Psalms 20

Psalms 20:1

Augustine of Hippo: “The Lord hear You in the day of trouble” [Psalms 20:1]. The Lord hear You in the day in which Thou said, “Father glorify Your Son.” “The name of the God of Jacob protect You.” For to You belongs the younger people. Since “the elder shall serve the younger.” — Exposition on Psalms 20

Cassiodorus: By saying “in the day of tribulation,” he indicates a time of the most severe affliction in which we entreat the Lord with an intense longing. — EXPLANATION OF THE Psalms 20:2

Eusebius of Caesarea: This entire psalm voices a prayer as spoken by holy people to the person of Christ. For since for our sakes and on our behalf he received insult when he became man, we are taught to join our prayers with his as he prays and supplicates the Father on our behalf, as one who repels both visible and invisible attacks against us. — PROOF OF THE GOSPEL 4:16.5

Psalms 20:2

Augustine of Hippo: “Send You help from the Holy, and from Sion defend You” [Psalms 20:2]. Making for You a sanctified Body, the Church, from watching safe, which waits when You shall come from the wedding. — Exposition on Psalms 20

Psalms 20:3

Augustine of Hippo: “Be mindful of all Your sacrifice” [Psalms 20:3]. Make us mindful of all Your injuries and despiteful treatment, which You have borne for us. “And be Your whole burnt offering made fat.” And turn the cross, whereon You were wholly offered up to God, into the joy of the resurrection. — Exposition on Psalms 20

Psalms 20:4

Augustine of Hippo: " Diapsalma." The Lord render to You according to Your Heart [Psalms 20:4]. The Lord render to You, not according to their heart, who thought by persecution they could destroy You; but according to Your Heart, wherein Thou knew what profit Your passion would have. [John 12:32] “And fulfil all Your counsel.” “And fulfil all Your counsel.” not only that whereby Thou laid down Your life for Your friends, [John 15:13] that the corrupted grain might rise again to more abundance; [John 12:24] but that also whereby “blindness in part has happened unto Israel, that the fullness of the Gentiles might enter in, and so all Israel might be saved.” [Romans 11:25-26] — Exposition on Psalms 20

Psalms 20:5

Augustine of Hippo: “We will exult in Your salvation” [Psalms 20:5]. We will exult in that death will in no wise hurt You; for so You will also show that it cannot hurt us either. “And in the name of the Lord our God will we be magnified.” And the confession of Your name shall not only not destroy us, but shall even magnify us. — Exposition on Psalms 20

Evagrius Ponticus: People rejoice in riches, or in glory or in nobility of birth, but the righteous in the salvation of God. — NOTES ON THE PSALMS

Psalms 20:6

Augustine of Hippo: “The Lord fulfil all Your petitions.” The Lord fulfil not only the petitions which You made on earth, but those also whereby Thou intercedest for us in heaven. “Now have I known that the Lord has saved his Christ” [Psalms 20:6]. Now has it been shown to me in prophecy, that the Lord will raise up His Christ again. “He will hear Him from His holy heaven.” He will hear Him not from earth only, where He prayed to be glorified; [John 17:1] but from heaven also, where interceding for us at the Right Hand of the Father, [Hebrews 7:25] He has from thence shed abroad the Holy Spirit on them that believe in Him. “In strength is the safety of His right hand.” Our strength is in the safety of His favour, when even out of tribulation He gives help, that “when we are weak, then we may be strong.” [2 Corinthians 12:10] “For vain is” that “safety of man,” which comes not of His right hand but of His left: for thereby are they lifted up to great pride, whosoever in their sins have secured a temporal safety. — Exposition on Psalms 20

Augustine of Hippo: Sometimes people run off to a mountain to pray, as though God will be able to hear them better from there. Do you want to make contact with God in your prayer? Humble yourself. But again, just because I have said, “Do you want to make contact with God? Humble yourself,” do not take it literally and materialistically and go off down to underground vaults and there start beseeching God. Do not go seeking either caverns or mountains. Have lowliness in your heart, and God will give you all the high altitude you want. He will come to you and be with you in your bedroom. — SERMON 45:7

