“Attend unto me, and hear me: I mourn in my complaint, and make a noise;”
The request that God attend to the supplicant's prayer and hear the words articulates the anxiety and distraction that accompany the burden the psalmist carries, making communication and coherent speech difficult. The emphasis on God's need to hear and attend suggests that the psalmist doubts their own capacity to articulate the full weight of what is being endured; God must listen carefully and attentively to discern the true measure of suffering. The repetition of the request (hear, attend, listen) emphasizes the desperate need for divine attention and suggests that normal petition is insufficient given the gravity of the situation. This verse frames prayer as an act of communication requiring extraordinary divine attention and care.
Church Fathers on Psalms 55:2
1. Of this Psalm the title is: “At the end, in hymns, understanding to David himself.” What the “end” is, we will briefly call to your recollection, because you have known it. “For the end of the Law is Christ, for righteousness unto every man believing.” Romans 10:4 Be the attention therefore directed unto the End, directed unto Christ. Wherefore is He called the end? Because whatever we do, to Him we refer it, and when to Him we shall have come home, more to ask we shall…
Nicene & Post-Nicene / Ante-Nicene Fathers translations · public domain
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