Discovery BoxPsalms 18:6 
Context18:6 In my distress I called to the Lord;
I cried out to my God. 1
From his heavenly temple 2 he heard my voice;
he listened to my cry for help. 3
Psalms 20:6
Context20:6 Now I am sure 4 that the Lord will deliver 5 his chosen king; 6
he will intervene for him 7 from his holy heavenly temple, 8
and display his mighty ability to deliver. 9
1 tn In this poetic narrative context the four prefixed verbal forms in v. 6 are best understood as preterites indicating past tense, not imperfects.
2 tn Heb “from his temple.” Verse 10, which pictures God descending from the sky, indicates that the heavenly temple is in view, not the earthly one.
3 tc Heb “and my cry for help before him came into his ears.” 2 Sam 22:7 has a shorter reading, “my cry for help, in his ears.” It is likely that Ps 18:6 MT as it now stands represents a conflation of two readings: (1) “my cry for help came before him,” (2) “my cry for help came into his ears.” See F. M. Cross and D. N. Freedman, Studies in Ancient Yahwistic Poetry (SBLDS), 144, n. 13.
4 tn Or “know.”
sn Now I am sure. The speaker is not identified. It is likely that the king, referring to himself in the third person (note “his chosen king”), responds to the people’s prayer. Perhaps his confidence is due to the reception of a divine oracle of salvation.
5 tn The perfect verbal form is probably used rhetorically to state that the deliverance is as good as done. In this way the speaker emphasizes the certainty of the deliverance. Another option is to take the statement as generalizing; the psalmist affirms that the
6 tn Heb “his anointed one.” This title refers to the Davidic king. See Pss 2:2 and 18:50.
7 tn Heb “he will answer him.”
8 tn Heb “from his holy heavens.”
9 tn Heb “with mighty acts of deliverance of his right hand.” The Lord’s “right hand” here symbolizes his power to protect and deliver (see Ps 17:7).
