PSALM 20 COMME�TARYEDITED BY GLE�� PEASE

For the director of music. A psalm of David.

1 May the Lord answer you when you are in

distress;

may the name of the God of Jacob protect you.

BAR�ES, “The Lord hear thee in the day of trouble - According to the view expressed in the introduction to the psalm, this is the language of the people praying for their king, or expressing the hope that he would be delivered from trouble, and would be successful in what he had undertaken, in the prosecution of a war apparently of defense. The word” trouble” here used would seem to imply that he was beset with difficulties and dangers; perhaps, that he was surrounded by foes. It seems that he was going forth to war to deliver his country from trouble, having offered sacrifices and prayers Psa_20:3 for the purpose of securing the divine favor on the expedition. The point or the moment of the psalm is when those sacrifices had been offered, and when he was about to embark on his enterprise. At that moment the people lift up the voice of sympathy and of encouragement, and pray that those sacrifices might be accepted, and that he might find the deliverance which he had desired.The name of the God of Jacob - The word name is often put in the Scriptures for

the person himself; and hence, this is equivalent to saying, “May the God of Jacob defend thee.” See Psa_5:11; Psa_9:10; Psa_44:5; Psa_54:1; Exo_23:21. Jacob was the one of the patriarchs from whom, after his other name, the Hebrew people derived their name Israel, and the word seems here to be used with reference to the people rather than to the ancestor. Compare Isa_44:2. The God of Jacob, or the God of Israel, would be synonymous terms, and either would denote that he was the Protector of the nation. As such he is invoked here; and the prayer is, that the Great Protector of the Hebrew people would now defend the king in the dangers which beset him, and in the enterprise which he had undertaken.

Defend thee - Margin, as in Hebrew, set thee on a high place. The word means the same as defend him, for the idea is that of being set on a high place, a tower, a mountain, a lofty rock, where his enemies could not reach or assail him.

CLARKE, “The Lord hear thee - David had already offered the sacrifice and prayed. The people implore God to succor him in the day of trouble; of both personal and national danger.

The name of the God of Jacob - This refers to Jacob’s wrestling with the Angel; Gen_32:24 (note), etc. And who was this Angel? Evidently none other than the Angel of the Covenant, the Lord Jesus, in whom was the name of God, the fullness of the Godhead bodily. He was the God of Jacob, who blessed Jacob, and gave him a new name and a new nature. See the notes on the above place in Genesis.

GILL, “The Lord hear thee in the day of trouble,.... All the days of Christ were days of trouble; he was a brother born for adversity; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with griefs; he had his own sorrows, and he bore the griefs of others; he was persecuted by Herod in his infancy; he was tempted by Satan in the wilderness; he was harassed by the Scribes and Pharisees continually; he was grieved at the hardness, impenitence, and unbelief, of that perverse and faithless generation of men, and was sometimes made uneasy by his own disciples: at some particular seasons his soul or spirit is said to be troubled, as at the grave of Lazarus, and when in a view of his own death, and when he was about to acquaint his disciples that one of them should betray him, Joh_11:33; but more particularly it was a day of trouble with him, when he was in the garden, heavy, and sore amazed, and his sweat was, as it were, drops of blood falling on the ground, and his soul was exceeding sorrowful, even unto death; but more especially this was his case when he hung upon the cross, and is what seems to be principally respected here; when he was in great torture of body through the rack of the cross; when he endured the cruel mockings of men, of the common people, of the chief priests, and even of the thieves that suffered with him; when he had Satan, and all his principalities and powers, let loose upon him, and he was grappling with them; when he bore all the sins of his people, endured the wrath of his Father, and was forsaken by him: now in this day of trouble, both when in the garden and on the cross, he prayed unto his Father, as he had been used to do in other cases, and at other times; and the church here prays, that God would hear and answer him, as he did: he always heard him; he heard him at the grave of Lazarus; he heard him in the garden, and filled his human soul with courage and intrepidity, of which there were immediate instances; he heard him on the cross, and helped him as man and Mediator, Isa_49:8;

the name of the God of Jacob defend thee; that is, God himself, who is named the God of Jacob, whom Jacob called upon, and trusted in as his God, and who answered him in the day of his distress: Jacob was exercised with many troubles, but the Lord delivered him out of them all; and which may be the reason why the Lord is addressed under this character here; besides, Israel is one of the names of the Messiah, Isa_49:3; on whose account the petition is put to which may be added, that Jacob may design people of God, the spiritual sons of Jacob, the church of the living God, whose God the Lord is; and the phrase may be here used by the church, to encourage her faith in prayer: the petition, on account of the Messiah, is, that God would "defend" him, or "set" him on "an high place" (n); or "exalt" him: he was brought very low in his state of humiliation; he was in the form of a servant; he was in a very low and mean condition throughout the whole of his life; through the suffering of death he was made lower than the angels, and he was laid in the lower parts of the earth: the church, in this petition, prays for his resurrection from the dead; for his ascension into the highest heavens; for his exaltation at the right hand of God; for the more visible setting him on his throne in his kingdom; in all which she has been answered.

HE�RY, “This prayer for David is entitled a psalm of David; nor was it any absurdity at all for him who was divinely inspired to draw up a directory, or form of prayer, to be used in the congregation for himself and those in authority under him; nay it is very proper for those who desire the prayers of their friends to tell them particularly what they would have to be asked of God for them. Note, Even great and good men, and those that know ever so well how to pray for themselves, must not despise, but earnestly desire, the prayers of others for them, even those that are their inferiors in all respects. Paul often begged of his friends to pray for him. Magistrates and those in power ought to esteem and encourage praying people, to reckon them their strength (Zec_12:5, Zec_12:10), and to do what they can for them, that they may have an interest in their prayers and may do nothing to forfeit it. Now observe here,I. What it is that they are taught to ask of God for the king.

1. That God would answer his prayers: The Lord hear thee in the day of trouble (Psa_20:1), and the Lord fulfil all thy petitions, Psa_20:5. Note, (1.) Even the greatest of men may be much in trouble. It was often a day of trouble with David himself, of disappointment and distress, of treading down and of perplexity. Neither the crown on his head nor the grace in his heart would exempt him from the trouble. (2.) Even the greatest of men must be much in prayer. David, though a man of business, a man of war, was constant to his devotions; though he had prophets, and priests, and many good people among his subjects, to pray for him, he did not think that excused him from praying for himself. Let none expect benefit by the prayers of the church, or of their ministers or friends for them, who are capable of praying for themselves, and yet neglect it. The prayers of others for us must be desired, not to supersede, but to second, our own for ourselves. Happy the people that have praying princes, to whose prayers they may thus say, Amen.

2. That God would protect his person, and preserve his life, in the perils of war: “The name of the God of Jacob defend thee, and set thee out of the reach of thy enemies.” (1.) “Let God by his providence keep thee safe, even the God who preserved Jacob in the days of his trouble.” David had mighty men for his guards, but he commits himself, and his people commit him, to the care of the almighty God. (2.) “Let God by his grace keep thee easy from the fear of evil. - Pro_18:10, The name of the Lord is a strong tower, into which the righteous run by faith, and are safe; let David be enabled to shelter himself in that strong tower, as he has done many a time.”

3. That God would enable him to go on in his undertakings for the public good - that, in the day of battle, he would send him help out of the sanctuary, and strength out of Zion, not from common providence, but from the ark of the covenant and the peculiar favour God bears to his chosen people Israel. That he would help him, in performance of the promises and in answer to the prayers made in the sanctuary. Mercies out of the sanctuary are the sweetest mercies, such as are the tokens of God's peculiar love, the blessing of God, even our own God. Strength out of Zion is spiritual strength, strength in the soul, in the inward man, and that is what we should most desire both for ourselves and others in services and sufferings.

ELLICOTT, “This psalm is addressed to a king going to battle, and was plainly arranged for

part-singing in the Temple. The congregation lead off with a prayer for the monarch’s success (Psalms 20:1-5). The priest, or the king himself, as priest, after watching the successful performance of the sacrificial rites, pronounces his confidence of the victory (Psalms 20:6-8), upon which the shout, “God save the king! “is raised by the whole host, which acclaim again sinks down into the calmer prayer, “May he hear us when we cry.”

The transparent language of the poem and its simple arrangement, the smooth symmetry of the

rhythm, and the quiet advance in thought, are all in favour of its being a hymn carefully composed for a public occasion and not a poetical effusion of the feelings of the moment. It is not therefore necessary to discuss the authorship or the question of what particular king it was intended for. It may be taken as a type of the sacrificial hymn. There is, however, a strong Jewish tradition which connects its use, if not its composition, with Hezekiah (Stanley, Jewish Church, ii. 461).

Verse 1

(1) Day of trouble . . . God of Jacob.—This certainly recalls the patriarch’s words (Genesis 35:3), “I will make there an altar unto God, who answered me in the day of my distress.” The “name” alone of the God of Jacob was a safeguard to the people, called after their great forefather “Israel. So even under the shadow of the greatness of human monarchs and heroes whole peoples have often

felt SECURE and strong, using no other weapon but his name.Defend thee.—Better, set thee up on high (comp. Psalms 69:29; Psalms 91:14) as in a fortress, out of the reach of foes.

CALVI�, “The inscription shows that the psalm was composed by David; but though he was its

author, there is no absurdity in his speaking of himself in the person of others. The office of a prophet having been committed to him, he with great propriety prepared this as a form of prayer for the use of the faithful. In doing this, his object was not so much to commend his own person, by authoritatively issuing a royal ordinance enjoining upon the people the use of this prayer, as to show, in the exercise of his office as a teacher, that it belonged to the whole Church to concern

itself, and to use its endeavors that the kingdom which God had erected might CONTINUE safe

and prosperous. Many interpreters view this prayer as offered up only on one particular occasion; but in this I cannot agree. The occasion of its composition at first may have arisen from some particular battle which was about to be fought, either against the Ammonites, or against some other enemies of Israel. But the design of the Holy Spirit, in my judgment, was to deliver to the Church a common form of prayer, which, as we may gather from the words, was to be used whenever she was threatened with any danger. God commands his people, in general, to pray for kings, but there was a special reason, and one which did not apply to any other kingdom, why prayer was to be made in behalf of this kingdom; for it was only by the hand of David and his seed that God had determined to govern and maintain his people. It is particularly to be noticed, that under the figure of this temporal kingdom, there was described a government far more excellent, on which the whole joy and felicity of the Church depended. The object, therefore, which David had expressly in view was, to exhort all the children of God to cherish such a holy solicitude about the kingdom of Christ, as would stir them up to continual prayer in its behalf.

1.May Jehovah hear thee, etc. The Holy Spirit, by introducing the people as praying that God would answer the prayers of the king, is to be viewed as at the same time admonishing kings that it is their duty to implore the protection of God in all their affairs. When he says, In the day of trouble, he shows that they will not be exempted from troubles, and he does this that they may not become discouraged, if at any time they should happen to be in circumstances of danger. In short, the faithful, that the body may not be separated from the head, further the king’ prayers by their common and united supplications. The name of God is here put for God himself and not without good reason; for the essence of God being incomprehensible to us, it behoves us to trust in him, in so far as his grace and power are made known to us. From his name, therefore, proceeds confidence in calling upon him. The faithful desire that the king may be protected and aided by God, whose name was called upon among the sons of Jacob. I cannot agree with those who think that mention is here made of that patriarch, because God exercised him with various afflictions, not unlike those with which he tried his servant David. I am rather of opinion that, as is usual in Scripture, the chosen people are denoted by the term Jacob. And from this name, the God of Jacob, the faithful encourage themselves to pray for the defense of their king; because it was one of the privileges of their adoption to live under the conduct and protection of a king set over them by God himself. Hence we may conclude, as I have said before, that under the figure of a temporal

kingdom there is described to us a government much more excellent.(470) Since Christ our King,

being an everlasting priest, never ceases to make intercession with God, the whole body of the

Church should unite in prayer with him; (471) and farther, we can have no hope of being heard

except he go before us, and conduct us to God. (472) And it serves in no small degree to assuage

our sorrows to consider that Jesus Christ, when we are afflicted, ACCOUNTS our distresses his

own, provided we, at the same time, take courage, and continue resolute and magnanimous in tribulation; which we should be prepared to do, since the Holy Spirit here forewarns us that the kingdom of Christ would be subject to dangers and troubles.

(470) “Et de le il nous convient recueiller, ce que jay dit, que sous a figure d’ regne temporel nous

est descrie un gouvernement bien plus excellent.” — Fr.

(471) As the people of Israel here unite in prayer with and for the monarch of Israel, whom we may

picture to our minds as repairing to the tabernacle to offer sacrifices, where this animated ode was sung by the priests and people.

SPURGEO�, “SUBJECT. We have before us a National Anthem, fitted to be sung at the

outbreak of war, when the monarch was girding on his sword for the fight. If David had not been vexed with wars, we might never have been favoured with such psalms as this. There is a needs be for the trials of one saint, that he may yield consolation to others. A happy people here plead for a beloved sovereign, and with loving hearts cry to Jehovah, "God save the King." We gather that this song was intended to be sung in public, not only from the matter of the song, but also from its dedication "To the Chief Musician." We know its author to have been Israel's sweet singer, from the short title, "A Psalm of David." The particular occasion which suggested it, it would be mere folly to conjecture, for Israel was almost always at war in David's day. His sword may have been hacked, but it was never rusted. Kimchi reads the title, concerning David, or, for David, and it is clear that the king is the subject as well as the composer of the song. It needs but a moment's reflection to perceive that this hymn of prayer is prophetical of our Lord Jesus, and is the cry of the ancient church on behalf of her Lord, as she sees him in vision enduring a great fight of afflictions on her behalf. The militant people of God, with the great Captain of salvation at their head, may still in earnest plead that the pleasure of the Lord may prosper in his hand. We shall endeavour to keep to this view of the subject in our brief exposition, but we cannot entirely restrict out remarks to it.DIVISION. (Psalms 20:1-4) are a prayer for the success of the king. (Psalms 20:5-7) express unwavering confidence in God and his Anointed; (Psalms 20:8) declares the defeat of the foe, and (Psalms 20:9) is a concluding appeal to Jehovah.

Ver. 1. The Lord hear thee in the day of trouble. All loyal subjects pray for their king, and most certainly citizens of Zion have good cause to pray for the Prince of Peace. In times of conflict loving subjects redouble their pleas, and surely in the sorrows of our Lord his church could not but be in earnest. All the Saviour's days were days of trouble, and he also made them days of prayer; the church joins her intercession with her Lord's, and pleads that he may be heard in his cries and tears. The agony in the garden was especially a gloomy hour, but he was heard in that he feared. He knew that his Father heard him always, yet in that troublous hour no reply came until thrice he had fallen on his face in the garden; then sufficient strength was given in answer to prayer, and he rose a victor from the conflict. On the cross also his prayer was not unheard, for in the twenty-second Psalm he tells us, "thou hast heard me from the horns of the unicorns." The church in this verse implies that her Lord would be himself much given to prayer; in this he is our example, teaching us that if we are to receive any advantage from the prayers of others, we must first pray for ourselves. What a mercy that we may pray in the day of trouble, and what a still more blessed privilege that no trouble can prevent the Lord from hearing us! Troubles roar like thunder, but the believer's voice will be heard above the storm. O Jesus, when you plead for us in our hour of trouble, the Lord Jehovah will hear thee. This is a most refreshing confidence, and it may be indulged in without fear.

The name of the God of Jacob defend thee; or, as some read it, "set thee in a high place." By

the name is meant the revealed character and Word of God; we are not to worship "the unknown God, "but we should seek to know the covenant God of Jacob, who has been pleased to reveal his

contained in the divine name. The glorious power of God defended and preserved the Lord Jesus through the battle of his life and death, and exalted him above all his enemies. His warfare is now accomplished in his own proper person, but in his mystical body, the church, he is still beset with dangers, and only the eternal arm of our God in covenant can defend the soldiers of the cross, and set them on high out of the reach of their foes. The day of trouble is not over, the pleading Saviour is not silent, and the name of the God of Israel is still the defence of the faithful. The name,God of Jacob, is suggestive; Jacob had his day of trouble, he wrestled, was heard, was defended, and in due time was set on high, and his God is our God still, the same God to all his wrestling Jacobs. The whole verse is a very fitting benediction to be pronounced by a gracious heart over a child, a friend, or a minister, in prospect of trial; it includes both temporal and spiritual protection, and directs the mind to the great source of all good. How delightful to believe that our heavenly Father has pronounced it upon our favoured heads!

EXPLANATORY NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS

Whole Psalm. This Psalm is the prayer which the church might be supposed offering up, had all the redeemed stood by the cross, or in Gethsemane, in full consciousness of what was doing there. Messiah, in reading these words, would know that he had elsewhere the sympathy he longed for, when he said to the three disciples, "Tarry ye here, and watch with me." Matthew 26:38. It is thus a pleasant song, of the sacred singer of Israel, to set forth the feelings of the redeemed in their Head, whether in his sufferings or in the glory that was to follow. Andrew A. Bonar.

Whole Psalm. There are traces of liturgical arrangement in many of the Psalms. There is frequently an adaptation to the circumstances of public worship. Thus, when the Jewish church wished to celebrate the great act of Messiah the High Priest making a sacrifice for the people on the day of atonement, as represented in the twenty-second Psalm, a subject so solemn, grand, and affecting, was not commenced suddenly and unpreparedly, but first a suitable occasion was sought, proper characters were introduced, and a scene in some degree appropriate to the great event was fitted for its reception. The priests and Levites endeavour to excite in the minds of the worshippers an exalted tone of reverent faith. The majesty and power of God, all the attributes which elevate the thoughts, are called in to fill the souls of the worshippers with the most intense emotion; and when the feelings are strung to the highest pitch, an awful, astounding impression succeeds, when the words are slowly chanted, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" We are to suppose, then, that the series of Psalms, from the twentieth to the twenty-fourth inclusive, was used as a service or office in the public worship of the Jewish church. (1) R.H. Ryland, M.A., in "The Psalms Restored to Messiah, "1853. (1) This is a purely gratuitous statement, but is less unlikely than many other assertions of annotators who have a cause to plead. C.H.S.

Whole Psalm. Really good wishes are good things, and should be expressed in words and deeds. The whole Psalm thus teaches. Christian sympathy is a great branch of Christian duty. There may be a great deal of obliging kindness in that which costs us little. William S. Plumer.

Ver. 1. The Lord hear thee in the day of trouble. All the days of Christ were days of trouble. He was a brother born for adversity, a man of sorrows and acquainted with griefs... But more particularly it was a"day of trouble" with him when he was in the garden, heavy and sore amazed, and his sweat was, as it were, drops of blood falling on the ground, and his soul was exceeding sorrowful, even unto death; but more especially this was his case when he hung upon the cross... when he bore all the sins of his people, endured the wrath of his Father, and was forsaken by him. Now, in this "day of trouble, " both when in the garden and on the cross, he prayed unto his Father, as he had been used to do in other cases, and at other times; and the church here prays that God would hear and answer him, as he did. Condensed from John Gill.

Ver. 1. The name. Whereas they say, The name of the God of Jacob, thereby they mean God himself; but they thus speak of God because all the knowledge that we have of God ariseth from the knowledge of his name, and as to that end he hath given himself in the Scriptures sundry names, that thereby we might know not only what he is in himself, so far as it is meet for us to know, but

especially what he is to us, so by them, and them principally, we know him to be, as he is, not only in himself, but unto us... From this knowledge of the name of God ariseth confidence in prayer! as when they know him, and here call him "the God of Jacob, "that is, he that hath made a covenant of mercy with him and with his posterity, that he will be their God and they shall be his people, that they may be bold to flee to him for succour, and confidently call upon him in the day of their trouble to hear them, and to help them, as they do. And the more that they know of his name, that is, of his goodness, mercy, truth, power, wisdom, justice, etc., so may they the more boldly pray unto him, not doubting but that he will be answerable unto his name... For as among men, according to the good name that they have for liberality and pity, so will men be ready to come unto them in their need, and the poor will say, "I will go to such an house, for they have a good name, and are counted good to the poor, and merciful, all men speak well of them for their liberality; "and this name of theirs giveth the encouragement to come boldly and often. So when we know God thus by his name, it will make us bold to come unto him in prayer... Or, if a man be never so merciful, and others know it not, and so they are ignorant of his good name that he hath, and that he is worthy of, they cannot, with any good hope, come unto him, for they know not what he is; they have heard nothing of him at all. So when, by unbelief, we hardly conceive of God and of his goodness, or for want of knowledge are ignorant of his good name, even of all his mercy, and of his truth, pity, and compassion that is in him, and so know not his great and glorious name, we can have little or no heart at all to come unto him in trouble, and seek unto him for help by prayer, as these did here; and this maketh some so forward unto prayer, they are so well acquainted with the name of God, that they doubt not of speeding, and others again are so backward unto it, they are so wholly ignorant of his name. Nicholas Bownd, 1604.

Ver. 1. The name of the God of Jacob defend thee. This is a beautiful allusion to the history of the patriarch Jacob. Jehovah had appeared for him, when he fled from his brother Esau, at Bethel, and Jacob said to his household, "Let us arise, and go up to Bethel; and I will make there an altar unto God, who answered me in the day of my distress, and was with me in the way which I went." Genesis 35:3. John Morison.

Ver. 1. The name of the God of Jacob defend thee. Hebrew, "set thee in an high place, "such as God's name is. Proverbs 18:10. "The righteous runneth into it and is safe, "as in a tower of brass, or town of war. By the name of God is meant, Deus nominatissimus, the most renowned God, saith Junias, and "worthy to be praised, "as Psalms 18:3; and he is called the God of Jacob here, saith another, first, because Jacob was once in the like distress (Genesis 32:6-7); secondly, because he prayed to the like purpose (Genesis 35:3); thirdly, because he prevailed with God as a prince; "and there God spake with us" (Hosea 12:4); fourthly, because God of Jacob is the same with "God of Israel, "and so the covenant is pleaded. John Trapp.

Ver. 1. The name of the God of Jacob defend thee. There is an assurance of thy protection, of thy safety, in the midst of ten thousand foes, and of thy perseverance to the end. But you will say, how will the name of the God of Jacob defend me? Try it. I have, over and over again; therefore I speak what I do know, and testify what I have seen. "The name of the God of Jacob defend thee." I was once goaded by a poor silly Irish papist to try it, who told me, in his consummate ignorance and bigotry, that if a priest would but give him a drop of holy water, and make a circle with it around a field full of wild beasts, they would not hurt him. I retired in disgust at the abominable trickery of such villains, reflecting, what a fool I am that I cannot put such trust in my God as this poor deluded man puts in his priest and a drop of holy water! And I resolved to try what "the name of the God of Jacob" would do, having the Father's fixed decrees, the Son's unalterable responsibility, and the Spirit's invincible grace and operation around me. I tried it and felt my confidence brighten. O brethren, get encircled with covenant engagements, and covenant blood, and covenant grace, and covenant promises, and covenant securities; then will "the Lord hear you in the time of trouble, and the name of the God of Jacob will defend you." Joseph Irons.

