Psalms 20: Strength and Weakness of Consciousness

Compare with the original King James text

🔍 Explore Verse Ranges in Psalms 20

Quick Insights

A plea in the inner life becomes a scene where distress calls attention and the imagination answers with a protecting presence.
The sanctuary and Zion are not places but states of concentrated attention that supply strength and preserve conviction.
Offering and sacrifice describe the intentional surrender of fear and the repeated mental act that consecrates desire until it is accepted by the inner self.
Trust that depends on externals collapses; trust rooted in an inner name — the conscious sense of being supported — rises and stands upright.

What is the Main Point of Psalms 20?

This chapter maps the psychology of prayer as a sequence of inner states: crisis, invocation of a higher steadying power, disciplined offering of attention, confident expectation of desired outcomes, and the final witnessing of victory. It insists that imagination, when steadied and focused as a sanctuary, supplies the strength to answer trouble, and that victory is not a military event but a mental posture that refuses to be shaken by circumstances.

What is the Spiritual Meaning of Psalms 20?

The opening cry of help marks the raw, honest recognition that something within is in distress and must be addressed. Naming the distress and calling for defense is the first conscious act: acknowledging weakness so it can be met by a steadying faculty. The sanctuary and Zion appear as inner rooms of attention where one withdraws from the noise of external causes to renew a sense of poise. Strength drawn from these interior spaces is not magical; it is the reorientation of attention from doubt to assurance, which changes perception and therefore experience. When the text speaks of remembering offerings and accepting sacrifice, it points to the discipline of repeated imaginative acts. An offering is the focused attention and feeling applied toward a single outcome; a sacrifice is the surrender of contradictory thoughts that would dilute that focus. This is daily practice: to keep the mind returning to the chosen scene, to feel its reality until it becomes the governing assumption. The spiritual work is not loss but reallocation of mental energy from fear to faith, from scattered wanting to a settled knowing. The contrast between trusting chariots and trusting the inner name dramatizes two collective psychologies: reliance on visible means and the deeper reliance on identity. Chariots represent strategies, tools, and temporary supports; they can fail because they are external. The 'name' represents a felt sense of one's aligned self, the consciousness that issues guidance and protection. When consciousness chooses that name, the result is an inner elevation — a rise above anxiety — that stands upright even if external fortunes change. This uprightness is the crown of the psyche when imagination has been trained to answer crisis with presence.

Key Symbols Decoded

Sanctuary and Zion function psychologically as the curated imaginal space where attention rests and replenishes. They are the inner sanctum you enter when you cease bargaining with circumstances and instead cultivate a vivid, peaceful assumption. The burnt sacrifice and offerings are not literal rituals but repeated creative acts: the deliberate use of sensory feeling and visualization to consecrate a desire. They are the fuel fed to the engine of imagination until the mind accepts the desired state as real. Chariots and horses are archetypes of dependence on outward measures and visible power. They symbolize the habit of looking for rescue in forms and tools rather than in the presence of inner authority. The king whose hearing is sought is the ruler of consciousness — the attention that governs perception and outcome. Calling that king is the inward summons to command the faculties of imagination and will with faith.

Practical Application

Begin by acknowledging a present trouble and pause to withdraw attention from its outward causes; speak inwardly, in feeling, to the steady presence within that has always answered your call. Create a short imaginal scene in which the thing you desire is already accomplished and live in it for a few minutes with as much sensory detail and emotion as you can muster; this is the offering. Repeat this scene at least once daily, and whenever doubt rises consciously return to it, letting the act of repetition be the burnt sacrifice that removes contrary impressions. When you notice the mind reaching for external chariots — solutions that look like stepping-stones outside yourself — gently redirect attention to the felt sense of being supported. Cultivate a simple phrase or image that embodies that inner name and use it as a cue to stand upright in confidence. Over time the repeated practice of settling in the sanctuary of imagination, offering the scene with feeling, and refusing to be governed by external anxieties will change your posture toward life; what was once a crisis becomes the occasion for a steady answer and an inner elevation that shapes circumstances rather than being shaped by them.

The Inner Drama of Prayerful Trust and Triumph

Psalm 20 read as inner drama describes a moment of collective and solitary aiming of consciousness toward a desired state. The psalm is not a military dispatch but a map of psychological movement: a supplicant self in crisis, an inner council that affirms support, a sovereign state of being called the king, and the creative faculty that answers and brings the imagined end into manifestation. Each phrase names a state of mind and the means by which imagination, known here as the saving power, operates to transform appearances.

