What Does Psalm 66:20 Mean?
Let God be blessed, who has not removed my prayer, nor his faithful love from me.
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
Blessed be God, which hath not turned away my prayer, nor his mercy from me.THE KEY
God has not turned away either your prayer or his faithful love, holding being heard and being held together.
THE MEANING
Your prayer is not cast aside, and God’s faithful love does not depart from you. The verse holds these together: you are heard, and you are not abandoned.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that your prayer has been rejected and God’s faithful love has left you.
THE ROOT
הֵסִיר
hēsîr
GROWS FROM
סור
Turn aside, depart, or remove.
“removed my prayer” in this verse is hēsîr. English “turned away” can sound like a refusal, but this Hebrew verb pictures something being removed or made to depart. The verse says this removal does not happen to your prayer, and its parallel phrase says God’s faithful love is not removed from you either.
ALSO GROWS
sārtî: I have departed.
סָרְתִּי
The same root appears in Psalm 119:102, where the speaker says they have not departed from God’s judgments; the shared word makes turning away a question of direction.
sûr: Turn aside or depart.
סוּר
This is the root’s basic movement, showing that the verse describes prayer as not being moved aside.
חַסְדּוֹ
ḥasdô
GROWS FROM
חסד
Loyal kindness and faithful care within a relationship.
“his faithful love” in this verse is ḥasdô. The word rendered “mercy” is חֶסֶד (ḥesed), faithful love. It names loyal care that stays with you; beside the prayer, it shows that being heard and being held belong together.
ALSO GROWS
ḥesed: Faithful love, loyal kindness.
חֶסֶד
This is the central word in the verse’s phrase “his mercy,” naming the care that has not been withdrawn.
ḥāsîd: A faithful or devoted person; often rendered “godly.”
חָסִיד
This related form describes a person marked by devotion, echoing the relational loyalty carried by ḥesed.
THE PATTERN
Prayer meets God’s attentive presence, while his faithful love remains with the one who calls.
The eyes of the LORD are upon the aligned, and his ears are open to their cry.I love the LORD, for he hears and responds to my voice and my pleas for favor.And this is the open speech we hold toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.THE THREAD
I do not turn aside from your judgments, for you aim me.The same Hebrew root behind “turned away” appears here as “departed.” Psalm 66 says your prayer is not removed from God; Psalm 119 uses the root for the speaker’s not departing from God’s judgments.
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