Psalms 34:15

34:15 The Lord pays attention to the godly

and hears their cry for help. ¹ 

Proverbs 15:29

15:29 The Lord is far ²  from the wicked,

but he hears ³  the prayer of the righteous. ⁴ 

¹ tn Heb “the eyes of the Lord [are] toward the godly, and his ears [are] toward their cry for help.”

² sn To say that the Lord is “far” from the wicked is to say that he has made himself unavailable to their appeal – he does not answer them. This motif is used by David throughout Psalm 22 for the problem of unanswered prayer – “Why are you far off?”

³ sn The verb “hear” (שָׁמַע, shama’) has more of the sense of “respond to” in this context. If one “listens to the voice of the Lord,” for example, it means that he obeys the Lord. If one wishes God to “hear his prayer,” it means he wishes God to answer it.

⁴ sn God’s response to prayer is determined by the righteousness of the one who prays. A prayer of repentance by the wicked is an exception, for by it they would become the righteous (C. H. Toy, Proverbs [ICC], 316).