Psalms 55:18

"Evening, morning, and at noon, I will cry out in distress. He will hear my voice."

Key Reflection

In first-century Israel, the structure of Psalms 55:18 reflects a common poetic form where the psalmist emphasizes their persistent cries for help by repeating the action at different times of the day—morning, evening, and noon. This repetition underscores the intensity and urgency of their distress. The original audience would have recognized these temporal markers as a rhetorical device emphasizing continuous suffering and the hope that God would hear their prayers regardless of the time or circumstances.

From the Scholars: Barnes' Notes

He hath delivered my soul in peaee -The Hebrew is, “He has redeemed;” so also the Septuagint and Vulgate. The meaning is, He has “rescued” me, or has saved me from my enemies. Either the psalmist composed the psalm “after” the struggle was over, and in view of it, here speaks of what had actually occurred; or he is so confident of being redeemed and saved that he speaks of it as if it were already done. SeePsalms 55:19. There are many instances in the Psalms in which the writer is so certain that what he prays for will be accomplished that he speaks of it as if it had already actually occurred.

More from Psalms 55

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

Go deeper with Bible.talk - your AI Bible study companion