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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Psalms 20:1 - 20:1
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(Heb.: 20:2-6) Litany for the king in distress, who offers sacrifices for himself in the sanctuary. The futures in Psa 20:2, standing five times at the head of the climactic members of the parallelism, are optatives. יְמַלֵּא, Psa 20:6, also continues the chain of wishes, of which even נְרַֽנֲנָה (cf. Psa 69:15) forms one of the links. The wishes of the people accompany both the prayer and the sacrifice. “The Name of the God of Jacob” is the self-manifesting power and grace of the God of Israel. יעקב is used in poetry interchangeably with ישראל, just like אלהים with יהוה. Alshêch refers to Gen 35:3; and it is not improbable that the desire moulds itself after the fashion of the record of the fact there handed down to us. May Jahve, who, as the history of Jacob shows, hears (and answers) in the day of distress, hear the king; may the Name of the God of Jacob bear him away from his foes to a triumphant height. שִׂגֵּב alternates with רֹומֵם (Psa 18:49) in this sense. This intercession on the behalf of the praying one is made in the sanctuary on the heights of Zion, where Jahve sits enthroned. May He send him succour from thence, like auxiliary troops that decide the victory. The king offers sacrifice. He offers sacrifice according to custom before the commencement of the battle (1Sa 13:9., and cf. the phrase קִדֵּשׁ מִלְחָמָה), a whole burnt-offering and at the same time a meat or rather meal offering also, מְנָחֹות;
(Note: This, though not occurring in the Old Testament, is the principal form of the plural, which, as even David Kimchi recognises in his Lexicon, points to a verb מָנַח (just as שְׂמָלֹות, גְּבָעֹות, שְׁפָחֹות point to שָׂמַל, גָּבַע, שָׂפַח); whereas other old grammarians supposed נָחָה to be the root, and were puzzled with the traditional pronunciation menachôth, but without reason.)
for every whole offering and every shelamim - or peace-offering had a meat-offering and a drink-offering as its indispensable accompaniment. The word זָכַר is perfectly familiar in the ritual of the meal-offering. That portion of the meal-offering, only a part of which was placed upon the altar (to which, however, according to traditional practice, does not belong the accompanying meal-offering of the מנחת נסכים, which was entirely devoted to the altar), which ascended with the altar fire is called אַזְכָּרָה, μνημόσυνον (cf. Act 10:4), that which brings to remembrance with God him for whom it is offered up (not “incense,” as Hupfeld renders it); for the designation of the offering of jealousy, Num 5:15, as “bringing iniquity to remembrance before God” shows, that in the meal-offering ritual זָכַר retains the very same meaning that it has in other instances. Every meal-offering is in a certain sense a מִנְחַת זִכָּרֹון a esnes . Hence here the prayer that Jahve would graciously remember them is combined with the meal-offerings.
As regards the ‛olah, the wish “let fire from heaven (Lev 9:24; 1Ki 18:38; 1Ch 21:26) turn it to ashes,” would not be vain. But the language does not refer to anything extraordinary; and in itself the consumption of the offering to ashes (Böttcher) is no mark of gracious acceptance. Moreover, as a denominative from דֶּשֶׁן, fat ashes, דִּשֵּׁן means “to clean from ashes,” and not: to turn into ashes. On the other hand, דִּשֵּׁן also signifies “to make fat,” Psa 23:5, and this effective signification is applied declaratively in this instance: may He find thy burnt-offering fat, which is equivalent to: may it be to Him a רֵיחַ נִיחֹחַ [an odour of satisfaction, a sweet-smelling savour]. The voluntative ah only occurs here and in Job 11:17 (which see) and Isa 5:19, in the 3 pers.; and in this instance, just as with the cohortative in 1Sa 28:15, we have a change of the lengthening into a sharpening of the sound (cf. the exactly similar change of forms in 1Sa 28:15; Isa 59:5; Zec 5:4; Pro 24:14; Eze 25:13) as is very frequently the case in מֶה for מָה. The alteration to יְדַשְּׁנֶהָ or יְדַשְׁנָהּ (Hitzig) is a felicitous but needless way of getting rid of the rare form. The explanation of the intensifying of the music here is, that the intercessory song of the choir is to be simultaneous with the presentation upon the altar (הַקְטָרָה). עֵצַה is the resolution formed in the present wartime. “Because of thy salvation,” i.e., thy success in war, is, as all the language is here, addressed to the king, cf. Psa 21:2, where it is addressed to Jahve, and intended of the victory accorded to him. It is needless to read נְגַדֵּל instead of נִדְגֹּל, after the rendering of the lxx megaluntheeso'metha. נִדְגֹּל is a denominative from דֶּגֶל: to wave a banner. In the closing line, the rejoicing of hope goes back again to the present and again assumes the form of an intercessory desire.