Limitless Word
Give victory to our king, O Lord! Answer our cry for help.
Psalms 20:9 · New Living Translation
Parallel translations
  • WEB Save, Yahweh! Let the King answer us when we call!
  • KJV Save, LORD: let the king hear us when we call.
  • BSB O LORD, save the king. Answer us on the day 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.

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 5:2Listen to the voice of my cry, my King and my God; for to you do I pray.
  • Ps 118:25–26Save us now, we beg you, Yahweh! Yahweh, we beg you, send prosperity now.
  • Ps 44:4You are my King, God. Command victories for Jacob!
  • Matt 21:15But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children who were crying in the temple and saying, “Hosanna to the son of David!” they were indignant,
  • Ps 74:12Yet God is my King of old, working salvation throughout the earth.
  • Ps 17:6I have called on you, for you will answer me, God. Turn your ear to me. Hear my speech.
  • Matt 21:9The multitudes who went in front of him, and those who followed, kept 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, you gates! Be lifted up, you everlasting doors, and the King of glory will come in.
  • Ps 2:6–10“Yet I have set my King on my holy hill of Zion.”
  • Ps 3:7Arise, Yahweh! Save me, my God! For you have struck all of my enemies on the cheek bone. You have broken the teeth of the wicked.

Resources, by level

Commentaries & study tools

  • VideoBibleProject — Psalms videosBibleProject · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.

  • VideoWatch teaching on Psalms 20:9YouTube · Lay · Free

    Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.

  • CommentaryEnduring Word — verse-by-verseDavid Guzik · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.

  • CommentaryClassic commentaries for this verseBibleHub (20+ works) · Pastoral · Free

    Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.

  • CommentaryMatthew Henry on PsalmsMatthew Henry · Pastoral · Free · evangelical

    The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).

  • ReferenceInterlinear, lexicon & Strong'sBlue Letter Bible · Seminary · Free

    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.