Ver. 1. A sweeter wish, or a more consolatory prayer for a child of sorrow was never uttered by man, The Lord hear thee in the day of trouble; the name of the God of Jacob defend thee. And who is there of the sons of men to whom a "day of trouble" does not come, whose path is not darkened at times, or with whom is it unclouded sunshine from the cradle to the grave? "Few plants, "says old Jacomb, "have both the morning and the evening sun; "and one far older than he said, "Man is born to trouble." A "day of trouble, "then, is the heritage of every child of Adam. How sweet,

as I have said, how sweet the wish, "The Lord hear thee in the day of trouble." It is the prayer of another in behalf of some troubled one, and yet it implies that the troubled one himself had also prayed, "The Lord hear thee" —hear and answer thine own prayer! Barton Bouchier.

Ver. 1-2. The scene presented in this place to the eye of faith is deeply affecting. Here is the Messiah pouring out his heart in prayer in the day of his trouble; his spouse overhears his agonizing groans; she is moved with the most tender sympathy towards him; she mingles her prayers with his; she entreats that he may be supported and defended... It may now, perhaps, be said, he is out of the reach of trouble, he is highly exalted, he does not want our sympathies or our prayers. True; yet still we may pray for him—seeMatthew 25:40 —"Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me." We can pray for him in his members. And thus is fulfilled what is written in Psalms 72:15, "And he shall live, and to him shall be given of the gold of Sheba; prayer also shall be made for him continually (that is, in his suffering members); and daily shall he be praised" (that is, in his own admirable person). Hamilton Verschoyle, 1843.

Ver. 1-5. These are the words of the people, which they spake unto God in the behalf of their king; and so they did as David desired them, namely, pray for him. If they did thus pray for him, being desired thereunto, and it was their bound duty so to do, and they knew it to be so, and therefore did make conscience of it, and it had been a great fault for them to have failed in it; then by consequence it followeth of necessity, that whensoever any of our brethren or sisters in Christ shall desire this duty at our hands, we must be careful to perform it; and it were a fault not to be excused in us, both against God and them, to fail in it. Therefore we must not think that when godly men and women at their parting or otherwise, desire our prayers, and say, "I pray you pray for me, "or, "remember me in your prayers, "that these are words of course (though I do not deny, but that many do so use them, and so doing they take the name of God in vain); but we should be persuaded, that out of the abundance of their feeling of their own wants they speak unto us, and so be willing by our prayers to help to supply them. And especially we should do it when they shall make known their estate unto us, as here David did to the people, giving them to understand that he should or might be in great danger of his enemies, and so it was a time of troubleunto him, as he called it... Most of all, this duty of prayer ought to be carefully performed when we have promised it unto any upon such notice of their estate. For as all promises ought to be kept, yea, though it be to our own hindrance, so those most of all that so nearly concern them. And as if when any should desire us to speak to some great man for them, and we promise to do it, and they trust to it, hoping that we will be as good as our words; it were a great deceit in us to fail them, and so to frustrate their expectation; so when any have desired us to speak to God for them, and upon our promise they would comfort themselves over it, if we should by negligence deceive them, it were a great fault in us, and that which the Lord would require at our hands, though they should never know of it. Therefore, as we ought daily to pray one for another unasked, as our Saviour Christ hath taught us, "O our Father which art in heaven, "etc., so more especially and by name should we do it for them that have desired it of us. And so parents especially should not forget their children in their prayers, which daily ask their blessing, and hope to be blessed of God by their prayers. Secondarily, if we should neglect to pray for them that have desired it at our hands, how could we have any hope that others whom we have desired to pray for us should perform that duty unto us? Nay, might not we justly fear that they would altogether neglect it, seeing we do neglect them? and should it not be just with God so to punish us? according to the saying of our Saviour Christ, "With what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again." Matthew 7:2. And I remember that this was the saying of a reverend father in the church, who is now fallen asleep in the Lord, when any desired him to pray for them (as many did, and more than any that I have known), he would say unto them, "I pray you, pray for me, and pray that I may remember you, and then I hope I shall not forget you." Therefore if we would have others pray for us, let us pray for them. Nicholas Bownd.

Ver. 1,5. In Psalms 20:1 verse the psalmist says, The Lord hear thee in the day if trouble; and inPsalms 20:5 he says, The Lord perform all thy petitions. Does he in both these cases refer to one and the same time? The prayers mentioned in Psalms 20:1 verse are offered in "the day of trouble, "in the days of his flesh; are the petitions to which he refers in the fourth verse also offered in the days of his flesh? Many think not. Before our blessed Saviour departed out of this world, he prayed to the Father for those whom he had given him, that he would keep them from the evil of the world, that they might be one, even as he was one with the Father. He prayed too for his murderers. After his ascension into heaven, he sat down at the right hand of the Father, where he "maketh

intercession for us." "If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the

This Psalm has been much used for coronation, thanksgiving, and fast sermons, and no end of nonsense and sickening flattery has been tacked thereto by the trencher chaplains of the world's church. If kings had been devils, some of these gentry would have praised their horns and hoofs; for although some of their royal highnesses have been very obedient servants of the prince of darkness, these false prophets have dubbed them "most gracious sovereigns, "and have been as much dazzled in their presence as if they had beheld the beatific vision. C.H.S.

Whole Psalm. A loyal song and prayer for subjects of King Jesus.

Ver. 1. Two great mercies in great trouble—hearing at the throne, and defence from the throne.

Ver. 1-2.

1. The Lord's trouble in its nature and its cause.

2. How the Lord exercised himself in his trouble.

3. We ought not to be unmoved spectators of the trouble of Jesus.

Hamilton Verschoyle.

Ver. 1-3. A model of good wishes for our friends.

1. They include personal piety. The person who is spoken of prays, goes to the sanctuary, and offers sacrifice. We must wish our friend grace.

2. They point upward. The blessings are distinctly recognised as divine.

3. They do not exclude trouble.

4. They are eminently spiritual. Acceptance, etc.

WORK UPON THE TWENTIETH PSALM

"Medicines for the plague; that is, Godly and Fruitful Sermons upon part of the Twentieth Psalme,

by NICHOLAS BOWND, Doctor of Divinite... 1604." (Twenty-one Sermons on Ps 20:1-6. 4to.)

LANGE, “Its Contents and Composition. The assistance of God is implored for a king, with reference to a war with foreign enemies, and indeed, as it seems, not in general at his entering upon his government (Hupf.); or without any reference to a special case as a formula of a prayer for authorities in general (Calv., Luth., Geier); or in a direct Messianic sense pointing to Christ and the Church militant (J. H. Mich., et al.); or embracing the two last references (Hengst.); but on his going forth to war, and with the sacrifices usual upon such occasions (1Sa_13:9-12, most interpreters). On ACCOUNT of the mention of Zion in connection with the sanctuary (Psa_20:2), this king cannot be Saul, to whom and of whom David might speak, but rather David himself, who in the second expedition against the Syrians marched forth himself personally (2Sa_10:17), and knew how to vanquish his enemies who were provided with chariots (2Sa_8:4). The speaker is then, naturally, not David, but either the congregation assembled at the sacrifice (most interpreters), or some one speaking in their name. The supposition of a responsive song between the choir and a single voice (Psa_20:6), either a Levite (Ewald, Delitzsch), or the king (Knapp et al.), makes the Psalm more vivid, but is not plainly given by the text.

The transparent language and the simple arrangement, the smooth symmetry and the quiet advance in thought, are not in favor of a poetical effusion of the feelings of the moment, but of its being a hymn previously composed for Divine service on a special occasion. It is more natural to suppose that the author was David, than an unknown poet, as there are some things that remind us of his style. Hitzig, with reference to the next psalm as one closely connected with the present,

considers the king here addressed as Uzziah who at the beginning of his government had to contend with the Philistines (2Ch_26:6), and the prophet Zechariah (who exerted some influence upon Uzziah, who was then sixteen years old, 2Ch_26:5), as the speaker. But the threads of this hypothesis are finer than a spider’s web (comp. Psalms 21).

The first half of the psalm expresses the desire for the success of the king through the assistance of Jehovah, in such a way that its fulfilment is not only formally presupposed, but forms the real foundation for the victorious shouts of the congregation (Psa_20:5). The imperfects have from the earliest times been constantly regarded as optatives, only by Hitzig and Sachs as futures in the sense of comforting and encouraging exhortation, as an expression of a hope, which is said to form the prelude to the conviction expressed in Psa_20:6. But the certainty of Divine help which appears in Psa_20:6, with “now,” which does not at all lead to a later composition of this section (Maurer), but to a confirmation of the faith in Divine help, as it has been declared in sacrifices and prayers, agrees better with the supposition that the preceding verbs are optatives. Only from this foundation of certainty does the language rise (Psa_20:6 b) to the expression of the hope of the victory (which is described in Psa_20:7-8, in dramatic antithesis) and close with prayer corresponding with this course of thought (Psa_20:9). The perfects in Psa_20:6;Psa_20:8, express the sure future.

Str. I. [Psa_20:1. The name of the God of Jacob.—Barnes: “The word name is often put in the Scriptures for the person himself; and hence this is equivalent to saying ‘may the God of Jacob defend thee.’ See Psa_5:11; Psa_9:10; Psa_44:5; Psa_54:1; Exo_23:21. Jacob was one of the patriarchs from whom, after his other name, the Hebrew people derived their name Israel, and the word seems here to be used with reference to the people rather than to the ancestor. Comp. Isa_44:2. The God of Jacob, or the God of Israel, would be synonymous terms, and either would denote that he was the Protector of the nation. As such He is invoked here; and the prayer is, that the Great Protector of the Hebrew people would now defend the king in the dangers which beset him, and in the enterprise which he had undertaken.”—Defend thee, literally as the margin of A. V. “set thee on a high place.” Perowne: “ ‘set thee upon high’ that is, as in a fortress where no enemy can do thee harm, or on a rock at the foot of which the waves fret and dash themselves in impotent fury.”

BIBLICAL ILLUSTRATOR, “The Lord hear thee in the day of trouble.A battle prayer

This, it is believed, is the battle prayer or litany which was solemnly chanted in the sanctuary on the eve of the great expedition to crush the formidable rebellion of the Ammonites and their Syrian allies (2Sa_10:1-19), and which was also used in after times upon similar undertakings.

1. To enter into its spirit we must transport ourselves in imagination to the old temple at Jerusalem while the special service invoking the blessing of Jehovah upon the intended enterprise is in progress. The courts are thronged with enthusiastic patriots, each eager to strengthen with his own voice the chorus of supplication for Israel’s success. The king in his robes of royalty is standing by the altar in the sanctuary. He has just presented his gifts and offered his sacrifice; and now the choir and the whole congregation break out into this mighty hymn on his behalf, assuring him that in this day of trouble, occasioned by the revolt of his subjects or the invasion of strangers, the Lord will hear him, will defend him, will send him help from the sanctuary, and uphold him out of Zion. These his offerings shall be remembered, this his sacrifice shall be accepted; the desire, too, of his heart—the overthrow of the enemy—shall be granted.

2. They cease. The vast multitude stands hushed, while one voice alone is heard; it is that of the king, or of some Levite deputed to speak as his representative. In a strain of fullest confidence he declares the petitions on his behalf have been heard.

3. As the king ceases the choir and people again break out into chorus. (Henry Housman.)

The day of trouble

Have we heard of that day? Is it a day in some exhausted calendar? Is this an ancient phrase that needs to be interpreted to us by men cunning in the use of language and in the history of terms? It might have been spoken in our own tongue: we might ourselves have spoken it. So criticism has no place here; only sympathy has a fight to utter these words; they would perish under a process of etymological vivisection; they bring with them healing, comfort, release, and contentment when spoken by the voice of sympathy. Is the day of trouble a whole day—twelve hours long? Is it a day that cannot be distinguished from night? and does it run through the whole circle of the twenty-four hours? Is it a day of that kind at all? In some instances is it not a life day, beginning with the first cry of infancy, concluding with the last sigh of old age? Is it a day all darkness, without any rent in the cloud, without any hint of light beyond the infinite burden of gloom? Whatever it is, it is provided for; it is recognised as a solemn fact in human life, and it is provided for by the grace and love of the eternal God. He knows every hour of the day—precisely how the day is made up; He knows the pulse beat of every moment; He is a God nigh at hand; so that we have no sorrow to tell Him by way of information, but only sorrow to relate that with it we may sing some hymn to His grace. The whole world is made kin by this opening expression. There is no human face, rightly read, that has not in it lines of sorrow—peculiar, mystic writing of long endurance, keen disappointment, hope deferred, mortification of soul unuttered in speech, but graved as with an iron tool upon the soul and the countenance. (Joseph Parker, D. D.)

Defence in the day of trouble

Commentators have positively perverted this whole Psalm. They have put it all down to David; but it is a beautiful dialogue between Christ and His Church,—He addressing her as her Advocate and Intercessor amid all her troubles.

I. Christ’s recognition of His people in the day of trouble. All have to bear trouble, but the believer has a God to go to. His troubles arise from his inflexible enemies, the world and its children, the devil, the flesh. And from his spiritual conflicts when first brought to conversion. The thunders of Sinai, the Slough of Despond—these are some of his troubles at such time. And when he is pardoned and hugs his pardon in his bosom, there are some troubles yet, through miserable backslidings.

II. The excitement which our intercessor gives us to prayer. “The Lord hear thee”; this intimates that we are already excited to earnest prayer. For our encouragement let us remember Christ’s constant intercession on our behalf in heaven.

III. The appeal which the intercessor makes to our covenant head. “The name of the God of Jacob defend thee.” Who is the God of Jacob? The God that gave him the blessing of the birthright, though he was the junior; the God that delivered him from the murderous hand of his brother in the day of his trouble; the God that enriched him with Laban’s spoil, and gave him the desire of his heart; the God that protected him, and manifested Himself to him—his covenant God. How I have been delighted with the thought that Jehovah should recognise the unregenerate name!—for Jacob was the name of the patriarch in his unregeneracy.

IV. The demand for our defence. “The name of the God of,” etc. But you say, how will the name of the God of Jacob defend me? Try it: I have over and over again; therefore I speak what I do know, and testify what I have seen. “The name of the God of Jacob defend thee.” Get encircled with covenant engagements and covenant grace, and covenant promises, and covenant securities; then will “the Lord hear you in the time of trouble, and the name of the God of Jacob will defend you.” (Joseph Irons.)

The war spirit of the Old Testament

I. The probable time and occasion of its composition. They are related in 2Sa_10:1-19.

II. Its construction. It begins with an address to the monarch under the peculiar circumstances of the exigency. Then, with the words, “We will rejoice in Thy salvation,” the speakers turn from prayer to the avowal of their confidence and of the spirit in which they would go to the war. Then the high priest might add the next clause, “The Lord fulfil all thy petitions.” And now there appears to be a pause, and the sacrifices are offered, and the priest, catching sight of the auspicious omen, exclaims, “Now know I” (from what I observe of the indications of the Divine acceptance of the sacrifices—now know I) “that the Lord sayeth His anointed,” etc. Then comes a response from the people, encouraged by what they have heard. “Some trust in chariots, and some in horses”—the very preparations that had been made against them, “but we will,” etc. The whole closes by the acclamations of the people. “The Lord save the king! God will hear us. Save, Lord; let the king hear us when we call: we will pray for the king, we will call upon the Lord, we who remain at home when the army advances to the field. This reminds us of and illustrates a passage from R. Hall, entitled “Sentiments Proper to the Present Crisis,” a warlike, though at first sight it appears not a very Christian, address, written about forty-four years ago, at the time of the threatened invasion. Addressing a company of volunteers, he introduces a sentiment very similar to that which concludes this Psalm. “Go, then, ye defenders of your country, accompanied with every auspicious omen; advance with alacrity into the field, where God Himself musters the hosts to war. Religion is too much interested in your success not to lend you her aid; she will shed over this enterprise her selected influence. While you are engaged in the field, many will repair to the closet, many to the sanctuary; the faithful of every name will employ that prayer which has power with God; the feeble hands which are unequal to any other weapon will grasp the sword of the spirit; and from myriads of humble, contrite hearts the voice of intercession, supplication, and weeping will mingle with the shouts of battle and the shock of arms.”

III. Suggestions from this review of the Psalm.

1. Although all this is very imposing and grand, yet it is not the ideal of humanity. We do not wish such scenes to be permanent or universal. It was all very well for the time, but it is not well now. This is not the way in which God should be worshipped, nor the feelings which we should carry away from His altar. The New Testament tells us again and again that its aim is something altogether different from this “mustering of the hosts to war”—this “Go, ye defenders of your country”—this murdering and slaughtering. War may be brilliant, but it is not a good thing for the world, for humanity.

2. In proportion as the spirit of the Old Testament has been imbibed by nations, they have been retarded in the development of national character, and in the realisation of the Christian ideal. Ceremonies, hierarchies, ritual, a national priesthood, a vicarious

religion, an ecclesiastical eastern special class of men being set apart to spend their nights and days in praying for the people—all these come from Judaisers. And so again with the national war spirit, the military art regarded as a profession, the consecration of colours, and the rest,—these are Jewish, not Christian. We laugh at the Covenanter and the Roundhead, but where they were wrong was in imbibing the Old Testament spirit.

3. War is not always without justification, but we ought to shrink from it as an abhorred thing.

4. Let the Psalm remind you of King Jesus, and of His victory and our own through Him. (Thomas Binney.)

Help in trouble

A sentinel posted on the walls, when he sees a party of the enemy advancing, does not attempt to make head against them himself, but at once informs his commanding officer of the enemy’s approach, and awaits his word as to how the foe is to be met. So the Christian does not attempt to resist temptation in his own strength, but in prayer calls upon his Captain for aid, and in His might and His Word goes forth to meet it.

The name of the God of Jacob defend thee.

The name of Jehovah

I. The name of Jehovah a consolation in trouble. No character is exempt from the ills of life. The highest dignity cannot guard off trouble; and crowns especially are often lined with thorns. Few plants, says an old writer, have both the morning and the evening sun; and an older than he has said, Man is born to trouble. But in the deepest, darkest, wildest distress, Jehovah is the refuge of His people; and His name soothes the keenest anguish and lifts up the most despairing.

II. The name of Jehovah an inspiring battle cry. “In the name of our God will we set up our banners” (Psa_20:5). Banners are a part of our military equipage, borne in times of war to assemble, direct, distinguish, and inspirit the soldiers. They have been often used in religious ceremonies. It is the practice of some people to erect a banner in honour of their deity. In a certain part of Thibet it is customary for a priest to ascend a hill every month to set up a white flag and perform some religions ceremonies to conciliate the favour of a dewta, or invisible being, who is the presiding genius of the place. The Hindus describe Siva the Supreme as having a banner in the celestial world. The militant Church goes to war with the name of the Lord of Hosts on her banner.

III. The name of Jehovah is the strength of the militant Church. “We will remember the name of the Lord our God” (Psa_20:7). The world trusts in the material—in rifles, mitrailleuse, turret ships, and torpedoes; but the Church is taught to trust in the spiritual—the mysterious, invisible, but almighty power of Jehovah. The material fails, the spiritual never. When the saint relies fully on Jehovah, and is absorbed in His holy cause, he is surrounded with an impenetrable defence. (W. L. Watkinson.)

The God of Jacob

I. Its history. The character of Jacob is one of the standing difficulties of the Old Testament, because of the interest and love God cherished for him. David offers to us

much the same difficulty: “the man after God’s own heart,” and yet so base and vile in his great sin. But it is the Bible which tells us what these men were. Its frankness is conspicuous. But David, after all, does not puzzle us as Jacob does. There is a vein of pure nobility and of splendid genius through David’s character and life, which helps us to understand the relation of God to him. But Jacob’s character fails to kindle a corresponding enthusiasm. He does not stand out before us a man of genius, as a hearty lover, a faithful friend, or even as a noble and gallant foe. A vein of trickery and treachery runs through his nature, so unlike David’s frank and self-forgetful generosity. Stratagems are his delight; the easy refuge of his weakness. And when we find through life the same tendency to underhand tricks prevailing, we begin to wonder what God could see in the man to make him a prince in the heavenly order, and why throughout the Scripture the name God of Jacob, God of Israel is the name in which He especially delights. It seems to them the purest exercise of the Divine sovereignty on record. But it is sovereignty of the same order as that which moves Him to elect to be the Redeemer of the world. The spring of that redeeming love lies within His own nature. It arose out of the depths of the Divine nature, and must be based, we may be sure, on essential reason. God chose Jacob, and chooses to be called the God of Jacob, just because he was a man so full of human infirmity and littleness, mingled with those higher and nobler qualities without which the spiritual culture of mankind becomes impossible. Had God chosen only to be called the God of Abraham or Moses, and to take supreme interest in such lofty lives alone, alas! for you and for me and for mankind. Jacob is more within our sphere. What God was to him, we can believe that He may be, He will be, to us; thus the name “God of Jacob” has a sound hill of comfort, full of assurance to our ears. That it might be so, we may be sure. He chose it. Now, see this when developed in history. God, as the God of Jacob, did make Himself a glorious name in the earth (Deu_2:25; Jos_2:4-11). Their internal organisation under the constitution which God had ordained marked them out as a favoured people. There was nothing like them in the wide world, until the German races appeared and brought the same love of freedom, the same domestic affections, the same noble womanhood, the same essential manliness, to build on the foundation of Christian society. Again, Israel was the only nation of freemen, in the largest sense, in the Old World. The people were knit into a brotherhood of liberty, with special safeguards in their constitution as a nation against the lapse of any Jewish freeman into serfdom, or even into penury (Deu_15:1-23; Lev_25:23-31). They were facile princeps among nations, witnessing to the heathen around them of the blessedness of obedience to God. And what men they produced! The Greeks are their only rivals. But while Greece produced the heroes of the schools, the Jews produced the heroes of the common human world. Every man and every people is conscious of a relation to them, such as he sustains to no other race which has played its part in history. The lives of the great Hebrews belong to us as no Greek belongs to us. They are literally part of our history. How few know Greek; who knows not the histories of the Bible? They are our fathers whose lives we read there, our history, our hymns. Man’s history is the elucidation of this title; the God of Jacob has written for Himself a glorious name in the records of the world.

