To the Chief Musician, A Psalm of David
1. May Yahweh answer you in the day of trouble.
May the name of the God of Jacob set you on high.
2. May he send your help from the Holy Place,
And from Zion support you.
3. May he remember all your offerings,
And make fat your burnt sacrifice. Selah.
4. May he give to you according to your heart,
And all your counsel fulfill.
5. We will shout for joy in your salvation,
and in the name of our God display our banners.
May Yahweh fulfill all your petitions.
6. Now I know that Yahweh saves his anointed.
He will answer him from his holy heaven
With the strength of the salvation of his right hand.
7. These in chariots and those in horses trust,
and we the name of Yahweh our God will remember.
8. They bow down and fall,
And we arise and testify.
9. O Yahweh, save the king.
May he answer us in the day we call.
The “you” of the first five verses of Psalm 20 is singular. The “we” of verses 5a and 7-9 represents the people of God. The king has come into the house of God (v. 2a) to offer sacrifices (v. 3) and petitions (v. 5c) before battle with enemies. The people see him there and bless him in the name of their God: may he answer you, set you on high, help and strengthen you, accept your offerings, grant your petitions and fulfill your purposes.
They also express their confidence that the Lord will hear the king’s prayers and will bless him according to their wish. “We will rejoice in your salvation, and in the name of our God we will display our banners!”
The “I” of verse 6 is probably the king. He derives confidence from the blessing of the people and proclaims in their hearing: “Now I know that Yahweh saves and will answer.”
And the people respond to him with further words of confidence; some trust in chariots and horses, but we will remember the name of our God. Our enemies fall, but we rise and testify to the power and goodness of God. They conclude with a prayer for the king and themselves: save the king and answer us.
David himself is the first object of the people’s prayer and blessing, but he is only a foreshadowing of the great anointed one, our Lord Jesus Christ, whom we bless and for whose victory over his and our enemies we pray. He laid the foundations of victory in his cross and resurrection and is now finishing his work from the right hand of God, from the sanctuary into which he has entered.
The psalm is about the antithesis, the great battle between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent, in which the seed of the woman has achieved victory in the child born to us, who has become ruler of the kings of earth and reigns forever and ever.