A VERSE BY VERSE COMMENTARY ON PSALM 20 IN WHICH DAVID PRAYS FOR GOD TO ANSWER WHEN THERE IS A NEED FOR HIS HELP.

1. PSALM 20 COMME TARY
EDITED 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.

2. 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.

3. 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

4. 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

5. 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

6. 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

7. 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,

8. 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

9. 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,

10. 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.

11. 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.

12. 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

13. 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

14. 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.

15. 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

16. 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

17. 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

18. 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

19. 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

20. 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

21. 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

22. 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.

23. 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

24. 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

25. 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.

26. 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