Cassiodorus: The salvation which he established is recognized as our power when it is neither diminished by diseases nor injured by pains. Such a salvation makes us powerful, since it protects us within its eternal existence. — EXPLANATION OF THE Psalms 20:6-7

Psalms 20:7

Augustine of Hippo: “Some in chariots, and some in horses” [Psalms 20:7]. Some are drawn away by the ever moving succession of temporal goods; and some are preferred to proud honours, and in them exult: “But we will exult in the name of the Lord our God.” But we, fixing our hope on things eternal, and not seeking our own glory, will exult in the name of the Lord our God. — Exposition on Psalms 20

Cassiodorus: Among the ancients there were two types of triumphs: a greater one having to do with chariots, which was called a laureled triumph; the other, a lesser triumph, was called an ovation. But leaving such things to worldly people, he affirms that he has been exalted in the name of the Lord. For chariot and horse do not exalt, though they seem to glorify people with honors in this world. But it is the Lord’s name which leads to eternal rewards. — EXPLANATION OF THE Psalms 20:8

Theodoret of Cyrus: They trusted in horses and chariots, he is saying, and enjoyed no benefit from them but were caught up in unseen entanglements and collapsed. We, by contrast, invoked divine assistance, and won salvation in visible manner and emerged superior to the adversaries. — COMMENTARY ON THE Psalms 20:4

Psalms 20:8

Arnobius the Younger: We will rise upright as others are collapsing, because our King is saved, and arising from the dead he ascends into the heavens, and as he sits on the right hand of God the Father he hears us in the day we call him. To him be glory forever. Amen. — COMMENTARY ON THE Psalms 20

Augustine of Hippo: “They have been bound, and fallen” [Psalms 20:8]. And therefore were they bound by the lust of temporal things, fearing to spare the Lord, lest they should lose their place by “the Romans:” [John 11:48] and rushing violently on the stone of offense and rock of stumbling, they fell from the heavenly hope: to whom the blindness in part of Israel has happened, being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and wishing to establish their own. “But we are risen, and stand upright.” But we, that the Gentile people might enter in, out of the stones raised up as children to Abraham, [Matthew 3:9] who followed not after righteousness, have attained to it, and are risen; [Romans 9:30] and not by our own strength, but being justified by faith, we stand upright. — Exposition on Psalms 20

Cassiodorus: Those who trust in human honors have been snared by their own perverse desires and have fallen into the pit of death. — EXPLANATION OF THE Psalms 20:9

Cassiodorus: A Christian is said to rise in two senses; first, when he is freed by grace from the death of vices in this life and he continues in God’s grace of justification.… Second, there is also the general resurrection at which the just will receive their eternal rewards. In this passage it is clear that both senses of resurrection are appropriate. For this reason, when he adds “we have been raised,” it is because in any sort of resurrection the faithful arise from their humble status and are elevated to divine rewards. — EXPLANATION OF THE Psalms 20:9

Eusebius of Caesarea: They say these things will happen in the time of the advent of that Savior. Then all the powers of the adversaries and those hidden and secret enemies of God who have turned their backs on the Savior will be laid low. All who receive that Savior will rise from the first fall. Therefore, Simeon says, “Behold, this child is destined to cause the rising and falling of many,” namely, the ruin of his enemies and adversaries and the resurrection of those who, having fallen once, have been rescued by him. — COMMENTARY ON Psalms 20:8-10

Psalms 20:9

Augustine of Hippo: “O Lord, save the King:” that He, who in His Passion has shown us an example of conflict, should also offer up our sacrifices, the Priest raised from the dead, and established in heaven. “And hear us in the day when we shall call on You” [Psalms 20:9]. And as He now offers for us, “hear us in the day when we shall call on You.” — Exposition on Psalms 20