II. Its work—the functions which this name fulfils in the culture of our personal spiritual life.

1. The God of Jacob tells us, by the very name, that He is a God who is not deterred by a great transgression, or by great proneness to transgression, from constituting Himself the guide of our pilgrim life. If ever your heart dies down within you under the consciousness of an inbred sinfulness, which you think must alienate you from God’s love and care, let the name of the God of Jacob reassure you. “Long suffering” is the quality which the name of “the God of Jacob” seems specially to suggest to us.

Jacob was a man of many and grave infirmities. And the God who came to Adam with a promise which implied a pardon came also to Jacob, and comes to us all. God undertook the guidance of that man’s pilgrimage, because he was a sinful man, a man full of infirmities and treacheries, but with a nobler nature beneath and behind which He made it His work to educate by suffering, until Jacob the supplanter became Israel the prince. Jacob was as full of folly, falsity, and selfish ambition as most of us; but he had an instinct and a yearning for deliverance. God’s promise rang full sweetly on his ear. The worm Jacob, trained to be a prince, is full of precious suggestions to us all.

2. The God of Jacob must be a God who can bear to inflict very stern chastisement on His children, and to train His pilgrims in a very hard, sharp school of discipline, without forfeiting the name of their merciful and loving God. “Few and evil have the days of the years of my life been,” said the aged patriarch, reviewing his life course before Pharaoh. Why? Because through life he had been under the hard, stern discipline of the hand of God. And so, as his life was spent in learning, it was spent in suffering. God did not shrink from wielding the scourge to the very close. Then, he witnessed a sad confession before Pharaoh, such as Abraham and Isaac would have had no occasion for; for they lived better and happier lives than Jacob. But it is this very discipline which makes Jacob’s life so instructive. It teaches us—

(1) The thoroughness of the Divine method, that we have to do with One who will sanctify us wholly; will search out the very real fibres of evil within us, and scathe them, whatever may be the cost.

(2) Let the name of the God of Jacob assure you that there is no extremity in which you have a right to cry, “The Lord hath forsaken me, my God hath forgotten me.” Jacob’s life is surely the witness that the veriest exile cannot wander beyond the shelter of the Father’s home; the most utter outcast cannot stray beyond the shield of the Father’s love. There is no condition of darkness, of straits, of anguish, inconsistent with your standing as a son and God’s tenderness as a Father. For—

(3) The God of Jacob is the God who will bring the pilgrims home. “He is not ashamed to be called their God, for He hath prepared for them a city.” Led by the God of Jacob, your bones can never whiten the sands of the desert; your choking cry can ever be heard from the waves of Jordan. Mark the splendid and joyous picture of the end of all our pilgrim wanderings, toils, and pains, which is painted there. The Angel which redeemed him from all evil is redeeming us through pain as sharp, through patience as long, through discipline as stern. And He has caused all this to be written for our learning, that the hope of a final and eternal triumph over evil might sustain us through the conflict, through the wanderings, and assure us that in His good time the God of the pilgrim Jacob will bring us into His rest. Weary, worn, with shattered armour and dinted shield, we may struggle on to the shore of the dark river. A moment, a gasp—and there is a white-robed conqueror, with the dew of immortal youth upon his brow, led by the angels before the Throne of God and of the Lamb. (J. Baldwin Brown, B. A.)

EBC, “THIS is a battle song followed by a chant of victory. They are connected in subject and probably in occasion, but fight and triumph have fallen dim to us, though we can still feel how hotly the fire once glowed. The passion of loyalty and love for the king, expressed in these psalms, fits no reign in Judah so well as the bright noonday of

David’s, when "whatever the king did pleased all the people." Cheyne, indeed, would bring them down to the Maccabean period, and suggests Simon Maccabaeus as the ruler referred to. He has to put a little gentle pressure on "king" to contract it to fit the man of his choice, and appeals to the "good old Semitic sense" of "consul." But would not an appeal to Hebrew usage have been more satisfactory? If "king" means "king," great or small, the psalm is not post-exilic, and the Davidic date will not seem impossible. It does not seem impossible that a poet-king should have composed a national hymn praying for his own victory, which was the nation’s also.The psalm has traces of the alternation of chorus and solo. The nation or army first pours out its united prayer for victor in Psa_20:1-5, and is succeeded by a single voice (possibly that of the officiating priest or the king himself) in Psa_20:6, expressing confidence that the prayer is answered, which, again, is followed by the closing chorus of many voices throbbing with the assurance of victory before a blow is struck, and sending one more long-drawn cry to God ere battle is joined.

The prayer in Psa_20:1-5 breathes self-distrust and confidence in Jehovah, the temper which brings victory, not only to Israel, but to all fighters for God. Here is no boasting of former victories, nor of man’s bravery and strength, nor of a captain’s skill. One name is invoked. It alone rouses courage and pledges triumph. "The name of the God of Jacob set thee on high." That name is almost regarded as a person, as is often the case. Attributes and acts are ascribed to it which properly belong to the Unnameable whom it names, as if with some dim inkling that the agent of revealing a person must be a person. The name is the revealed character, which is contemplated as having existence in some sense apart from Him whose character it is. Possibly there is a reference to Gen_35:3, where Jacob speaks of "the God who answered me in the day of my distress." That ancient instance of His power to hear and help may have floated before the singer’s mind as heartening faith for this day of battle. To "set on high" is a familiar natural figure for deliverance. The earthly sanctuary is Jehovah’s throne: and all real help must come thence, of which help His dwelling there is a pledge. So in these two verses the extremity of need, the history of past revelation, and the special relation of Jehovah to Israel are woven into the people’s prayer for their king. In Psa_20:3-4, they add the incense of their intercession to his sacrifices. The background of the psalm is probably the altar on which the accustomed offerings before a battle were being presented. (1Sa_13:9) The prayer for acceptance of the burnt offering is very graphic, since the word rendered "accept" is literally "esteem fat."

One wish moved the sacrificing king and the praying people. Their common desire was victory, but the people are content to be obscure, and their loyal love so clings to their monarch and leader that they only wish the fulfilment of his wishes. This unit of feeling culminates in the closing petitions in Psa_20:6, where self-oblivion wishes "May we exult in thy salvation." arrogating none of the glory of victory to themselves, but ascribing all to him, and vows "In the name of our God we will wave our standards," ascribing victory to Him. its ultimate cause. An army that prays, "Jehovah fulfil all thy petitions, will be ready to obey all its captain’s commands and to move in obedience to his impulse as if it were part of himself." The enthusiastic community of purpose with its chief and absolute reliance on Jehovah. with which this prayer throbs, would go far towards securing victory anywhere. They should find their highest exemplification in that union between Christ and us in which all human relationships find theirs, since, in the deepest sense, they are all Messianic prophecies, and point to Him who is all the good that other men and women have partially been, and satisfies all the cravings and necessities which human relationships, however blessed, but incompletely supply.

The sacrifice has been offered; the choral prayer has gone up. Silence follows, the

worshippers watching the curling smoke as it rises; and then a single voice breaks out into a burst of glad assurance that sacrifice and prayer are answered. Who speaks? The most natural answer is, "The king"; and the fact that he speaks of himself as Jehovah’s anointed in the third person does not present a difficulty. What is the reference in that now at the beginning of Psa_20:6. May we venture to suppose that the king’s heart swelled at the exhibition of his subjects’ devotion and hailed it as a pledge of victory? The future is brought into the present by the outstretched hand of faith, for this single speaker knows that "Jehovah has saved," though no blow has yet been struck. The prayer had asked for help from Zion; the anticipation of answer looks higher; to the holier sanctuary, where Jehovah indeed dwells. The answer now waited for in sure confidence is "the mighty deeds of salvation of His right hand," some signal forth putting of Divine power scattering the foe. A whisper may start an avalanche. The prayer of the people has set Omnipotence in motion. Such assurance that petitions are heard is wont to spring in the heart that truly prays, and comes as a forerunner of fulfilment, shedding on the soul the dawn of the yet unrisen sun. He has but half prayed who does not wait in silence, watching the flight of his arrow and not content to cease till the calm certainty that it has reached its aim fills his heart.

Again the many voices take up the song, responding to the confidence of the single speaker and, like him, treating the victory as already won. Looking across the field to the masses of the enemy’s cavalry and chariots, forces forbidden to Israel, though employed by them in later days, the song grandly opposes to these "the name of Jehovah our God." There is a world of contempt and confidence in the juxtaposition. Chariots and horses are very terrible, especially to raw soldiers unaccustomed to their whirling onset: but the Name is mightier, as Pharaoh and his array proved by the Red Sea. This reference to the army of Israel as unequipped with cavalry and chariots is in favour of an early date, since the importation and use of both began as soon as Solomon’s time. The certain issue of the fight is given in Psa_20:8 in a picturesque fashion, made more vigorous by the tenses which describe completed acts. When the brief struggle is over, this is what will be seen-the enemy prone, Israel risen from subjection and standing firm. Then comes a closing cry for help, which, according to the traditional division of the verse, has one very short clause and one long, drawn out, like the blast of the trumpet sounding the charge. The intensity of appeal is condensed in the former clause into the one word "save" and the renewed utterance of the name, thrice referred to in this short psalm as the source at once of strength and confidence. The latter clause, as in the A.V. and R.V. transfers the title of King from the earthly shadow to the true Monarch in the heavens, and thereby suggests yet another plea for help. The other division of the verse, adopted in the LXX and by some moderns, equalises the clauses by transferring "the king" to the former ("O Lord save the king, and answer us," etc.). But this involves a violent change from the second person imperfect in the first clause to the third person imperfect in the second. It would be intolerably clumsy to say, "Do Thou save; may He hear," and therefore the LXX has had recourse to inserting "and" at the beginning of the second clause, which somewhat breaks the jolt, but is not in the Hebrew. The text, as it stands, yields a striking meaning, beautifully suggesting the subordinate office of the earthly monarch and appealing to the true King to defend His own army and go forth with it to the battle which is waged for His name. When we are sure that we are serving Jehovah and fighting for Him, we may be sure that we go not a warfare at our own charges nor alone.

HAWKER, “We have here a prayer, put up by the whole church in faith, for Jehovah’s prospering the cause of his glorious Messiah, the Church’s king. And the Church, already taking for granted that what is asked in faith shall assuredly be obtained, in the close

celebrates the victory, and sets up banners.To the chief Musician. A Psalm of David.

Psa_20:1

It is a sad hindrance to our full enjoyment of divine and spiritual things, that our more frequent acquaintance and intercourse with things altogether earthly makes us overlook the grand object intended by the Holy Ghost, in leading the mind of the Church wholly to the Lord Jesus. Here is a prayer for no other purpose, but for the prosperity of Christ, as King in Zion, the glorious head and mediator of his Church. As such the prayer is directed to Jehovah; and the sole object of it is, that Jesus may, for his Church and people, subdue all his and her adversaries.

SBC, “I. The God of Jacob tells us, by the very name, that He is a God who is not deterred by a great transgression, or by great proneness to transgression, from constituting Himself the Guide to our pilgrim life.II. The God of Jacob must be a God who can bear to inflict very stern chastisement on His children, and to train His pilgrims in a very hard, sharp school of discipline, without forfeiting the name of their merciful and loving God. This thought has two suggestions. (1) It expounds the thoroughness of the Divine method. (2) Let the name of the God of Jacob assure you that there is no extremity in which you have a right to cry, "The Lord hath forsaken me; my God has forgotten me."

III. The God of Jacob is the God who will bring the pilgrims home.

J. Baldwin Brown, The Sunday Afternoon, p. 45 (see also p. 35).

E-SWORD, ““The Lord hear thee in the day of trouble.” All loyal subjects pray for their king, and most certainly citizens of Zion have good cause to pray for the Prince of Peace. In times of conflict loving subjects redouble their pleas, and surely in the sorrows of our Lord his church could not but be in earnest. All the Saviour's days were days of trouble, and he also made them days of prayer; the church joins her intercession with her Lord's, and pleads that he may be heard in his cries and tears. The agony in the garden was especially a gloomy hour, but he was heard in that he feared. He knew that his Father heard him always, yet in that troublous hour no reply came until thrice he had fallen on his face in the garden; then sufficient strength was given in answer to prayer, and he rose a victor from the conflict. On the cross also his prayer was not unheard, for in the twenty-second Psalm he tells us, “thou hast heard me from the horns of the unicorns.” The church in this verse implies that her Lord would be himself much given to prayer; in this he is our example, teaching us that if we are to receive any advantage from the prayers of others, we must first pray for ourselves. What a mercy that we may pray in the day of trouble, and what a still more blessed privilege that no trouble can prevent the Lord from hearing us! Troubles roar like thunder, but the believer's voice will be heard above the storm. O Jesus, when thou pleadest for us in our hour of trouble, the Lord Jehovah will hear thee. This is a most refreshing confidence, and it may be indulged in without fear.

“The name of the God of Jacob defend thee;” or, as some read it, “set thee in a high place.” By “the name” is meant the revealed character and Word of God; we are not to worship “the unknown God,” but we should seek to know the covenant God of Jacob, who has been pleased to reveal his name and attributes to his people. There may be much in a royal name, or a learned name, or a venerale name, but it will be a theme for heavenly scholarship to discover all that is contained in the divine name. The glorious

power of God defended and preserved the Lord Jesus through the battle of his life and death, and exalted him above all his enemies. His warfare is now accomplished in his own proper person, but in his mystical body, the church, he is still beset with dangers, and only the eternal arm of our God in covenant can defend the soldiers of the cross, and set them on high out of the reach of their foes. The day of trouble is not over, the pleading Saviour is not silent, and the name of the God of Israel is still the defence of the faithful. The name: “God of Jacob,” is suggestive; Jacob had his day of trouble, he wrestled, was heard, was defended, and in due time was set on high, and his God is our God still, the same God to all his wrestling Jacobs. The whole verse is a very fitting benediction to be pronounced by a gracious heart over a child, a friend, or a minister, in prospect of trial; it includes both temporal and spiritual protection, and directs the mind to the great Source of all good. How delightful to believe that our heavenly Father has pronounced it upon our favoured heads!

MEYER, “ THE SAVING STRENGTH OF GOD’S RIGHT HAND

Psa_20:1-9

This may have been written on such an occasion as 2Sa_10:1-19.

The prayer of the soldiers, Psa_20:1-4. Ready, drawn up for the battle, they salute their king. God’s name is His character. The God of Jacob cannot forsake us, though we are unworthy as the patriarch. “Thou worm Jacob!” Isa_41:14.

The resolve, Psa_20:5. Our banners may wave proudly in the breeze, but all is vain if God be not our trust. The Lord is our “banner,” Exo_17:15. We succeed only as we set out in His name and for His glory.

The king’s voice, Psa_20:6. Strength is plural, signifying the variety and infinity of God’s resources, on which we may count.

The final chorus of the host, Psa_20:7-9. As they look across the field, they contrast the might of their foes with their slender equipment. But as they gaze, those embattled hosts are dispersed, as clouds before a gale. Save! is the battle-cry.

COFFMA�, “The ancient superscription carries the notation, "A Psalm of David." It is a liturgical

hymn used ceremonially upon the occasion of a king's coronation, or upon the occasion of his going into battle."A Psalm of David" may mean merely, "A Psalm about David," and not necessarily a Psalm written by David. As far as we can understand the passage, it really makes no difference which it means.

If it means that David wrote the Psalm, there is the suggestion of a problem in the usage of the words of other people in a prayer for himself, which to modern ears sounds unnatural; but David may have composed this prayer to be prayed by the people upon behalf, not merely of himself, but on behalf of kings who would arise after him. In this view, the use of the second person in Psalms 20:1-5 is not unnatural.

It was John Calvin's opinion that, "Under the figure of the temporal kingdom,"[1] God here laid down

out that this Psalm is still used ceremonially in prayers for the Queen of England in Anglican services.[2]Regarding the date of the Psalm. we find the speculations of various writers about "when" any given

Psalm was written are of little interest and still less importance. Cheyne attempted to date this Psalm in the times of Simon Maccabaeus.[3] However, the use of the word "king" refutes such a supposition, because Simon Maccabaeus was never, in any sense, a king. Furthermore, "The reference to the army of Israel as unequipped with cavalry and chariots (Psalms 20:7) favors the early date."[4] After the times of Solomon, Israel possessed many chariots and horses. There is no king whatever in the whole history of Israel whose times fit the situation that surfaces in this psalm, except those of King David.

This psalm naturally falls into three divisions as signalled by the "we .... I" and "we,"[5] the first person plural, and the first person singular and the first person plural pronouns appearing in Psalms 20:5,6,7.

The occasion that prompted the writing of this psalm is supposed to have been that of David's start of a war against Syria, at some considerable time after the return of the ark of the covenant to Jerusalem by King David. It is stated by Rawlinson that this "conjecture is probable."[6]

As many have pointed out, this psalm is a companion with Psalms 21, their relation being that of a prayer for victory in Psalms 20 and a thanksgiving for victory in Psalms 21.

Psalms 20:1-5

"Jehovah answer thee in the day of trouble

The name of the God of Jacob set thee up on high;

Send thee help from the sanctuary,

And strengthen thee out of Zion;

Remember all thy offerings,

And accept thy burnt-sacrifice; (Selah)

Grant thee thy heart's desire,

And fulfill all thy counsel.

We will triumph in thy salvation,

And in the name of our God we will set up our banners;

Jehovah fulfill all thy petitions."

The first person plural pronoun in Psalms 20:5 shows that it is the voice of the people who are vocalizing this petition in the sanctuary itself upon behalf of their king.

"In the day of trouble" (Psalms 20:1). Alas, it is the destiny of every child of God to confront the day of trouble. It is the eternal assignment for every Christian that he, "Must through many tribulations enter into the kingdom of God" (Acts 14:22). It was also true of David. This Syrian war was the occasion of his adultery with Bathsheba and of his heartless murder of her husband Uriah. With the possible exception of Absalom's rebellion, this was perhaps the most terrible trouble David ever faced.

"Help from the sanctuary ... out of Zion" (Psalms 20:2). This indicates that the ark of the covenant had now been transferred to Jerusalem, an event which is described in 2 Samuel 6:12-19. "This means that the psalm is pre-exilic."[7]

"Remember all thy offerings ... accept thy burnt-sacrifice" (Psalms 20:3). This might be a reference to the prayers and offerings of King David in days gone by; but as Ash wrote, "It more likely refers to the sacrifices being offered upon the occasion of the Psalm's use."[8] The word "Selah" inserted at this place in the psalm may be a reference to a pause in the ceremonies during which sacrifices were actually offered.

"Fulfill all thy counsel" (Psalms 20:4). "This means, `Make all thy plans to prosper.'"[9]

"We will triumph in thy salvation" (Psalms 20:5). The blessing of God upon the king or ruler is automatically a blessing upon all of his subjects; and the people vocalizing this petition here

acknowledge this principle.

"We will set up our banners" (Psalms 20:5). In all ages, the smaller units of an army have always cherished their own individual banners, tokens, or emblems; and this reference is to the fact that the children of Israel here promised to acknowledge their allegiance to God in the various standards that would be elevated by the various tribes. As Baigent accurately noted, these banners, "Are a reference to tribal standards displayed when camping or marching."[10]

PULPIT, “THIS psalm seems to have been composed for a special occasion, when

David was about to proceed on an expedition against a foreign enemy. It is liturgical, and

written to be recited in the court of the tabernacle by the high priest and people. The date

of its composition is after the transfer of the ark from the house of Obed-edom to the city

of David (2Sa_6:12-19), as appears from Psa_20:2. The conjecture which attaches it to

the Syrian War described in 2Sa_10:17-19, is probable. There is no reason to doubt the

authorship of David, asserted in the title, and admitted by most critics.

The psalm divides into two portions—the first of five, and the second of four verses. In

the first part, the people chant the whole. In the second, the high priest takes the word,

and initiates the strain (2Sa_10:6), while the people join in afterwards (2Sa_10:7-9).

Psa_20:1

The Lord hear thee in the day of trouble. The people intercede for their king in a "clay of

trouble" or "distress," when danger impends, and he is about to affront it. They are made

to ask, first of all, that God will hear the king's prayers, which are no doubt being silently

offered while they pray aloud. The �ame of the God of Jacob defend thee. (On the

force of the expression, "the Name of God," see the comment upon Psa_7:17.) "Jacob's

God"—a favourite expression with David—is the God who made him the promise, "I will

be with thee, and I will keep thee in all places whither thou goest" (Gen_28:15). "Defend

thee" is scarcely a correct rendering. Translate, exalt thee.'

PULPIT, “Prayer for Israel's king when going forth to battle: a national sermon.

In this psalm, as indeed in the rest, there are most suggestive verses, which might be elaborated

into useful discourses. £ But in this division of the Commentary we refrain from dealing with isolated

texts. We desire rather to show how the whole psalm may be used by the expositor of Scripture as

the basis of a national sermon in a time of impending war. No doubt, as Mr. Spurgeon remarks, it

has been used by court preachers and pressed into the service of unctuous and fulsome flattery.

There is, however, another kind of abuse to which it has been subjected, even that of an extreme

spiritualizing, in which the words are made to convey a meaning which there is no indication that

they were ever intended to bear. No commentator seems to have set forth the bearing of the psalm

more clearly and accurately than that prince of expositors, John Calvin. We have no clue, indeed, to

the precise occasion on which the psalm was written; but we can scarcely be wrong in regarding it

as a prayer to be said or sung in the sanctuary on behalf of the king when he was called forth to

defend himself in battle against his enemies. And inasmuch as the kingship of David was a type of

that of the Lord Jesus Christ, the psalm may doubtless be regarded as the prayer of the Church of

God for the triumph of the Saviour over all his foes. It is said, "Prayer also shall be made for

him CONTINUALLY ," and those words are being fulfilled in the ceaseless offering of the petition,

"Thy kingdom come." At the same time, there is such deep and rich significance in the psalm when

set on the strictly historical basis, that to develop it from that point of view will occupy all the space

at our command. The scenes here brought before us are these: £ Israel's king is summoned to go

forth to war; sanctuary service is being held on his behalf; a prayer is composed, is set to music,

and delivered to the precentor, to be said or sung on the occasion; after sacrifices have been

offered, and the signs of Divine acceptance have been vouchsafed, the Levites, the singers, and the

congregation join in these words of supplication. Obviously, there is here assumed £ a Divine

revelations; the aid of Jehovah, the covenant God of Israel, is invoked; he is called, "Jehovah our

God." The disclosures of God's grace in the wondrous history of their father Jacob are brought to

mind. They, as a people, have been raised above reliance on chariots and horses alone. The Name

of their God has lifted them up on high, "as in a fortress where no enemy can do harm, or on a rock

at the foot of which the waves fret and dash themselves in impotent fury." £ They know of two

sanctuaries—one in Zion (verse 2), the other "the heaven of God's holiness" (verse 6); they know

that God hears from the latter, when his people gather in the former. Hence the prayer is sent up

from the sanctuary below to that above. We, as Christians, have all Israel's knowledge, and more.

