Bible Commentaries
Psalms 20

Verses 1-9

Psalms 20:0

The famous physician, Sir James Y. Simpson, was one of a family which had the privilege of a pious mother. She was early left a widow, and had many a perplexing thought and sore struggle in providing bread for her household. When she was hard pressed with thinking and toiling, and could not see her way through, she used to sit down and repeat the 20th Psalm. She rose refreshed, and her children learned to call it 'mother's Psalm'.

Jehovah hear thee in the day

When trouble He doth send:

And let the name of Jacob's God

Thee from all ill defend.

O let Him help send from above,

Out of His sanctuary:

From Sion, His own holy hill,

Let Him give strength to thee.

John Ker.

References. XX. 1. J. Baldwin Brown, The Sunday Afternoon, p. 45. J. M. Neale, Sermons on Passages from the Psalms, p. 9. XX. 1, 2. Preacher's Monthly, vol. ii. p. 414. XX. 1-7. J. Bowstead, Practical Sermons, vol. ii. p. 222.

Psalms 20:3

This text was quoted by Henri Perreyve in the letter he wrote to his friend Charles Perraud from Hyères on 18 December, 1857. Henri Perreyve was at that time a deacon, looking forward to priest's orders. Charles Perraud had just been ordained to the priesthood. The motto of the letter, repeated for each paragraph, is 'the sacramental greeting of the deacon,' 'The Lord be with you'. 'May He be with you in your griefs to comfort you! With you in your joys to sanctify them! With you in your longings to make them fruitful. Memor sit omnis sacrificii tui et holocaustum tuum pingue fiat .'

References. XX. 5. D. Burns, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xiii. p. 81. J. Bunting, Sermons, vol. ii. p. 99. XX. 7. H. Melvill, Penny Pulpit, No. 1593. G. Brooks, Outlines of Sermons, p. 177. XXI. 2. M. G. Pearse, Sunday Magazine, 1884, p. 605.