Bible Commentary - Psalms 20

Psalm 20 is a little different from most of the other psalms we have read so far.  This psalm could best be described as a royal benediction, with David declaring the blessings of God upon the anonymous recipient of this prayer.  It’s as if this psalm were a prayer, but unlike the earlier prayers David is not praying for himself; rather, he is praying for us, the listeners to this song.  This most reminds me of the Aaronic blessing that was given back in Numbers 6:22-27, since they both use second person pronouns (e.g. “may the LORD bless you”) and because they are both calls for God to bless the recipient of the prayer in some fashion.

The Aaronic blessing in Num 6 is quite generic, while the prayer in Psalm 20 is more narrowly targeted as a prayer for victory.  Verses 1-5 continue on this theme pretty much continuously, beginning with a request for help “in the day of trouble” (v. 1) and ending with a song “of joy over your victory” (v. 5).

In keeping with the many psalms we’ve read so far, Psalm 20 does not place this prayer into any specific context.  One way it’s different however is that most of the prayer psalms have what I call a “problem statement”, where David describes at length the crisis he was facing before issuing his specific request for deliverance from the LORD.  Examples of this type include Psalm 10 and, to an extent, Psalm 18 as well.  Since the prayer in Psalm 20 is not for David but for his listeners, it is a natural consequence that David would not know the circumstances of the difficulties they were facing and therefore this psalm is slightly more generic than the usual prayer psalms.

Lastly, verse 7 reinforces one of the major themes of the OT, contrasting the power of God and the power of human strength (or horses).  We’ve seen this show up several times already, with one early example being the Law’s prohibition on the king’s accumulation of horses (Deuteronomy 17:16).  Even though the passage in Deuteronomy associates that prohibition with returning to Egypt (which is also forbidden), it’s clear from here and elsewhere in the OT that God doesn’t want Israel to accumulate horses because that is a form of human power that can be substituted for their dependence on God.

Here in verse 7, David is saying that rather than trust in the power of horses and chariots, he and the people of Israel would “boast” or depend on the power of God to save them.  A good example of this in action is 2 Chronicles 20, when the LORD destroyed the enemies of Judah in a situation when they would have been hopelessly outnumbered if they fought by human strength.  More generally, there are many places in the OT where we see Israel vastly outnumbered both in soldiers as well as chariots, and where Israel is nonetheless victorious because God gives them the victory against their stronger enemies.  David himself won several battles in this way (2 Samuel 5:17-25), so he would undoubtedly believe in the supremacy of the power of God over human strength.

Thematically, the saving power of God is the primary topic of this psalm.  In the prayer of verses 1-5 it was the strength of God that would deliver those who are in trouble, and in the later half of the psalm (verses 6-9) David is praising God and God’s ability to save those who call upon him.

Structurally this follows some of the patterns of a typical prayer psalm.  The tripartite structure of a typical prayer psalm is problem statement, prayer for relief, and praise and thanksgiving for deliverance.  This psalm seems to omit the first part and instead it only contains a prayer for relief (v. 1-5) and praise for deliverance (v. 6-9).  As I previously mentioned, the problem statement is left out because this prayer is not focused on himself (the author), but rather upon the recipients or listeners to whom this psalm is delivered.  This seems like the minimum modification necessary to make the standard prayer structure fit with the context of a second person, benedictory prayer.

Verse 6 is the only hint in the psalm that David might be talking about himself, when he refers to the LORD’s “anointed”.  Verse 9 contains a reference to “the king”, but it’s ambiguous whether this king is David himself or the great King who rules over the world (God).  Otherwise, the psalm is entirely written to us and for us, that we might receive the blessing of God in our day of trouble and our time of need.