The revelation the Hebrews had through Moses is surpassed by that in Christ. And although, as a

"geographical expression," no nation now has the pre-eminence over any other as before God, yet

any praying people can get as near to God now as ever Israel did. All devout souls have boldness

to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus. Hence, when any trouble-especially that of war—

befalls them, they may betake themselves to their God, and plead with him on behalf of their

emperor, their king, their president, their state. And the psalm before us is truly a grand one for

preachers to use at such emergencies, that they may cheer a people's heart, quicken the people's

prayers. The abuse of the psalm by some courtiers, who feared man rather than God, is no reason

why the preachers of any day should leave such a psalm unused, still less is it a reason why they

should refuse to preach national sermons at all. For a long time, Nonconformists were so treated,

that some of their preachers almost lost the national esprit de corps. But it is to be hoped that that is

passing away; for on the basis of a psalm like this, some lines of thought may be so expounded and

applied from the pulpit as to cause times of national peril and anxiety to be most fruitful in spiritual

elevation and power.

I. IT IS AN ANXIOUS TIME FOR ANY PEOPLE WHEN THE HEAD OF THEIR STATE IS CALLE

D FORTH TO BATTLE. (See 2Ch_20:1-3.) The interests at stake in the conflict itself, and for the

promotion of which it is entered upon, must press heavily on the nation's heart. The fearful

bloodshed and unspeakable suffering and distress in private life, which any battle involves, must

bring anguish to many mothers, wives, and children; many a home will be darkened, and many a

heart crushed, through the war, however large the success in which it may ultimately result.

II. WHEN WARS ARE ENTERED UPON PERFORCE, FOR A RIGHT OBJECT, THE PEOPLE MA

Y LAY BEFORE THEIR GOD THE BURDEN THAT IS ON THEIR HEARTS. (2Ch_20:5-15.) There

is a God. He is our God. He has a heart, tender as a father's, and a hand gentle as a mother's;

while, with all such pitying love, he has a strength that can speed worlds in their course. Nothing is

too large for him to control; nought too minute for him to observe. And never can one be more sure

of a gracious response than when, with large interests at stake, a people are united as one in

spreading before the throne of God their case with all its care. If "the very hairs of our head" are all

numbered, how much more the petitions of the heart!

III. AT SUCH TIMES THE INTENSEST SYMPATHIES OF THE PEOPLE GATHER BOUND THEI

R ARMY AND THEIR THRONE. (Verse 5.) "We will rejoice in thy deliverance," etc. Whatever may

have been the sentiment in bygone times, we now know that the king is for the people, not the

people for the king. Hence his victory or defeat is theirs. The soldiers, too, who go forth loyally and

obediently to the struggle, with their lives in their hands, leaving at home their dear ones weeping as

they leave them lest they should see the loved face no more, how can it but be that a nation's

warmest, strongest sympathies should gather round them as they go to the war?

IV. THE NAME OF GOD IS A STRONGER DEFENCE TO SUCH A PEOPLE THAN ALL MATERI

AL FORCES CAN COMMAND. (Verses 6, 7.) This is so in many senses.

1. God himself can so order events as to ensure the victory to a praying people, however strong and

numerous the foes.

2. An army sent out with a people's prayers, knowing that it is so sustained, will fight the more

bravely.

3. To the generals in command, God can give, in answer to prayer, a wisdom that SECURES a

triumphant issue.

4. All chariots and horsemen are at his absolute disposal, and he can cause them all to vanish in an

hour. The army of Sennacherib, The Spanish Armada. History is laden with illustrations of Divine

interposition (Psa_107:43).

V. WHEN THE PEOPLE TRUSTINGLY LAY THE WHOLE MATTER BEFORE GOD, THEY MAY

PEACEFULLY LEAVE IT TO HIM AND CALMLY AWAIT THE RESULT. (cf. verse 8.) When once

their affairs are rolled over on God, they are on his heart, and will be controlled by his hand on their

behalf. Hence the wonderfully timely word of Jahaziel (2Ch_20:15), "The battle is not yours, but

God's." Such a thought may well inspire the people with the calmness of a holy courage, and may

well lead them patiently to wait and see "the end of the Lord." Note: By such devotional use of

national crises, they may become to a nation a holy and blessed means of grace; whereby the

people at large may learn more of the value and power of prayer than in many a year of calm, and

may be drawn more closely together for ever through a fellowship in trouble and in prayer.—C.

PULPIT, “The day of trouble.

Such a day comes sooner or later to all. Nations have their "day of trouble," when they are visited

with pestilence, famine, or war, or torn by internal strifes. Individuals also have their "day of trouble"

(Job_5:6, Job_5:7). Trouble is a test. It shows what manner of persons we are. Happy are we, if,

like the king and people of this psalm, trouble brings us nearer to God and to one another in love

and service! The day of trouble should—

I. DRIVE THE SOUL TO GOD. In prosperity there are many helps, but in adversity there is but one.

God is the true Refuge. His ear is ever open, and can "hear." His hand is ever stretched out, and

can "defend." His resources are infinite, and he can "strengthen us out of Zion." The name here

given to God, "the God of Jacob," is richly suggestive. It holds out hope to the sinful; for God was

very merciful to Jacob. It assures comfort to the distressed; for God was with Jacob, to keep him

during all his wanderings. It encourages trust, for God had a gracious purpose with Jacob, and

made all the trials of his life contribute to his moral advancement. "Happy is he who has the God of

Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the Lord his God!" (Psa_146:5).

II. BRING ALL THE GOOD TOGETHER IN HOLY SERVICE. In face of a common danger, there is

a tendency to unite. So "Pilate and Herod were made friends" (Luk_23:12). So Jehoshaphat and the

King of Israel entered into alliance (1Ki_22:2). So, in a nobler way, God's people come together for

mutual edification and comfort, and to call upon the Name of the Lord (Mal_3:16). The Jews had the

temple and the sacrifices, and the high priest to plead for them. But we have greater privileges. For

us our great High Priest, "having offered one sacrifice for sin for ever, sat down on the right hand of

God; from henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool" (Heb_10:12, Heb_10:13).

We have common dangers and needs, and can do much to help one another. When David was in

trouble in the wood of Ziph, Jonathan went down to him, and strengthened his hands in God. When

Peter was in prison, and in peril of death, "prayer was made without ceasing of the Church unto God

for him" (Act_12:5). When the Jerusalem Christians were in sore straits, the sympathies of their

fellow-Christians in happier circumstances were called forth in their behalf (Rom_15:26). So when

the truth is assailed, and the interests of the kingdom are endangered, it is the duty of all true lovers

of Christ to band together, and by prayer and holy effort to "contend for the faith once delivered to

the saints."

III. STRENGTHEN OUR ATTACHMENT TO THE SUPREME PRINCIPLES OF RIGHT. There are

many things dear to us which we may have to defend, but we must make a difference. "The day of

trouble" is a searching and a sifting time. In drawing near to God, and by mutual warnings, we find

out what is really of the highest value; what we may let go, and what we should keep; what we may

safely relinquish, and what we should fight for to the last gasp; what is only of temporary or of

secondary importance, and what is essential and more to be valued than all worldly and personal

advantages, or even life itself (Dan_3:16-18; Act_4:18-20).

IV. PREPARE FOR THE CELEBRATION OF THE COMING VICTORY OF GOOD OVER EVIL.

Waiting upon God gives hope. Praying and working inspire confidence. Imagination, kindled by the

thought of God's Name, portrays in glowing colours the near deliverance. There is something very

inspiriting in the "I know" of the psalmist. Job says, "I know" (Job_19:25); Paul says, "I know"

(2Ti_1:12); and so we may join with the psalmist in saying, "Now know I that the Lord sayeth his

anointed." We are too apt to think only of our troubles; but let us rather "remember the Name of the

Lord." We are too ready to wish the defeat of our opponents, but let us rather seek the vindication of

truth and the triumph of right, and, if God will, the transformation of foes into friends, so that they, as

well as we, may share in the joys of the great day.—W.F.

2 May he send you help from the sanctuary

and grant you support from Zion.

BAR�ES, “Send thee help - Margin, thy help. So the Hebrew. The idea is, such help as he needed; such as would make him safe.From the sanctuary - From the tabernacle, or the holy place where God was

worshipped, and where he was supposed to reside, Exo_28:43; Exo_29:30; Exo_35:19; Exo_39:1. This was his seat; his throne; where he abode among the people. Here, too, it would seem that he had been worshipped, and his aid implored, in view of this expedition; here the royal psalmist had sought to secure the divine favor by the presentation of appropriate sacrifices and offerings Psa_20:3. The prayer here is, that God would accept those offerings, and hear those supplications, and would now send the desired help from the sanctuary where he resided; that is, that he would grant his protection and aid.

And strengthen thee - Margin, as in Hebrew, support thee. The idea is, that he would grant his upholding hand in the day of peril.

Out of Zion - The place where God was worshipped; the place where the tabernacle was reared. See the note at Psa_2:6.

CLARKE, “Send thee help from the sanctuary - This was the place where God recorded his name; the place where he was to be sought, and the place where he manifested himself. He dwelt between the cherubim over the mercyseat. He is now in Christ, reconciling the world to himself. This is the true sanctuary where God must be sought.Strengthen thee out of Zion - The temple or tabernacle where his prayers and

sacrifices were to be offered.

GILL, “Send thee help from the sanctuary,.... Meaning either from the tabernacle, the holy place, where was the ark, the symbol of the divine Presence; or rather heaven, the habitation of God's holiness unless the same is meant by it as by Zion, in the next clause, the church of God, from whence he sends the rod of his strength;

and strengthen thee out of Zion; and the "help" and "strength" prayed for are not to be understood of that assistance and support, which Christ, as man, had from his Father, at the time of his sufferings, which were promised him, and he believed he should have, and had, Psa_89:21; since these petitions follow that which relates to his exaltation; but of the help and strength afforded to the apostles and ministers of Christ, after they had received the commission from him to preach the Gospel to every creature; when, as a full answer to these petitions, God worked with them, greatly assisted them, strengthened them with strength in their souls; confirmed the word with signs and wonders following; made it the power of God to salvation to multitudes; and so strengthened the cause, interest, and kingdom of the Redeemer.

JAMISO�, “strengthen thee — sustain in conflict; even physical benefits may be included, as courage for war, etc., as such may proceed from a sense of divine favor, secured in the use of spiritual privileges.

HAWKER, “God the Father promised to be with his Christ through the whole of his undertaking. Psa_89:22, etc. But observe how the church hath an eye to the merits of Jesus’s obedience and sacrifice. And what the heart’s desire of Jesus was, is read to us in every part of the Bible. The promises of God are also in covenant to the same. Psa_21:2; Isa_53:10.

E-SWORD, ““Send thee help from the sanctuary.” Out of heaven's sanctuary came the angel to strengthen our Lord, and from the precious remembrance of God's doings in his sanctuary our Lord refreshed himself when on the tree. There is no help like that which is of God's sending, and no deliverance like that which comes out of his sanctuary. The sanctuary to us is the person of our blessed Lord, who was typified by the temple, and is the true sanctuary which God has pitched, and not man: let us fly to the cross for shelter in all times of need, and help will be sent to us. Men of the world despise sanctuary help, but our hearts have learned to prize it beyond all material aid. They seek help out of the armoury, or the treasury, or the buttery, but we turn to the sanctuary. “And strengthen thee out of Zion.” Out of the assemblies of the pleading saints who had for ages prayed for their Lord, help might well result to the despised Sufferer, for praying breath is never spent in vain. To the Lord's mystical body the richest good comes in answer to the

pleadings of his saints assembled for holy worship as his Zion. Certain advertisers recommend a strengthening plaster, but nothing can give such strength to the loins of a saint as waiting upon God in the assemblies of his people. This verse is a benediction befitting a Sabbath morning, and may be the salutation either of a pastor to his people, or of a church to its minister. God in the sanctuary of his dear Son's person, and in the city of his chosen church is the proper object of his people's prayers, and under such a character may they confidently look to him for his promised aid.

CALVI�, “2.May he send thee help. That is to say, may he succor thee out of mount Sion, where

he commanded the ark of the covenant to be placed, and chose for himself a dwelling-place. The weakness of the flesh will not suffer men to soar up to heaven, and, therefore, God comes down to meet them, and by the external means of grace shows that he is near them. Thus the ark of the covenant was to his ancient people a pledge of his presence, and the sanctuary an image of heaven. But as God, by appointing mount Sion to be the place where the faithful

should CONTINUALLY worship him, had joined the kingdom and priesthood together, David, in

putting into the lips of the people a prayer for help out of Sion, doubtless had an eye to this sacred bond of union. Hence I conjecture that this psalm was composed by David in his old age, and about the close of his life. Some think he spake of Sion by the Spirit of prophecy before it had been appointed that the ark should be placed there; but this opinion seems strained, and to have little probability.

SPURGEO�, “Ver. 2. Send thee help from the sanctuary. Out of heaven's sanctuary came the

angel to strengthen our Lord, and from the precious remembrance of God's doings in his sanctuary our Lord refreshed himself when on the tree. There is no help like that which is of God's sending, and no deliverance like that which comes out of his sanctuary. The sanctuary to us is the person of our blessed Lord, who was typified by the temple, and is the true sanctuary which God has pitched,

They seek help out of the armoury, or the treasury, or the buttery, but we turn to the sanctuary.And strengthen thee out of Zion. Out of the assemblies of the pleading saints who had for ages prayed for their Lord, help might well result to the despised sufferer, for praying breath is never spent in vain. To the Lord's mystical body the richest comes in answer to the pleadings of his saints assembled for holy worship as his Zion. Certain advertisers recommend a strengthening plaster, but nothing can give such strength to the loins of a saint as waiting upon God in the assemblies of his people. This verse is a benediction befitting a Sabbath morning, and may be the salutation either of a pastor to his people, or of a church to its minister. God in the sanctuary of his dear Son's person, and in the city of his chosen church is the proper object of his people's prayers, and under such a character may they confidently look to him for his promised aid.

EXPLANATORY NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS

Ver. 1-2. See Psalms on "Psalms 20:1" for further information.

Ver. 1-5. See Psalms on "Psalms 20:1" for further information.

Ver. 2. Send thee help from the sanctuary. Here we see the nature of true faith, that it causeth us to see help in heaven, and so to pray for it when there is none to be seen in the earth. And this is the difference between faith and unbelief; that the very unbelievers can by reason conceive of help, so long as they have any means to help them; but if they fail they can see none at all; so they are like unto those that are purblind, who can see nothing but near at hand. But faith seeth afar off, even into heaven, so that it is "the evidence of things that are not seen; "for it looketh unto the power of God, who hath all means in his hand, or can work without them, who made all of nothing, and "calleth the things that be not, as though they were." So that as the holy martyr Stephen, when his enemies were ready to burst for anger, and gnash at him with their teeth, looked steadfastly into heaven, and saw Christ standing at the right hand of God ready to defend him; so faith in the promises of the word doth see help in heaven ready for us, when there are no means in earth, Nicholas Bownd.

Ver. 2. Send thee help from the sanctuary. Why "from the sanctuary, "but because the Lord presented himself there as upon the mercyseat! The sanctuary was in Zion, the mercyseat was in the sanctuary, the Lord was in the mercyseat; he would have himself set forth as residing there. Herein they pray, and pray in faith, for help and strength. David Clarkson.

Ver. 2. Strengthen thee out of Zion. That is, out of the assemblies of the saints, where they are praying hard for thy welfare. John Trapp.

HINTS TO THE VILLAGE PREACHER

Ver. 1-2.

1. The Lord's trouble in its nature and its cause.

2. How the Lord exercised himself in his trouble.

3. We ought not to be unmoved spectators of the trouble of Jesus.

Hamilton Verschoyle.

Ver. 1-3. A model of good wishes for our friends. See Psalms on "Psalms 20:1" for further information.

Ver. 2. Sanctuary help—a suggestive topic.

3 May he remember all YOUR sacrifices

and accept your burnt OFFERI�GS.[b]

BAR�ES, “Remember all thy offerings - On the meaning of the word here used, see the note at Isa_1:13, where it is rendered oblations. The word occurs often in the Scriptures, and is sometimes rendered offering, and sometimes oblation. The word means an offering of any kind or anything that is presented to God, except a bloody sacrifice - anything offered as an expression of thankfulness, or with a view to obtain his favor. It is distinguished from bloody sacrifices, which are expressed by the word in the following clause. The word here employed occurs in the Psalms only in the following places: Psa_20:3; Psa_40:6; Psa_96:8; where it is rendered offering and offerings; Psa_45:12, rendered gift; Psa_72:10, rendered presents; and Psa_141:2, rendered sacrifice. The use of the word in this place proves that such offerings had been made to God by him who was about to go forth to the war; and the prayer of the people here is that God would remember all those offerings; that is, that he would grant the blessing which he who had offered them had sought to obtain.

And accept - Margin, turn to ashes, or make fat. The Hebrew word - דׁשן� dâshên - means properly to make fat, or marrowy, Pro_15:30; to pronounce or regard as fat; to be fat or satiated, or abundantly satisfied, Pro_13:4. It conveys also the notion of reducing to ashes; perhaps from the fact that the victim which had been fattened for sacrifice was

reduced to ashes; or, as Gesenius supposes (Lexicon, see דׁשן deshen), because “ashes were used by the ancients for fattening, that is, manuring the soil.” The prayer here seems to be that God would “pronounce the burnt-offering fat;” that is, that he would regard it favorably, or would accept it. This proves, also, that a sacrifice had been made with a view to propitiate the divine favor in regard to the expedition which had been undertaken; that is, a solemn act of devotion, according to the manner of worship which then obtained, had been performed with a view to secure the divine favor and protection. The example is one which suggests the propriety of always entering upon any enterprise by solemn acts of worship, or by supplicating the divine blessing; that is, by acknowledging our dependence on God, and asking his guidance and his protecting care.

Thy burnt sacrifice - The word used here denotes bloody offerings; see the note at Isa_1:11. These offerings were designed especially for the expiation of sin, and for thus securing the divine favor. They were an acknowledgment of guilt, and they were offered with a view to secure the pardon of sin, and, in connection with that, the favor of God. In similar circumstances we approach God, not by an offering which we make, whether bloody or bloodless, but through the one great sacrifice made by the Redeemer on the cross for the sins of the world.

CLARKE, “Remember all thy offerings - The minchah, which is here mentioned, was a gratitude-offering. It is rarely used to signify a bloody sacrifice.Burnt sacrifice - The olah here mentioned was a bloody sacrifice. The blood of the

victim was spilt at the altar, and the flesh consumed. One of these offerings implied a consciousness of sin in the offerer; and this sacrifice he brought as an atonement: the other implied a sense of mercies already received, and was offered in the way of gratitude.

David presents himself before the Lord with offerings of both kinds.

This prayer of the people is concluded with Selah, which we have taken up in the general sense of so be it. Hear and answer. It will and must be so, etc.

GILL, “Remember all thy offerings,.... The spiritual sacrifices of prayer and praise which Christ, as the great High Priest, offers up for his people; or which they offer by him, and are acceptable to God through him, by virtue of the incense of his mediation; or the offering up of himself, which answers to, and is the body, the sum and substance, of all the offerings of the law; they were types of this, and what they could not do this did; and therefore it is expressed in the singular number in the next clause;

and accept thy burnt sacrifice. The word rendered "accept" signifies to "reduce to ashes" (o); and the way in which it was known that sacrifices were acceptable to God was by fire coming down from heaven upon them and consuming them, Lev_9:24; and therefore the word is rightly rendered "accept"; and Christ's sacrifice of himself, putting away sin, and perfecting for ever them that are sanctified, is of a sweet smelling savour to God; for hereby his justice is satisfied, his law is magnified and made honourable, the sins of his people are atoned for, their persons are accepted, and their sacrifices of prayer and praise come up also with acceptance to him through the virtue of this sacrifice; and so these petitions have their accomplishment.

Selah; on this word; see Gill on Psa_3:2.

HE�RY, “That God would testify his gracious acceptance of the sacrifices he offered with his prayers, according to the law of that time, before he went out on a dangerous expedition: The Lord remember all thy offerings and accept thy burnt-sacrifices (Psa_20:3), or turn them to ashes; that is, “The Lord give thee the victory and success which thou didst by prayer with sacrifices ask of him, and thereby give as full proof of his acceptance of the sacrifice as ever he did by kindling it with fire from heaven.” By this we may now know that God accepts our spiritual sacrifices, if by his Spirit he kindles in our souls a holy fire of pious and divine affection and with that makes our hearts burn within us.

JAMISO�, “all thy offerings — or gifts, vegetable offerings.accept — literally, “turn to ashes” (compare 1Ki_18:38).

Selah — (See on Psa_3:2).

E-SWORD, ““Remember all thy offerings, and accept thy burnt sacrifice; Selah.” Before war, kings offered sacrifice, upon the acceptance of which they depended for success; our blessed Lord presented himself as a victim, and was a sweet savour unto the Most High, and then he met and routed the embattled legions of hell. Still does his burnt sacrifice perfume the courts of heaven, and through him the offerings of his people are received as his sacrifices and oblations. We ought in our spiritual conflicts to have an eye to the sacrifice of Jesus, and never venture to war until first the Lord has given us a token for good at the altar of the cross, where faith beholds her bleeding Lord. “Selah.” It is well to pause at the cross before we march onward to battle, and with the Psalmist cry “Selah.” We are too much in a hurry to make good haste. A little pausing might greatly help our speed. Stay, good man, there is a haste which hinders; rest awhile, meditate on the burnt sacrifice, and put thy heart right for the stern work which lieth before thee.

LANGE, “Psa_20:3. Remember all thy meat-offerings. [A. V. offerings].—This expression

naturally refers to the evidence of his piety previously given by the king, but it is not opposed (Hupf.) to the reference to an offering now being made, but rather leads to this, as it is thus even now

presented in the burnt offerings of the king. The bloodless meat offerings of meal with oil and incense (Leviticus 2), with few exceptions, accompanied the burnt offerings which were entirely consumed on the altar, or whole burnt offerings (Leviticus 1); hence both expressions properly complement one another, and their separate mention has only a rhetorical significance. May God remember the previous offerings of the king, let Him be pleased with the present offerings. The

latter sense is contained in the expression: may He find fat, [A. V. accept] literally; may He make fat (Psa_23:5); but the piel includes likewise the meaning of declare. It was not commanded that the

animals offered should be fat (Lev_22:18 sq.), it was so much the more an evidence of the willingness and gladness of the offerer. The translation of some of the more ancient interpreters

after Aben Ezra: turn to ashes [A. V. margin] regards the words as a denominative of ã◌ּ◌ֶù◌ֶï , but leads to the expectation of its being kindled by heavenly fire as a sign of its gracious acceptance, as Lev_9:24; 1Ki_18:37; 1Ch_21:26, which is not at all justified by the text. With this derivation, moreover, the sense would properly be “may He cleanse from ashes.”

