Devotional Short Note to Psalm 20: It is a
Psalm of David and some question that fact but it is not necessary. David is
not speaking of his own condition as king. It is a “King-Psalm” with others
lined-up later, but the King is not a human but divine. Why? He is mentioned in
20:10 “The Lord causes to save, the King will answer on the day when we call.”
This King is the Lord. It is in the context also of Revelation 11:10 when the
seventh trumpet shall sound and the door of Mercy Closes and the choir
announced: “the Kingdom of the World became of our Lord and His Christ”. It should
not confuse us. Christ is Lord says the Gospels, the Father is Lord and the
Holy Spirit as well. Unfortunately the inroad of Preterism made the Rabbis of
the Middle Ages, Rashi, Ibn Ezra and Kimchi to place the events in the past and
surrounding events in David’s day and have said that it is a thanksgiving Psalm
after one of David’s battles. Shelve those Jewish and all Reformed-orientated commentaries
with the same trend. They missed the future verbs in the Psalm again and
translated it past tense as if David experienced it. It is not the “Lord answer
thee in the day of trouble” it is “The Lord will answer you in the day of
trouble [The day of Jacob’s Trouble, an expression for the severe trouble that
will come over the world just before Jesus comes, as in Daniel 12:1]. The name “Jacob”
is used also in this verse 20:2b. It does not read “send forth Your help” but “He
will send Your help from the sanctuary [heavenly sanctuary where Jesus will
have just completed His Highpriestly role in the Most Holy] and from Zion
[synonym for the New Jerusalem in heaven] (20:3). “He will remember all your
meal-offerings and will accept your burnt-offerings. Selah”. It is not the
plural “you” but singular. It is the Messiah Christ that gave Himself as an
offering for us (Isaiah 53). The Selah ended this part. Now a new part started
with the concept that the He [the Father] will grant You [Christ] according to
Your [singular = Christ] heart and fulfill all Your [singular = Christ] counsel”
(20:5). One needs to be perfect without any stain of sin to have “all counsels”
granted. We will still come there but in Psalm 46 the Battle of the Warrior
Messiah is depicted at the Hell event and in 46:12 the saints shouted of joy
when the winning Christ comes back from the Battle. Here it reads “We will
shout for joy in Your [Christ’s] victory and in the name of our God we will set
up our standards. The Lord [the Father] will fulfill all Your [Christ’s]
petitions” (20:6). Christ is very special and David saw the Resurrection
morning of the slain Christ and said: “Now I know that the Lord saves His anointed
[Christ the Messiah], He will answer Him from His Holy heaven [the Father spoke
at Christ’s baptism when the Holy Spirit came down in the form of a dove] with
the mighty acts of His saving right hand” (20:7). From verse 7 David is
speaking his confidence in Christ the Warrior Messiah. He says that in his day
and ours “some trust in chariots and some in horses [military hardware] but we
will remember in the name of the Lord our God” (20:8). In his vision of the
Eschaton or last events of the Warrior Messiah, he could see the evil as “they
are bowed down and fallen” and the faithful as “we are risen and stand upright”
(20:9). David then made a petition that is general in every generation and
especially in the Great Time of Jacob’s Trouble, “Save Lord” (20:10a). David
has confidence that “the King [of Kings and Lord of Lords] will answer us in the
day we call” (20:10b). There is no fighting done at all by any humans. There is
no divine war where God is using humans to fulfill His schemes. It is from
start to finish not about an earthly king but the Divine King Christ.