Grant thee according to thine own heart, and fulfil all thy counsel.
Parallel translations
- WEB May He grant you your heart’s desire, and fulfill all your counsel.
- BSB May He give you the desires of your heart and make all your plans succeed.
- NKJV May He grant you according to your heart’s desire, And fulfill all your purpose.
- NASB ¶May He grant you your heart’s desire And fulfill your whole plan!
- NLT May he grant your heart’s desires and make all your plans succeed.
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 pray that God will grant the king his heart's desire and fulfill all his plans. Their longing is for the king's God-honoring purposes to succeed.
Overview
The petition assumes a king whose desires and counsel align with God's will, so that fulfilling them advances God's cause. The prayer is bold yet submitted to the Lord. It finds ultimate answer in the Messiah, whose every desire is to do the Father's will and whose purposes God always accomplishes.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 9
- Ps 145:19He will fulfil the desire of them that fear him: he also will hear their cry, and will save them.
- Ps 37:4Delight thyself also in the LORD: and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.
- Matt 21:22And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive.
- Ps 21:2Thou hast given him his heart’s desire, and hast not withholden the request of his lips. Selah.
- John 16:23And in that day ye shall ask me nothing. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you.
- Rom 8:27–28And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God.
- Prov 11:23The desire of the righteous is only good: but the expectation of the wicked is wrath.
- 1 Jn 5:14–15And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us:
- John 11:42And I knew that thou hearest me always: but because of the people which stand by I said it, that they may believe that thou hast sent me.
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 20:4 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.