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Psalm 20

Prayer for Victory

To the leader. A Psalm of David.

1

The L ord answer you in the day of trouble!

The name of the God of Jacob protect you!

2

May he send you help from the sanctuary,

and give you support from Zion.

3

May he remember all your offerings,

and regard with favor your burnt sacrifices. Selah

 

4

May he grant you your heart’s desire,

and fulfill all your plans.

5

May we shout for joy over your victory,

and in the name of our God set up our banners.

May the L ord fulfill all your petitions.

 

6

Now I know that the L ord will help his anointed;

he will answer him from his holy heaven

with mighty victories by his right hand.

7

Some take pride in chariots, and some in horses,

but our pride is in the name of the L ord our God.

8

They will collapse and fall,

but we shall rise and stand upright.

 

9

Give victory to the king, O L ord;

answer us when we call.


3. May he remember. I understand the word remember as meaning to have regard to, as it is to be understood in many other places; just as to forget often signifies to neglect, or not to deign to regard, nor even to behold, the object to which it is applied. It is, in short, a prayer that God would actually show that the king’s sacrifices were acceptable to him. Two kinds of them are here mentioned; first, the מנחה, mincha, mentioned in the first clause of the verse, which was the appointed accompaniment of all sacrifices, and which was also sometimes offered by itself; and, secondly, the holocaust, or whole burnt-sacrifice. But under these two kinds David intended to comprehend, by synecdoche, all sacrifices; and under sacrifices he comprehends requests and prayers. We know that whenever the fathers prayed under the law, their hope of obtaining what they asked was founded upon their sacrifices; and, in like manner, at this day our prayers are acceptable to God only in so far as Christ sprinkles and sanctifies them with the perfume of his own sacrifice. The faithful, therefore, here desire that the solemn prayers of the king, which were accompanied with sacrifices and oblations, might have their effect in the prosperous issue of his affairs. That this is the meaning may be gathered still more clearly from the following verse, in which they commend to God the desires and counsels of the king. But as it would be absurd to ask God to grant foolish and wicked desires, it is to be regarded as certain, that there is here described a king who was neither given to ambition, nor inflamed with avarice, nor actuated by the desire of whatever the unruly passions might suggest, but wholly intent on the charge which was committed to him, and entirely devoted to the advancement of the public good; so that he asks nothing but what the Holy Spirit dictated to him, and what God, by his own mouth, commanded him to ask.


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