Psalm 20

To the chief musician,
A Psalm of David.

1 The LORD hear thee in the day of trouble;
the name of the God of Jacob defend thee;
2 Send thee help from the sanctuary;
and strengthen thee out of Zion;
3 Remember all thy offerings;
and accept thy burnt sacrifice. Selah.

4 Grant thee according to thine own heart,
and fulfil all thy counsel.
5 We will rejoice in thy salvation,
and in the name of our God we will set up our banners;
the LORD fulfil all thy petitions.

6 Now know I that the LORD saveth all his anointed;
he will hear him from his holy heaven
with the saving strength of his right hand.
7 Some trust in chariots, and some in horses;
but we will remember the name of the LORD our God.
8 They are brought down and fallen;
but we are risen, and upright.

9 Save, LORD! Let the king hear us when we call.

JW: A prayer for the king, ver. 1-4; the king and the people rejoice in God, and pray for his help, ver. 5-9.

5: 'Rejoice' - Hereby they shew their confidence in God, and their assurance of the victory.

6: 'Now' - We are already sure of victory by the consideration of God's power and faithfulness and love to David, and to his people. They speak as one person, because they were unanimous in this prayer. 'Saveth' - will certainly save. 'Strength' - This shews how God will hear him, even by saving him with a strong hand.

7: 'Remember' - trust in it.

9: 'Let the king' - God, the supreme monarch, the king of kings, and in a peculiar manner the king of Israel.

Briefly, I'll echo Wesley's recognition of the spirit of the Psalm moving from confident petitions, to, dare I say, an audacious rejoicing in the knowledge of the forthcoming deliverance/salvation of God. Think about the audacity it takes for someone to rejoice in salvation and redemption in the midst of this broken world. Ungrounded in reality it can lead to escapism, but focused on the fact that there is still something to be done, this is the power of God in God's people!

Broadening the horizons beyond what Wesley saw immediately, I read this Psalm like many others: through the lens of the cross and resurrection of Christ. Call me a broken record if you will, but I think this is the best way for Christians to read Scripture, because ultimately Scripture points us to an event...a Person, rather. Scripture calls us to "Remember the name of the LORD our God."

In this Psalm I'm imagining the disciple whom Jesus loved, in his Gospel, 21.8-9: "The the other disciple [the one whom Jesus loved], who had reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed; for as yet they did not understand the Scripture, that he must rise from the dead." Can't you hear John saying, "Now I know that the LORD saveth his Anointed...with the saving strength of his right hand"?

I love Wesley's very brief comment on the "remember" of verse 7: trust in it. Fred Craddock, in his commentary on Philippians for the Interpretation series, stated something I've not forgotten: To be a Christian is in large part an act of memory. When Jesus says, "When you partake of this bread...(and) cup, remember me," he's asking for something more than recollection. If it were recollection he were after, then we in the 21st century would have some difficulty, wouldn't we? It's an active remembrance that is calling us to trust in him, in his sacrifice, and ultimately in the deliverance that he has enjoyed from the grip of death and will bestow to us in the forthcoming resurrection of our own! Accordingly, we can have the audacity to rejoice in God's salvation and have the confidence that the King of kings indeed hears us when we call!