Psalm 20:9














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 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 (ver. 2), the other "the heaven of God's holiness" (ver. 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 CALLED FORTH TO BATTLE. (See 2 Chronicles 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.

II. WHEN WARS ARE ENTERED UPON PERFORCE, FOR A RIGHT OBJECT, THE PEOPLE MAY LAY BEFORE THEIR GOD THE BURDEN THAT IS ON THEIR HEARTS. (2 Chronicles 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 THEIR ARMY AND THEIR THRONE. (Ver. 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 MATERIAL FORCES CAN COMMAND. (Vers. 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 (Psalm 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. ver. 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 (2 Chronicles 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 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.

Some trust in chariots, and some in horses: but we will remember the name of the Lord our God.
By the name of God is meant the various properties and attributes of God. Now, whilst some trusted in earthly power, the Psalmist confides in "the name of the Lord our God." It would seem to an ordinary observer, if he were ignorant of the Gospel, that the name of the Lord would excite terror rather than confidence. If there be good in the moral government of God, how much of suffering, evil and sorrow there are, notwithstanding. How then can confidence arise from remembering the Divine name? We distinctly admit that there are attributes of God which, because they seem arrayed against sinful beings, can hardly be supposed to be subjects of encouraging remembrance. "The name of the Lord our God" includes justice and holiness; and these are qualities from which we seem instinctively to shrink, as though we felt that they must necessarily be opposed to rebellious and polluted creatures. And so they must be. If there be certain Divine properties, the remembering of which might be comforting even to the disciple of natural religion, undoubtedly there are others which can furnish nothing but cause of disquietude, unless there be full acquaintance with the scheme of redemption. It is in respects such as these that natural theology, if it would keep its disciples at peace, must forbid their recollecting the name of the Lord their God. These are points which must be slurred over, for to examine them deeply would be to destroy all foundation of hope. But it is not so with the disciple of revealed religion." Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, there is no property involved in the Divine name from which we need shrink, none which is not actually ranged on our side, if we believe on Him who gave His life a ransom for the world. Did you ever consider what emphasis there is in St. Paul's answer to his own question, "Who shall lay anything to the charge of Gods elect?" His answer is, "it is God that justifieth." What is there in the fact that "it is God that justifieth," which proves that earth, and sea, and air might be ransacked for an accuser, but that none could be found who could make good any charge against "God's elect?" Is it not because God is the justifying agent; not this property, not that attribute of God, but God Himself — God the combination of all possible perfections? If it be God that justifieth, the justification must be that in the effecting which holiness and justice concur. And therefore is it that all accusation is silenced; for if the satisfaction made to God on our behalf hath met every attribute of God, it is not possible that there should remain place for any charge. Justice as well as love demands our acceptance. Who can condemn when the Divine Judge Himself acquits, nay, pronounces approval? You should not fail to observe that our text furnishes a great criterion, and that we ought to test by it our spiritual condition. Is it, or is it not, our habit to "remember the name of the Lord our God," whilst others, either neglectful of religion or adopting false systems, turn bewildered to "chariots and horses"? It is, if with David we have "entered into covenant with God," through the Mediator: it cannot be, if we are still virtually aliens, living in the darkness and rebellion of nature. Oh, we too well know that there must be some amongst you whose only happiness is in keeping God out of their thoughts, and who are glad of any excuse for not considering His nature and attributes. Any "chariot," any "horse," which may bear them away from the contemplation of their Maker! What a state! To be afraid of meditating on that Being before whom they must inevitably appear, and who "has power to destroy both body and soul in hell"! If the banishing Him from your thoughts could finally keep you from contact with Him in His awfulness; if there were a "chariot," if there were a "horse," which would bear you away from His "everlasting wrath," we might not wonder at your perseverance in forgetting Him to, the utmost of your power. Try for one hour to "remember God's name" — "God's name" as traced by natural theology, and yet more vividly by revealed. I know that you will be disturbed and appalled, I know that as one property after another of the Divine nature passes before you, you will shrink back, and be tempted to exclaim — Oh! for the "chariot," oh! for the "horse," to bear us away from this terrible God! But this is what we wish. We wish you to see in God "a consuming fire," — a Being of terrors, and those terrors all armed to strike down and to crush you. But we do not wish you to be left in dismay; neither will you be. When "remembering the name of the Lord" has made you feel yourselves lost, you will hear with unspeakable gratitude how God laid your iniquities on His own well-beloved Son. If God out of Christ appeared to you "a consuming fire," God in Christ should appear to you as a "reconciled Father."

(H. Melvill, B. D.)

