What Does Psalm 20:6 Mean?
Now I perceive that the LORD delivers his anointed one; he answers him from his set-apart heavens with the mighty deliverance of his right hand.
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
Now know I that the LORD saveth his anointed; he will hear him from his holy heaven with the saving strength of his right hand.THE KEY
The LORD’s act of delivering and the deliverance carried by his right hand share the same Hebrew root.
THE MEANING
Knowing here rests on the LORD’s action: he delivers his anointed and answers him from the heavens of his holiness. The strength of his right hand is the force by which deliverance arrives, joining rescue and response in one movement.
THE ROOT
הוֹשִׁיעַ
hôshiaʿ
GROWS FROM
ישע
To deliver, bring into safety, and move from constriction into spaciousness.
The line places two forms of one root side by side: the LORD delivers, and his right hand carries deliverance. English renders these as “saveth” and “saving,” while Hebrew lets the action and its force share one seed: the rescue being done is the deliverance being wielded.
ALSO GROWS
yeshuah: Deliverance
יְשׁוּעָה
This noun from the same root names the deliverance that the LORD brings into action here.
Yeshua: Deliverance; the name Yeshua
יֵשׁוּעַ
The name carries the same root’s movement of deliverance, echoing the nature of the LORD’s work in this verse.
מְשִׁיחוֹ
meshicho
GROWS FROM
משח
To smear or apply oil.
The word translated “anointed” carries the act of applying oil within it. The anointed one is identified by what has been applied, so the verse directs the LORD’s deliverance toward someone marked by that act.
ALSO GROWS
mashiach: Anointed one
מָשִׁיחַ
This is the same root’s name for one who has been anointed, making the identity in the verse an expression of the root’s action.
mishchah: Anointing; anointing oil
מִשְׁחָה
This branch names the oil or act of anointing that gives “his anointed” its concrete root sense.
יַעֲנֵהוּ
yaʿanēhû
GROWS FROM
ענה
To answer or respond.
“answers” in this verse is yaʿanēhû. The Hebrew verb rendered “hear” carries the sense of answering or responding. The one who is heard receives an answer, so the verse pictures divine hearing as response rather than distant awareness.
ALSO GROWS
anah: To answer or respond
עָנָה
This verb names the response carried by the verse’s promise that the LORD will hear.
maʿaneh: An answer or reply
מַעֲנֶה
This noun makes the response explicit: the LORD’s hearing is associated with an answer reaching the one who calls.
THE PATTERN
The LORD’s deliverance becomes visible in concrete action, joining rescue with an answer that reaches the one in need.
And Moses said to the people, Do not fear, take your stand, and see the deliverance of the LORD, which he will do for you today; for the Egyptians whom you have seen today, you will never see them again for the ages.The LORD is my strength and song, and becomes my deliverance.For the Son of Man has come to seek and to deliver that which had lost its way.THE THREAD
Look, God is my deliverance. I will lean my full weight and not tremble, for the LORD JEHOVAH is my strength and my song, and he has become my deliverance.The same root, ישע (yashaʿ, to deliver), names both the LORD’s delivering and the deliverance carried by his hand in Psalm 20:6. Isaiah makes that shared root visible in “salvation” and joins it to the LORD as strength, opening the phrase “saving strength” as the LORD’s own deliverance at work.
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