May He send you help from the sanctuary and sustain you from Zion.
David wrote this psalm not as a royal command for his own glory, but as a teacher giving the Church a common form of prayer, that God's kingdom, which He Himself erected, might continue safe and prosperous. The occasion may have been a particular battle, but the Spirit's design was to deliver a standing prayer for all God's people.
AI summary
Commenting on Psalm 20:1-9
There is no help like that which God sends from His sanctuary, the person of our blessed Lord, who is the true sanctuary. When you need shelter and aid, fly to the cross; men of the world seek help from arsenals and treasuries, but we turn there and find strength that no plaster or material thing can give.
AI summary
Even great men who pray well must not despise the prayers of others for them; David himself desired his people's intercession. Those in power ought to prize praying people as their true strength and do nothing to forfeit their prayers, for a ruler's greatness cannot exempt him from trouble or excuse him from devotion.
AI summary
Commenting on Psalm 20:1-5