I. THE CHARGE BROUGHT AGAINST THOSE WHOSE TRUST IS MERELY HUMAN. There have been such always. Now, the guilt of such trust lies in the oversight of God, — regarding chariots and horses as sufficient in themselves. And we are inexcusable in this, because God, though invisible, is ever perceptible to the understanding. And all such trust is irrational. It has no solid foundation in reason or conscience.

II. THE PURPOSE. "We will remember," etc. The trust of the Christian begins memory. It acts as a stimulant to the believer, and loosens every other bond and makes it easy to let go all which the world gives.

III. THE CONSEQUENCES. "They are brought down,...but we," etc. Now, the results of trust in human power are sad and unexpected. It was so with Pharaoh and his army. But they are in accordance with the natural course of things. If we sow to the flesh we shall of the flesh reap corruption. But the Christian trust issues in this — "We are risen, and stand upright."

(W. D. Horwood.)

I. THE VANITY AND THE VARIETY OF EARTHLY DEPENDENCES. "Some trust in chariots and horses." They were the appendages of war; hence were forbidden to Israel, for war was not their trade, They had no standing, army. They were always to be conscious of the inadequacy of their own resources, and thus to be taught to trust implicitly in God. Nor were they to be exposed to the temptation of conquest. They were never so triumphant as when trusting in God alone. But the text points to the tendency which men have to trust in the creature rather than in the Creator (Jeremiah 17:5-8).

II. THE FOUNDATION OF CHRISTIAN PEACE AND COURAGE. "But we will remember," etc. The name of the Lord is perpetually recurring in Scripture and has ever a deep and portentous meaning. The name of Jesus has now the same energy. "The Lord our God" — all the best blessings of time and eternity belong to the covenant of grace which is in Jesus. Is God our God? Can we adopt the words of the text?

(W. G. Lewis.)

France, in the Revolution, hung up her motto — "Liberty equality, fraternity. Napoleon changed it to Infantry, cavalry, artillery, says PUNCH.

Every good Christian is necessarily a loyal man. The subject now considered is, the insufficiency of all human expedients to secure happiness for a people unless God be honoured in the councils of their rulers, and His name be remembered by themselves. Human policy, if separated from Divine wisdom, leads to ruin and disgrace; but they rise and stand upright who "remember the name of the Lord our God." In what manner is a nation called upon to remember the name of the Lord our God? The right administration of justice and the true worship of God are the only sufficient securities for the permanent happiness of a state. It is the peculiar province of the law of God to instill a hatred of sin. Human laws may bind the hand, fetter the foot, and imprison the body, but nothing can control the heart, and curb the thoughts, and purify the motives by which we are influenced except the Spirit of God. He alone can subjugate the whole man.

(A. Watson, M. A.).

The king shall Joy in Thy strength, O Lord; and in Thy salvation how greatly shall he rejoice.
Take the literal view of this Psalm as a type of the moral one against error and sin, and we have —

I. THANKSGIVING FOR VICTORY. Verses 1-7 are a triumphant declaration of some victory. "Thou settest a crown of pure gold upon his bead." Now —

1. His conquest was a source of joy. "The king shall joy," etc.

2. His conquest was of Divine mercy. "Thou hast given him," etc. That mercy went before him. "Thou preventest him," etc., and transcended his progress. "He asked life of Thee, and Thou gavest it him, even length of days forever and ever."

3. His conquest exalted him to honour. "His glory is great," etc. And —

4. Was connected with his trust in God. "For the king trusteth," etc.

II. EXPECTATION OF YET FURTHER VICTORY. "Thine hand shall find out all Thine enemies," etc. In moral struggles, past victories promise future ones. Because —

1. The opposition is weakened.

2. The weapons cannot be injured. The sword of the Spirit cannot rest nor decay.

3. The resources are inexhaustible — God's wisdom, love, and power.

4. The enemies already overcome are as great as any remaining; and

5. Each new conquest weakens the foe, but increases the strength of the conqueror.

III. DESIRE FOR VICTORY OVER ALL ENEMIES. And this shall be. "Be Thou exalted, Lord, in," etc.

(D. Thomas, D. D.)

Here is God assisting, and the king trusting; God saving, and the king rejoicing; the king desiring, and God satisfying his desires to the full. In this verse are three remarkable conjugations. God is joined with the king. Strength with confidence. Salvation with exceeding great joy. Thus they depend on each other. The king on God. Confidence on strength. Joy of salvation. God exalteth the king. Strength begetteth confidence. Salvation bringeth with it exceeding joy. God is above the king. Salvation is above strength. Exceeding joy above confidence.

1. The only security of princes and states is in the strength of the Almighty.

2. God holdeth a special hand over sovereign princes.

3. Princes mightily defended and safely preserved by the arm of God must thankfully acknowledge this singular favour, and deliver their deliverances to after ages, that the children yet unborn may praise the Lord as we do this day.

(D. Featley, D. D.)

