O LORD, save the king. Answer us on the day we call.
Parallel translations
- WEB Save, Yahweh! Let the King answer us when we call!
- KJV Save, LORD: let the king hear us when we call.
- NKJV Save, Lord! May the King answer us when we call.
- NASB Save, Lord; May the King answer us on the day we call.
- NLT Give victory to our king, O Lord! Answer our cry for help.
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
The psalm closes with a plea: 'Save, Yahweh!' and a call for the King to answer when they pray. It is a final cry for God's saving response.
Overview
The congregation ends as it began, in prayer, asking God to save and to answer in the day they call. The reference to 'the King' may address God himself or, by extension, point to his anointed. The cry anticipates the salvation God grants through his appointed King, fully answered in the Messiah.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 10
- Ps 5:2Attend to the sound of my cry, my King and my God, for to You I pray.
- Ps 118:25–26O LORD, save us, we pray. We beseech You, O LORD, cause us to prosper!
- Ps 44:4You are my King, O God, who ordains victories for Jacob.
- Matt 21:15But the chief priests and scribes were indignant when they saw the wonders He performed and the children shouting in the temple courts, “Hosanna to the Son of David!”
- Ps 74:12Yet God is my King from ancient times, working salvation on the earth.
- Ps 17:6I call on You, O God, for You will answer me. Incline Your ear to me; hear my words.
- Matt 21:9The crowds that went ahead of Him and those that followed were shouting: “Hosanna to the Son of David!” “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!” “Hosanna in the highest!”
- Ps 24:7Lift up your heads, O gates! Be lifted up, O ancient doors, that the King of Glory may enter!
- Ps 2:6–10“I have installed My King on Zion, upon My holy mountain.”
- Ps 3:7Arise, O LORD! Save me, O my God! Strike all my enemies on the jaw; break the teeth of the wicked.
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.
Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.
Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
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 20:9 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.