Discovery BoxPsalms 20:2-6 
Context20:2 May he send you help from his temple; 1
from Zion may he give you support!
20:3 May he take notice 2 of your offerings;
may he accept 3 your burnt sacrifice! (Selah)
20:4 May he grant your heart’s desire; 4
may he bring all your plans to pass! 5
20:5 Then we will shout for joy over your 6 victory;
we will rejoice 7 in the name of our God!
May the Lord grant all your requests!
20:6 Now I am sure 8 that the Lord will deliver 9 his chosen king; 10
he will intervene for him 11 from his holy heavenly temple, 12
and display his mighty ability to deliver. 13
1 tc Heb “from [the] temple.” The third masculine singular pronominal suffix (ן, nun) has probably been accidentally omitted by haplography. Note that the following word begins with a prefixed vav (ו). See P. C. Craigie, Psalms 1-50 (WBC), 184.
2 tn Or “remember.” For other examples of the verb זָכַר (zakhar) carrying the nuance “take notice of,” see Pss 8:4 and 9:12.
3 tc Heb “consider as fat.” The verbal form should probably be emended to יְדַשְּׁנֶהָ (yÿdashÿneha), the final he (ה) being understood as a third feminine singular pronominal suffix referring back to the feminine noun “burnt sacrifice.”
4 tn Heb “may he give to you according to your heart.” This probably refers to the king’s prayer for protection and victory in battle. See vv. 5-6.
5 sn May he bring all your plans to pass. This probably refers to the king’s strategy for battle.
6 sn Your victory. Here the king is addressed (see v. 1).
7 tc The Hebrew verb דָּגַל (dagal) occurs only here in the Qal. If accepted as original, it may carry the nuance “raise a banner,” but it is preferable to emend the form to נגיל (“we will rejoice”) which provides better parallelism with “shout for joy” and fits well with the prepositional phrase “in the name of our God” (see Ps 89:16).
8 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.
9 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
10 tn Heb “his anointed one.” This title refers to the Davidic king. See Pss 2:2 and 18:50.
11 tn Heb “he will answer him.”
12 tn Heb “from his holy heavens.”
13 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).
