Today’s Passage: Psalm 20
This is a psalm the people sang over their king before he went out to fight. David wrote it, and the choirmaster kept it for worship, so even the little heading at the top of the psalm is part of the Scripture. The people ask the LORD to answer their king in the day of trouble, to send him help from the sanctuary, to remember his offerings and grant him the desires of his heart. Some armies trust in chariots and horses, but this nation trusts in the name of the LORD their God, the God who saves His anointed.
As you read, hold this: Some trust in chariots. We trust in the name of the LORD.
Context Over the king
The “you” all through the first half of the psalm is the king. His people are praying this over him before the fight, not after it, while the outcome is still unknown and everything hangs on whether the LORD will answer. Psalm 21 will give the answer; today this prayer simply stands, lifted up while the trouble is still ahead. And when the psalm says the LORD saves His anointed, the household of faith has long heard a greater Son inside that title. There is no chart to fill in here and no timetable to draw. The name of the LORD is the trust, and the anointed is the one He saves.
Psalm 20:1-4 (BSB)
For the choirmaster. A Psalm of David.
¹ May the LORD answer you in the day of trouble; may the name of the God of Jacob protect you. ² May He send you help from the sanctuary and sustain you from Zion. ³ May He remember all your gifts and look favorably on your burnt offerings. Selah ⁴ May He give you the desires of your heart and make all your plans succeed.
Every line here is a request laid before God. Answer him. Protect him by the name of the God of Jacob. Send him help from the sanctuary and sustain him from Zion. Remember all his gifts and look with favor on his offerings. Give him the desires of his heart and make all his plans succeed. The whole prayer leans on what God can do, not on anything the king can bring of his own.
Psalm 20:5 (BSB)
⁵ May we shout for joy at your victory and raise a banner in the name of our God. May the LORD grant all your petitions.
Now the many voices join in: we will shout for joy at your victory, and we will raise our banner in the name of our God. Even the celebration, before it has come, is already tied to whose name it belongs to. The joy will not be lifted over a flag of their own making, but in the name of the LORD.
Psalm 20:6-8 (BSB)
⁶ Now I know that the LORD saves His anointed; He answers him from His holy heaven with the saving power of His right hand. ⁷ Some trust in chariots and others in horses, but we trust in the name of the LORD our God. ⁸ They collapse and fall, but we rise up and stand firm.
Now I know, the psalm says, that the LORD saves His mashiach, pronounced mah-SHEE-akh. Strong's H4899, anointed one, Messiah. The king these people are blessing is David, the anointed of his own day, and yet the same title will one day rest on a greater Son. Do not shrink the line down to “only David,” and do not stretch it out into a timetable of things to come. The name of the LORD is the trust, and the anointed is the one He saves. , answering him from His holy heaven with the saving power of His right hand. Some armies put their trust in chariots and some in horses, but this people trusts in the name of the LORD our God. And there the difference finally shows: the ones who trusted in iron collapse and fall, while the ones who trusted in the name rise up and stand firm.
Study notes The name against the weapons
David had already lived this very line years before, when he was still a boy standing in front of a giant who trusted in iron.
"But David said to the Philistine, “You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the LORD of Hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied." 1 Samuel 17:45 (BSB)
The giant came with sword and spear and javelin; the boy came in the name of the LORD of Hosts, and that was enough. The same boy who spoke those words grew up to become the king his people now bless with the very same trust.
Psalm 20:9 (BSB)
⁹ O LORD, save the king. Answer us on the day we call.
The psalm ends where it began, with one last plea: save the king, and answer us on the day we call. The king’s day of trouble and the people’s day of trouble are folded together into a single request, because his safety and theirs are bound up in the same LORD.
Some trust in chariots. We trust in the name of the LORD.