The Hebrew word areshet (ืึฒืจึถืฉึถืืช) means the desire or request of the lips/heart, a longing expressed in spoken petition. Appearing in Psalm 21:2, it parallels the word for petition (araq) and underscores the heart's deepest request โ what a person longs for most before the King.
In Psalm 21:2, the psalmist declares that God has given the king the areshet of his lips โ literally the desire spoken aloud in prayer. This frames the entire psalm as a theology of answered prayer: the king asked, God heard, God gave. The word bridges the inner world of longing and the outer act of speech, suggesting that genuine prayer is the verbalization of what the heart already holds before God.
Theologically, areshet connects to the NT pattern in Philippians 4:6: “in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.” The heart's desire, brought to voice before the King, becomes the substance of divine response.