Psalm 20 Overview

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Psalm 20/Overview
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Welcome to the Overview of Psalm 20

This page will introduce and provide orientation to Psalm 20 as a whole. It includes the following sections:


Introduction to Psalm 20

Author:

Purpose:

To intercede on behalf of YHWH's anointed king before battle

Content:

May YHWH answer you and give you victory. You can depend on him—he will answer!

Message:

God is the only dependable source of victory.

Psalm 20 At-a-Glance

These sections divide the content of the psalm into digestible pieces , and are determined based on information from many of our layers, including Semantics, Poetics, and Discourse. The columns, left to right, contain: the verse numbers; the main title of the section; a brief summary of the content of that section (quote marks indicate the text is taken directly from the English text of the psalm (as per our Close-but-Clear translation); and an icon to visually represent and remember the content. Psalm 020 - synthesis.jpg

Background Orientation for Psalm 20

Following are the common-ground assumptionsCommon-ground assumptions include information shared by the speaker and hearers. In our analysis, we mainly use this category for Biblical/Ancient Near Eastern background. which are the most helpful for making sense of the psalm.

  • Help in the day of trouble - The root עזר (help) commonly denotes military aid (cf. 2 Chron. 14:10; 18:31; 32:8; Pss. 109:26; 124:8), so its presence in Ps. 20 suggests that the king needs divine assistance in battle (TWOT).
  • YHWH made a covenant with David and his descendants, promising to rescue them from their enemies when they called to him for help (cf. 2 Sam. 7; Pss. 2:8; 4:4; etc.).
  • The "anointed one" was afforded special favor and protection from God (1 Sam. 2:10; Ps. 28:8; Hab. 3:13). Because kings were typically anointed with oil for the task of ruling over Israel (Ps. 2:2; 45:7), the designation "anointed one" is often used to refer to the king.
  • Victory belongs to YHWH (Pss. 3:9; 33:16-17; Deut. 20:1), not to the army with the strongest military. "The horse is made ready for the day of battle, but the victory belongs to the Lord" (Prov. 21:31, ESV).
  • The king is supposed to trust in YHWH, not in chariots and horses (cf. Deut. 17:14-18; Isa. 30:16; 31:1-3).

Background Situation for Psalm 20

The background situation is the series of events leading up to the time in which the psalm is spoken. These are taken from the story triangle – whatever lies to the left of the star icon. Psalm 020 - Story background.jpg

Participants in Psalm 20

This resource is in the process of reformatting.
These are the participants in Psalm 20:
Psalm 020 - participants.jpg.