1 To the chief musician; a Psalm of David.
2 Jehovah hear thee in the day of trouble: the name of the God of Jacob protect thee.
3 Send thee help from the sanctuary and sustain thee from Zion;
4 Remember all thine offerings and accept thy burnt sacrifices. Selah.
5 Give unto thee according to thy heart and fulfil all thy counsels.
6 May we rejoice in thy salvation, and in the name of our God set up a banner: Jehovah fulfil all thy petitions.
7 Now I know that Jehovah saveth his anointed; he answereth him from the heavens of his holiness with the mighty deeds of salvation of his right hand.
8 These of chariots and these of horses, but we of the name of Jehovah our God make mention.
9 They have bent and have fallen; but we have risen and keep ourselves upright.
10 Save, O Jehovah: may the king hear us in the day of our calling.
Notes on Psalm 20
This, again, is the personal Witness for the God-fearing Jew, Messiah in the day of trouble. “To the chief musician, a psalm of David.” It is not Messiah as Jewish unbelief and carnality conceived, but Messiah in the day of distress. How could it be otherwise if He were found in an ungodly people? But He is ever, whatever come, the faithful Witness: and God takes care to have those who see Him thus and love Him the more for it; whose heart is drawn to Him because He is so unworthily hated and despised. Hence the outburst of confidence which closes the psalm. Thus the godly remnant in the latter-day trouble see Christ as their object and hope, where the ungodly are to fall under the deceit of the enemy and a willful king after their heart, son of perdition for himself and them. In the Messiah that disdains not but enters into Jacob’s trouble they discern the Anointed of Jehovah, appreciate His piety God-ward as well as His desires and counsels which embrace them as His own. Hence their assurance of His triumph as identified with Jehovah’s name and glory, and of the King’s hearing them. They were learning the secret of His person.