Psalm 20 May Yahweh Accept Your Burnt Offering
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 defend you; 2 may He send you help from the sanctuary, and strengthen you out of Zion; 3 may He remember all your offerings, and accept your burnt sacrifice. Selah
4 May He grant you according to your heart’s desire, and fulfill all your purpose. 5 We will rejoice in your salvation, and in the name of our God we will set up 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 saving strength of His right hand. 7 Some trust in chariots, and some in horses; but we will remember the name of Yahweh our God. 8 They have bowed down and fallen; but we have risen and stand upright. 9 Save, Lord! May the King answer us when we call.
“’May Yahweh answer you in the day of trouble’ for Jacob. I have come to believe that it is perhaps the Day of the Lord and Jacob will be saved eternally. "How awful that day will be! No other will be like it. It will be a time of trouble for Jacob, but he will be saved out of it.’ (Jer 30:7) “The partial deliverance at Babylon's downfall prefigures the final, complete deliverance of Israel, literal and spiritual, at the downfall of the mystical Babylon (Rev 18:1-19:21).” (Jamieson-Fausset-Brown) Former troubles of Jacob are "an emblem of those times of trouble from antichrist in the latter day; see Matthew 24:21; ‘it is even the time of Jacob's trouble’: of the church and people of God, the true Israel of God; when Popery will be the prevailing religion in Christendom; when the outward court shall be given to the Gentiles; the witnesses shall be slain; antichrist will be ‘in statu quo’; and the whore of Rome in all her glory; though it shall not last long: ‘but he shall be saved out of it’;... the vials of God's wrath will be poured upon the antichristian states.” (John Gill), that is upon sin.
“‘May the name of the God of Jacob defend you.’ - This refers to Jacob's wrestling with the Angel; Genesis 32:24... And who was this Angel? Evidently none other than the Angel of the Covenant, the Lord Jesus, in whom was the name of God, the fullness of the Godhead bodily. He was the God of Jacob, who blessed Jacob, and gave him a new name and a new nature (Adam Clarke) Jacob wrestled with God in the flesh and became Israel. We likewise must come to terms with the Person of Jesus. He was God manifested in the flesh, not just some prophet or good man.
“‘May He defend thee as in Hebrew, set thee on a high place..., where his enemies could not reach or assail him.” (Albert Barnes)— “‘May He send thee help from the sanctuary - pictured by the Ark of the Covenant. “This was the place where God recorded his name; the place where He was to be sought, and the place where He manifested Himself. He dwelt between the cherubim over the mercyseat.” (Adam Clarke) “‘May He strengthen thee out of Zion,’ that Heavenly antitype of Zion. “The Jebusite fortress in Jerusalem conquered by David. Thereafter, Zion was used by biblical writers to identify other areas of Jerusalem and was used as a designation of the entire city. Zion was also used to describe, spiritually speaking, the eternal city of God.” (Tyndale Bible Dictionary)
“‘May He remember all your offerings’— every good deed that was offered with a pure heart— “‘and accept your burnt sacrifice.’” This is singular and probably relates to personal salvation or atonement when the sacrifice of the burnt offering took on the intended meaning. From the time of Cain and Abel, this acceptance had been made manifest by fire. “The answer, by fire from heaven consuming the victims, was the most decisive proof of this acceptance. (Genesis 4:3-5. Leviticus 9:24. 1 Kings 18:38-39. 2 Chronicles 7:1-3.) David’s burnt-offering, on another occasion, was thus consumed (1 Chronicles 21:26).” (Thomas Scott)The blood of the victim was spilt at the altar, and the flesh consumed by fire on the altar. Selah- Meditate on this precept and respond in faith.
The innocent victim got the deserts of the offerer. Paul speaks of that day when the Lord Jesus comes to give His people that blessed eternal rest of which the Sabbath is but a type. He will come to “take vengeance on those who do not know God, and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. These shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power, when He comes, in that Day, to be glorified in His saints and to be admired among all those who believe, because our testimony among you was believed. Therefore we also pray always for you that our God would count you worthy of this calling, and fulfill all the good pleasure of His goodness and the work of faith with power, that the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you, and you in Him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ. (2 Thess 1:7-12)
Unredeemed sinners “shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second [eternal] death.” (Rev 21:8) Thus we need to call on the name of Jesus, knowing that He died in our place. All who do so will be saved. (Rom 10:10-13) “May He grant you according to your heart’s desire, and fulfill all your purpose. We will rejoice in your salvation, and in the name of our God we will set up our banners! May Yahweh fulfill all your petitions.->Now I know that Yahweh saves His anointed; He will answer Him from His holy heaven with the saving strength of His right hand. Some trust in chariots, and some in horses; but we will remember the name of Yahweh our God. They have bowed down and fallen; but we have risen and stand upright. Save, Lord! May the King [of kings and Lord of lords) answer us when we call.” (Ps 20:4-9)