Psalms

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Psalm 20

1 For the music director, a psalm of David. May the Lord answer you when you are in trouble; may the God of Jacob make you secure. 2 May he send you help from his temple; from Zion may he give you support. 3 May he take notice of all your offerings; may he accept your burnt sacrifice. (Selah) 4 May he grant your heart’s desire; may he bring all your plans to pass. 5 Then we will shout for joy over your victory; we will rejoice in the name of our God. May the Lord grant all your requests. 6 Now I am sure that the Lord will deliver his chosen king; he will intervene for him from his holy, heavenly temple, and display his mighty ability to deliver. 7 Some trust in chariots and others in horses, but we depend on the Lord our God.⁠ 8 They will fall down, but we will stand firm. 9 The Lord will deliver the king; he will answer us when we call to him for help!

Texts in conversation

Compare Deuteronomy 17:16 and Psalm 20:8

Hebrew Bible

Summary

Psalm 20 echoes the Deuteronomistic ideal by rejecting trust in horses and chariots, connecting it with the requirement from Deuteronomy that Israel’s king must not accumulate military power, wealth, or wives.

Passages

Deuteronomy 17:16

Hebrew Bible

14 When you come to the land the Lord your God is giving you and take it over and live in it and then say, “I will select a king like all the nations surrounding me,” 15 you must select without fail a king whom the Lord your God chooses. From among your fellow citizens you must appoint a king—you may not designate a foreigner who is not one of your fellow Israelites. 16 Moreover, he must not accumulate horses for himself or allow the people to return to Egypt to do so, for the Lord has said you must never again return that way. 17 Furthermore, he must not marry many wives lest his affections turn aside, and he must not accumulate much silver and gold.

750–400 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Deuteronomy

Psalm 20:8

Hebrew Bible

5 Then we will shout for joy over your victory; we will rejoice in the name of our God. May the Lord grant all your requests. 6 Now I am sure that the Lord will deliver his chosen king; he will intervene for him from his holy, heavenly temple, and display his mighty ability to deliver. 7 Some trust in chariots and others in horses, but we depend on the Lord our God. 8 They will fall down, but we will stand firm. 9 The Lord will deliver the king; he will answer us when we call to him for help!

600–201 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Psalms

References

"... Deuteronomy focuses much less on what the king must do than on what he must not do (17:16-17) ... These three restrictions “quite explicitly cut against the accepted pattern of kingship throughout the ancient Near East.” As Bible scholar Christopher Wright explains, “military power (the point of having great numbers of horses), the prestige of a large harem (frequently related to international marriage alliances), and great wealth (large amounts of silver and gold)—these were the defining marks of kings worthy of the title... But Deuteronomy starkly declares: ‘Not so in Israel.’” Why are weapons, wives, and wealth considered so dangerous? Cavalry and chariots signal a king’s self-glorification. When David’s sons Absalom and Adonijah seek to become king, each “provides himself with a chariot, horses, and fifty outrunners” (2 Samuel 15:1; 1 Kings 1:5). Moreover, massive military power can delude kings into thinking that they are “self-sufficient and not dependent on God.” Indeed, for the prophets, a massive chariot force is a sign of infidelity to God: Isaiah condemns the people because “their land is full of horses, and there is no limit to their chariots” (Isaiah 2:7) and Micah foresees a day when God “will destroy the horses in your midst and wreck your chariots” (Micah 5:10). Faithful followers of God, in contrast, declare: “They call on chariots, they call on horses, but we call on the name of the Lord our God” (Psalm 20:8) ..."

Shai Held, Give the People (Only Some of) What They Want: Deuteronomy and the King (Center for Jewish Leadership and Ideas, 2014), 1–10.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

Psalms150 psalms

Compare Deuteronomy 17:16 and Psalm 20:8

Summary

Passages

Deuteronomy 17:16

Psalm 20:8

References

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