II. Psalms Twenty Commentary Verses
20:1-5- Jehovah doth Answer Thee in a Day of Adversity
YLT TEXT: To the Overseer[1]. A Psalm[2] of David[3]. Jehovah[4] doth answer[5] thee, in a day of adversity[6], the name of the God of Jacob[7] doth set thee on high[8], He doth send thy help[9] from the sanctuary[10], and from Zion[11] doth support[12] thee, He doth remember all thy presents[13], and thy burnt-offering[14] doth reduce to ashes. Selah[15]. He doth give to thee according to thy heart, and all thy counsel[16] doth fulfil. We sing of thy salvation[17], and in the name of our God set up a banner[18]. Jehovah doth fulfil all thy requests. (Psalms 20:1-5, Psalms 20:1-5, NLT).
COMMENTARY: Who better to sing a plea-prayer to on a day of adversity than the Overseer? Hardly a one, as David right well knows: “…To the Overseer—a Psalm of David…”. But then, what does David right well know that motivates him thus? He right well knows, that is, has right well learned through plenteous adversity, that precisely the Overseer likewise sings a song, a victory song to His anointed, in a day of adversity: “…Jehovah doth answer thee, in a day of adversity…”. And straightaway placed on the lips of the singers of this prayer are the manifold means of victory that Jehovah God extends to His anointed and by association to His anointed’s people: “…The name of the God of Jacob doth set thee on high, He doth send thy help from the sanctuary, and from Zion doth support thee…”. What is the name of the God of Jacob? That Name is Elohim in this context. Elohim sets His anointed on high. High up yonder out of the savage mix. High up yonder in the winner’s circle. And, mighty Elohim sends help from the sanctuary. As His presence was with His people in the Tabernacle, so also the Shechinah Glory was pleased to grace His people in Zion (1Kings 8:1ff and Solomon) in David’s day[19]. In other words, the help coming from the sanctuary was very God Himself—here is sure victory. Next in line in these means for victory extended to Jehovah’s anointed comes a profound and strikingly prophetic pronouncement: “…He doth remember all thy presents, and thy burnt-offering doth reduce to ashes. Selah…”. The perfect spot for a Selah, and not by accident—here we must pause and meditate. Let us reflect for a moment: David has been writing about Jehovah’s means for victory extended to His anointed, which is David; no problem, so far, but then come these words, restated:
He doth remember all thy presents, and thy burnt-offering doth reduce to ashes.
While it is perfectly acceptable and understandable that his God would set him on high, send him help and support, even by way of His personal presence with David, and so forth, it is not acceptable and understandable for these last words to refer entirely to David himself, no way. David or any other mortal for that matter cannot presuppose that their offerings are so perfectly acceptable to Jehovah God as though He Jehovah had of Himself reduced them to ashes, which reduction bespeaks more than perfect acceptance, it bespeaks also Jehovah’s very hand in the sacrifice (1Chronicles 21:26, 2Chronicles 7:1). It is profound that the reduction to ashes refers specifically to the offeror’s burnt offering. No small wonder that the Spirit of God placed a Selah right here, the significance of which could not have been known to David but by inspiration, for the burnt offering of which he wrote was our crucified Savior Jesus’ reduction to ashes by the hand of Jehovah God at Calvary. And what of those presents, then, presents remembered? Those presents would be you and me Christian friend, and all our brethren before us and yet to come: “…He doth remember all thy presents, and thy burnt-offering doth reduce to ashes…”. Those presents were made possible, and presentable, and particularly acceptable, by that Wholly Consumed Burnt Offering Jesus, even Jesus. He it is that is between and above and below and all around the lines here. To Him shall be all the glory for ever and ever, amen. And those presents, you and me Christian friend, are consequential to the drawing of Father God—they are the desire of His heart (John 6:44, 6:65): “…He [Jesus] doth give to thee [Father God] according to thy heart…”.
