What Does Psalm 20:5 Mean in the King James?
We will rejoice in thy salvation, and in the name of our God we will set up our banners: the LORD fulfil all thy petitions.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The verse makes deliverance visible: the people lift God’s nature as their banner.
THE MEANING
Deliverance opens space for the community to rejoice together, with God’s nature as its shared standard. The petitions remain within the verse’s confidence that the LORD fulfills them.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that deliverance is merely private escape: here, it becomes shared joy and a visible standard.
THE ROOT
יְשׁוּעָה
yeshuʿah
GROWS FROM
י־ש־ע
y-sh-ʿ
To deliver, bringing someone out from constriction into spaciousness.
Here, deliverance is not only escape from danger; it is the widening that lets a people stand together. The root holds the movement of bringing out within what English gathers into “salvation.”
ALSO GROWS
yasha: To deliver or bring out.
יָשַׁע
The verb names the movement that the verse celebrates.
moshia: Deliverer.
מוֹשִׁיעַ
The same root can name the one who brings people out, keeping the act and its source connected.
yeshuʿah: Deliverance.
יְשׁוּעָה
The noun names the opening that becomes the community’s shared cause for rejoicing.
נִדְגֹּל
nidgol
GROWS FROM
ד־ג־ל
d-g-l
To raise or mark with a standard, making a group’s allegiance visible.
“banners” in this verse is nidgol. The banner does more than decorate the scene: it shows whose nature defines the gathering. The people’s rejoicing becomes visible as they lift their standard in God’s name.
ALSO GROWS
degel: Banner or standard.
דֶּגֶל
This noun names the visible sign the people raise in the verse.
dagul: Bannered, distinguished, conspicuous.
דָּגוּל
The related form suggests a banner makes its bearer recognizable.
מִשְׁאֲלוֹתֶיךָ
mishʾalotekha
GROWS FROM
ש־א־ל
sh-ʾ-l
To ask, request, or seek.
The verse keeps the act of asking connected to what is asked for. These petitions are held within the expectation that the LORD brings them to completion.
ALSO GROWS
shaʾal: To ask or request.
שָׁאַל
The verb names the asking that stands behind the petitions.
sheʾelah: A request or question.
שְׁאֵלָה
This related noun makes clear that a petition is something voiced and sought.
THE PATTERN
Deliverance gathers a people around God’s nature and makes their allegiance visible.
And Moses built an altar, and called the name of it Jehovah-nissi:He brought me to the banqueting house, and his banner over me was love.Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.THE THREAD
He brought me to the banqueting house, and his banner over me was love.The same banner root appears here, where the banner over the speaker is love. Psalm 20:5 pictures a people lifting their standard in God’s name; this verse opens what that banner carries.
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