Verse 1 begins with crisis language: the LORD hear thee in the day of trouble. Psychologically this opens the scene in the theater of mind where anxiety or adversity has risen. The trouble is not first an external event but an inner disturbance, a state of fear or insufficiency. To be heard is to bring that disturbance into the sanctuary of attention; it is the act of turning inward and calling upon the deeper self. The name of the God of Jacob defend thee reads as an instruction to stand under a remembered identity, to center in the lineage of thought that has authority: the self that remembers who it is. Jacob here functions as the familial memory of consciousness, an inherited belief about power and destiny. Defense is not a physical shield but the reassertion of a mental orientation that refuses to be overwhelmed by passing appearances.

Send thee help from the sanctuary, and strengthen thee out of Zion interprets as the imagination sourcing assistance from the inner sanctuary and the highest center of being. The sanctuary is the still place where creative images are birthed; Zion is the summit state where the self experiences unity and strength. When the psyche asks for help, it is asking for a movement from projection back to source, from agitation to repose, from petition to confident assumption. Strengthening out of Zion means allowing the higher assumption to permeate the personality so that the outer behavior and decisions mirror an inner firmness.

Remember all thy offerings, and accept thy burnt sacrifice suggests an economy of inner acts. Offerings are the imaginal seeds sown previously: thoughts, prayers, agreements, and habitual inner conversations. Remembering them means acknowledging the prior investment of attention. To accept the burnt sacrifice is to allow those acts to be consumed by the altar of present consciousness, transformed into fuel that powers present manifestation. Psychologically, this is revision and integration: the ego recognizes its past imaginal acts, honors them, and lets them transmute into the energy that will fructify desired states.

Grant thee according to thine own heart, and fulfil all thy counsel names the law of inner congruence. The heart here is the locus of desire, and counsel is the directive that issues from sustained imaginal conviction. The psalmist's voice promises that the creative faculty will answer in the exact tenor of the assumed inner counsel. In psychological terms this verse affirms that imagination, once married to feeling and held as actual, will align outer events to the inner script. There is an invitation to be precise about counsel: what is rehearsed in feeling will be what is fulfilled.

We will rejoice in thy salvation, and in the name of our God we will set up our banners reads as the chorus of supportive inner voices that celebrate the assumed outcome. Salvation is not rescue by an external agent but the internal recognition that one has entered the fulfilled state. Rejoicing functions as amplification: emotion gives volume to the imaginal act and therefore accelerates its reception into experience. Setting up banners in the name of God is the public display of newly assumed identity; in inner drama it is the bold statement of who one now is, underpinned by the name that signifies being.

The LORD fulfil all thy petitions restates the promise: petitions that have been rightly rehearsed in feeling and assumed as true will be answered. Psychologically this is the principle that inner conversations must match the end. Petitions are not half-hearted wishes but the sustained assumptions that govern moment-to-moment awareness. Fulfillment is the inevitable reflection of a consistent inner state.

Now know I that the LORD saveth his anointed; he will hear him from his holy heaven with the saving strength of his right hand is a turning point. The knowing in this line is the dawn of assurance: a consciousness that has tasted the reality of its assumption and therefore speaks as one who has received. The anointed is the assumed self, the internal king who holds sway over a particular field of experience. 'Holy heaven' names the interior sky of imagination where possibilities take form. The 'saving strength of his right hand' can be read as the operative creative faculty, the active power within consciousness that moves images into actuality. When the anointed lives as if already the realized state, the right hand answers immediately.

Some trust in chariots, and some in horses; but we will remember the name of the LORD our God contrasts two approaches to want-fulfillment. Chariots and horses are the outer means, the visible devices, contacts, plans, and frantic efforts that people imagine will secure their desire. They represent dependence on circumstance and external strategies. Remembering the name of the LORD our God points instead to reliance on inward identity. This is a psychological distinction: to trust in externals is to be governed by shifting events; to trust the Name is to anchor in the creative self. The psalm draws a line between transient causes and the unchanging source.

They are brought down and fallen; but we are risen, and stand upright dramatizes the collapse of states based on externals and the rise of those formed within. The adversarial thoughts and fears, personified as 'they,' lose their authority when the inner king rises. This is not a boast about superiority so much as a description of consequence: consciousness that holds the assumed victory will see its opponents — doubt, fear, lack — toppled. 'We are risen' is the present-tense occupation of the desired state, the posture that makes manifestation inevitable. Standing upright is the posture of sovereignty and settled being.

Save, LORD: let the king hear us when we call closes the psalm as a communal petition. The king is the self that rules a particular domain of life, and letting him hear is the act of bringing attention to that ruling position. The call is not pleading; it is the inward summons to inhabit the crown. To call is to rehearse the identity until the inner hearing — the part of mind that responds — recognizes and activates the corresponding outer sequence.