It is the counsel of Father God that Jesus preached and fulfilled (John 4:34, 5:19, 6:38, 7:16, 8:28, 12:49, 14:10, 17:8, “He Who Sent Me”): “…and all thy counsel doth fulfil…”, and moreover it is at the behest of Jesus that our prayers are answered (John 11:41-42, 16:23, Hebrews 7:25): …” Jehovah doth fulfil all thy requests…”, and from whom our Salvation follows, for He wrought our Salvation by the will of and through the might of God, who answered (answers) His behests. Thus we sing of our God’s Salvation, yea a victory song, not least as placed on the lips of the singers of this psalm, and we testify to this Victory, that God wrought, when He raised Jesus that Easter morning long ago; when He raised Jesus, like unto a Victory Banner raised aloft; in this way His Resurrection flies, a Victory Banner raised, that flies aloft through the centuries on into eternity: “…We sing of thy salvation, and in the name of our God set up a banner…”. Jesus’ Resurrection is our Victory Banner that flies high, and central, at the front lines of our battles with our King’s enemies who are very much, who are decidedly, our own enemies.
20:6-9- Jehovah hath Saved His Anointed with the Saving Might of His Right Hand
YLT TEXT: Now I have known that Jehovah hath saved His anointed[20], He answereth him from His holy heavens, with the saving might of His right hand. Some of chariots, and some of horses, and we of the name of Jehovah our God make mention. They -- they have bowed and have fallen, and we have risen and station ourselves upright[21]. O Jehovah, save the king[22]. He doth answer us in the day we call! (Psalms 20:6-9, Psalms 20:6-9, NLT).
COMMENTARY: Here David speaks from experience, from the experience of salvation stemming from plenteous adversity from which he was delivered, salvation brought to bear by the saving might of Jehovah’s right hand: “…Now I have known that Jehovah hath saved His anointed…”. But how could David be so sure that in fact it was Jehovah God who saved him? The answer is very simple, and unfolds the same way to the day—he prayed a particular prayer unbeknownst to anyone but David and his God Jehovah, and he persisted in it; that is why David says, besides acknowledging his salvation, that Jehovah answered him. And for David, it happened that way not just once or twice, leaving some room for doubt, but consistently, as made abundantly clear by this persistent salvation-theme all throughout the numerous psalms he wrote: “…He answereth him from His holy heavens, with the saving might of His right hand [like He has time and again]…”. And that certainty of who exactly his Savior was followed from the intimacy of the plea-prayers he prayed to his God Jehovah, and the manifest salvation that tracked those prayers (“the proof is in the pudding” as the saying goes, nay, as the praying goes). The sort of experiential redundancy that David experienced here leaves little room to doubt Jehovah’s hand in the salvation. The beauty is that David is not a privileged child of God in this respect— “day of adversity” type salvation unfolds largely like that for all God’s children. Of course, there are those times when Jehovah God in a righteously disciplinary manner takes one “out to the woodshed” for a time and does not answer, or maybe for some other grand reason clear only to the Eternal Mind He may not answer, but by and large that is the pattern, one David learned through some extremely trying experiences, life and death experiences, that were turned around in his favor on the wings of a prayer, and thus he knows exactly whose hand it was that saved him, even Jehovah God’s hand in context.
