TheBibleNet: Psalm 20

Psalms:

Bk 1: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41

Bk 2: 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72

Bk 3: 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89

Bk 4: 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106

Bk 5: 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119a 119b 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132
133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150

Additional Psalms: 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 Samuel Chronicles

Essays: Intro - Music - Form & Language

20:1 LA MENATSE'ACH MIZMOR LE DAVID

לַמְנַצֵּחַ מִזְמוֹר לְדָוִד

KJ (King James translation): (To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David.) The LORD hear thee in the day of trouble; the name of the God of Jacob defend thee;

BN (BibleNet translation): For the Artistic Director. A Psalm for David.

We are now so accustomed to this that I am only mentioning it for the benefit of anyone coming to this Psalm, who has not followed the previous: that King James absorbs the first verse into the title, making a single verse out of it, and thereby leaving its numbering system different from the Yehudit.

20:2 YA'ANCHA YHVH BE YOM TSARAH YESAGEVCHA SHEM ELOHEY YA'AKOV

יַעַנְךָ יְהוָה בְּיוֹם צָרָה יְשַׂגֶּבְךָ שֵׁם אֱלֹהֵי יַעֲקֹב

KJ (20:1): The LORD hear thee in the day of trouble; the name of the God of Jacob defend thee;

BN: May YHVH answer you on the day of your troubles; may the names of the gods of Ya'akov set you on high;

SHEM ELOHEY: Because English does not have an equivalent of the multiple plural, this cannot be translated accurately, whichever way we go: "the name of the gods" is literal but ungrammatical. KJ goes for "the name of the God", but that is the Christian deity superimposed. I have gone for "the names of the gods", which is inaccurate, because SHEM is singular here, but nonetheless conveys the polytheistic meaning (and confirms what we suspected when we studied Genesis, that Ya'akov was himself a polytheist).

YESAGEVCHA: The root is SAGAV, and it means "exalt" or "set on high". The sentence appears to be ungrammatical, or at least illogical: how can "the names of the gods" set someone on high? If the name was a title (king, Sir, OBE... cf 1 Chronicles 2:21 and 1 Kings 16:34, where it is used as a person's name), then it would have that impact; but this is specifically "the names of the gods". Is this then some kind of coronation ritual, or at least a reference to the names given to the king - David - when he was anointed? Kings in those days liked to have multiple titles that linked them with all the many gods. Actually, Dukes of Edinburgh in our days likewise - click here. You can't get much more "exalted" than that.

20:3 YISHLACH EZRECHA MI KODESH U MI TSI'ON YIS'ADECHA

יִשְׁלַח עֶזְרְךָ מִקֹּדֶשׁ וּמִצִּיּוֹן יִסְעָדֶךָּ

KJ (20:2): Send thee help from the sanctuary, and strengthen thee out of Zion;

BN: May he send you help from his holy sanctuary, and support you out of Tsi'on;

Can you spot the obvious problem in this verse? This is addressed to David, or written by him, if you are of that opinion. Either way - there was no "holy sanctuary" on "Tsi'on" at the time of David; it was built after his death, by his son Shelomoh. So "written by" is definitely wrong. "Addressed to" is actually unaffected, if David is the metaphorical Earth-god rather than the pseudo-historical king.

20:4 YIZKOR KOL MINCHOTECHA VE OLAT'CHA YEDASHNEH (SELAH)

יִזְכֹּר כָּל מִנְחֹתֶךָ וְעוֹלָתְךָ יְדַשְּׁנֶה סֶלָה

KJ (20:3): Remember all thy offerings, and accept thy burnt sacrifice; Selah.

BN: May he remember all of your sacrifices, and accept the fat of your burnt-offering. (Selah)

SELAH: For the benefit of newcomers, or those who missed my explanation of this word in the Introduction: Selah should not be pronounced. What we have is a three-verse introduction, in the form of a blessing, then a break, indicated by the word Selah, then the next section of the poem. Given that the blessing continues in the next verse, we have evidence (we have been looking for evidence and are glad to have found some), that Selah is primarily, perhaps exclusively, a musical notation.

20:5 YITEN LECHA CHI LEVAVECHA VE CHOL ATSAT'CHA YEMAL'E

יִתֶּן לְךָ כִלְבָבֶךָ וְכָל עֲצָתְךָ יְמַלֵּא

KJ (20:4): Grant thee according to thine own heart, and fulfil all thy counsel.

BN: May he grant you the wishes of your heart, and make your life firm and strong.

LEVAVECHA: Bear in mind that the LEV was regarded as the locus of thought in those times (it really ought to be still), so these could be moral idealisms just as much as they could be material aspirations or romantic hopes.

ATSAT'CHA: Is here to parallel YIS'ADECHA in verse 3. The YESOD is the firm foundation (click here for its modern usage); the ETSAH is the backbone (cf Leviticus 3:9). The root is ETS, which is "wood", so the paradigm is of solidity, of things holding together - which is why the word gets used for "counsel", in, for example, Isaiah 19:3, or as "council", which both is and is not the same thing, in 1 Chronicles 12:20: if you want policy that works because it is solid, you need to bring in the experts as advisors, as "consultants". But "counsel" is not the intention here; this is about giving you the backbone you need to live a full and effective life, based on your decisions.