ELLICOTT, “(3) All thy offerings.—The king is sacrificing, ACCORDING to custom, before battle (1 Samuel 13:9), the burnt offering (ôlah, from root to “go up,” i.e., of the smoke) and the bloodless offering (minchah, from root “to portion out”) of fine flour. (See Leviticus 2:1). Since the word rendered in our version memorial (Leviticus 24:7), which is a derivative of the verb here rendered “remember,” has been proved by eminent scholars to signify “incense,” we may believe

the psalmist meant—

“Accept the incense of all thy minchah,

And the fat of thy ôlah”

Indeed Mr. Burgess would render “smell” and “relish.”

Accept.—Literally, make fat (Psalms 23:5, “anointest”) i.e., regard or receive as a fat or a worthy offering. The objection to the alternative rendering, “turn to ashes,” i.e., “consume,” (Leviticus 9:24; 1 Kings 18:38), is that the Hebrew word never elsewhere has that sense, but only that of “cleansing from ashes.

CALVI�, “3.May he remember. I understand the word remember as meaning to have regard

to, as it is to be understood in many other places; just as to forget often signifies to neglect, or not to deign to regard, nor even to behold, the object to which it is applied. It is, in short, a prayer that God would actually show that the king’ sacrifices were acceptable to him. Two kinds of them are here mentioned; first, the מנחה mincha, mentioned in the first clause of the verse, which was the appointed accompaniment of all sacrifices, and which was also sometimes offered by itself; and, secondly, the holocaust, or whole burnt-sacrifice. But under these two kinds David intended to comprehend, by synecdoche, all sacrifices; and under sacrifices he comprehends requests and prayers. We know that whenever the fathers prayed under the law, their hope of obtaining what they asked was founded upon their sacrifices; and, in like manner, at this day our prayers are acceptable to God only in so far as Christ sprinkles and sanctifies them with the perfume of his own sacrifice. The faithful, therefore, here desire that the solemn prayers of the king, which were accompanied with sacrifices and oblations, might have their effect in the prosperous issue of his affairs. That this is the meaning may be gathered still more clearly from the following verse, in which they commend to God the desires and counsels of the king. But as it would be absurd to ask God to grant foolish and wicked desires, it is to be regarded as certain, that there is here described a king who was neither given to ambition, nor inflamed with avarice, nor actuated by the desire of whatever the unruly passions might suggest, but wholly intent on the charge which was committed to him, and entirely devoted to the advancement of the public good; so that he asks nothing but what the Holy Spirit dictated to him, and what God, by his own mouth, commanded him to ask.

SPURGEO�, “Ver. 3. Remember all thy offerings, and accept thy burnt sacrifice. Selah. Before war kings offered sacrifice, upon the acceptance of which the depended for success; our blessed Lord presented himself as a victim, and was a sweet savour unto the Most High, and then he met and routed the embattled legions of hell. Still does his burnt sacrifice perfume the courts of heaven, and through him the offerings of his people are received as his sacrifices and oblations. We ought in our spiritual conflicts to have an eye to the sacrifice of Jesus, and never venture to war until first the Lord has given us a token for good at the altar of the cross, where faith beholds her bleeding Lord.Selah. It is well to pause at the cross before we march onward to battle, and with the psalmist cry "Selah." We are too much in a hurry to make good haste. A little pausing might greatly help our speed. Stay, good man, there is a haste which hinders; rest awhile, meditate on the burnt sacrifice, and put thy heart right for the stern work which lieth before thee.

EXPLANATORY NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS

Ver. 1-5. See Psalms on "Psalms 20:1" for further information.

Ver. 3. Remember all thy offerings, and accept thy burnt sacrifice. All thy offerings; the

the poor cottage at Nazareth; the doing all good, and bearing all evil; the miracles, the sermons, the teachings; the being called a man gluttonous and a wine bibber, the friend of publicans and sinners;

the attribution of his wondrous deeds to Beelzebub. And accept thy burnt sacrifice. As every part of the victim was consumed in a burnt sacrifice, so what limb, what sense of our dear Lord did not agonize in his passion? The thorny crown on his head; the nails in his hands and feet; the reproaches that filled his ears; the gloating multitude on whom his dying gaze rested; the vinegar

and the gall; the evil odours of the hill of death and CORRUPTION . The ploughers ploughed upon his back, and made long furrows; his most sacred face was smitten with the palm of the hand, his head with the reed. What could have been done more for the vineyard than he did not do in it? Isaiah 5:4. So, what more could have been borne by the vine, that this dear Vine did not bear? "Remember" them now, O Father, call to mind for us sinners, for us miserable sinners, and for our salvation, "all" these "offerings; ""accept, "instead of our eternal punishment, who are guilty,

Dionysius, and

Ver. 3. Accept: Hebrew, "turn to ashes, "by fire form heaven, in token of his acceptance, as was usual.Matthew Poole.

Ver. 3. That thy burnt offering may be fat. That is, abundant, fruitful, and full. But here we must understand this burnt offering, as we did the sacrifice, in a spiritual sense, as we have before observed. Thus Christ offered up himself wholly upon the cross to be consumed by the fire of love. And here, instead of "all thy sacrifice, "it might be rendered "the whole of thy sacrifice." Even as burnt sacrifice (holocaustum) signifies the whole of it being burnt with fire. By which groanings of the Spirit, he shows and teaches the righteous, that they should pray and hope that none of their sufferings shall be vain, but that all shall be well pleasing, remembered, and fully acceptable. Martin Luther.

Ver. 3. Selah. This word, in the judgment of the learned, is sometime vox optantis, the voice of one that wishes, equivalent to amen; of vox admirantis, the voice of one admiring, showing some special matter; orvox affirmantis, of one affirming, avouching what is said; or vox meditantis, of one meditating, requiring consideration of what is said. But withal, it is a rest in music. Jerome saith it is commutatio metri, orvicissitudo canendi. Edward Marbury.

HINTS TO THE VILLAGE PREACHER

Ver. 1-3. A model of good wishes for our friends.

1. They include personal piety. The person who is spoken of prays, goes to the sanctuary, and offers sacrifice. We must wish our friend grace.

2. They point upward. The blessings are distinctly recognised as divine.

3. They do not exclude trouble.

4. They are eminently spiritual. Acceptance, etc.

Ver. 3. God's ceaseless respect to the sacrifice of Jesus.

Ver. 3-4. The great privilege of this fourfold acceptance in the Beloved.

4 May he give you the desire of your heart

and make all your plans succeed.

BAR�ES, “Grant thee according to thine own heart - According to thy wishes; according to the desires of thy heart.And fulfil all thy counsel - All that thou hast designed or undertaken in the matter;

that is, may he enable thee to execute thy purpose.

CLARKE, “Grant thee according to thine own heart - May God give thee whatsoever thou art setting thy heart upon, and accomplish all thy desires! This was probably the prayer of the high priest.

GILL, “Grant thee according to thine own heart,.... Which is to see his seed, the travail of his soul, and to have the pleasure of the Lord prosper in his hand; to have all his people called, preserved, and glorified;

and fulfil all thy counsel; whatever was agreed upon in the council and covenant of peace between him and his Father, relating to his own glory, and the salvation of his people.

HE�RY, “That God would crown all his enterprises and noble designs for the public welfare with the desired success (Psa_20:4): The Lord grant thee according to thy own heart. This they might in faith pray for, because they knew David was a man after God's own heart, and would design nothing but what was pleasing to him. Those who make it their business to glorify God may expect that God will, in one way or other, gratify them: and those who walk in his counsel may promise themselves that he will fulfil theirs. Thou shalt devise a thing and it shall be established unto thee.

JAMISO�, “thy counsel — or plan.

E-SWORD, ““Grant thee according to thine own heart, and fulfil all thy counsel.” Christ's desire and counsel were both set upon the salvation of his people; the church of old desired for him good speed in his design, and the church in these latter days, with all her heart desires the complete fulfilment of his purpose. In Christ Jesus sanctified souls may appropriate this verse as a promise; they shall have their desire, and their plans to glorify their Master shall succeed. We may have our own will when our will is God's will. This was always the case with our Lord, and yet he said, “not as I will, but as thou wilt.” What need for submission in our case; if it was necessary to him, how much more for us!

SPURGEO�, “Ver. 4. Grant thee ACCORDING to thine own heart, and fulfil all

thy counsel. Christ's desire and counsel were both set upon the salvation of his people; the church of old desired for him good speed in his design, and the church in these latter days, with all her heart desires the complete fulfilment of his purpose. In Christ Jesus sanctified souls may appropriate this verse as a promise; they shall have their desire, and their plans to glorify their Master shall succeed. We may have our own will, when our will is God's will. This was always the case with our Lord, and yet he said, "not as I will, but as thou wilt." What need for submission in our case; if it was necessary to him, how much more for us?EXPLANATORY NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS

Ver. 1-5. See Psalms on "Psalms 20:1" for further information.

Ver. 4. Grant thee according to thine own heart, and fulfil all thy counsel. Let us here call to mind the zealous and earnest desire of the Redeemer to accomplish his work, "I have a baptism to be baptised with; and how am I straitened till it be accomplished." Lu 12:50. "With desire I have desired to eat this passover with you before I suffer" (Lu 22:15); that he might leave a memorial of his sufferings and death, for the strengthening and refreshing of their souls. These earnest desires and anticipations did the Father satisfy, as of one with whom he was well pleased. W. Wilson.

Ver. 4. Fulfil all thy counsel; whatever was agreed upon in the counsel and covenant of peace between him and his Father, relating to his own glory, and the salvation of his people. John Gill.

Ver. 4. Fulfil all thy counsel. Answer thee, ad cardinem desiderii, as a father, Augustine, expresses it; let it be unto thee even as thou wilt. Sometimes God doth not only grant a man's prayer, but fulfils his counsel; that is, in that very way, by that very means, which his judgment pitched upon in his thoughts.John Trapp.

HINTS TO THE VILLAGE PREACHER

Ver. 3-4. The great privilege of this fourfold acceptance in the Beloved.

5 May we shout for joy over your victory

and lift up our banners in the name of our God.

May the Lord grant all your REQUESTS.

BAR�ES, “We will rejoice in thy salvation - According to the idea of the psalm suggested in the introduction, this is a response of the king and those associated with him in going forth to battle. It expresses the joy which they would have in the expected deliverance from danger, and their conviction that through his strength they would be able to obtain it. The word salvation here means deliverance; to wit, from the anticipated danger. The phrase implies that God would interpose to save them; it expresses alike their confidence in that, and the fact that such a deliverance would fill their hearts with joy and rejoicing.And in the name of our God - This indicates a sense of dependence on God, and

also that the enterprise undertaken was in order to promote his honor and glory. It was not in their own strength, nor was it to promote the purposes of conquest and the ends of ambition; it was that God might be honored, and it was with confidence of success derived from his anticipated aid.

We will set up our banners - We will erect our standards; or, as we should say, we will unfurl our flag. All people, when they go to war, have standards or banners, whether flags or some other ensigns, around which they rally; which they follow; under which they fight; and which they feel bound to defend. Each nation has its own standard; but it is difficult to determine what precisely was the form of the standards used among the ancient Hebrews. Military standards, however, were early used (compare Num_1:52;

Num_2:2-3, Num_2:10, Num_2:18, Num_2:25; Num_10:14, Num_10:25), and indeed were necessary whenever armies were mustered for war, For the forms of ancient standards, see the article in Kitto’s Cyclopaedia of the Bible, “Standards.”

The Lord fulfil all thy petitions - The prayers offered in connection with the sacrifice referred to in Psa_20:3 (compare Psa_20:4). This, according to the view suggested in the introduction, is the response of the people, expressing their desire that the king might be successful in what he had undertaken, and that the prayers which had been offered for success might be answered.

CLARKE, “We will rejoice in thy salvation - We expect help from thee alone; it is in thy cause we engage; and to thee, as our war is a just one, we consecrate our banners, inscribed with thy name. It is said that the Maccabees had their name from the

inscription on their banners; which was taken from Exo_15:11, מי�כמכה�באלם�יהוה mi�

camochah�baelim�Yehovah, “Who is like unto thee, O Lord, among the gods?” The word

being formed from the initial letters מ M, כ� C, ב B, י I, מכבי Ma�Ca�B�I, whence Maccabeus and Maccabees.The words of this verse were spoken by David and his officers; immediately after which

I suppose the high priest to have added, The Lord fulfill all thy petitions!

GILL, “We will rejoice in thy salvation,.... That is, "so will we", &c. or "that we may" (p), &c. or "let us"; these words, with what follow, point at the end of the church's requests, and what she resolved to do upon the accomplishment of the above things; for instance, she would rejoice in the salvation of the Messiah; meaning either the salvation and deliverance from death and the grave, and all other enemies, which he himself is possessed of, and which enters into, and is the occasion of the joy of his people; for not his sufferings and death only, but chiefly his resurrection from the dead, session at God's right hand, and intercession for them, cause the triumph of faith in him, and further the joy of it, Rom_8:33; or else the salvation he is the author of, which being so great, so suitable, so complete and perfect, and an everlasting one; is matter of joy to all sensible of their need of it, and who have a comfortable hope of interest in it;

and in the name of our God we will set up our banners; either as a preparation for war; see Jer_51:27; so when Caesar (q) set up his banner, it was a sign to his soldiers to run to their arms and prepare to fight; and then the sense is, putting our trust in the Lord, relying on his strength, and not on our own, we will cheerfully and courageously engage with all his and our enemies, sin, Satan, and the world; as good soldiers of Christ, we will endure hardness, fight his battles under the banners of the Lord of hosts, in whose service we are enlisted; or as a sign of victory, when standards were set up, and flags hung out (r); see Jer_50:2; and then the meaning is, Christ, the great Captain of our salvation, having obtained a complete victory over all enemies, and made us more than conquerors thereby, we will set up our banners, hang out the flag, and in his name triumph over sin, Satan, the world, death, and hell;

the Lord fulfil all thy petitions: the same as in Psa_20:4; this is put here to show that the church will be in such a frame as before described, when the Lord shall have fulfilled all the petitions of his Anointed; of which she had a full assurance, as appears

from the following words.

HE�RY, “ What confidence they had of an answer of peace to these petitions for themselves and their good king (Psa_20:5): “We will rejoice in thy salvation. We that are subjects will rejoice in the preservation and prosperity of our prince;” or, rather, “In thy salvation, O God! in thy power and promise to save, will we rejoice; that is it which we depend upon now, and which, in the issue, we shall have occasion greatly to rejoice in.” Those that have their eye still upon the salvation of the Lord shall have their hearts filled with the joy of that salvation: In the name of our God will we set up our banners. 1. “We will wage war in his name; we will see that our cause be good and make his glory our end in every expedition; we will ask counsel at his mouth, and take him along with us; we will follow his direction, implore his aid and depend upon it, and refer the issue to him.” David went against Goliath in the name of the Lord of hosts, 1Sa_17:45. (2.) “We will celebrate our victories in his name. When we lift up our banners in triumph, and set up our trophies, it shall be in the name of our God; he shall have all the glory of our success, and no instrument shall have any part of the honour that is due to him.”In singing this we ought to offer up to God our hearty good wishes to the good

government we are under and to the prosperity of it. But we may look further; these prayers for David are prophecies concerning Christ the Son of David, and in him they were abundantly answered; he undertook the work of our redemption, and made war upon the powers of darkness. In the day of trouble, when his soul was exceedingly sorrowful, the Lord heard him, heard him in that he feared (Heb_5:7), sent him help out of the sanctuary, sent an angel from heaven to strengthen him, took cognizance of his offering when he made his soul an offering for sin, and accepted his burnt-sacrifice, turned it to ashes, the fire that should have fastened upon the sinner fastening upon the sacrifice, with which God was well pleased. And he granted him according to his own heart, made him to see of the travail of his soul, to his satisfaction, prospered his good pleasure in his hand, fulfilled all his petitions for himself and us; for him the Father heareth always and his intercession is ever prevailing.

JAMISO�, “salvation — that wrought and experienced by him.set up our banners — (Num_2:3, Num_2:10). In usual sense, or, as some render,

“may we be made great.”

HAWKER, “This is a blessed triumph of faith. And the people of God do already celebrate the victories of Jesus, and their victories in him, from their oneness with Christ, even in the wilderness below. Hence the Church is seen as coming up out of it, fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners. Son_6:10.

E-SWORD, ““We will rejoice in thy salvation.” In Jesus there is salvation; it is his own, and hence it is called thy salvation; but it is ours to receive and ours to rejoice in. We should fixedly resolve that come what may, we will rejoice in the saving arm of the Lord Jesus. The people in this Psalm, before their king went to battle, felt sure of victory, and therefore began to rejoice beforehand; how much more ought we to do this who have seen the victory completely won! Unbelief begins weeping for the funeral before the man is dead; why should not faith commence piping before the dance of victory begins? Buds are beautiful, and promises not yet fulfilled are worthy to be admired. If joy were more general among the Lord's people, God would be more glorified among men; the happiness of the subjects is the honour of the sovereign. “And in the name of our God we

will set up our banners.” We lift the standard of defiance in the face of the foe, and wave the flag of victory over the fallen adversary. Some proclaim war in the name of one king and some of another but the faithful go to war in Jesus' name, the name of the incarnate God, Immanuel, God with us. The times are evil at present, but so long as Jesus lives and reigns in his church we need not furl our banners in fear, but advance them with sacred courage.

“Jesus' tremendous namePuts all our foes to flight;

Jesus, the meek, the angry LambA lion is in fight.”

The church cannot forget that Jesus is her advocate before the throne, and therefore she sums up the desires already expressed in the short sentence, “The Lord fulfil all thy petitions.” Be it never forgotten that among those petitions is that choice one, “Father, I will that they also whom thou hast given me be with me where I am.”

CALVI�, “5.That we may rejoice in thy salvation. This verse may be explained in two other

ways, besides the sense it bears according to the translation which I have given. Some consider it to be a prayer, as if it had been said, Lord, make us to rejoice. Others think that the faithful, after

having finished their prayer, encourage themselves to entertain good hope; (474) or rather, being

already inspired with an assured hope of success, they begin to sing, so to speak, of the victory, even as it is usual with David to intermingle such kind of rejoicings with his prayers, thereby to stir

up himself to CONTINUE with the more alacrity in prayer. But upon considering the whole more

carefully, my opinion is, that what is meant to be expressed is the effect or fruit which would result from the bestowment of the grace and favor of God, for which the people prayed; and, therefore, I have thought it necessary to supply the particle that, in the beginning of the verse. The faithful, as an argument to obtain the favor of God towards their king, set forth the joy which they would all experience in common, in seeing it exercised towards him, and the thanksgiving which they would

with one ACCORD render for it. The import of their language is, It is not for the preservation and

welfare of one man that we are solicitous; it is for the safety and well-being of the whole Church. The expression, In thy salvation, may be referred to God as well as to the king; for the salvation which God bestows is often called the salvation of God; but the context requires that it should be rather understood of the king. The people lived “ the shadow of the king,” to use the words of Jeremiah, (Lam_4:20;) and, therefore, the faithful now testify, that as long as he is safe and in prosperity, they will all be joyful and happy. At the same time, to distinguish their joy from the heathen dancings and rejoicings, they declare that they will set up their banners in the name of God; for the Hebrew word דגל, dagal, here used, means to set or lift up a banner. The meaning is, that the faithful, in grateful acknowledgement of the grace of God, will celebrate his praises and triumph in his name.

(474) Meaning, “ will rejoice in thy salvation, and in the name of our God will we set up our

banners.”

SPURGEO�, “Ver. 5. We will rejoice in thy salvation. In Jesus there is salvation; it is his own,

and hence it is called thy salvation; but it is ours to receive and ours to rejoice in. We should fixedly resolve that come what may, we will rejoice in the saving arm of the Lord Jesus. The people in this psalm, before their king went to battle, felt sure of victory, and therefore began to rejoice beforehand; how much more ought we to do this who have seen the victory completely won! Unbelief begins weeping for the funeral before the man is dead; why should not faith commence piping before the dance of victory begins? Buds are beautiful, and promises not yet fulfilled are worthy to be admired. If joy were more general among the Lord's people, God would be more

glorified among men; the happiness of the subjects is the honour of the sovereign.And in the name of our God we will set up our banners. We lift the standard of defiance in the face of the foe, and wave the flag of victory over the fallen adversary. Some proclaim war in the name of one king, and some of another, but the faithful go to war in Jesu's name, the name of the incarnate God, Immanuel, God with us. The times are evil at present, but so long as Jesus lives and reigns in his church we need not furl our banners in fear, but advance them with sacred courage.

"Jesu's tremendous name

Puts all our foes to FLIGHT ; Jesus, the meek, the angry LambA lion is in fight."

The church cannot forget that Jesus is her advocate before the throne, and therefore she sums up the desires already expressed in the short sentence,

The Lord fulfil all thy petitions. Be it never forgotten that among those petitions is that choice one, "Father, I will that they also whom thou hast given me be with me where I am."

EXPLANATORY NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS

Ver. 1-5. See Psalms on "Psalms 20:1" for further information.

Ver. 1,5. See Psalms on "Psalms 20:1" for further information.

Ver. 5. (first clause). Whosoever do partake with Christ's subjects in trouble, shall share with them also in the joy of their deliverance; therefore it is said, We will rejoice in thy salvation. David Dickson.

Ver. 5. In the name of our God. As those cried out, Jude 7:20, "The sword of the Lord and of Gideon; "and as we have it in Joshua 6:20, "And the people shouted, and the walls of Jericho fell down; "and king Abiah, crying out with his men in the same, killed five hundred thousand of the children of Israel; and so now also, ACCORDING to the military custom in our day, the soldiers boast in the name and glory of their general, in order to encourage themselves against their enemies. And it is just this custom that the present verse is now teaching, only in a godly and religious manner. Martin Luther.Ver. 5. In the name of our God we will set up our banners. The banners formerly so much used were a part of military equipage, borne in times of war to assemble, direct, distinguish, and encourage the troops. They might possibly be used for other purposes also. Occasions of joy, splendid processions, and especially a royal habitation, might severally be distinguished in this way. The words of the psalmist may perhaps be wholly figurative: but if they should be literally understood, the allusion of erecting a banner in the name of the Lord, acknowledging his glory, and imploring his favour, might be justified from an existing practice. Certain it is that we find this custom prevalent on this very principle in other places, into which it might originally have been introduced from Judea. Thus Mr. Turner (Embassy to Thibet, p. 31), says, "I was told that it was a custom with the Soobah to ascend the hill every month, when he sets up a white flag, and performs some religious ceremonies, to conciliate the favour of a dewata, or invisible being, the genius of the place, who is said to hover about the summit, dispensing at his will, good and evil to every thing around him." Samuel Burder's "Oriental Customs, "1812.

