Psalms 61:1-6

1 To victory on organs, to David himself. God, hear thou my beseeching; give thou attention to my prayer. (To victory, on instruments, the psalm, or the song, of David. God, hear thou my plea; give thou attention to my prayer.)

2 From the ends of the land I cried to thee; the while mine heart was anguished, thou enhancedest me in a stone (and while my heart was anguished, thou liftedest me up on a rock). Thou leddest me forth,

3 for thou art made mine hope; a tower of strength from the face of the enemy. (for thou art made my hope; a tower of strength before my enemies.)

4 I shall dwell in thy tabernacle into worlds; I shall be covered in the covering of thy wings. (I shall live in thy Tent forever/I shall live in thy dwelling place forever; I shall be covered with the covering of thy wings.)

5 For thou, my God, hast heard my prayer; thou hast given heritage to them that dread thy name (thou hast given me the inheritance of those who fear thy name/of those who revere thy name).

6 Thou shalt add, either increase, days on[to] the days of the king; his years till into the day of generation and of generation. (Thou shalt add days onto the days of the king; yea, year upon year for many generations.)

Psalms 61:1-6 Meaning and Commentary

To the chief Musician upon Neginah, [A Psalm] of David. "Neginah" is either the beginning of a song, as Aben Ezra; or the musical note or tune of one: or rather the name of a musical instrument, which was touched by the hand, or with a quill or bow. It is the singular of "neginoth," See Gill on "Ps 4:1." This psalm was written by David, when at the end of the earth, or land of Judea, as appears from Psalm 61:2; either when he was fighting with the Syrians, as R. Obadiah, and so was composed about the same time with the former; or when he was in the land of the Philistines, being obliged to fly there from Saul, as Kimchi and others: or rather after he himself was king, since mention is made of the king in it; and when he fled from his son Absalom, and passed over to the other side of Jordan, and came to Mahanaim, 2 Samuel 17:22; where very probably he wrote this psalm. In it respect is had to the Messiah, as in Psalm 61:2; though Arama thinks it was composed after the prophecy came to Nathan that David should not build the temple; see Psalm 61:4.