there seem to be a lot of ‘i’ and ‘me’ psalms leading up to psalm 20 and then some that focus on God but from an ‘i’ or ‘me’ perspective… and so this one has a very different feel to it:

‘May the LORD answer you when you are in distress; may the name of the God of Jacob protect you.
May he send you help from the sanctuary and grant you support from Zion.
May he remember all your sacrifices and accept your burnt offerings.
May he give you the desire of your heart and make all your plans succeed.
May we shout for joy over your victory and lift up our banners in the name of our God.
May the LORD grant all your requests.’ [verse 1-5]

 

the last line of ‘LORD, give victory to the king! Answer us when we call!’ [verse 9] seems to confuse that sense a little bit and in fact it is verse 7 that introduces the ‘we’ to this psalm: ‘Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the LORD our God. They are brought to their knees and fall, but we rise up and stand firm.’ [verse 7-8] – and end it in a more community sense, but it definitely has a different feel and even the ‘we’ in verse 5 is more of a ‘you’ as it talks about the community celebrating the individual victory.

the psalm begins with a strong sense of calling down blessing and ends with that reminder above, which is probably the primary thing i take from this psalm, that some will trust the creations of their hands [chariots] and others will trust in nature [horses] but we will trust in the one who created both man’s hands and nature [the name of the Lord our God].

this psalm drips with the faithfulness of God and is a great reminder in times when it doesn’t seem like He is near or cares much, that we should continue to call out to Him, as He has proved faithful in the past and will do so again.