In David’s day it was chariots and horses that nations gloried in, nowadays it is tanks and fighter aircraft and guided missiles and myriad other sophisticated, so-called, killing machines that nations (hope to) glory in: “…Some of chariots, and some of horses, and we of the name of Jehovah our God make mention….”. It is hardly the Name of Jehovah God then (save king David and some others), and now, that the nations glory in. God’s grievance here is not necessarily the grotesque killing machines per se, for they are to be quite expected in a fallen world such as ours, His grievance is misplaced trust (Proverbs 18:10). That is one of the significant themes of this psalm. The weaponry here mentioned is, sadly, a must in this fallen world; we are not suggesting that these twisted things be shelved in our country for example—that would be foolish, to say the least. A nation must have some means of defense, because there will always be hostile, aggressive sorts that can only be stopped with a firm hand. Maybe David and Judah were facing this sort of thing in context, and they would have engaged the enemy with their weaponry to be sure. The bigger point is this: when Jehovah God removes Himself from a nation, its weaponry will not save it, and He removes Himself from nations that remove themselves from Him. Maybe you say: “I am not convinced of that!” Well, the most poignant cases in point that we can think of are first Israel, and then Judah. These were God’s peculiar people no less, but when they removed themselves from Him, He flat removed Himself from them. And Israel is to the day dispersed amongst the nations, while Judah found reprieve in His mercy that looked ahead to their turning back to Him but it was not a pleasant experience for them to say the least when He turned them over to their enemies. If it can happen to this privileged people Israel and Judah, it can and will happen to any nation that pretends to champion Jehovah’s cause whilst bowing down in myriad ways to their little gods that entertain them and that they think will save them in a day of adversity. Along those lines, there are some “mighty” nations on the earth these days that pay a lot of lip service to their Christianity, but the truth is that save for a few in leadership—like unto king David—and some staunch believers amongst the general population, many of these nations have preferred to remove themselves from Jehovah God in keeping with the Godless trend that blows across the face of the earth like those chilling winds that presage winter. All the proof one needs here is sitting in the blatantly defiant anti-Jehovah God and contra-Word type laws these nations legislate. And when a nation removes itself from Jehovah God it naturally replaces the Omnipotent One with its manmade might, so-called, and consoles and bolsters itself up therein. But the point cannot be overstressed that the reason they bow down to their might, to alternatives, is because they will not bow down to Jehovah God, and so trusting Him has no chance. Not so David—this victorious Judahite king put all the nations around and about under his heel: “…they have bowed down and have fallen, and we have risen…”, precisely because his Might was Jehovah God, whom alone he bowed down to (trusted in) and resolved to trust in going forward: “…and station ourselves upright…”.
It is terrific how after all this talk about trusting God, king David walks that talk and humbles himself and cries out to Jehovah for salvation in the struggle that he and his people are now facing. It is a hosanna; it is a cry for the king’s salvation, which bespeaks his people’s salvation: “…O Jehovah, save the king…”. And with that, Old Testament meets New Testament in a crescendo, and the crescendo carries us to the pinnacle of this psalm. The Hosanna centuries later that rang in the ears of King Jesus bespeaks His Messiahship, certainly (Matthew 21:9, 15), but in the light of this context, the significance is that Messiah was going to be saved (resurrected) by Jehovah God—not of self, or anything or anybody else; by Jehovah God, and Him alone, and that is the critical connection between the two Testaments in this context. Jesus, as presaged by David here, trusted in God and Him only (Matthew 27:40-43). In turn, as we all know, or should know, Jehovah God defeated Jesus’ (and our) enemies at Calvary: “…They -- they have bowed and have fallen, and we have risen and station ourselves upright…”. Like David put his enemies under his heel through God’s Might, so our Savior put His enemies under His heel at Calvary, likewise through God’s Might (Genesis 3:15). Please notice: the manifest Victory here is in the Resurrection, the resurrection of Jesus; and we His followers have risen too, victorious, have risen with Him (1Corinthians 15:20, 51-54, 55-57), standing sure, stationed thus, sure-footed, on the Rock our Savior (Fig. 1), confidently calling on Him, even His Name, in the day of adversity going forward (John 14:13-14): “...He doth answer us in the day we call...”.
Praised and ever trusted be your Name mighty Elohim of Jacob, God the LORD, our Everlasting Rock. Amen.
III. Illustrations and Tables
Figure 1. Trust in the LORD forever, for in GOD the LORD, we have an everlasting Rock (Isaiah 26:4).
Works Cited and References
“A Letter of Invitation.”
Jesus, Amen.
< http://jesusamen.org/aletterofinvitation.html >
Henry, Matthew.
Commentary on Psalms Twenty.
“He Who Sent Me.”
Jesus, Amen.
< http://jesusamen.org/hewhosentme.html >
McGee, J.V.
Commentary on Psalms Chapter Twenty.
“Nehemiah Chapter One Commentary.”
Jesus, Amen.
< http://jesusamen.org/commentaryneh1.html >
“The Great Conductor.”
Jesus, Amen.
< http://jesusamen.org/thegreatconductor.html >
The YLT is in the public domain.