Psalm 20

Psalms 20:1-2

The psalm opens as intercession, the congregation praying over their king rather than the king praying for himself, the Lord hear thee naming God's answer as what they most want for him. The name of the God of Jacob defend thee reaches back to the patriarch's own wrestling and blessing, the covenant name invoked as the king's defense rather than his own strength. Send thee help from the sanctuary, and strengthen thee out of Zion locates the source of any victory in the place of worship, not the armory, the temple mount named twice in one breath.

Psalms 20:3-4

Remember all thy offerings, and accept thy burnt sacrifice ties the prayer to worship already performed, most likely sacrifices offered before the king went to war, the people asking that God remember what he has already brought rather than what he is about to do. Selah marks a pause after the request, one of seventy one such markers across the Psalter whose exact musical meaning is not settled, read by different hands as a rest, a lifted voice, or a call to weigh what was just said. Grant thee according to thine own heart, and fulfil all thy counsel widens the prayer from the immediate battle to the king's whole purpose, a blessing on his plans and not only his safety.

Psalms 20:5-6

We will rejoice in thy salvation moves the psalm from request to anticipated praise, the congregation already picturing the victory as won, and in the name of our God we will set up our banners answers the day of trouble of verse 1 with banners raised rather than armies scattered. Now know I that the Lord saveth his anointed turns the voice singular, one worshipper, likely the king or a priest speaking in his person, confident where the opening was only asking. His anointed names the king by the office title later Scripture applies to the greater Anointed, and the older commentators read this office word as reaching toward him without treating every royal psalm as a direct prophecy.

Psalms 20:7-8

Some trust in chariots: Some trust in chariots, and some in horses sets the psalm's confession against the era's two military technologies, chariots the shock weapon and horses the speed an army bought at high cost, and but we will remember the name of the Lord our God answers both with the one resource money cannot buy. They are brought down and fallen puts the trusting armies in the past tense as though the battle were already decided, but we are risen, and stand upright answers fallen with its exact opposite. Spurgeon reads the contrast as the whole psalm's center, a comment not on weapons as such but on where confidence is finally placed.

Psalms 20:9

Save, Lord returns the psalm to its opening plea in three words, the confidence of the middle verses folding back into request rather than replacing it. Let the king hear us when we call closes with the roles reversed from verse 1, the people who prayed the Lord would hear the king now asking that the king in turn hear them, a single sentence holding both prayers together. Henry notes the closing petition keeps the psalm honest, ending in asking rather than in triumph already claimed.