Psalm 34: The Lord Heard Him

Psalm 34:6; Luke 18:1-8 - Persistence in prayer includes crying out to Him to deliver us!

Photo by Sean Robertson on Unsplash

“This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him

And saved him out of all his troubles.”

‭‭Psalms‬ ‭34‬:‭6‬ ‭NASB1995‬‬

We’re back to a first person narrative again. “This poor man” is David. He cried out to the Lord and the Lord heard him and saved him out of all of his troubles. These troubles were self-inflicted to some degree, as we found looking at the context for this Psalm. Let’s do a word study of “poor man”.

Poor man comes from the Hebrew phrase/adjective עָנִי or ʻânîy (Strong’s H6041) with the following Biblical usages:

1. poor, afflicted, humble, wretched

   1. poor, needy

   2. poor and weak

   3. poor, weak, afflicted, wretched

   4. humble, lowly

If readers have been with me for a while, you might recall that I had a list of five grumbling types from the Bible in my study of Philippians (in Philippians 2). David is characterized as a “whiner”. This may be a case of him whining a little bit to God. He sees himself as poor, needy, afflicted, wretched as he pleads for help. Can God be patient with this needy attitude?

Get this! God answers David! He hears his plea and saves him out of all of his troubles! Here is the Charles Spurgeon exposition for this verse, as found in Precept Austin:

Here he returns to his own case. He was poor indeed, and so utterly friendless that his life was in great jeopardy; but he cried in his heart to the protector of his people and found relief. His prayer was a cry, for brevity and bitterness, for earnestness and simplicity, for artlessness and grief; it was a poor man's cry, but it was none the less powerful with heaven, for the Lord heard him, and to be heard of God is to be delivered; and so it is added that the Lord saved him out of all his troubles. At once and altogether David was clean rid of all his woes. The Lord sweeps our griefs away as men destroy a hive of hornets, or as the winds clear away the mists. Prayer can clear us of troubles as easily as the Lord made riddance of the frogs and flies of Egypt when Moses entreated him. This verse is the psalmist's own personal testimony: he being dead yet speaketh. Let the afflicted reader take heart and be of good courage.

This does give one encouragement! When I am particularly concerned about something that I bring to my prayers, I will find myself repeating my pleas again and again, almost like a poor person begging for Him to fix/heal/solve the problem. Persistence in prayer is never wasted! Remember what Jesus said in one of His parables:

“Now He was telling them a parable to show that at all times they ought to pray and not to lose heart, saying, “In a certain city there was a judge who did not fear God and did not respect man. There was a widow in that city, and she kept coming to him, saying, ‘Give me legal protection from my opponent.’ For a while he was unwilling; but afterward he said to himself, ‘Even though I do not fear God nor respect man, yet because this widow bothers me, I will give her legal protection, otherwise by continually coming she will wear me out.’ ”

And the Lord said, “Hear what the unrighteous judge *said; now, will not God bring about justice for His elect who cry to Him day and night, and will He delay long over them? I tell you that He will bring about justice for them quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth?””

‭‭Luke‬ ‭18‬:‭1‬-‭8‬ ‭NASB1995‬‬

Photo by Malachi Cowie on Unsplash

Enduring Word also has good commentary on Psalm 34:6:

This poor man cried out, and the LORD heard him: David again emphasized his personal experience of these truths. He was the one. He was the poor man who cried out to God, and God graciously answered.

· A cry is short, and not sweet.

· A cry is brief, and bitter.

· A cry is the language of pain.

· A cry is a natural production.

· A cry has much meaning and no music.

• Acting the madman among the Philistines, David certainly was the poor man. “To get the force of David’s words one has only to recall his peril and his abject clowning to save his life.” (Derek Kidner)

David has acted rashly and put himself in peril. In his fear, he cried out to God. I’m going to do one more word study, because I find them fascinating:

Cried out comes from the Hebrew verb קָרָא or qârâʼ (Strong’s H7121), with the following Biblical usages:

1. to call, call out, recite, read, cry out, proclaim

   1. (Qal)

      1. to call, cry, utter a loud sound

      2. to call unto, cry (for help), call (with name of God)

      3. to proclaim

      4. to read aloud, read (to oneself), read

      5. to summon, invite, call for, call and commission, appoint, call and endow

      6. to call, name, give name to, call by

   2. (Niphal)

      1. to call oneself

      2. to be called, be proclaimed, be read aloud, be summoned, be named

   3. (Pual) to be called, be named, be called out, be chosen

It looks like this was a cry for help. David should be extremely grateful that God heard him and delivered him from his troubles (he probably was grateful, hence the beautiful Psalm).

My next devotional examines Psalm 34:7 - The Angel of the Lord Rescues Them.

---

Heaven on Wheels Daily Prayer:

Dear Lord - I cry out to you to help me heal and to help me grow in my faith every day. Amen.

Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org

The Blue Letter Bible was accessed on 08/24/2025 to review the lexicon for poor man and cried out.

Precept Austin was accessed on 08/24/2025 to review commentary for Psalm 34:6.

Commentary from Enduring Word by David Guzik is used with written permission. Minor formatting changes have been made to improve readability.