Bible Strands
Psalms 20:2
May He send you help from the sanctuary and sustain you from Zion.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — David composes this psalm for the choirmaster, directing a petition to the God of Jacob on behalf of a petitioner facing immediate trouble. The prayer frames the request within a covenant context where the community looks to God’s appointed place for intervention.
The words — The Hebrew יִשְׁלַֽח (yishlach, “may he send”) and יִסְעָדֶֽךָּ (yis‘adekha, “may he support you”) bookend the petition, while מִקֹּ֑דֶשׁ (miqqodeš, “from the sanctuary”) and צִיּוֹן (ṣiyyôn, “Zion”) name the two locations from which aid is requested.
The thread — The motif of divine response tied to sacred locations appears in 1 Kings 8:44 where troops pray to the LORD in battle, 1 Kings 6:16 which details the partitioning of the temple’s inner sanctuary, and 2 Chronicles 20:8 which records the establishment of a sanctuary for God’s Name.
Why it lands — The text states that help and sustenance originate from God’s dwelling place rather than human resources. It requires the reader to direct prayers for crisis support toward the covenant center where God chooses to act.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
Send thee help from the sanctuary, and strengthen thee out of Zion;
Cross-references
- 1 Kings 8:44 When Your people go to war against their enemies, wherever You send them, and when they pray to the LORD in the direction of the city You have chosen and the house I have built for Your Name,
- 1 Kings 6:16 He partitioned off the twenty cubits at the rear of the temple with cedar boards from floor to ceiling to form within the temple an inner sanctuary, the Most Holy Place.
- 2 Chronicles 20:8 They have lived in the land and have built in it a sanctuary for Your Name, saying,
- Isaiah 12:6 Cry out and sing, O citizen of Zion, for great among you is the Holy One of Israel.”
- Isaiah 14:32 What answer will be given to the envoys of that nation? “The LORD has founded Zion, where His afflicted people will find refuge.”
- Psalms 3:4 To the LORD I cry aloud, and He answers me from His holy mountain. Selah
- 2 Samuel 5:7 Nevertheless, David captured the fortress of Zion (that is, the City of David).
- 2 Samuel 6:17 So they brought the ark of the LORD and set it in its place inside the tent that David had pitched for it. Then David offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before the LORD.
- Psalms 73:17 until I entered God’s sanctuary; then I discerned their end.
- Isaiah 37:34 He will go back the way he came, and he will not enter this city,’ declares the LORD.