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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Psalms 5:1 - 5:1
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(Heb.: 5:2-4) The introit: Prayer to be heard. The thoughts are simple but the language is carefully chosen. אֲמָרִים is the plur. of אֹמֶר (אֵמֶר), one of the words peculiar to the poetic prophetical style. The denominative הֶֽאֱזִין (like audire = aus, οὖς dare) belongs more to poetry than prose. הָגִיג (like אָבִיב) or מְחִיר (like מְחִיר) occurs only in two Psalms לדוד, viz., here and Psa 34:4. It is derived from הָגַג = הָגָה (vid., Psa 1:2) and signifies that which is spoken meditatively, here praying in rapt devotion. Beginning thus the prayer gradually rises to a vox clamoris. שַׁוְעִי from שֶׁוַע, to be distinguished from שַׁוְּעִי (inf. Pi.) Psa 28:2; Psa 31:23, is one word with the Aram. צוח, Aethiop. צוּע (to call). On הִקְשְׁיב used of intent listening, vid., Psa 10:17. The invocation מַלְכִּי וֵאלֹהָי, when it is a king who utters it, is all the more significant. David, and in general the theocratic king, is only the representative of the Invisible One, whom he with all Israel adores as his King. Prayer to Him is his first work as he begins the day. In the morning, בֹּקֶר (as in Psa 65:8 for בַּבֹּקֶר, Psa 88:13), shalt Thou hear my cry, is equivalent to my cry which goes forth with the early morn. Hupfeld considers the mention of the morning as only a “poetical expression” and when getting rid of the meaning prima luce, he also gets rid of the beautiful and obvious reference to the daily sacrifice. The verb עָרַךְ is the word used of laying the wood in order for the sacrifice, Lev 1:7, and the pieces of the sacrifice, Lev 1:8, Lev 1:12; Lev 6:5, of putting the sacred lamps in order, Exo 27:21; Lev 24:3., and of setting the shew-bread in order, Exo 40:23; Lev 24:8. The laying of the wood in order for the morning offering of a lamb (Lev 6:5 [Lev 6:12], cf. Num 28:4) was one of the first duties of the priest, as soon as the day began to dawn; the lamb was slain before sun-rise and when the sun appeared above the horizon laid piece by piece upon the altar. The morning prayer is compared to this morning sacrifice. This is in its way also a sacrifice. The object which David has in his mind in connection with אֶֽעֱרֹךְ is תְּפִלָּתִי. As the priests, with the early morning, lay the wood and pieces of the sacrifices of the Tamı̂d upon the altar, so he brings his prayer before God as a spiritual sacrifice and looks out for an answer (צִפָּה speculari as in Hab 2:1), perhaps as the priest looks out for fire from heaven to consume the sacrifice, or looks to the smoke to see that it rises up straight towards heaven.