TOM · The Owner's Manual · Old Testament

Psalm 20

Psalm 20 in 30 seconds

A prayer for the king before battle. Some trust in chariots, but we trust in Yahweh.

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The Day of Trouble

For the choirmaster. A Psalm of David.

¹May Yahweh answer you in the day of trouble;

may the name of the God of Jacob protect you.

PS 20:1[ARCHAEOLOGY]An Aramaic prayer written in Egyptian letters, 300s BC, sounds a lot like Psalm 20:1 to 5, see the Papyrus Amherst 63 Field Notes box
PS 20:1[NOTE]PAPYRUS AMHERST 63. An Egyptian papyrus has a prayer in Aramaic that sounds a lot like verses 1 to 5. See the Field Notes box after this psalm.

²May He send you help from the sanctuary

and sustain you from Zion.

³May He remember all your gifts

and look favorably on your burnt offerings.

Selah

⁴May He give you the desires of your heart

and make all your plans succeed.

⁵May we shout for joy at your victory

and raise a banner in the name of our God.

May Yahweh grant all your petitions.

⁶Now I know that Yahweh saves His anointed;

He answers him from His holy heaven

with the saving power of His right hand.

⁷Some trust in chariots and others in horses,

but we trust in the name of Yahweh our God.

⁸They collapse and fall,

but we rise up and stand firm.

⁹O Yahweh, save the king.

Answer us on the day we call.

Field Notes · Archaeology

Psalm 20:1 to 5

A piece of Papyrus Amherst 63, Aramaic written in Egyptian Demotic letters, about 300 BC. The Morgan Library and Museum, New York. Public domain.

WHAT IT IS: A long papyrus scroll, about 12 feet, from Egypt. It is written in Aramaic, but with Egyptian letters, the Demotic script. It holds prayers, hymns and stories of an Aramaic speaking group living in Egypt.
HOW OLD IT IS: Copied about 300 BC. The prayers in it may be older.
WHERE AND WHEN FOUND: Bought in Egypt in the 1800s, likely from Thebes. In 1944 a scholar saw that it was Aramaic in Egyptian letters, but it was not fully read until the 1980s.
WHAT IT SAYS: One prayer sounds a lot like Psalm 20:1 to 5: May the Lord answer us in our troubles; may He send help from His sanctuary and grant every wish of our heart. But it prays to the god Horus and names other gods too. One scholar reads Yaho, an old form of Yahweh, where others read Horus.
WHO BORROWED?: Scholars disagree. Some think both come from an older prayer. Others think a version of Psalm 20 was borrowed and changed by people who worshiped other gods.
WHAT IT DOES NOT PROVE: It does not show that Psalm 20 is pagan. It shows that a prayer like Psalm 20 was known outside Israel long ago.

CONFIDENCE: HIGH