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Tehillim 20 - k oylht

The 20^th Psalm by David, the Warrior King, should be familiar to most of us as we read it at every week-day Minyan, as well as other times... And, while we will be looking at the Hebrew and the English translation(s) - the emphasis, today, will be on... David.

David does not even get past the tenth word before we speaks of the G-d of Jacob. Now why should he say the “G-d of Jacob” rather than Avraham or Isaac? Any ideas? Well, one commentary states that of the three Patriarchs, David more closely felt a kinship with Jacob. This is, first of all a Psalm for protection. A Psalm in/for the time of trouble. And it was Jacob, you will remember that had the most tzuris. His life was not without its “trials”. He had his confrontation with Esau; he was in exile during this ‘sojourn‘ to be married (twice) and worked 14 years for Laban. Then too he was in exile under Pharaoh. He even died in exile. His daughter was kidnapped and raped, and he ‘lost‘ his son Joseph. None the less G-d was there for him and protected him. So therefore, as David too had his problems, he spoke of the “G-d of Jacob” as the proper way to address HaShem when we too are in distress.

So why should we be reciting this Psalm immediately after we read the Ashrey? Again the commentators say that we read; “...on the day of distress.” as being a reference to: before it is too late ! So, as we do not know when it will be ‘too late‘ for us we too should cry out with David and once we apprehend the truth in these few opening words, we will find that the truth has changed us [Truth changes the beholder]

At this point I want to refer you to an in-depth study with commentary by Rabbi Benjamin J. Segal of the Schechter Institute of Jewish Studies. You can find it at: http://psalms.schechter.edu/2010/01/new-psalm-introduction-benjamin-j.html there you will find some, several, many interesting ideas concerning the meaning of the prose and poetry of this short Psalm. There are far too many thoughts to discuss them here but let me just borrow one of the Rabbi’s comments for you: “The Vulgate (the early Latin version of the Bible_ reads “king” (LC) of the verse 10 as the object of ‘the LORD save,’ which is the origin of the well-known call: “G-d save the king.’”

You can also find brief - pithy - comments/commentary in the Schottenstein edition of the Book of Psalms with an interlinear translation Hebrew/English which is a more direct translation with little concern for “poetry” as we usually find in places like the Yankel Melich edition of the English Bible.

Perhaps too, it would be beneficial to refer to a good etymological dictionary/resource to discover alternative shades of meaning of some of the words which are particularly vague. Or, as Rabbi Segal suggests, perhaps it was meant to have many different levels of understanding. In which case, we have to ask; what was the reason that David wrote these many Psalms? Did he mean to communicate, in which case we may say that we was not really to successful. Or did he mean to make us think. Think about what he wrote. Think about what we read. And, of course, think about what we are praying!

Here is Psalm 20 in all its y verses: