Psalms 20

Wesley: God of Jacob—God had made a covenant with Jacob and his posterity. The opening blessing asks answer and protection under that covenant name.

Trouble is no pretense, and so is the call to seek the LORD’s answer. Shared piety—the name of the God of Jacob is a covenant refuge, not a charm. Grace invites the people to pray for their anointed; the day of trouble does not undo the duty or the hope of being heard.

Calvin: the Spirit puts the people to praying that God would answer the king, and thereby admonishes kings to implore God’s protection in all their affairs. “Day of trouble” shows they will not be exempt from dangers. The name of God is put for God himself—confidence proceeds from his revealed grace and power. Under the temporal kingdom a far more excellent government is described; as Christ never ceases to intercede, the Church unites its prayer with him.

The covenant name of the God of Jacob is the king’s protection. Head and body stay joined in petition; the God of Jacob guards the kingdom he founded.

Wesley: Sanctuary—from the tabernacle in Zion, where the ark then was; toward which the Israelites directed their prayers.

Help is sought where God has pledged his presence. Shared confession—Zion’s sanctuary is the appointed place of appeal. Direct prayer toward God’s dwelling; expect support from the God who meets his people there, not from self-invented shrines.

Calvin: may he succor thee out of mount Zion, where he commanded the ark to be placed. Weakness cannot soar to heaven, so God comes down by external means of grace—the ark a pledge of presence, the sanctuary an image of heaven. By joining kingdom and priesthood at Zion, David puts on the people’s lips a prayer for help out of that sacred bond.

Nearness is God’s condescension through appointed means, drawing minds upward so they do not invent a distant, empty deity.

Wesley’s notes pass lightly here; the people ask God to remember and favor the king’s offerings as the ground of answered prayer in battle.

God’s regard for sacrifice and prayer is not imaginary. Favor is sought, not presumed. Offerings without a heart turned to the LORD are empty; the congregation still pleads that God would accept what is brought in faith.

Calvin: “remember” means have regard to—a prayer that God would show the king’s sacrifices acceptable. Under offerings and holocausts David comprehends all sacrifices, and under sacrifices requests and prayers. The fathers’ hope in asking was founded on sacrifices; so now our prayers are acceptable only as Christ sprinkles and sanctifies them with the perfume of his own sacrifice.

Favor on the king’s worship. Acceptability runs through the Mediator’s offering; bare ritual without that covering does not bind God.

The people ask God to grant the king’s desire and fulfill his plans—petition tied to the prior plea for favored offerings.

God answers prayer and orders outcomes. Desire and plans are not blank checks for greed; they are brought before God and must stay under his will. Grace enables the asking; the congregation still must keep praying that the LORD would grant and fulfill.

Calvin: they commend to God the desires and counsels of the king. It would be absurd to ask God to grant foolish and wicked desires; the king pictured is not driven by ambition or avarice but intent on his charge and the public good, asking what the Holy Spirit dictates and what God commands him to ask.

Only God can fulfill the king’s plans. The heart God grants is one he has already schooled by his Spirit; counsel succeeds because it is tethered to his charge, not because raw wish is sovereign.

Wesley: Rejoice—hereby they shew their confidence in God, and their assurance of the victory. Name—to the honour of God. Set up—in way of triumph.

Shared joy in the king’s salvation. Banners rise in God’s name, not in self-glory. Confidence and assurance of victory are voiced before the battle ends—faith that still calls, “grant all your requests.”

Calvin: the fruit of God’s favor would be common joy—the people are solicitous not for one man’s welfare alone but for the safety of the whole Church. They distinguish their joy from heathen revel by setting up banners in God’s name—grateful acknowledgment and triumph in his praise when he fulfills the king’s petitions.

Shout and banners under God’s name. Salvation of the anointed is corporate mercy; thanksgiving, not carnal boasting, marks the victory song.

Wesley: 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.

“Now I know” is faith’s present assurance from considering who God is. Shared confession—the LORD saves his anointed from heaven. Unanimous prayer and reflection on power, faithfulness, and love ground a sure hope that still keeps calling.

Calvin: grateful rejoicing follows—the faithful have experienced God’s goodness in preserving the king. Doctrine of faith: God put forth power to maintain David’s kingdom because it was founded upon his calling. Experience shows he is guardian of the kingdom he himself set up. From past goodness they conclude future preservation; under the heavenly sanctuary his infinite power and majesty are shown, and his right hand’s saving might overcomes every impediment.

Heaven answers the anointed. Certainty rests on God’s founding call and effectual guardianship, which experience confirms rather than creates.

Wesley: Remember—trust in it. The contrast is plain: military hardware versus the LORD’s name.

The congregation is to refuse a faith that rests on chariots. The congregation must actually trust and remember the name. Grace enables that trust; the hearers still turn from horses to the LORD, or they remain among those who trust in flesh.

Calvin: not restricted to Israel’s enemies—a comparison between God’s people and the world. Almost all grow confident with riches and forces; the faithful protest that their hope is only in God’s aid. Whenever carnal confidence occupies the mind, forgetfulness of God follows. “Remember” shows that saints must cast off whatever hinders exclusive trust—whether in abundance or in want.

Name against chariots. Remembrance subdues vain hopes; success is ascribed to pure grace, not to apparatus the flesh inflates.

Wesley: Brought down—from their horses and chariots, to which they trusted. Stand—stand firmly, and keep the field.

Shared outcome—those who trusted flesh fall; those who trusted the name stand. The verse teaches by result: keep the field by clinging to the LORD, not by climbing into the enemy’s harness.

Calvin: the enemies God overthrew are pointed out—once lifted in cruel pride, now bowed and fallen; the oppressed people rise and stand erect. The event teaches how much more advantageous it is to place confidence in God than to depend on our own strength.

The proud collapse while the faithful stand upright. Providence reverses proud height; the rise of the faithful is God’s vindication of exclusive trust, not luck on the field.

Wesley: Let the king—God, the supreme monarch, the king of kings, and in a peculiar manner the king of Israel.

Shared cry—save! Answer when we call. Whether the “king” is heard as the LORD himself or as the anointed under him, the people end in petition, not in self-rescue. Keep calling; salvation is from the LORD.

Calvin: “Save, O Jehovah” is elliptical and corporate—by blessing the king God shows himself Savior of the whole people. God had not promised salvation apart from the hand of the king he gave; under the type, look to Christ and renounce every other hope. Gathered under one Head, the faithful care for one another’s welfare as they call.

Save and answer. Christ is the King through whom God saves; the Church’s last word is dependence on that saving hand when it calls.