20:6 NERANENA BIYSHU'ATECHA U VE SHEM ELOHEYNU NIDGOL YEMAL'E YHVH KOL MISH'ALOTEYCHA

נְרַנְּנָה בִּישׁוּעָתֶךָ וּבְשֵׁם אֱלֹהֵינוּ נִדְגֹּל יְמַלֵּא יְהוָה כָּל מִשְׁאֲלוֹתֶיךָ

KJ (20:5): We will rejoice in thy salvation, and in the name of our God we will set up our banners: the LORD fulfil all thy petitions.

BN: We will shout for joy at your victory, and in the name of our gods we will set up our standards. {N} May YHVH provide answers to all your deepest questions.

BIYSHU'ATECHA: The root of this is the same word that gives MOSHI'A - Messiah?.Yet again the Messianic is attributed to the deity, while the earthly king is Mashiyach, the "anointed one". Not how Christians misunderstand these two terms at all.

NIDGOL: From DEGEL, a flag or banner. Is this a hint of Nechushtan, which was Mosheh's banner? Or at least the Davidic equivalent?

MISH'ALOTEYCHA: The English cannot convey the subtle cleverness of this. David with YHVH's help has defeated his enemy, who is Sha'ul, the Lord of the Underworld. The root of MISH'ALOTEYCHA is SHA'AL, the same root.

And once again (see my notes to the previous Psalm) we can affirm that the ancients had just as much understanding of the workings of Nature and Humankind as we do; they just expressed it differently. The "petitions", the "questions", are what inhabit the darkness of our inner thoughts and doubts, our unfulfillable need to elucidate the world coherently. So She'ol is not simply the Netherworld of Death, of Night, of Winter, but also, in our terms, the unconscious, the subconscious, the darkness of intellectual uncertainty.

20:7 ATAH YADA'TI KI HOSHI'A YHVH MESHIYCHO YA'ANEHU MI SHEMEY KADSHO BI GEVUROT YESH'A YEMIYNO

עַתָּה יָדַעְתִּי כִּי הוֹשִׁיעַ יְהוָה מְשִׁיחוֹ יַעֲנֵהוּ מִשְּׁמֵי קָדְשׁוֹ בִּגְבֻרוֹת יֵשַׁע יְמִינוֹ

KJ (20:6): Now know I that the LORD saveth his anointed; he will hear him from his holy heaven with the saving strength of his right hand.

BN: Now I know that YHVH will save his anointed; {N} he will answer him from his holy heaven with the mighty acts of his saving right hand.

HOSHIY'A and MESHIYCHO in the same sentence is very useful for explaining the difference, and also for confirming that they most definitely are different.

YEMIYNO: And of course the anointed one, the priest-king on Earth, is himself the "right hand", the Bin-Yamin, so all ends of the pun are now joined up.

20:8 ELEH VA RECHEV VE ELEH VA SUSIM VA ANACHNU BE SHEM YHVH ELOHEYNU NAZKIR

אֵלֶּה בָרֶכֶב וְאֵלֶּה בַסּוּסִים וַאֲנַחְנוּ בְּשֵׁם יְהוָה אֱלֹהֵינוּ נַזְכִּיר

KJ (20:7): Some trust in chariots, and some in horses: but we will remember the name of the LORD our God.

BN: These in chariots, and those in horses; {N} but we will fix our memories in the name of YHVH our god.

Do I have a word missing in the Yehudit? Where does it say "trust"? It doesn't. KJ recognises this by placing the word in italics.

NAZKIR, memory, echoing, "fulfilling", the "may he remember" of verse 4. But what does "fix our memories" even mean? Is this about putting up memorials - cenotaphs, monuments, the flaming sword outside the gates of Eden? And if so: literal or metaphorical? I think it means literal - but only when I read the next verse.

20:9 HEMAH KAR'U VE NAPHALU VA ANACHNU KAMNU VA NIT'ODAD

הֵמָּה כָּרְעוּ וְנָפָלוּ וַאֲנַחְנוּ קַּמְנוּ וַנִּתְעוֹדָד

KJ (20:8): They are brought down and fallen: but we are risen, and stand upright.

BN: They are bowed down and fallen; but we have risen, and stand upright.

Something we can only do because we have backbone - see verse 5.

20:10 YHVH HOSHI'AH HA MELECH YA'ANENU VE YOM KAR'ENU

יְהוָה הוֹשִׁיעָה הַמֶּלֶךְ יַעֲנֵנוּ בְיוֹם קָרְאֵנוּ

KJ (20:9): Save, LORD: let the king hear us when we call.

YHVH saves. The King answers us on the day that we call him. {P}

Now where do I recognise that last piece from, elsewhere in the liturgy? YA'ANENU VE YOM KAR'ENU - repeated and repeated... During the Hakafot of Simchat Torah definitely.

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Psalms:

Bk 1: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41