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Psalm 20 · a question people ask

"Let the King answer us when we call!" (20:9). Is the King the LORD, or the one the psalm prays for?

In the text

The psalm doesn't say, and these notes don't decide. Here is what the text shows. The verse reads, "Save, LORD! Let the King answer us when we call!" (20:9). In Hebrew the King is hammelekh, the king (tap King). Hebrew has no capital letters, so the capital is the WEB's, and the WEB uses it both ways in the Psalms. Of the LORD: "The LORD is King forever and ever!" (Psalm 10:16). And of the king set on Zion in Psalm 2, where he who sits in the heavens (Psalm 2:4) says, "Yet I have set my King on my holy hill of Zion" (Psalm 2:6). Inside Psalm 20, the one who answers is the LORD: "May the LORD answer you" (Psalm 20:1), "He will answer him from his holy heaven" (Psalm 20:6). And the one prayed for is called "his anointed" (Psalm 20:6); Psalm 18 speaks of the LORD's anointed as "his king": "He gives great deliverance to his king, and shows loving kindness to his anointed" (Psalm 18:50).

The verses

“For the Chief Musician. A Psalm by David. May the LORD answer you in the day of trouble. May the name of the God of Jacob set you up on high,”
Psalm 20:1 · World English Bible
“Now I know that the LORD saves his anointed. He will answer him from his holy heaven, with the saving strength of his right hand.”
Psalm 20:6 · World English Bible
“Save, LORD! Let the King answer us when we call!”
Psalm 20:9 · World English Bible
“The LORD is King forever and ever! The nations will perish out of his land.”
Psalm 10:16 · World English Bible

From Favor's study of Psalm 20

Psalm 20: Some trust in chariots

The WEB's trust in "we trust in the name of the LORD our God" (20:7) is, in Hebrew, zakhar, the verb of "remember all your offerings" (20:3). And answer carries the psalm from "May the LORD answer you" (20:1) through "He will answer him" (20:6) to "Let the King answer us when we call!" (20:9).

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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Every answer cites the verses it rests on. What we believe · All Bible questions