Sign Up My Profile
Gustave Doré’s engraving of David standing crowned and bowed as he mourns Absalom

Psalm 20

What St Athanasius said to pray when someone you love is in trouble, in a letter from the 300s.

  • 9Verses
  • 1Situation

St Athanasius, Letter to Marcellinus

When to pray it

In the 300s, St Athanasius of Alexandria wrote a letter to his friend Marcellinus about praying the Psalms. In it he matched psalms to what people go through. This is what he gave this one for.

Someone you love is in trouble, and you want to comfort them and pray over them.

When you see people in distress, comfort them: pray over them, and say to them the words of Psalm 20.

Letter to Marcellinus

Psalm 20:7

Where it turns

Some trust in chariots and others in horses, but we trust in the name of the LORD our God.

9 verses, Berean Standard Bible

The whole psalm

Psalm 20

Its own heading For the choirmaster. A Psalm of David.

  1. 1May the LORD answer you in the day of trouble; may the name of the God of Jacob protect you.
  2. 2May He send you help from the sanctuary and sustain you from Zion.
  3. 3May He remember all your gifts and look favorably on your burnt offerings. Selah
  4. 4May He give you the desires of your heart and make all your plans succeed.
  5. 5May we shout for joy at your victory and raise a banner in the name of our God. May the LORD grant all your petitions.
  6. 6Now I know that the LORD saves His anointed; He answers him from His holy heaven with the saving power of His right hand.
  7. 7Some trust in chariots and others in horses, but we trust in the name of the LORD our God.
  8. 8They collapse and fall, but we rise up and stand firm.
  9. 9O LORD, save the king. Answer us on the day we call.

Psalm 20 is 19 in the Greek numbering Athanasius used, which Orthodox Bibles and some older Catholic ones still follow.

When you need words to pray, for yourself or someone else

Close to this

All 53 situations, in one guide.

Your turn

Which Psalm are you living right now?

A few honest taps about your life right now, and the psalm an early Church Father gave for exactly that.

  • 3 min
  • 7 questions
Start

Suggest a correction. Corrections that are applied are recorded in the public changelog.

Bible text: Berean Standard Bible, public domain. Athanasius’s advice is paraphrased from his Greek.