What Does Psalm 20:3 Mean?
May he remember all your offerings, and make your rising offering rich. Selah.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
Remember all thy offerings, and accept thy burnt sacrifice; Selah.THE KEY
The Hebrew word for burnt sacrifice is עֹלָה (ʿōlāh, an ascent), so the verse pictures what is offered as something rising into remembrance.
THE MEANING
The verse speaks as a present petition: may what you offer be remembered, and may what rises from it be received. The burnt offering’s Hebrew name pictures it as an ascent, so the gift is not only something surrendered but something rising before God.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie this undoes is that once you release something, it vanishes from God’s attention.
THE ROOT
עֹלָה
ʿōlāh
GROWS FROM
עלה
ʿ-l-h
To go up, ascend, or rise.
“rising offering” in this verse is ʿōlāh. The word translated “burnt sacrifice” is named for ascent: what is offered rises. English preserves the act of sacrifice but can hide this movement upward.
ALSO GROWS
ʿālāh: To go up or ascend.
עָלָה
This verb makes explicit the upward movement carried in the name of the burnt offering.
maʿălāh: An ascent, step, or degree.
מַעֲלָה
This branch keeps ascent concrete: the offering is pictured as rising, step by step, toward the altar.
יִזְכֹּר
yizkor
GROWS FROM
זכר
z-k-r
To remember, recall, or bring to mind.
“Remember” in this verse is yizkor. The same root names both remembering and a memorial. The petition asks that what is offered remain present in remembrance, rather than vanish from view.
ALSO GROWS
zikkaron: Remembrance or memorial.
זִכָּרוֹן
A memorial is remembrance given a form, showing how the root can make remembering more than a passing thought.
hizkir: To mention or cause to be remembered.
הִזְכִּיר
This branch shows remembrance being brought forward or made present, which deepens the petition for the offerings to be remembered.
יְדַשְּׁנֶה
yedasheneh
GROWS FROM
דשן
d-sh-n
To grow fat or make rich; the noun also refers to fatness and altar ashes.
“make rich” in this verse is yedasheneh. The verb translated “accept” carries a concrete sacrificial texture: the root can speak of fatness and the substance left at the altar. Acceptance here is bound to the actual offering and its altar, not merely an abstract approval.
ALSO GROWS
deshen: Fatness, richness, or altar ashes.
דֶּשֶׁן
This noun ties the root to the substance of an offering and what remains after it is burned.
dishshen: Made fat or enriched.
דִּשֵּׁן
This verb form gives the verse’s language of acceptance a sense of receiving the offering as rich and substantial.
THE PATTERN
What is offered to God is pictured as rising into presence and being received.
And he brings it to the sons of Aaron, the priests, and the priest takes from it a fistful of its fine flour and of its oil, with all its frankincense, and sends up its remembrance in smoke upon the altar, an offering of fire, a fragrance that settles to the LORD.Let my prayer be set before you as smoke, and the lifting of my palms as the evening offering.But I hold everything in full, and I overflow; I am filled, having received from Epaphroditus the things sent from you, a fragrance of sweetness, a sacrifice welcomed, well pleasing to God.THE THREAD
And he brings it to the sons of Aaron, the priests, and the priest takes from it a fistful of its fine flour and of its oil, with all its frankincense, and sends up its remembrance in smoke upon the altar, an offering of fire, a fragrance that settles to the LORD.Leviticus names the offering’s memorial portion אַזְכָּרָה (ʾazkārāh, memorial), from the same זכר (z-k-r, remember) root as “Remember” in Psalm 20:3. The shared root brings the connection into the wording itself: the offering is both given and held in remembrance.
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