What Does Psalm 31:20 Mean?
You hide them in the hiding place of your face, from the plots of man; you store them in a booth, from the striving of tongues.
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
Thou shalt hide them in the secret of thy presence from the pride of man: thou shalt keep them secretly in a pavilion from the strife of tongues.THE KEY
The Hebrew repeats one root for both “hide” and “secret,” so God’s presence is not only where shelter comes from, it is the shelter itself.
THE MEANING
You are hidden within the shelter of God’s face, held safe from human arrogance and the conflict carried by speech. The verse names that protection twice: you are concealed in God’s presence and stored within a pavilion, so your safety is not reducible to whether hostile words are silent.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that another person’s pride or accusation can expose you beyond God’s protection is undone: this verse places you within a refuge held in God’s own presence.
THE ROOT
תַּסְתִּירֵם
tastirem
GROWS FROM
סתר
to hide, conceal, or keep out of sight
“hide them” in this verse is tastirem. English divides these into an action, “hide,” and a place, “secret,” but both grow from סתר: concealment is not just what happens to you; it becomes the shelter you inhabit. The nearby פָּנִים (panim, face/presence) locates that shelter in God’s face, while human pride and quarrelsome tongues remain outside its cover.
ALSO GROWS
satar: hide, conceal
סָתַר
This is the verb behind “hide them,” naming the act of sheltering.
seter: secret, hiding place
סֵתֶר
This noun names the refuge itself with the same root as the verb.
תִּצְפְּנֵם
titspenem
GROWS FROM
צפן
to hide, store away, or treasure
“store them” in this verse is titspenem. The second verb deepens the first: what is concealed is also stored safely, as something kept in reserve. The verse layers hiding with preservation rather than describing invisibility alone.
ALSO GROWS
tsaphan: hide, store up
צָפַן
This is the root behind “keep them secretly,” linking protection with something deliberately stored away.
tsafun: hidden, stored away
צָפוּן
This related form describes what has been kept beyond reach, deepening the verse’s image of guarded preservation.
THE PATTERN
Divine shelter places the vulnerable beyond the reach of human hostility and accusation.
For in the day of harm he stores me away in his booth; he hides me in the hiding place of his tent; he lifts me high upon a rock.No weapon shaped against you will push through, and every tongue that rises against you in judgment you will condemn. This is the portion of the servants of the LORD, and their alignment is from me, declares the LORD.Who will bring any charge against God's chosen ones? It is God who aligns.THE THREAD
For in the day of harm he stores me away in his booth; he hides me in the hiding place of his tent; he lifts me high upon a rock.Psalm 27:5 uses the same סתר (satar, hide/conceal) root found here in both “hide” and “secret.” The repeated root makes concealment itself a place of refuge, held within God’s presence.
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