Ver. 5. In the name of our God we will set up our banners. In all religious as well as warlike processions the people carry banners. Hence, on the pinnacles of their sacred cars, on the domes or gateways of their temples, and on the roof of a new house, may be seen the banner of the caste of sect, floating in the air. Siva the Supreme, also, is described as having a banner in the celestial world. Joseph Robert's "Oriental Illustrations".

Ver. 5. In the name of our God we will set up our banners. 1. We will wage war in his name, we will see that our cause be good, and make his glory our end in every expedition; we will ask counsel at his mouth, and take him along with us; we will follow his conduct, implore his aid, and depend upon it, and refer the issue to him. David went against Goliath in the name of the Lord of hosts. 1Sa 17:45. 2. We will celebrate our victories in his name. When "we lift up our banners" in triumph, and set up our trophies, it shall be "in the name of our God, "he shall have all the glory of our success, and no instrument shall have any part of the honour that is due to him. Matthew Henry.

Ver. 5. We will set up our banners. Confession of Christ, as the only name whereby we can be saved, is the "banner" which distinguishes his faithful people. O that this confession were more distinct, more pure, more zealous, in those who seem to be his followers, then would they be more united, more bold, in the profession of their religion, more successful in the cause of Christ, terrible as an army with "banners."Song of Solomon 5:4. W. Wilson.

Ver. 5. Our banners. Will you know the staff, the colours, and the flag or streamer of this ensign? Why, the staff is his cross, the colours are blood and water, and the streamer the gospel, or preaching of them to the world. The staff that carried the colours, was of old time fashioned like a cross, a cross bar near the top there was, from which the flag or streamer hung; so as it were prefiguring, that all the hosts and armies of the nations were one day to be gathered under the banner of the cross, to which soldiers should daily flow out of all the nations and kingdoms of the earth. Mark Frank, 1613-1664.

Ver. 5. The Lord fulfil all thy petitions, for thyself and for others, now that thou sittest on the right

hand of the Father, pleading for us and showing thy side and thy wounds. Dionysius, QUOTED by Isaac Williams.HINTS TO THE VILLAGE PREACHER

Ver. 5. Joy in salvation, to be resolved on and practised.

Ver. 5. Setting up the banner. Open avowal of allegiance, declaration of war, index of perseverance, claim of possession, signal of triumph.

Ver. 5. (last clause). The prevalence of our Lord's intercession, and the acceptance of our prayers through him.

PULPIT, “The safeguards of prayer.

"The Lord fulfil all thy petitions." An amazingly bold wish! Especially if you read it in the light

of Psa_20:4, "Grant thee thy heart's desire!" It might be the worst wish we could express—even for

a good man—that God would grant him all he desires. It is written of the rebellious, ungrateful

Israelites, "He gave them their own desire." But it was their ruin (Psa_78:29). We may be conscious

of desires springing up in our own heart, even dwelling deep there, which, though we do not know

them to be wrong, we ourselves would scarcely venture to put into our prayers. Nevertheless, this

bold wish is not larger than our Saviour's promise to prayer (Mat_21:22; Joh_14:13, Joh_14:14).

The text, therefore, suggests—

I. GOD'S INFINITE POWER TO ANSWER PRAYER. Nature, with its innumerable forms, mighty

forces, all-comprehending laws, undisclosed secrets, is his. He designed, created, controls it. All

hearts and lives are in his hand. All holy creatures do his will. With God all things are possible

(Rom_8:28). To some minds, amazing difficulty and doubt beset this glorious fact, that God hears

and answers prayer. The special stumbling-block, the objection most frequently urged, is that God

works by law—governs all nature by unchanging law. Of course he does. So does man work by

law; and, instead of governing, is governed by, the laws of nature. What then? This does not hinder

men from answering prayer—granting, every minute, the requests of children, friends, customers,

clients. Can anything, seriously considered, be more absurd than to suppose that God cannot do

what he has enabled us to do?—that he has so made his universe that he cannot manage it;

though, so far as our needs require, we can? Or is it anything less than childish narrowness of

thought to suppose that, because we do not understand how the thing asked for can be done—the

healing of a disease, e.g; or averting a danger, or giving a prosperous wind to a ship, or converting

a sinner—therefore God does not know how to effect it? If there is one lesson the discoveries of

modern science should teach, it is that our ignorance is not the measure of possibility, It is no

business of ours to scheme how God can grant our prayers; only to see to it, as far as we can, that

they are such as he can wisely, justly, and for our true welfare, grant. Infinite power, guided by

infinite wisdom and love, suffices. This brings us to speak of—

II. THE LIMITS AND SAFEGUARDS OF PRAYER. "All thy petitions" would be too bold and rash a

wish, were there no tacit limitation, no fence of safety in the background. We cannot possibly be

certain what is best for ourselves, even in the near future; still less how the granting of our petition

would affect others. Much more ignorant are we of far-off results. Many a Christian locks back on

the unwise prayers he offered, with shuddering thankfulness that his request was denied. Yet, at the

time, it seemed so reasonable. In this ignorance we should not dare to pray—the hazard would be

too great—if we knew that God would give what we asked, whether it were wise or foolish, right or

wrong. "With God all things are possible;" but it is certain he will do nothing but what is wise and

good. He will not grant his child's request to his ruin, or to the breaking off of his own gracious

purpose (Psa_138:8). It is ours to ask, his to judge. Therefore we may ask boldly, never forgetting,"

Not as I will, hut as thou wilt."

III. THE PLEA AND WARRANT OF OUR PRAYERS IS THE ALL-PREVAILING INTERCESSION

OF CHRIST. The title "Anointed" (Psa_20:6)—"Messiah"—though often applied to David and his

descendants, suggests a higher application (as in Psa_2:7, Psa_2:8). So the best Jewish as well as

Christian interpreters (comp. Joh_2:1-25 :41, 42). His prayers must always be in perfect ACCORD

with both the mind and the will of God, his wisdom and his goodness. When he says to the

weakest disciple, "I have prayed for thee' (Luk_22:32), that disciple cannot perish. Our weak,

unworthy prayers are mighty and acceptable in his Name (Joh_15:7; Joh_16:23, Joh_16:24). The

glory of heaven is waiting to fulfil his prayer (Joh_17:20-24).

6 �ow this I know:

The Lord gives victory to his anointed.

He answers him from his heavenly sanctuary

with the victorious power of his right hand.

BAR�ES, “Now know I that the Lord saveth his anointed - Saveth, or will save, the king, who had been anointed, or consecrated by anointing to that office. Compare the note at Psa_2:2. This, according to the view given in the introduction, is the response of the king. It expresses his confident assurance of success from the interest which the people had expressed in the enterprise, as referred to in the previous verses, and from the earnestness of their prayers in his behalf and in behalf of the enterprise. They had manifested such zeal in the cause, and they had offered so earnest petitions, that he could not doubt that God would smile favorably on the undertaking, and would grant success.He will hear him from his holy heaven - Margin, “from the heaven of his

holiness.” So the Hebrew. Compare 1Ch_21:26; 2Ch_7:14; Neh_9:27-28; Psa_14:2; Psa_102:19. heaven is represented as the dwelling-place of God, and it is there that he hears and answers our prayers. The meaning of the word “hear” in this passage is, that he will “favorably hear,” or regard; that is, that he will “answer” the petition, or grant the request.

With the saving strength - That is, he will interpose with that saving strength. Literally, “with the strengths of salvation.” The answer to the prayer will be manifest in the strength or power put forth by him to save.

Of his right hand - The right hand is the instrument by which mainly we execute our purposes; and by constant use it becomes in fact more fully developed, and is stronger than the left band. Hence, it is used to denote “strength.” See Exo_15:6; Jdg_5:26; see Psa_17:7, note; Psa_18:35, note.

CLARKE, “Now know I that the Lord saveth his anointed - These are probably the words of the priest after the victim had been consumed; and those signs had accompanied the offering, which were proofs of God’s acceptance of the sacrifice; and, consequently, that the campaign would have a successful issue. David is God’s anointed; therefore, he is under his especial care. He will hear him. David must continue to pray, and to depend on God; else he cannot expect continual salvation. David has vast multitudes of enemies against him; he, therefore, requires supernatural help. Because of this, God will hear him with the saving strength of his right hand.The Hand of God is his power, the Right hand, his almighty power; the Strength of his

right hand, his almighty power in action; the Saving strength of his right hand, the miraculous effects wrought by his almighty power brought into action. This is what David was to expect; and it was the prospect of this that caused him and his officers to exult as they do in the following verse.

GILL, “Now know I that the Lord saveth his Anointed,.... Not David, though he was the anointed of the God of Jacob, and was anointed with material oil to be king of Israel by Samuel, at the express order of God himself; but David is not here speaking of

himself, nor the church of him, but of the Messiah; anointed by Jehovah king over his holy hill of Zion, with the oil of gladness, or the Holy Spirit. The church in prayer rises in her faith, and is strongly assured of the salvation of the Messiah; that though his troubles would be many and great, he should be delivered out of them all; should be heard and helped in the day of salvation, and be freed from the sorrows of death and hell, he should be encompassed with; that he should be raised from the dead; have all power in heaven and earth given him; ascend on high, and triumph over all his enemies; and all his people, all the members of his body, should be saved through him, which is in a sense the salvation of himself;

he will hear him from his holy heaven; where his throne and temple are, which is the habitation of his holiness, whither the prayers of the Messiah when on earth ascended, where they were received, heard, and answered. Before the church prays that he might be heard, now she believes he would; and that,

with the saving strength of his right hand; that is, by the exertion of his mighty power, in strengthening him as man to bear up under his sorrows, go through his work, and finish it; by upholding him with his right hand while engaged in it, and by raising him up from the dead with it, and setting him down at it in the highest heavens.

HE�RY, “Here is, I. Holy David himself triumphing in the interest he had in the prayers of good people (Psa_20:6): “Now know I (I that pen the psalm know it) that the Lord saveth his anointed, because he hath stirred up the hearts of the seed of Jacob to pray for him.” Note, It bodes well to any prince and people, and may justly be taken as a happy presage, when God pours upon them a spirit of prayer. If he see us seeking him, he will be found of us; if he cause us to hope in his word, he will establish his word to us. Now that so many who have an interest in heaven are praying for him he doubts not but that God will hear him, and grant him an answer of peace, which will, 1. Take its rise from above: He will hear him from his holy heaven, of which the sanctuary was a type (Heb_9:23), from the throne he hath prepared in heaven, of which the mercy-seat was a type. 2. It shall take its effect here below: He will hear him with the saving strength of his right hand; he will give a real answer to his prayers, and the prayers of his friends for him, not by letter, nor by word of mouth, but, which is much better, by his right hand, by the saving strength of his right hand. He will make it to appear that he hears him by what he does for him.

JAMISO�, “He speaks as if suddenly assured of a hearing.his anointed — not only David personally, but as the specially appointed head of His

Church.

his holy heaven — or, literally, “the heavens of His holiness,” where He resides (Psa_2:6; Psa_11:4).

saving ... hand — His power which brings salvation.

HAWKER, “I would beg the Reader not to overlook the change of person here made from we to I. The verse before evidently referred to the whole church of Christ. And who is this I, but the glorious Head himself? Doth not Jesus tell his people how sure he is of being heard, and being successful? See a beautiful instance of it in the days of his flesh, Joh_11:41-42.

E-SWORD, ““Now know I that the Lord sayeth his anointed.” We live and learn, and what we learn we are not ashamed to acknowledge. He who thinks he knows everything will miss the joy of finding out new truth; he will never be able to cry, “now know I,” for he is so wise in his own conceit that he knows all that can be revealed and more. Souls conscious of ignorance shall be taught of the Lord, and rejoice as they learn. Earnest prayer frequently leads to assured confidence. The church pleaded that the Lord Jesus might win the victory in his great struggle, and now by faith she sees him saved by the omnipotent arm. She evidently finds a sweet relish in the fragrant title of “anointed;” she thinks of him as ordained before all worlds to his great work, and then endowed with the needful qualifications by being anointed of the Spirit of the Lord; and this is evermore the choicest solace of the believer, that Jehovah himself hath anointed Jesus to be a Prince and a Saviour, and that our shield is thus the Lord's own anointed. “He will hear him from his holy heaven with the saving strength of his right hand.” It is here asserted confidently that God's holiness and power would both come to the rescue of the Saviour in his conflict, and surely these two glorious attributes found congenial work in answering the sufferer's cries. Since Jesus was heard, we shall be; God is in heaven, but our prayers can scale those glorious heights; those heavens are holy, but Jesus purifies our prayers, and so they gain admittance; our need is great, but the divine arm is strong, and all its strength is “saving strength;” that strength, moreover, is in the hand which is most used and which is used most readily - the right hand. What encouragements are these for pleading saints!

ELLICOTT, “(6) Now know I.—Better, now know I that Jehovah hath saved his anointed, i.e., the king who is the subject of the poem, it being out of keeping with the rest of the poem to understand “Israel” or the “ideal” king here. The now is emphatic. After seeing the sacrifice performed, and feeling sure of its acceptance, this confidence is expressed.From his holy heaven.—The prayer in Psalms 20:2 had mentioned the sanctuary as the residence

of the Divine power, and its symbol, the ark, being DEPOSITED there (1 Samuel 4:4). The inspiration now expresses a yet higher conviction. The manifestation of succour will not be through any earthly symbol of God’s might, but immediately from His dwelling-place on high.With the saving.—Better, with the might of the help of.

LANGE, “[Str. III. Psa_20:6. Perowne: “The hope suddenly changes into certainty. Now know I that

Jehovah hath saved, hath given victory. The singer speaks in the full assurance of faith, that the

prayer is heard, and as if he already saw the victory gained. The prayer had been (Psa_20:1-2) that

God would hear and send help from the earthly sanctuary or Zion. Now the answer is said to come

from His holy heaven. For if God then condescended to dwell in visible glory among men, yet He

would teach His people that He is not limited by the bounds of time and space. He is not like the gods of the heathen, the god of one city or country. He sends help out of Zion, but the heaven of heavens cannot contain Him (see the recognition of this truth in Solomon’s prayer,1Ki_8:27, etc.). Calvin sees expressed in the earthly sanctuary made by hands the grace and condescension of

God to His people; in the heavenly, His infinite power, greatness, and majesty.”—Mighty deeds [A.

V. strength].—Delitzsch “ â◌ּ◌ְáå◌ּøåֹú means here not the fullness of strength (comp. Psalms 90),

but the exhibition of strength (Psa_106:2; Psa_145:4; Psa_150:2;Isa_63:15), by which His right hand works salvation, that is, victory, for them who are battling.”

CALVI�, “6.Now I know. Here there follows grateful rejoicing, in which the faithful declare that

they have experienced the goodness of God in the preservation of the king. To this there is at the

same time added a doctrine of faith, namely, that God showed by the effect that he put forth his power in maintaining the kingdom of David, because it was founded upon his calling. The meaning is, It appears from certain experience, that God is the guardian of the kingdom which he himself set up, and of which he is the founder. For David is called Messiah, or anointed, that the faithful might be persuaded that he was a lawful and sacred king, whom God had testified, by outward anointing, to be chosen by himself. Thus, then, the faithful ascribe to the grace of God the deliverance which had been wrought for David from the greatest dangers, and at the same time, particularly mention the cause of this to be, that God had determined to protect and defend him who, by his commandment, had been anointed king over his people. They confirm still more clearly their hope, with respect to the future, in the following clause: God will hear him out of heaven I do not translate the verb which is here used into the past tense, but retain the future: for I have no doubt, that from the experience which God had already given them of his goodness, they concluded that it would be

hereafter exercised in the CONTINUAL preservation of the kingdom. Here the Psalmist makes

mention of another sanctuary, (477) namely, a heavenly. As God then graciously vouchsafed to

descend among the Israelites, by the ark of the covenant, in order to make himself more familiarly known to them; so, on the other hand, he intended to draw the minds of his people upwards to himself, and thereby to prevent them from forming carnal and earthly conceptions of his character, and to teach them that he was greater than the whole world. Thus, under the visible sanctuary, which was made with hands, there is set forth the fatherly goodness of God, and his familiarity with his people; while, under the heavenly sanctuary, there is shown his infinite power, dominion, and majesty. The words, In the mightiness of the salvation, mean his mighty salvation, or his saving power. Thus, in the very expression there is a transposing of the words. The sense comes to this: May God by his wonderful power, preserve the king who was anointed by his commandment! The Holy Spirit, who dictated this prayer, saw well that Satan would not suffer David to live in peace, but would put forth all his efforts to oppose him, which would render it necessary for him to be sustained by more than human power. I do not, however, disapprove of the other exposition which I have marked on the margin, according to which the faithful, for their greater encouragement, set before themselves this truth, that the salvation of God’ right hand is in mightiness; in other words, is sufficiently strong to overcome all impediments.

SPURGEO�, “Ver. 6. Now know I that the Lord saveth his anointed. We live and learn, and

what we learn we are not ashamed to acknowledge. He who thinks he knows everything will miss the joy of finding out new truth; he will never be able to cry, "now know I, "for he is so wise in his own conceit that he knows all that can be revealed and more. Souls conscious of ignorance shall be taught of the Lord, and rejoice as they learn. Earnest prayer frequently leads to assured confidence. The church pleaded that the Lord Jesus might win the victory in his great struggle, and now by faith she sees him saved by the omnipotent arm. She evidently finds a sweet relish in the fragrant title of "anointed; " she thinks of him as ordained before all worlds to his great work, and then endowed with the needful qualifications by being anointed of the Spirit of the Lord; and this is evermore the choicest solace of the believer, that Jehovah himself hath anointed Jesus to be a Prince and a Saviour, and that our shield is thus the Lord's own anointed.He will hear him from his holy heaven with the saving strength of his right hand. It is here asserted confidently that God's holiness and power would both come to the rescue of the Saviour in his conflict, and surely these two glorious attributes found congenial work in answering the sufferer's cries. Since Jesus was heard, we shall be; God is in heaven, but our prayers can scale those glorious heights; those heavens are holy, but Jesus purifies our prayers, and so they gain admittance; our need is great, but the divine arm is strong, and all its strength is "saving strength; "that strength, moreover, is in the hand which is most used and which is used most readily—the right hand. What encouragements are these for pleading saints!

EXPLANATORY NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS

Ver. 6. Now know I. A sudden change of number, speaking in the person of one, thereby to note the unity and consent of the people to this prayer, as though they had been all one, and uttered it all with one mouth.

The Lord will help his anointed; that is, his king, whom he hath established. See Ps 2:2 18:50.

And will hear him (see Psalms 20:1), from his sanctuary. One readeth it thus—"from the heavens of his holiness; "meaning, from heaven where his holiness dwelleth. Thomas Wilcocks.

Ver. 6. He will hear him. I would be glad of the prayers of all the churches of Christ; O that there were not a saint on earth but that I were by name in his morning and evening prayer (whosoever that art that readest, I beseech thee pray for me); but above all, let me have a property in those prayers and intercessions that are proper only to Christ; I am sure then I should never miscarry: Christ's prayers are heavenly, glorious, and very effectual. Isaac Ambrose, 1592-1674.

Ver. 6. His anointed. As priests, and sometimes kings and prophets, were among the Jews anointed to their offices, so our Saviour was anointed as a Prophet, to preach glad tidings to the meek; as a Priest, to bind up the broken hearted; and as a King to deliver the captives. As the unction means designation and ordination, it is properly applied to the divine person of the Mediator: he is spoken of as God, who was "anointed with the oil of gladness above his fellows." Hebrews 1:8-9. As the anointing with the Holy Spirit signifies the gifts and aids of the Holy Spirit, it terminates upon his human nature only, and not his divine person, which has all the perfections in itself, and cannot properly, in the sense last mentioned, be said to be anointed with the Holy Spirit. But yet as the human nature is taken into a subsistence in his divine Person, the anointed may properly enough be predicated and affirmed of his Person. The unction of our Redeemer has a great stress laid upon it in Scripture. And therefore we read, "Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ, is born of God." "Who is a liar but he that denies that Jesus is the Christ?" 1Jo 5:1 2:22 . Our Saviour's enemies were sensible of this, when they made an order, that if "any man did confess that he was Christ, he should be put out out of the synagogue." John 9:22. Our Saviour's anointing wassuperior to that of any other, and more excellent as to the work to which he was consecrated. The apostles and others, who are called his followers, had the Spirit by measure, but Christ without measure.He is "fairer than the sons of men" (Psalms 45:2); and had a glory as the "only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth" (John 1:14; John 1:16); and of his fullness the apostles and all others receive. Christ's anointing answers to that of Aaron his type; the precious ointment which was "poured upon his head, ran down to the skirts of his garments." Psalms 133:2. Our Saviour was so anointed, as to "fill all in all."Ephesians 1:23. He filleth all his members, and all their faculties, with all those measures of the Spirit, which they ever receive. Condensed from John Hurrion, 1675-1731.

HINTS TO THE VILLAGE PREACHER

Ver. 6. His anointed. Our Lord as the Anointed. When? With what unction? How? For what offices? etc.

Ver. 6. He will hear him. The ever prevalent Intercessor.

Ver. 6. God's saving strength; the strength of his most used and most skilful hand.

Ver. 6. (first clause). Now know I. The moment when faith in Jesus fills the soul. The time when assurance is given. The period when a truth gleams into the soul etc.

Psalms 20:7*

EXPOSITION

Ver. 6. Contrasts frequently bring out the truth vividly, and here the church sets forth the creature confidences of carnal men in contrast with her reliance upon the Prince Immanuel and the invisible Jehovah.

Some trust in chariots, and some in horses. Chariots and horses make an imposing show, and with their rattling, and dust, and fine caparisons, make so great a figure that vain man is much taken with them; yet the discerning eye of faith sees more in an invisible God than in all these. The most dreaded war engine of David's day was the war chariot, armed with scythes, which mowed down men like grass: this was the boast and glory of the neighbouring nations; but the saints considered the name of Jehovah to be a far better defence. As the Israelites might not keep horses, it was natural for them to regard the enemy's calvary with more than usual dread. It is, therefore, all the greater evidence of faith that the bold songster can here disdain even the horse of Egypt in comparison with the Lord of hosts. Alas, how many in our day who profess to be the Lord's are as

abjectly dependent upon their fellow men or upon an arm of flesh in some shape or other, as if they had never known the name of Jehovah at all. Jesus, be thou alone our rock and refuge, and never may we mar the simplicity of our faith.

