Psalms

View other Psalms

Psalm 20


May the Lord answer in time of trial;
may the name of Jacob’s God protect you.

May he send you help from his shrine
and give you support from Sion.
May he remember all your offerings
and receive your sacrifice with favour.

May he give you your heart’s desire
and fulfil every one of your plans.
May he ring out our joy at your victory
and rejoice in the name of our God.
May the Lord grant all your prayers.

I am sure now that the Lord
will give victory to his anointed,
will reply from his holy heaven
with the mighty victory of his hand.

Some trust in chariots or horses,
but we in the name of the Lord.
They will collapse and fall,
but we shall stand and hold firm.

Give victory to the king, O Lord,
give answer on the day we call.

Commentary

Psalms 20 and 21 form a pair. Both were composed by King David: Psalm 20 so that his people could intercede for him before his campaigns, and Psalm 21 so that they could give thanks for his successes. The first one is a prayer of intercession, and the second is praise for answered prayer. Both of them have two parts, and together form a complete whole. In the first part of Psalm 20 the people speak first (vv. 1-5), then the king (vv. 6-8), while in Psalm 21 the king speaks first (vv. 1-7), then the people (vv. 8-12). As you read the two psalms, remember that a battle has taken place between the writing of them.

Both of these psalms are prophetic, and both in their deepest sense are messianic since they point to Him who is the true king and complete victor over all His enemies. As God’s anointed, King David was a symbol pointing to the Messiah.

May the Lord answer in time of trial;
may the name of Jacob’s God protect you.

May he send you help from his shrine
and give you support from Sion.
May he remember all your offerings
and receive your sacrifice with favour.

May he give you your heart’s desire
and fulfil every one of your plans.
May he ring out our joy at your victory
and rejoice in the name of our God.
May the Lord grant all your prayers.

I am sure now that the Lord
will give victory to his anointed,
will reply from his holy heaven
with the mighty victory of his hand.

Some trust in chariots or horses,
but we in the name of the Lord.
They will collapse and fall,
but we shall stand and hold firm.

Give victory to the king, O Lord,
give answer on the day we call.
                               (vv. 1-9).

Taking this psalm on the historical level first, we find the people of God in the sanctuary, which was at this stage situated in Jerusalem. They are present with their king to offer sacrifice to God and to intercede for the king’s safety and victory in the forthcoming battle. As the holocaust is offered by the priest, the people pray that God will hear the king’s prayer, and protect him with His own person. This is the meaning of the phrase “the name of . . . ”. As God’s presence resided over the Ark of the Covenant in the sanctuary, the people requested that God would give David his heart’s desire and accept all his offerings. David’s prayer was that he would conquer all his enemies and make his kingdom secure. The people can now look forward to marching out to victory, planting the banners of both God and king everywhere. They finish their prayer with a resounding “God save the King!”, which has been taken up by generations of monarchies ever since as their prayer and expression of loyalty to a reigning
king or queen.

At this point a single voice speaks out, most likely that of the king himself. He declares the firm belief of the people that God would indeed save His anointed one, hear his prayer and give him victory from heaven. All the Davidic kings considered themselves divinely appointed rulers, therefore, worthy of divine protection in a special way. They saw themselves in a different class to the other kings. Nevertheless, they found themselves no match for the enemy who came in great force against them. Their only hope for victory lay in God’s presence among them as their saviour, and as the lord of battles. If God was on their side they had nothing to fear, but certain ruin awaited them if they dared go alone into battle. Their own history illustrated this often enough (see 2 Chronicles 14:10; Proverbs 21:31). These verses also remind us of David’s encounter with the giant Goliath (see 1 Samuel 17:45). He was only a boy then, yet he fearlessly took on the fierce soldier with only the weapons of faith and trust in
God. The psalm ends with the soldiers marching out to war shouting “God save the King!”

