“I cried unto the Lord with my voice; with my voice unto the Lord did I make my supplication.”
With my voice I cry to the Lord; with my voice I make supplication to the Lord. The doubling of voice and cry emphasizes that the entire embodied person, particularly vocal utterance, is directed toward God. Supplication expresses the specific form of prayer: urgent petition arising from need. The repetition of with my voice creates emphasis on the audible, expressed character of this prayer; crying and petition are not silent but vocally performed. This verse establishes that authentic prayer involves utterance and emotional expression.
Church Fathers on Psalms 142:1
1. ...“With my voice have I cried unto the Lord” Psalm 141:1. It were enough to say, “with voice:” not for nothing perhaps has “my” been added. For many cry unto the Lord, not with their own voice, but with the voice of their body. Let the “inner man” then, in whom “Christ” has begun to “dwell by faith,” Ephesians 3:17 cry unto the Lord, not with the din of his lips, but with the affection of his heart. God hears not, where man hears: unless you cry with the voice of lungs…
Nicene & Post-Nicene / Ante-Nicene Fathers translations · public domain
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