We will remember the name of the Lord our God. "Our God" in covenant, who has chosen us and whom we have chosen; this God is our God. The name of our God is JEHOVAH, and this should never be forgotten; the self existent, independent, immutable, ever present, all filling I AM. Let us adore that matchless name, and never dishonour it by distrust or creature confidence. Reader, you must know it before you can remember it. May the blessed Spirit reveal it graciously to your soul!

7 Some trust in chariots and some in horses,

but we trust in the name of the Lord our God.

BAR�ES, “Some trust in chariots - This (see the introduction to the psalm) seems to be a “general chorus” of the king and the people, expressing the fullest confidence in God, and showing the true ground of their reliance. The general meaning is, that their entire trust was in God. This is put in strong contrast with others, who relied, some on their chariots, and some on their horses, while “they” relied alone on God. They who trusted in horses and in chariots would be overcome; they who trusted in God alone

would triumph. The word rendered chariots - רכב rekeb - means properly riding, and then a vehicle for “riding,” a wagon, a chariot. Here it refers to the war-chariot, or the vehicle for carrying armed men into battle. These furnished great advantages in war, by the speed with which they could be driven against an enemy, and by the facilities in fighting from them. They were usually very simple. They consisted of “a light pole suspended between and on the withers of a pair of horses, the after end resting on a light axle tree, with two low wheels. Upon the axle stood a light frame, open behind, and floored for the warrior and his charioteer, who both stood within. On the sides of the frame hung the war-bow, in its case; a large quiver with arrows and darts had commonly a particular sheath. In Persia, the chariots, elevated upon wheels of considerable diameter, had four horses abreast; and in early ages, there were occasionally hooks or scythes attached to the axles.” - Kitto, “Cyclo.” In early ages these constituted a main reliance in determining the result of a battle.And some in horses - Some in cavalry, commonly a very material reliance in war.

The use of horses in war was early known in the world, for we find mention of them in the earliest periods of history.

But we will remember the name of the Lord our God - That is, we will remember God - the name, as before remarked, often being used to denote the person.

The meaning is, We will not forget that our reliance is not on armies, but on God, the living God. Whatever instrumentality we may employ, we will remember always that our hope is in God, and that he only can give success to our arms.

CLARKE, “Some trust in chariots - The words of the original are short and emphatic: These in chariots; and these in horses; but we will record in the name of

Jehovah our God. Or, as the Septuagint, µεγαλυνθησοµεθα, “we shall be magnified.” Or, as the Vulgate, invocabimus, “we shall invoke the name of the Lord.” This and the following verse I suppose to be the words of David and his officers. And the mention of chariots and horses makes it likely that the war with the Ammonites and Syrians is that to which reference is made here; for they came against him with vast multitudes of horsemen and chariots. See 2Sa_10:6-8. According to the law, David could neither have chariots nor horses; and those who came against him with cavalry must have a very great advantage; but he saw that Jehovah his God was more than a match for all his foes, and in him he trusts with implicit confidence.

GILL, “Some trust in chariots, and some in horses,.... That is, in chariots and horses prepared for war; which, besides their use for carriage, did great annoyance to the enemy in battle, and were very terrible to them, and were greatly trusted in by those that possessed them, Deu_20:1; such chariots as were called "currus falcati", that had scythes at the sides of them, which being drove with fury among the infantry, cut them down as grass is mown with scythes; such the old Canaanites used, which were very terrible, Jos_17:16; and horses trained up for war do much execution in a battle by pawing and trampling; see Job_39:21; though these are vain things for safety, and not to be depended on, for salvation and victory are of the Lord, Psa_33:17; and such are the chariots and horses of the sun, and the idols in which the Gentiles trusted, 2Ki_23:11; and all external things in which men depend for salvation, as fleshly privileges, outward works of righteousness, morality, a profession of religion, a round of duties, &c. all which are disclaimed by those who know the way of life and salvation by Christ, Hos_14:3;

but we will remember the name of the Lord our God; not any of the names by which the Lord God is called, as Elohim, Elshaddai, Jehovah, and the like; though each of these are worthy of remembrance, and greatly serve to encourage faith in him; but rather the perfections of God, such as the goodness, wisdom, and power of God, which are to be remembered and confided in; and not the friendship of princes, the schemes of human policy, and the outward forces of strength; or else God himself is intended, whose name is himself, and is a strong tower to the righteous: and to remember him is to bear him in mind, and not forget him; to have the desires of the soul towards him, and to the remembrance of him; and to make mention of him, of his names, attributes, word, and works; which is both for his glory and for the encouragement of faith in him, both in ourselves and others; it is to call upon his name in times of trouble, and at all times, and also to trust in him and not in an arm of flesh; for it stands opposed to trusting in chariots and horses; and it is to call to mind past instances of his goodness, wisdom, and power, and be thankful for them, and make use of them to engage confidence in him; and which should be done from the consideration of his being God and not man, and of his being our God, our covenant God and Father.

HE�RY, “His people triumphing in God and their relation to him, and his revelation of himself to them, by which they distinguish themselves from those that live without God in the world. 1. See the difference between worldly people and godly people, in their confidences, Psa_20:7. The children of this world trust in second causes, and think all is well if those do but smile upon them; they trust in chariots and in horses, and the more of them they can bring into the field the more sure they are of success in their wars; probably David has here an eye to the Syrians, whose forces consisted much of chariots and horsemen, as we find in the history of David's victories over them, 2Sa_8:4; 2Sa_10:18. “But,” say the Israelites, “we neither have chariots and horses to trust to nor do we want them, nor, if we had them, would we build our hopes of success upon that; but we will remember, and rely upon, the name of the Lord our God, upon the relation we stand in to him as the Lord our God and the knowledge we have of him by his name,” that is, all that whereby he makes himself known; this we will remember and upon every remembrance of it will be encouraged. Note, those who make God and his name their praise may make God and his name their trust.

JAMISO�, “remember — or cause to remember, mention thankfully (1Sa_17:45; Psa_33:16).

HAWKER, “Now again the Church breaks out in her confidences, because of her Redeemer’s victory. And is it not so now? Do not some go down to the chariots of Egypt, and, trust the reeds there found, rather than the Rock of ages? Reader, doth not everyone do this, who is looking to an arm of flesh, instead of the Lord Jesus and his righteousness? See that solemn scripture, Jer_17:5-8.

SBC, “The Psalmist remembers the name of the Lord his God, not any one property or attribute of God, but the whole combination of Divine perfections. And he remembers this name, the expression implying, not a transient thought, but meditation, consideration; and yet the result of the recollection is gladness and confidence.I. When the mind gives itself to the contemplation of the Divine perfections, it launches on an ocean unfathomable and without a shore. But we may certify ourselves of truths which we cannot fathom or scan. And the Divine perfections, while we readily confess that they transcend all our powers, may be objects of our faith, of our study, of our adoration. Wheresoever there is the simple desire and the earnest endeavour to obey the Divine precepts, the properties of our Maker have only to be made the subject of careful remembrance, and they must furnish the materials of comfort.

II. We go on to admit that there are properties or attributes of God which, because they seem arrayed against sinful beings, can hardly be supposed to be the subjects of encouraging remembrance. The name of the Lord our God includes justice and holiness; and these are qualities from which we seem instinctively to shrink, as though we felt that they must necessarily be opposed to rebellious and polluted creatures. But the attributes of Deity meet and harmonise in the plan of our redemption. It is the Christian alone who can view God in every character and yet view Him without dread. The Christian, when he would remember the name of the Lord, may place himself beneath the shadow of the tree on which the Lord Jesus died.

III. The Psalmist’s reference would seem to be specially to seasons of fear and anxiety. In times of sorrow Christians call to remembrance their grief rather than God, the blow rather than the hand whence it comes; but let them call to mind the Divine attributes, the evidences which they have already had of God’s love, and the reasons which they

have for being persuaded that all things are ordered by Him so as to work together for good, and come trouble, come death, they may still exclaim, "Some trust in chariots, and some in horses; but enough for us that we can remember the name of the Lord our God."

H. Melvill, Penny Pulpit, No. 1593.

LANGE, “Psa_20:7. Some of chariots and some of horses, but we make mention of the name

of Jehovah our God.—Delitzsch: “According to the law Israel should have no standing army; the law for the king, Deu_17:16, denounces the keeping of many horses. So was it likewise under the judges and still under David; under Solomon already it changed, he procured for himself a great

number of horses and chariots. 1Ki_10:26-29. Psa_20:7 gives a very decisive confession of the time of David, that Israel’s boast against his enemies, especially the Syrians, is the firm defence and arms of the name of his God. David speaks similarly to Goliath, 1Sa_17:45.”—The A. V. does not

give the force and beauty of the original. Trust should not be inserted in the first clause, and remember does not give the idea of the second clause.

E-SWORD, “Contrasts frequently bring out the truth vividly, and here the church sets forth the creature-confidences of carnal men in contrast with her reliance upon the Prince Immanuel and the invisible Jehovah. “Some trust in chariots, and some in horses.” Chariots and horses make an imposing show, and with their rattling, and dust, and fine caparisons, make so great a figure that vain man is much taken with them; yet the discerning eye of faith sees more in an invisible God than in all these. The most dreaded war-engine of David's day was the war-chariot, armed with scythes, which mowed down men like grass: this was the boast and glory of the neighbouring nations; but the saints considered the name of Jehovah to be a far better defence. As the Israelites might not keep horses, it was natural for them to regard the enemy's cavalry with more than usual dread. It is, therefore, all the greater evidence of faith that the bold songster can here disdain even the horse of Egypt in comparison with the Lord of hosts. Alas, how many in our day who profess to be the Lord's are as abjectly dependent upon their fellow-men or upon an arm of flesh in some shape or other, as if they had never known the name of Jehovah at all. Jesus, be thou alone our rock and refuge, and never may we mar the simplicity of our faith. “We will remember the name of the Lord our God.” “Our God” in covenant, who has chosen us and whom we have chosen; this God is our God. The name of our God is Jehovah, and this should never be forgotten; the self-existent, independent, immutable, ever-present, all-filling I am. Let us adore that matchless name, and never dishonour it by distrust or creature-confidence. Reader, you must know it before you can remember it. May the blessed Spirit reveal it graciously to your soul!

CHARLES SIMEON, “TRUST IN GOD, THE MEANS OF SUCCESS

Psa_20:7. Some trust in chariots, and some in horses: but we will remember the name of the Lord

our God.

ASTONISHING is the success of united prayer: nor are any so situated as not to need the

intercessions of others. David, though so great and powerful, stood in need of them: and he here

records the benefit he received from them [Note: See, and QUOTE the whole preceding context.]

— — —

The Psalmist here records,

I. The different grounds of men’s confidence—

The generality make the creature their confidence—

[This prevailed universally among the heathen — — — And it too generally pervaded the Jewish

nation also — — — We too, in all our straits and difficulties, are prone to it; leaning to our

understanding — — — resting on our own resolutions — — — and undertaking every thing in a

dependence on self — — —]

The only proper ground of confidence is God—

[He alone is all-sufficient — — — With him every thing is easy — — — David abhorred the idea of

resting on any other [Note: Psa_121:1-2; Psa_11:1-4. Mark the spirit of these passages.] — — —

Hence he adopted the resolution in the text.]

II. The correspondent issues of their confidence—

Those who depend on the creature are disappointed—

[This has frequently been the case [Note: 1Ki_20:23.] — — — And it is only what may be expected

[Note: Psa_33:17.] — — — Creature-confidence arms God against us [Note: Isa_31:1;Isa_31:3.]

— — — and entails his curse on all who indulge it [Note: Jer_17:5-6.] — — —]

But those who depend on God succeed—

[So did Asa [Note: 2Ch_14:11-12.] — — — So did Jehoshaphat

[Note: 2Ch_20:12; 2Ch_20:15; 2Ch_20:20.] — — — So did Hezekiah [Note: 2Ch_32:7; 2Ch_32:21.]

— — — So did David [Note: ver. 8.] — — — And so shall all, even to the end of the world

[Note: Psa_34:22; Psa_125:1-2.] — — —]

Infer,

1. What obligations do we owe to God for the mercies we have now received [Note: Here bring

forward the particular circumstances for which the Thanksgiving is appointed.]! — — —

2. What shall not they receive who trust in the Lord Jesus Christ? — — —

CALVI�, “7.Some trust in chariots. I do not restrict this to the enemies of Israel, as is done by

other interpreters. I am rather inclined to think that there is here a comparison between the people of God and all the rest of the world. We see how natural it is to almost all men to be the more courageous and confident the more they possess of riches, power and military forces. The people of God, therefore, here protest that they do not place their hope, as is the usual way with men, in their military forces and warlike apparatus, but only in the aid of God. As the Holy Spirit here sets the assistance of God in opposition to human strength, it ought to be particularly noticed, that whenever our minds come to be occupied by carnal confidence, they fall at the same time into a forgetfulness of God. It is impossible for him, who promises himself victory by confiding in his own strength, to have his eyes turned towards God. The inspired writer, therefore, uses the word remember, to show, that when the saints betake themselves to God, they must cast off every thing which would hinder them from placing an exclusive trust in him. This remembrance of God serves two important purposes to the faithful. In the first place, however much power and resources they may possess, it

nevertheless WITHDRAWS them from all vain confidence, so that they do not expect any

success except from the pure grace of God. In the second place, if they are bereft and utterly destitute of all succor, it notwithstanding so strengthens and encourages them, that they call upon God both with confidence and constancy. On the other hand, when ungodly men feel themselves strong and powerful, being blinded with pride, they do not hesitate boldly to despise God; but when they are brought into circumstances of distress, they are so terrified as not to know what to become. In short, the Holy Spirit here recommends to us the remembrance of God, which, retaining its efficacy both in the want and in the abundance of power, subdues the vain hopes with which the flesh is wont to be inflated. As the verb נזכיר,nazkir, which I have translated we will remember, is in the conjugation hiphil, some render it transitively, we shall cause to remember. But it is no new thing in Hebrew for verbs to be used as neuter which are properly transitive; and, therefore, I have adopted the exposition which seems to me the most suitable to this passage.

COFFMAN, “Again, all the people take up the vocal declamation of this psalm in the last three verses."Some trust in chariots, etc." (Psalms 20:7). "Men who put their trust in chariots, horses and weapons of war and do not rely on the name of the Lord will surely be brought down."[12]

In all ages, it has been God who rules among the kingdoms of men and exalts over them whosoever is pleasing to Him (Daniel 4:25). Many an army equipped with the most advanced weapons of the day has fallen before far inferior forces, because it was the will of God. Biblical examples of this are the armies of Pharaoh in the Red Sea, and that of Sennacherib before the walls of Jerusalem, which "melted like snow in the glance of the Lord," as stated in Byron's immortal poem.

As noted above, this reference to Israel's not having chariots and horses is applicable only to the times prior to Solomon who vastly multiplied such instruments of ancient warfare.

Also, as Watkinson observed, "It was this attitude that nerved the youthful David in his victorious combat with Goliath (1 Samuel 17:45)."[13] The evident reference to that event, implicit in these words, also strongly favors the Davidic authorship of the psalm, concerning which Rawlinson said, "There is no reason to doubt the Davidic authorship, asserted in the title and admitted by most critics."[14]

"They are bowed down and fallen ... we are ... upright" (Psalms 20:8). This means merely that the enemy shall be defeated and humiliated and that Israel shall be triumphant and exalted.

"Save, Jehovah: Let the King answer us when we call." Dummelow favored the LLX rendition of this, which has, "O Lord, save the king: and answer us when we call."[15] However, we prefer the ASV, especially when the word "King" is capitalized, thus recognizing the Lord as

the true King of Israel.

SPURGEO�, “Ver. 7. Some trust in chariots, and some in horses: but we will remember the name of the Lord our God. About Michaelmas I was in the utmost extremity, and having gone out in very fine weather, I contemplated the azure heavens, and my heart was so strengthened in faith (which I do not ascribe to my own powers, but solely to the grace of God), that I thought within myself, "What an excellent thing it is when we have nothing, and can rely upon nothing, but yet are acquainted with the living God, who made heaven and earth, and place our confidence alone in him, which enables us to be so tranquil even in necessity!" Although I was well aware that I required something that very day, yet my heart was so strong in faith that I was cheerful, and of good courage. On coming home I was immediately waited upon by the overseer of the workmen and masons, who, as it was Saturday, required money to pay their wages. He expected the money to be ready, which he wished to go and pay, but enquired, however, whether I had received anything. "Has anything arrived?" asked he. I answered, "No, but I have faith in God." Scarcely had I uttered the words when a student was announced, who brought me thirty dollars from some one, whom he would not name. I then went into the room again, and asked the other "how much he required this time for the workmen's wages?" He answered, "Thirty dollars." "Here they are, "said I, and enquired at the same time, "if he needed any more?" He said, "No, "which very much strengthened the faith of both of us, since we so visibly saw the miraculous hand of God, who sent it at the very moment when it was needed. Augustus Herman Franke, 1663-1727.Ver. 7. Some trust in chariots, etc. Vain is the confidence of all wickedness. In war, chariots, horses, navies, numbers, discipline, former successes, are relied on; but the battle is not to the strong. "Providence favours the strong battalions" may sound well in a worldling's ear, but neither Providence nor the Bible so teaches. In peace, riches, friends, ships, farms, stocks, are relied upon, yet they can neither help nor save. Let him that glorieth glory in the Lord. William S. Plumer.

Ver. 7. We will remember the name of the Lord our God. By the name of God is generally understood, in Holy Writ, the various properties and attributes of God: these properties and attributes make up and constitute the name of God. As when Solomon says, "The name of the Lord is a strong tower; the righteous runneth into it and is safe." And, by remembering, considering, meditating upon this name of God, the psalmist represents himself as comforted or strengthened, whatever might be the duties to which he was called, or the dangers to which he was exposed. Others were for looking to other sources of safety and strength, "some trusting in chariots, and some in horses; " but the psalmist always set himself to the "remembering the name of the Lord our God; "and always, it would seem, with satisfaction and success. And here is the peculiarity of the passage on which we wish to dwell, and from which we hope to draw important lessons and truths—the psalmist "remembers the name of the Lord his God; "not any one property or attribute of God; but the whole combination of divine perfections. And he "remembers"this "name; "the expression implying, not a transient thought, but meditation—consideration; and yet the result of the recollection is gladness and confidence. Henry Melvill.

Ver. 7. It is easy to persuade papists to lean on priests and saints, on old rags and painted pictures—on any idol; but it is hard to get a Protestant to trust in the living God. William Arnot, 1858.

Ver. 7. Weak man cannot choose but have some confidence without himself in case of apparent difficulties, and natural men do look first to some earthly thing wherein they confide. Some trust in chariots, and some in horses, some in one creature, some in another. The believer must quit his confidence in these things, whether he have them or want them, and must rely on what God hath

promised in his word to do unto us. But we will remember the name of the Lord our God. David Dickson.

Ver. 7. They that trust in chariots and horses, will have no king but Caesar; but the "armies in heaven" which follow thee have themselves no arms, and no strength but in following thee. Isaac Williams.

Ver. 7. Numa being told that his enemies were coming upon him, as he was offering sacrifices, thought it was sufficient for his safety that he could say, I am about the service of my God. When Jehoshaphat had once established a preaching ministry in all the cities of Judah, then, and not till then, the fear of the Lord fell on the neighbouring nations, and they made no war; albeit, he had before that placed forces in all the fenced cities. Charles Bradbury.

Ver. 7.

"Some their warrior horses boast, Some their chariots marshalled host;

But our trust we will proclaim In our God Jehovah's name."

Richard Mant.

HINTS TO THE VILLAGE PREACHER

Ver. 7. Creature confidence. Apparently mighty, well adapted, showy, noisy, etc. Faithful trust. Silent, spiritual, divine, etc.

Ver. 7. The name of the Lord our God. Comfortable reflections from the name and character of the true God.

8 They are brought to their knees and fall,

but we rise up and stand firm.

BAR�ES, “They are brought down and fallen - That is, those who trust in chariots and horses. The reference here is undoubtedly to the enemies against whom the king was about to wage war, and the language here is indicative of his certain conviction that they would be vanquished. So certain was he now of this that he could speak of it as if it were already done. “They “are” brought down.” He sees them in anticipation prostrate and subdued; he goes forth to war with the certainty on his mind that this would occur. The

word rendered “brought down” - כרע kâra‛ - means “to bend,” “to bow” (as the knees); and then it refers to one who bows down before an enemy, that is, one who is subdued, Isa_10:4; Isa_65:12; Psa_72:9; Psa_78:31.But we are risen, and stand upright - That is, he sees this in anticipation. He is

certain of success and triumph. Depressed though we may now be, yet we are certain of victory.

CLARKE, “They are brought down and fallen - They were so confident of victory that they looked upon it as already gained. They who trusted in their horses and chariots are bowed down, and prostrated on the earth: they are all overthrown.But we are risen - We who have trusted in the name of Jehovah are raised up from

all despondency; and we stand upright - we shall conquer, and go on to conquer.

GILL, “They are brought down and fallen,.... These are they that rode in chariots and on horses, and trusted in them; who are brought down from their places of honour and safety; and fall, not into the hands of their enemies, and into a low and mean estate, but to the ground by death; as also such who, being like Capernaum, lifted up to heaven with their own outward attainments, and think to get thither by them, are brought down to hell, and fall into the pit of corruption;

but we are risen, and stand upright; who remember the name of the Lord, and trust in him; the church is sometimes in a very low and depressed condition; it consists of a poor and an afflicted people, and who are persecuted by men; so the church has been under the Heathen Roman emperors, and under the Papacy, and will be as long as she is in the wilderness, and the witnesses prophesy in sackcloth; and especially when they will be slain, and their bodies lie on the earth unburied; but these shall rise and stand upright, and ascend to heaven; there will be a glorious state of the church; there will be a reviving of the interest of Christ, through the bringing in the fulness and forces of the Gentiles, and the conversion of the Jews; the dry bones will live again, and stand upon their feet, an exceeding great army; in those days the righteous will flourish and have abundance of peace and prosperity. This may also include the first resurrection, which the saints will have a part in; the dead in Christ will rise first, and will stand before the Lord with confidence, and not be ashamed; when the ungodly shall not stand in judgment, nor sinners in, the congregation of the righteous; for though these words are expressed in the present tense, because of the certainty of them, they belong to future times; hence the following petitions.

