Unto thee will I cry, O Lord my Rock; be not silent to me; rather, as in the Revised Version, to thee, O Lord, will I call; my Rock, be not thou deaf unto me. "My Rock" belongs to the second clause. It is with David, in these early psalms, an epitheton usilatum (comp.
Psalms 18:2; Psalms 27:5; Psalms 31:2, Psalms 31:3; Psalms 40:3; Psalms 61:2; Psalms 62:2, etc.). The Hebrew term used is sometimes tsur, sometimes sela', which call to our minds the two great rook-fortresses of Tyre and Petra.
Lest, if thou be silent to me, I become like them that go down into the pit; i.e. without hope, desperate.