May he send you help from his sanctuary and strengthen you from Jerusalem.
Parallel translations
- WEB send you help from the sanctuary, grant you support from Zion,
- KJV Send thee help from the sanctuary, and strengthen thee out of Zion;
- BSB May He send you help from the sanctuary and sustain you from Zion.
- NKJV May He send you help from the sanctuary, And strengthen you out of Zion;
- NASB May He send you help from the sanctuary, And support you from Zion!
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
They ask God to send the king help from the sanctuary and support from Zion. Aid is sought from God's dwelling place among his people.
Overview
The 'sanctuary' and 'Zion' mark the place of God's presence and worship, from which his help flows. The people trust that the God who dwells with Israel will strengthen their king. This grounds confidence not in armies but in the God who meets his people at the place of worship, fulfilled now in Christ, God's true dwelling among us.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 10
- 1 Kgs 8:44–45“If your people go out to battle against their enemy, by whatever way you shall send them, and they pray to Yahweh toward the city which you have chosen, and toward the house which I have built for your name;
- 2 Chr 20:8–9They lived in it, and have built you a sanctuary in it for your name, saying,
- Isa 12:6Cry aloud and shout, you inhabitant of Zion; for the Holy One of Israel is great among you!”
- 1 Kgs 6:16He built twenty cubits on the back part of the house with boards of cedar from the floor to the ceiling. He built them for it within, for an inner sanctuary, even for the most holy place.
- Isa 14:32What will they answer the messengers of the nation? That Yahweh has founded Zion, and in her the afflicted of his people will take refuge.
- Ps 3:4I cry to Yahweh with my voice, and he answers me out of his holy hill. Selah.
- Ps 73:17Until I entered God’s sanctuary, and considered their latter end.
- 2 Sam 6:17They brought in Yahweh’s ark, and set it in its place, in the middle of the tent that David had pitched for it; and David offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before Yahweh.
- 2 Sam 5:7Nevertheless David took the stronghold of Zion. This is David’s city.
- Isa 37:34–35By the way that he came, by the same he shall return, and he shall not come to this city,’ says Yahweh.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
The Psalms are Christ's own prayer book and a gallery of his portraits — the suffering one of Psalm 22, the risen Lord of Psalm 16, the priest-king of Psalm 110, the Son to whom the nations are given.
How Psalms 20:2 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.