HE�RY, “ See the difference in the issue of their confidences and by that we are to judge of the wisdom of the choice; things are as they prove; see who will be ashamed of their confidence and who not, Psa_20:8. “Those that trusted in their chariots and horses are brought down and fallen, and their chariots and horses were so far from saving them that they helped to sink them, and made them the easier and the richer prey to the conqueror, 2Sa_8:4. But we that trust in the name of the Lord our God not only stand upright, and keep our ground, but have risen, and have got ground against the enemy, and have triumphed over them.” Note, A believing obedient trust in God and his name is the surest way both to preferment and to establishment, to rise and to stand upright, and this will stand us in stead when creature-confidences fail those that depend upon them.

JAMISO�, “They — that is, who trust in horses, etc.stand upright — literally, “we have straightened ourselves up from our distress and

fears.”

HAWKER, “Beautiful and striking contrast! and which is manifested in the experience of the world every day, in the different characters: the faithful in their deliverances, and the ungodly in their false confidences. Hence the Psalm ends, as it begun, with faith in God’s covenant love in Jesus. Save us, is like the Hosanna of the Gospel, and is indeed

the same word. Mat_21:9. Keeping a constant eye, through the whole of this beautiful Psalm, upon the person and victories of Jesus, will be the only way to enjoy by faith a blessed participation in what is here recorded. But after this, in a secondary and subordinate sense, it forms a very suitable prayer for kings, and for all that are in authority, that, as the apostle exhorts, prayers may be offered for them, so by the Lord’s blessing, under their government, we may lead a quiet and peaceable life, in all godliness and honesty. 1Ti_2:1.

LANGE, “Psa_20:8. Hupfeld: “The contrast of the previous verse is CONTINUED with reference

to the consequences which both have derived from their confidences.” Delitzsch: “The præterites

arepræt. confidentiæ—‘a triumphal ode before the victory’ as Luther remarks,—‘a cry of joy before

the help.’ ”—They have bowed down and fallen (not as A. V.: They are brought down).—The idea is that they first sink down upon their knees and then fall to the ground.—But we have risen and

stood firm (A. V. stood upright).—Delitzsch: “Since ÷å◌ּí does not mean stand, but stand

up,÷◌ַî◌ְðå◌ּ presupposes that the enemies then had the upper hand. But the condition of affairs changes. Those who are standing fall, those who are lying rise up; the former remain lying, the latter keep the field.”—C. A. B.]

E-SWORD, “How different the end of those whose trusts are different: The enemies of God are uppermost at first, but they ere long are brought down by force, or else fall of their own accord. Their foundation is rotten, and therefore when the time comes it gives way under them; their chariots are burned in the fire, and their horses die of pestilence, and where is their boasted strength? As for those who rest on Jehovah, they are often cast down at the first onset, but an Almighty arm uplifts them, and they joyfully stand upright. The victory of Jesus is the inheritance of his people. The world, death, Satan and sin, shall all be trampled beneath the feet of the champions of faith; while those who rely upon an arm of flesh shall be ashamed and confounded for ever.

CALVI�, “8.They are bowed down. It is probable that there is here pointed out, as it were with

the finger, the enemies of Israel, whom God had overthrown, when they regarded no event as less likely to happen. There is contained in the words a tacit contrast between the cruel pride with which they had been lifted up for a time when they audaciously rushed forward to make havoc of all things on the one hand, and the oppression of the people of God on the other. The expression, to rise, is applied only to those who were before sunk or fallen; and, on the other hand, the expression,bowed down and fallen, is with propriety applied to those who were lifted up with pride and presumption. The prophet therefore teaches by the event, how much more advantageous it is for us to place all our confidence in God than to depend upon our own strength.

SPURGEO�, “Ver. 8. How different the end of those whose trusts are different! The enemies of

them; their chariots are burned in the fire, and their horses die of pestilence, and where is their boasted strength? As for those who rest on Jehovah, they are often cast down at the first onset, but an Almighty arm uplifts them, and they joyfully stand upright. The victory of Jesus is the inheritance of his people. The world, death, Satan, and sin, shall all be trampled beneath the feet of the champions of faith; while those who rely upon an arm of flesh shall be ashamed and confounded for ever.EXPLANATORY NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS

Ver. 8. They are brought down, from their horses and chariots in which they trusted. Hebrew: they bowed down, as being unable to stand longer because of their mortal wounds. Compare Jude 5:27. "Stand upright." Standing firmly upon our legs, and keeping the field, as conquerors use to do. Matthew Poole.

9 Lord, give victory to the king!

Answer us when we call!

BAR�ES, “Save, Lord - “Yahweh, save.” This is still an earnest prayer. Confident as they are of success and triumph, yet they do not forget their dependence on God; they do not forget that victory must come from his hand. There was, indeed, exultation, but it was exultation in the belief that God would grant success - an exultation connected with, and springing from prayer. Prayer is not inconsistent with the most confident anticipation of success in any undertaking; and confidence of success can only spring from prayer.Let the King - That is, let “God,” spoken of here as the Great King. The connection

and the parallelism demand this interpretation, for to God only is this prayer addressed. He is here invoked as the supreme monarch. A king going forth to war implores the protection of a greater king than himself - the King of all nations; and who, therefore, had the disposal of the whole result of the conflict in which he was about to engage.

Hear us when we call - As we now call on him; its we shall call on him in the day of battle. Thus the close of the psalm corresponds with the beginning. In the beginning Psa_20:1-4 there is an earnest “desire” that God would hear the suppliant in the day of trouble; in the close there is an earnest “prayer” to him from all the people that he “would” thus bear. The desire of the blessing goes forth in the form of prayer, for God only can grant the objects of our desire. The whole psalm, therefore, is an expression of a strong confidence in God; of a sense of the most complete dependence on him; and of that assurance of success which often comes into the soul, in an important and difficult undertaking, when we have committed the whole cause to God. The psalm, too, is a model for us to imitate when we embark in any great and arduous enterprise. The desire for success should be accompanied with earnest prayer and supplication on our part; and when our friends express the desire that we may be successful, there should have been on our part such acts of devotion - such manifest reliance on God - such religious trust - that they can simply pray for our success to be in accordance with our own prayer. Never should we look for success unless our undertaking has been preceded by prayer; and when our best preparations have been made, our hope of success is not primarily and mainly in them, but only in God.

CLARKE, “Save, Lord - This verse was spoken by all the congregation, and was the chorus and conclusion of the piece.The verse may be read, Lord, save the king! He will hear as in the day of our calling.

The Vulgate, Septuagint, Ethiopic, Arabic, Anglo-Saxon, read the verse thus: Lord, save the king! and hear us whensoever we shall call upon thee. The Syriac reads differently:

The Lord will save us: and our king will hear us in the day in which we shall call upon him. This refers all to God: while the others refer the latter clause to David. Lord, save David; and David will save us. “If thou preservest him, he will be thy minister for good to us.” This appears to be the easiest sense of the place, and harmonizes with all the rest.

GILL, “Save, Lord,.... Not "the king", as the Septuagint, Ethiopic, and Arabic versions read the words, joining the word "king" to them, which is in the next clause; but this, as Aben Ezra observes, is not right, because of the accent "athnach", which divides these words from the following; rather the word us may be supplied; and so the Syriac version

renders it, "the Lord will deliver us"; and the Targum is, "O Lord", פרק�לן,�"redeem�us",�or�

"save�us";�that�is,�with�a�temporal,�spiritual,�and�eternal�salvation:�this�petition�is�directed�to�

Jehovah�the�Father,�as�the�following�is�to�the�King�Messiah;�

let�the�King�hear�us�when�we�calllet�the�King�hear�us�when�we�calllet�the�King�hear�us�when�we�calllet�the�King�hear�us�when�we�call;�for�not�God�the�Father�is�here�meant,�though�he�is�an�

everlasting�King,�the�King�of�kings;�and�who�hears�his�people,�when�they�call�upon�him,�and�while�

they�are�calling;�yet�he�is�rarely,�if�ever,�called�"the�King",�without�any�other�additional�epithet;�

whereas�the�Messiah�often�is,�as�in�the�next�psalm,�Psa_20:1;�and�prayer�is�made�to�him,�and�he�

hears�and�receives�the�prayers�of�his�people;�and,�as�Mediator,�presents�them�to�his�Father�

perfumed�with�his�much�incense;�for�he�is�a�Priest�as�well�as�a�King.

HE�RY, “They conclude their prayer for the king with a Hosanna, “Save, now, we beseech thee, O Lord!” Psa_20:9. As we read this verse, it may be taken as a prayer that God would not only bless the king, “Save, Lord, give him success,” but that he would make him a blessing to them, “Let the king hear us when we call to him for justice and mercy.” Those that would have good of their magistrates must thus pray for them, for they, as all other creatures, are that to us (and no more) which God makes them to be. Or it may refer to the Messiah, that King, that King of kings; let him hear us when we call; let him come to us according to the promise, in the time appointed; let him, as the great Master of requests, receive all our petitions and present them to the Father. But many interpreters give another reading of this verse, by altering the pause, Lord, save the king, and hear us when we call; and so it is a summary of the whole psalm and is taken into our English Liturgy; O Lord! save the king, and mercifully hear us when we call upon thee.In singing these verses we should encourage ourselves to trust in God, and stir up

ourselves to pray earnestly, as we are in duty bound, for those in authority over us, that under them we may lead quiet and peaceable lives in all godliness and honesty.

JAMISO�, “let the king hear — as God’s representative, delivered to deliver. Perhaps a better sense is, “LORD, save the king; hear us when we call,” or pray.

E-SWORD, “The Psalm is here recapitulated. That Jesus might himself be delivered, and might then, as our King, hear us, is the two-fold desire of the Psalm. The first

request is granted, and the second is sure to all the seed; and therefore we may close the Psalm with the hearty shout “God save the King.” “God save King Jesus, and may he soon come to reign.”

HAWKER, “WHO can read this Psalm, and behold to whom it refers, and then call to mind the blessed victories of our King and Saviour, but must with heart-felt joy join in every part of it while celebrating the triumphs of the Redeemer? Yes! blessed Jesus! God the Father did hear thee in the day of trouble, when thou didst stand forth as our Surety for the salvation of thy people! God, even the mighty God of Jacob, did defend thee. An angel from heaven was sent to strengthen thee. And God did accept thy sacrifice, when thou by thyself didst make thy soul an offering for sin; and by virtue of it thou hast made all thy people accepted in thee, the beloved. Here, Lord, thy redeemed upon earth set up their banners, and thy redeemed in glory are clothed in white, and have the palms of victory in their hands.And now, Lord, while we rejoice in thy strength, as becometh all thy redeemed, do thou make us more than conquerors, through thy grace helping us, in all the remaining conflicts we have to encounter. In thy name we will greatly rejoice all the day, and in thy righteousness make our boast. And surely, Lord, while thou art the glory of our strength, we shall not be like those who trust to chariots or horses: but we shall be made strong in thy power, and thou wilt finally bruise Satan and every foe under our feet. Save Lord! Jesus, hear us when we call upon thee!

LANGE, “Str. IV. Psa_20:9. Help the king.—This is the basis of the hymn: domine salvum fac

regem, and the national hymns which have been derived from it in accordance with the Sept., Vulg.

According to the Masoretic accentuation, which is advocated by Hengst. and Delitzsch, it would be

translated, Jehovah help: May the king hear us. Thus the Pesch. [and A. V.]. The king would then be Jehovah, since the hearing of prayer is a predicate of Jehovah; according to ancient interpreters, Christ. Since, however, the psalm has already spoken of another king, the supposition of such a

transition to Jehovah is the more objectionable, since it is true He is called a great king (Psa_48:2)

yet never merely, the king. This objection would be partly set aside, if with the Chald. we might

translate, O king! especially as the call of prayer, help is used Psa_12:1; Psa_118:25, without an

accusative. But the third person of the verb does not suit the vocative, which the Vulg. arbitrarily changes into the second person. The whole manifestly stands in manifest relation to Psa_20:6, so

that Psa_20:9 is distinguished from Psa_20:1, by the fact that the closing petition is based upon the

intervening promise, Since the words in Psa_20:9; Psa_20:6 correspond in other respects entirely

with one another, it is certain that the anointed has the same meaning as king. [Delitzsch: The New Testament cry of Hosanna is a particularizing of this Davidic, ‘God save the king mediated by Psa_118:25. The closing line is a developed Amen.”—C. A. B.]

ELLICOTT, “(9) Save Lord . . .—The Authorised Version follows the accentuation of the

Masoretic text, but spoils the rhythm, and interrupts the sense. The LXX. and Vulg., followed by all modern commentators, dividing the verse differently render, “Jehovah, save the king,” whence our National Anthem. Jehovah thus becomes the subject of the verb hear in the last clause. “May He hear us in the day of our calling.” The change from second to third person is characteristic of the Hebrew manner of conquering emotion, and allowing the close of a poem to die away in calm and subdued language. (Comp. Psalms 110:7.)

CALVI�, “9.Save, O Jehovah! etc. Some read in one sentence, O Jehovah! save the

king; (478) perhaps because they think it wrong to attribute to an earthly king what is proper to God

only, — to be called upon, and to hear prayer. But if we turn our eyes towards Christ, as it becomes

us to do, we will no longer wonder that what properly belongs to him is attributed in a certain sense to David and his successors, in so far as they were types of Christ. As God governs and saves us by the hand of Christ, we must not look for salvation from any other quarter. In like manner, the faithful under the former economy were accustomed to betake themselves to their king as the minister of God’ saving grace. Hence these words of Jeremiah,

“ breath of our nostrils, the anointed of the Lord, of whom we said, Under his shadow we shall live

among the heathen.” (Lam_4:20)

Whenever, therefore, God promises the restoration of his church, he sets forth a symbol or pledge of its salvation in the kingdom. We now see that it is not without very good reason that the faithful are introduced asking succor from their king, under whose guardianship and protection they were placed, and who, as the vicegerent of God, presided over them; as the Prophet Micah says, (Mic_2:13,) “ king shall pass before them, and the Lord on the head of them;” by which words he

intimates, that their king will be as it were a MIRROR in which they may see reflected the image

of God. To return to the present passage:— The expression, Save, O Jehovah, is elliptical, but it has greater emphasis than if the object for which salvation is sought had been mentioned; for by this means David shows that this salvation belongs in common to the whole body of the church. In Psa_118:25, there is a prayer in the same words, and it is certain that it is the very same prayer. In short, this is a prayer, that God, by blessing the king, would show himself the Savior of the whole people. In the last clause of the verse there is expressed the means of this salvation. The people pray that the king may be furnished with power from God to deliver them whenever they are in distress, and cry to him for help. Let the king hear us in the day that we call upon him. God had not promised that his people would be saved in any other way than by the hand and conduct of the king whom he had given them. In the present day, when Christ is now manifested to us, let us learn to yield him this honor — to renounce all hope of salvation from any other quarter, and to trust to that salvation only which he shall bring to us from God his Father. And of this we shall then only become partakers when, being all gathered together into one body, under the same Head, we shall have mutual care one of another, and when none of us will have his attention so engrossed with his own advantage and individual interest, as to be indifferent to the welfare and happiness of others.

(478) This is the reading of the Septuagint. Its words are, Κυριε σωσον τον βασιλεα The reading of

the Vulgate is the same. Calvin’ rendering, which is also that of our English version, agrees with the masoretical punctuation; but the Septuagint has followed a different pointing.

SPURGEO�, “Ver. 9. The Psalm is here recapitulated. That Jesus might himself be delivered,

and might then, as our King, hear us, is the two fold desire of the Psalm. The first request is granted, and the second is sure to all the seed; and therefore we may close the Psalm with the hearty shout, "God save the King." "God save King Jesus, and may he soon come to reign."EXPLANATORY NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS

None.

HINTS TO THE VILLAGE PREACHER

Ver. 9. Save, Lord. One of the shortest and most pithy prayers in the Bible.

Ver. 9. (last clause).

1. To whom we come, and what then. To a king.

2. How we come, and what it means. We call.

3. What we want, and what it implies. Hear us.

LANGE, “1. It is an evidence of great grace and a source of rich blessing in a land, if prince and people meet in the presence of God, with common desires and bring the same cares in united prayerbefore the throne of the Eternal. For prince and people belong so closely together,

that the need of the one is likewise the calamity of the other, but the common good is essentially advanced by concord, and concord is best confirmed and advanced by union in common devotion to God.

2. A king shows that he is an anointed of the Lord, and a king by God’s grace, especially by not only surrounding the actions of his government with prayer and Divine service, but

bypersonally PARTICIPATING therein as a shining example for the whole congregation. A people proves itself to be a people of the Lord and a congregation of God by not only huzzahing such a ruler and wishing him success and victory, salvation and blessings, but likewise by praying with him and for him. Thus this psalm may “serve as a devout and holy watchword.” (Luther.)

3. Joyfulness in prayer and confidence of being heard are nourished and strengthened by the remembrance of the exhibitions of help, with which God has already previously declared and magnified His name, and particularly by those with which He has glorified it in our predecessors and ancestors who are the models of our faith. It arises moreover from the assurance that we are in the same covenant of grace with our fathers and that we prove ourselves to be members of it. It is true, we call upon God with a deeper, richer and mightier name than the Israelites could, but the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is the same God as the God of Jacob, whose name the Israelites brought to remembrance (Gen_35:3) when they prayed to Jehovah on Zion. The difference is merely in the stages of His revelation, and accordingly in the depth and fulness of the knowledge of Him. The places, forms and methods of Divine service have been altered in a corresponding way. But the change in them has taken place through the spirit of the new Covenant in order to fulfil the old; the God who is enthroned in the sanctuary of heaven, still ever meets with His people in sanctuaries on earth, and lets His gracious help flow forth from thence upon His congregation, whilst He comes to help them from heaven with the mighty deeds of salvation.

4. The congregation of God is distinguished from the world by the fact that in the day of trouble it does not rely upon earthly means of help, even when it makes use of them in a proper manner and according to the commandment of God. But it puts its confidence in the assistance of God, and for this reason before and afterwards gives His name the glory (comp. 1Sa_17:45;Isa_31:3; Psa_33:17). For this, however, a strong and living faith is necessary. “But the faith which relies upon God, can sing the triumphant ode before the victory, and make a cry of joy before the help ensues; whereas everything is allowed to faith. For he believes in God and thus truly has, what he believes, because faith does not deceive; as he has faith, so will it happen unto him.” (Luther).

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL

A king does well if, before he leads his people to battle against the enemy, he leads them into

the house of God to prayer.—It is well for a land whose king is the model of piety, whose people

have this motto: Jehovah help the king!—He chooses the best portion in war who does not rely

upon earthly means of power, but puts his confidence in the assistance of God.—Natural courage is

not to be despised; but the confidence of trust in God surpasses it, in worth, duration and strength.

—The communion of faith unites stronger than the same danger and need, more intimately than the

same hope and joy.—Happy the land whose king cares for the good of the people and whose

people rejoice in the salvation of the king.—Divine service has the precedence of the service of

kings.—The confidence of trust in God and the assurance of the hearing of prayer do not constitute

the beginning of communion with God, but are a consequence and fruit of it.—We should not only

pray with one another, but likewise for one another.—God has His dwelling-place not only

in heaven, but likewise on the earth, and from both places He sends forthblessing,

consolation and help to His people.—Man’s drawing near to God has for its reason as well as

its consequence God’s drawing near to man.

Starke: Although the Christian Church is weak and weaponless, it has a strong tower in the name of

God.—The sacrifices of the Christian are a broken and a contrite heart, a holy life and an earnest

praise of God.—The Lord does what those who fear God desire; but they desire nothing that is

opposed to God.—If the world reckons to its honor what it has accomplished alone with its own

power, on the other hand it is a strange thing of which believers boast, of the help which has come

from God.—Just as Israel could lift up its banner with joy in the name of God, so every believing

Christian can now likewise in his office, station and calling venture upon it. confident in God, and

can assure himself of His gracious assistance.—What is heard in heaven must be powerfully

executed on earth.—Carnal plans are generally of poor success and turn out badly; on the other

hand what is begun with God, lasts.—Our best arsenal is in heaven and in the right hand of God.—

The ungodly have never yet been able to sing a true triumphant ode over the downfall of the pious,

their boasting is false; but believers can here and in heaven forever sing the glorious victory of the

Lord (1Co_15:57; Rev_12:10).

Luther: God must help and advise; our plans and actions are otherwise of no value.—Osiander:

Great, exalted titles do not make a king invincible, but God’s help, which is gained by the prayer of

faith. The victory is a gift of God, and is not accomplished by great preparation or a great host.—

Selnekker: What is begun with God issues favorably; but the greater part of the world transact all

things without God’s advice, without fearing Him and calling upon Him.—Taube: Faith and prayer

always join hands in the Christian heart and cannot live apart. Prayer SUPPORTS faith and faith

strengthens prayer.—Diedrich: The God of Israel, who is in our midst and in us, is He who is

enthroned above all heavens and rules all things from thence.—All depends upon our belonging to

God’s followers and our daily stationing ourselves by His banner, that is, His word, and from it

deriving chastisement and consolation, warning and confidence.

[Matth. Henry: The prayer of others for us must be desired, not to supersede, but to second our own

for ourselves.—Those who make it their business to glorify God may expect that God will, one way

or other, gratify them; they who walk in His counsel may promise themselves that He will fulfil theirs.

—In singing these verses, we should encourage ourselves to trust in God, and stir up ourselves to

pray earnestly, as we are in duty bound, for those who are in authority over us, that under them we

may lead quiet and peaceable lives, in all godliness and honesty.—Barnes: Never should we look

for success unless our undertaking has been preceded by prayer; and when our best preparations

have been made, our hope of success is not primarily and mainly in them, but only in God.—

Spurgeon: Chariots and horses make an imposing show, and with their rattling, and dust, and fine

caparisons, make so great a figure that vain man is much taken with them; yet the discerning eye of

faith sees more in an invisible God than in all these. The most dreaded war-engine of David’s day

was the war-chariot, armed with scythes, which mowed down men like grass: this was the boast

and glory of the neighboring nations; but the saints considered the name of Jehovah to be a far

better defence.—C. A. B.]

Footnotes:

[Perowne: “This may mean ‘the help and victory vouchsafed by God to the king;’ but Thrupp

observes: ‘The almost instinctive dependence of the Israelites upon their king, as the man who

should save them (comp. 1Sa_10:27), fully justifies us in interpreting the expression, thy

salvation Psa_20:5, in its most natural sense, not as the salvation bestowed by God upon the king,

but as that wrought by the king for his people.’ ” Alexander thinks that “both ideas are included.” The

explanation of Hupfeld is the most proper.—C. A. B.]

[Delitzsch, however, agrees with the author in the translation “save the king.” Vid. closing remarks.

—C. A. B.]

Footnotes:

Psalm 20:1 In Hebrew texts 20:1-9 is NUMBERED 20:2-10.Psalm 20:3 The Hebrew has Selah (a word of uncertain meaning) here.New International Version (NIV)Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.