On the prophetic level this psalm deals wonderfully with God’s true Anointed One, the Messiah. From this perspective the psalm becomes the prayer of God’s people under the old covenant interceding for the victory of Messiah “in His time of trouble”. Jesus spoke of His time of trouble as His “Hour”, the time of His Passion and Resurrection (see John 2:5, 7:6, 30, etc.). Without realizing it, the people pray that God the Father will protect Jesus in that dreadful hour of conflict, which He had to face alone. From His sanctuary in heaven God will accept the holocaust of His life for us, given out of perfect love. The psalm renders the sacrifice or holocaust in the singular, thus allowing for its perfect fulfilment on Calvary. Surely now God will grant Jesus His heart’s desire, which, unlike David, did not concern Himself or His own prestige. Jesus wanted all men and all nations to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. He revealed His heart to us in His priestly prayer in John 17: “Father . . . that he may bestow eternal life on those you gave him . . . that all may be one as you, Father, are in me, and I in you; I pray they may be one in us, that the world may believe that you sent me” (John 17: 1-23; N.A.B.).

The request that follows is now very significant: “May God grant all your prayers!” Unknowingly the people cooperate with Messiah in His prayer for their redemption, which, if they but understood it, would be their own heart’s desire, too. Now as one voice the people of God assert their belief that God would indeed save Messiah in His time of need. The prayer is not to save Him from death, but to save Him through death, so that His Passover would be, for Him first, and for all of us later, a real passing over from death to eternal life, happiness and peace. This is the ultimate victory. The psalm ends with the people asserting the kingship of Messiah and praying for His glorious reign.

Looked at from this angle the psalm leads us to contemplate Jesus in His Passion and to see His glorious hour on Calvary as the centre of all time, with the Old Testament praying for Messiah as He goes towards His hour, and the people of the New Testament giving glory to God for His victory in Psalm 21.

On the subject of prayer itself, this psalm teaches us the importance of praying for each other. We have a duty to pray for those in government over us, so that God will give them the wisdom they need to rule the nation for the common good, and more importantly that the will of God for that people be carried out. The greater the responsibility, the greater the need for support in prayer (see 1 Timothy 2:1-3).

Furthermore, the intercession shown in this psalm is not that of an individual, no matter how holy. It is the whole company of God’s people gathered in prayer as one body, with their rulers and priests, united in mind and heart in this request, while they offer their official prayer and worship to God with sacrifices and holocausts. This type of prayer has great power with God. The early Church experienced notable manifestations of God’s presence and power when they prayed as one body, one in mind and heart (see Acts 4:24-32, 12:5-19). In Matthew 18:19-20 Jesus made us a solemn promise: “ . . . if two of you on earth agree to ask anything at all, it will be granted to you by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, I shall be there with them.” This is the power of just two or three meeting together, one in mind and heart: the power of the whole Body of Christ meeting in this way cannot be expressed. The tragedy is that so few trust the Lord, and even fewer put this to the test, so we have a world of greed and violence when it could be held in peace by the believers at prayer.

What makes collective prayer so efficacious before God is the fact that Jesus promised to be present Himself. It is a meeting of the whole Christ, head and members, and the prayer goes to the Father by the one mediator between God and man, Jesus Himself. I doubt if He made this promise to cover prayers offered for selfish reasons or self-interest.

Intercession, whether on an individual or group level, must be based on an unshakeable trust in God, in His goodness, His mercy and His fidelity to His promises. Coupled with this must be a commitment to continuous conversion, so that our lives conform to the will of God in every detail (see 2 Chronicles 7:14; Jeremiah 29:13; Mark 11:24; James 5:16; 1 John 3:22). The present psalm illustrates this, for we see the congregation offer to God sin-offerings and holocausts as they pray in deep faith and remind God of His “duty” to protect His Anointed One.

Finally, intercession is most powerful when God’s people stop relying on the world for answers, and when they give up self-reliance to throw themselves fully on God’s mercy and wisdom. This brings an answer to the problem on hand as we remove the obstacles to God’s intervention, thus allowing Him to manifest His power to save. In other words, when we remove all worldly thinking, and all selfish motives, we experience God at His creative best, and all things are made new.

Other Psalms