Verse Lens · Concise explanation
Psalms 9:20 Explained in Context
Use this verse as a doorway into the larger passage—not as an isolated saying.
Verse 20. 20Put them in fear, O LORD: that the nations may know themselves to be but men. Selah.
King James Version — public domain in the United States · Bible text and permissions
Quick Meaning
Psalm 9:20: The line “Put them in fear, O LORD” reaches Selah inside “Thanksgiving for judgment and refuge,” marking an ancient pause of uncertain performance.
Read It With
- Psalms 9:1–20
Read Psalms 9:20 with 9:1–20. Read alone, “Put them in fear, O LORD” could lose the individual voice, the parallel line or movement it develops, and the psalm's outcome. The complete movement establishes: Within Psalms 9:1–20, the individual voice carries the movement “Thanksgiving for judgment and refuge” as part of “Thanksgiving for judgment and refuge.” Its acrostic-lament-praise form and poetic parallelism hold the petitions, images, memories, or praise together before any single line is applied.
Why This Verse Appears Here
Psalms 9:1–20 opens Psalm 9 with “I will praise thee, O LORD, with my whole heart; I will shew forth all thy marvellous works” and establishes the individual voice and “Thanksgiving for judgment and refuge” movement before later lines develop or answer it. Psalm 10 continues the cry over wicked violence, and the alphabetic relationship and shared vocabulary make the two psalms mutually clarifying. Within that relationship, Psalm 9:20 carries “Put them in fear, O LORD” into the liturgical marker Selah, creating a pause whose exact performance remains uncertain.
What Remains True
Read “Put them in fear, O LORD” as part of the individual voice in “Thanksgiving for judgment and refuge.” Praise and prayer become truthful when they attend to people harmed by predatory power and pursue protection, generosity, and fair judgment. The local movement is “Thanksgiving for judgment and refuge.” The unit's reviewed limit is: Psalm 9 participates in an incomplete acrostic continued by Psalm 10 in Greek numbering; its victory language must remain under justice rather than triumphalism.
How It Can Shape Life
- Start with the line's work inside “Thanksgiving for judgment and refuge”—Psalm 9:20 carries “Put them in fear, O LORD” into the liturgical marker Selah, creating a pause whose exact performance remains uncertain. Then let “Put them in fear, O LORD” test worship and public claims by their effect on vulnerable people; correct one practice that hides or compounds harm.
Continue in Context
The full thought-unit study remains the final contextual authority for this Verse Lens.
Read Psalms 9:1–20 — Thanksgiving for judgment and refugeSources used for this Verse Lens
How certain is this explanation? probable
These are the sources used directly for this lens. Language, grammar, disagreements, and the complete source shelf remain attached to the full thought-unit research record.
Biblical text
King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006
eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society
USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.
Supports: Exact displayed KJV wording, verse order, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and complete thought-unit coverage.
Exact location: Psalms 9:1–20, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM-derived repository corpus
Open source ↗hebrew text and morphology
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible: Psalms
Open Scriptures
Open Scriptures, release 2.2
Supports: Masoretic Hebrew wording and morphology checked at the exact unit without treating morphology as a complete apparatus or interpretation.
Exact location: Open Scriptures MorphHB v2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Ps.xml, OSIS 9:1–20
Open the fixed Hebrew Psalms file ↗translation and translator notes
NET Bible Notes: Psalms 1-150
Biblical Studies Press
Biblical Studies Press, current official online edition
Supports: Verse-level controls for poetic syntax, imagery, older KJV language, textual issues, headings, and alternatives in Psalms 9:1–20.
Exact location: Official NET Bible Psalm 9 HTML, translator, textual, and study notes attached to Psalms 9:1–20
Open the official NET Psalms notes ↗