The children of this world trust in second causes and rise or fall with them but those who have a believing and obedient trust in God have the sure way to preferment and establishment.
Psalm 1
2 Send thee help from the sanctuary, and strengthen thee out of Zion;
3 Remember all thy offerings, and accept thy burnt sacrifice; Selah.
4 Grant thee according to thine own heart, and fulfil all thy counsel.
5 We will rejoice in thy salvation, and in the name of our God we will set up our banners: the LORD fulfil all thy petitions.
6 Now know I that the LORD saveth his anointed; he will hear 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 the LORD our God.
8 They are brought down and fallen: but we are risen, and stand upright.
9 Save, LORD: let the king hear us when we call.
Psalm 1 – J. Vernon McGee
Psalm 20 – The Saving Strength of God’s Right Hand
This may have been written on such an occasion as II Samuel 10.
The prayer of the soldiers, Psalm 20:1-4. Ready, drawn up for the battle, they salute their king. God’s name is His character. The God of Jacob cannot forsake us, though we are unworthy as the patriarch. “Thou worm Jacob!” Isaiah 41:14.
The resolve, Psalm 20:5. Our banners may wave proudly in the breeze, but all is vain if God be not our trust. The Lord is our “banner,” Exodus 17:15. We succeed only as we set out in His name and for His glory.
The king’s voice, Psalm 20:6. Strength is plural, signifying the variety and infinity of God’s resources, on which we may count.
The final chorus of the host, Psalm 20:7-9. As they look across the field, they contrast the might of their foes with their slender equipment. But as they gaze, those embattled hosts are dispersed, as clouds before a gale. Save! is the battle-cry. —Through the Bible Day by Day
Psalm 20:6—Now know I that the LORD saveth his Anointed.
This was no doubt true of David as the anointed king of Israel, and of the Lord Jesus for whom the Father hath promised that He will subdue all things under Him; but it is also true of every saint who has been anointed with the Holy Ghost. Christian means an anointed one. Alas, that in so any cases the name is a misnomer! And men cannot claim the saving strength of God’s right hand because they have not bent head and heart beneath the chrism of the Holy Spirit. How is it with thee? Art thou included in what Paul said (2 Corinthians 1:21), He that “anointed us, is God;” and in what John said (1 John 2:27), “The anointing which ye have received of him abideth”? If so, there can be no doubt that Jehovah will ever save thee with a present-tense salvation. He saveth those whom He anointeth “with the saving strength of his right hand (Psalm 20:6).
Dost thou doubt this? Sayest thou that the annoyances and solicitations, the pitfalls and snares, the antagonisms and temptations of thy life, are so great as to offer an insuperable obstacle to thy entire deliverance from fret, irritation, and failure? Then turn to the marvelous phrase that follows, and tell me, if thou canst, the meaning of the saving strength of God’s right hand. Is not God’s right hand strong enough? And notice that its strength is pledged not to destroy, but to save. All the strength of God’s right hand goes forth to save unto the uttermost. Look away from adversary and temptation, and keep murmuring to thyself, “He shall save me today, and always, with the saving strength of his right hand.” And is not the right hand of the Most High the place where Jesus sits? Is not the right hand of God moved by the love that died on Calvary? “He laid his right hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear not” (Revelation 1:17). —Our Daily Homily