"Oh, it is good rejoicing in the strength of that arm which shall never wither, and in the shadow of those wings which shall never cast their feathers! In Him that is not there yesterday and here today, but the same yesterday, today, and forever! For as He is, so shall the joy be."

(Launcelot Andrews.)

In Thy salvation how greatly shall he rejoice
Homiletic Commentary.
I. THIS JOY AROSE FROM A CONSCIOUSNESS OF NEWLY-ACHIEVED VICTORY.

1. This victory was achieved by supernatural power. Not by the ordinary tactics of military genius, or by the prowess of a human arm. The salvation of humanity is a Divine work.

2. This victory was granted in answer to earnest prayer (ver. 2). The agony of wrestling prayer is often turned into the rapture of success.

II. THIS JOY WAS ACCELERATED BY POSSESSING AN AFFLUENCE OF DIVINE BLESSING.

1. He was surrounded with evidences of the Divine beneficence. God's gifts are God's love embodied and expressed.

2. He was invested with the most illustrious dignity (vers. 3, 5). Jesus wore a thorn crown, but now He wears the glory crown.

3. He enjoyed the consciousness of an imperishable life (ver. 4). He was raised from the dead to die no more.

4. He became the source of endless blessing to others (ver. 6). In and through Him all nations of the earth are blessed.

5. He exults in the Divine favour (ver. 6). The countenance of God makes the Prince of heaven glad.

III. THIS JOY WAS INTENSIFIED BY THE ASSURANCE OF THE UNSHAKEABLE PERMANENCY OF HIS GOVERNMENT.

1. The permanency of Messiah's throne is secured by the Divine mercy (ver. 7). He who is most high in every sense engages all His infinite perfections to maintain the throne of grace upon which our King in Zion reigns.

2. The assurance of this permanency is strengthened by Messiah's confidence in God (ver. 7). The joy and confidence of Christ our King is the ground of all our joy and confidence, and the pledge of final conquest over all our foes.

(Homiletic Commentary.)

I. LOOK AT OUR KING AS HAVING ACCOMPLISHED SALVATION. But few Christians believe in a salvation finished, perfected. The salvation in Christ Jesus is complete; there is not an iota more to pay, not a single act of meritorious obedience left to perform, and not an enemy to combat but He has engaged to vanquish. Look at the manner in which He accomplishes this salvation.

1. By His suretyship and substitution.

2. By His atonement.

3. The entire labour is exclusively His own.

II. OUR GLORIOUS KING INVESTED WITH KINGLY POWER TO DISPENSE SALVATION.

1. By His victories.

2. By application.

III. THE KING REJOICING IN GOD'S SALVATION, SEEING THE TROPHIES OF IT BROUGHT IN AND BROUGHT HOME. My soul seems in an ecstasy of thought in the contemplation of this. Precious Christ! It is all Thine own — all Thy work from first to last.

(Joseph Irons.)

People
David, Jacob, Psalmist
Places
Jerusalem
Topics
21, Cry, David, Ear, Musician, O, Psalm, Save, Victory
Outline
1. The church blesses the King in his exploits
7. and expresses her confidence in God's helpfulness

Dictionary of Bible Themes
Psalm 20:9

     8243   ethics, social

Psalm 20:6-9

     8354   trustworthiness

Library
The Hymns of Isaac Watts
Bernard Manning A paper read to the University Congregational Society in Cambridge on Sunday, October 17, 1937. DR. HENRY BETTS and Dr. Albert Peel have recently revived the respectable game of comparing the hymns of Watts and the hymns of Wesley. I shall have to take a turn or two at it myself before I finish this paper. Indeed, no one can read Watts without having Wesley in mind, and nothing will enable a man to see the greatness of Watts's hymns so well as a thorough knowledge of Wesley's. I make
Bernard L. Manning—The Hymns of Wesley and Watts: Five Papers

Fourteenth Day for the Church of the Future
WHAT TO PRAY.--For the Church of the Future "That the children might not be as their fathers, a generation that set not their heart aright, and whose spirit was not steadfast with God."--PS. lxxviii. 8. "I will pour My Spirit upon thy seed, and My blessing upon thy offspring."--ISA. xliv. 3. Pray for the rising generation, who are to come after us. Think of the young men and young women and children of this age, and pray for all the agencies at work among them; that in association and societies
Andrew Murray—The Ministry of Intercession

Psalms
The piety of the Old Testament Church is reflected with more clearness and variety in the Psalter than in any other book of the Old Testament. It constitutes the response of the Church to the divine demands of prophecy, and, in a less degree, of law; or, rather, it expresses those emotions and aspirations of the universal heart which lie deeper than any formal demand. It is the speech of the soul face to face with God. Its words are as simple and unaffected as human words can be, for it is the genius
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament

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