Taken as a whole, Psalm 20 stages a psychological method. First, identify the crisis and bring it into the sanctuary of attention. Second, draw upon the highest center of identity as the source of help. Third, remember and offer your prior imaginal acts so they may be accepted and energized. Fourth, frame counsel from the heart and assume it with feeling. Fifth, allow the inner chorus to celebrate and thereby increase the radiance of the assumption. Sixth, trust the creative faculty rather than external contrivances. Seventh, observe the collapse of opposing states and stand in the risen posture of the king. Finally, continue to call and listen, for the inner hearing is what moves imagination into form.

Psychologically the psalm teaches that salvation is an inner event. The anointed king is not an outer monarch but the assumed state of being that moves reality to match its assumption. Chariots will fail, horses will falter, but the remembered name — the present sense of I am — endures. In this drama, imagination is the saving strength that answers from the holy heaven of inner conviction and brings the petitions, once rightly assumed, into the field of experience. The text invites the reader to stop locating deliverance in circumstance and to begin rehearsing the sovereign self until the world reflects the rehearsed scene.

Common Questions About Psalms 20

What part of Psalm 20 is best for visualization or meditation?

For visualization, focus on the lines that declare the granted desire and the saving presence: “Grant thee according to thine own heart” and “Now know I that the LORD saveth his anointed” (Psalm 20:4,6). Use the sanctuary sending help and the right hand’s strength as imaginal symbols — see a light or presence coming from a holy place and laying strength upon you, feel a firm hand steadying you, and picture the banners raised in victory. Meditate on rising upright while former obstacles fall; let these concrete images evoke the inner reality you assume, then rest in that state as if the outcome were accomplished.

How does Neville Goddard interpret Psalm 20 in terms of consciousness?

Neville reads Psalm 20 as a map of inner states rather than a petition to external powers: the opening petitions are the assumption sent up from consciousness, asking that the mind be furnished with strength and help; the promises that the LORD saves his anointed are the fulfilled state already assumed and lived in (Psalm 20:6). Trusting not in chariots but in the name of the LORD teaches that outward means are secondary to the inner conviction that the desired end is accomplished. In this view the sanctuary, right hand and banners are psychological images of power, presence and victory experienced inwardly, and imagination is the organ that realizes them.

How should Bible students pray Psalm 20 to align with Neville's teachings?

Pray Psalm 20 by making its petitions present-tense assumptions and entering imaginatively into their fulfillment: calmly declare the sanctuary’s help, feel the strength of the right hand, and dwell in the certainty that your petitions are fulfilled (Psalm 20:1–6). Avoid pleading; instead adopt the state of fulfilled desire each time you pray, using a brief imaginal scene as proof that the end is accomplished, then carry that feeling through the day. Finish with gratitude and the conviction that outward events will adjust to your inner reality. This practice trains consciousness to inhabit the result, which Neville taught is the secret of manifestation.

Can I use Psalm 20 as a manifestation prayer following the law of assumption?

Yes; Psalm 20 can be used as a manifestation prayer by turning its language into present-tense assumptions and dwelling in the feeling of the wish fulfilled. Instead of begging for help, silently affirm and imagine the answer as already given: feel the sanctuary’s strength, the right hand’s saving power, and that your petitions are fulfilled (Psalm 20:5–6). Repeat the phrases while vividly imagining scenes that imply the outcome, and conserve that feeling between sessions. The efficacy lies in sustained assumption — living from the end — so that external circumstances rearrange to match your inner state, as Scripture read inwardly shows.

Are there Neville-style meditations or lectures that apply Psalm 20 to achieving goals?

There are practical meditations that follow the same principles: enter a quiet state, recall the Psalm’s promises as present facts, and imagine a short, vivid scene that implies your goal is already realized — help arriving from the sanctuary, strength in your right hand, banners set up in your name. Use the evening revision to end the day assuming the fulfillment, and awaken into that same feeling each morning. The technique is consistent: embody the end in imagination, persist in the state of the wish fulfilled, and allow inner assurance to inform outward action; the Psalm supplies rich symbolic material to energize those imaginal acts.

Does Psalm 20 promise external help or describe inner assurance according to mystical readings?

Mystical readings present Psalm 20 as primarily a language of inner assurance whose outer corollaries follow; the prayerful petitions are the soul’s cry that produces its own answer when imagination assumes the end, and the declaration that the LORD saves his anointed affirms the realized state within (Psalm 20:6). The warning against trusting chariots points to dependence on external means (Psalm 20:7), so the promise is that inner reliance on the divine presence yields deliverance. In practice, the inner assurance becomes the magnet for external help, yet the fundamental work described is a change of consciousness rather than mere external intervention.