Give ear to my prayer, O God; and hide not thyself from my supplication.
The verse is a plea for God to give ear to prayer and not to hide Himself or remain distant from supplication. It is a personal prayer of personal experience that gives worshipers words to pour out their souls to God and that should take strong hold on the hearts of devout readers. It calls those in spiritual danger to turn to God rather than seek relief or satisfaction through worldly pleasures and sinful courses.
Prophetically, it pictures the inner experience of Christ in life-and-death struggles with the enemy as He prays for God to hear Him and not hide from His plea. It shows Christ in His humiliation as man's substitute, taking man's weaknesses, infirmities, and sins so fully as to identify Himself with man in all failings and sufferings. Weighed down and brought very low, the human Son of God pours out His soul in agony pleading for God's help and ear. Feeling Himself as worm Jacob after taking Jacob's sins upon Himself, He at the same time pleads the very promises God makes to Jacob for help and deliverance, revealing the greatness of His sacrifice.
The verse is a plea for God to give ear to prayer and not to hide Himself or remain distant from supplication. It is a personal prayer of personal experience that gives worshipers words to pour out their souls to God and that should take strong hold on the hearts of devout readers. It calls those in spiritual danger to turn to God rather than seek relief or satisfaction through worldly pleasures and sinful courses.
Prophetically, it pictures the inner experience of Christ in life-and-death struggles with the enemy as He prays for God to hear Him and not hide from His plea. It shows Christ in His humiliation as man's substitute, taking man's weaknesses, infirmities, and sins so fully as to identify Himself with man in all failings and sufferings. Weighed down and brought very low, the human Son of God pours out His soul in agony pleading for God's help and ear. Feeling Himself as worm Jacob after taking Jacob's sins upon Himself, He at the same time pleads the very promises God makes to Jacob for help and deliverance, revealing the greatness of His sacrifice.