence does not require it, as is evident from Psa 55:17. (comp. on Psa 120:1); it is only an expression of confidence in the answer on God's part, which will follow his prayer. In constructions like קֹולִי אֶקְרָא, Hitzig and Hupfeld regard קֹולִי as the narrower subject-notion beside the more general one (as Psa 44:3; Psa 69:11; 83:19): my voice - I cried; but the position of the words is not favourable to this in the passage before us and in Psa 17:10; Psa 27:7; Psa 57:5; Psa 66:17; Psa 142:2, Isa 36:9, though it may be in Psa 69:11; Psa 108:2. According to Ew. §281, c, קֹולִי is an accusative of more precise definition, as without doubt in Isa 10:30 cf. Psa 60:7; Psa 17:13.; the cry is thereby described as a loud cry.
(Note: Böttcher, Collectanea pp. 166f., also adopts the view, that נַפְשִׁי, פִּי, קֹולִי are each appositum vicarium subjecti and therefore nomin. in such passages. But 1) the fact that אֵת never stands beside them is explained by the consideration that it is not suited to an adverbial collateral definition. And 2) that elsewhere the same notions appear as direct subjects, just as 3) that elsewhere they alternate with the verbal subject-notion in the parallel member of the verse (Psa 130:5; Pro 8:4) - these last two admit of no inference. The controverted question of the syntax is, moreover, an old one and has been treated of at length by Kimchi in his Book of Roots s. r. אוה.)
To this cry, as וַיַּֽעֲנֵנִי as being a pure mood of sequence implies, succeeds the answer, or, which better corresponds to the original meaning of עָנָה (comp. Arab. ‛nn, to meet, stand opposite) reply;
(Note: Vid., Redslob in his treatise: Die Integritat der Stelle Hos. vii. 4-10 in Frage gestellt S. 7.)
and it comes from the place whither it was directed: מֵהַר קָדְשֹוּ. He had removed the ark from Kirjath Jeraim to Zion. He had not taken it with him when he left Jerusalem and fled before Absolom, 2Sa 15:25. He was therefore separated by a hostile power from the resting-place of the divine presence. But his prayer urged its way on to the cherubim-throne; and to the answer of Him who is enthroned there, there is no separating barrier of space or created things.