1. All loyal
subjects pray for their king, and most certainly citizens of Zion have good
cause to pray for the Prince of Peace. In times of conflict loving subjects
redouble their pleas, and surely in the sorrows of our Lord his church could
not but be in earnest. All the Saviour’s days were days of trouble, and he also
made them days of prayer; the church joins her intercession with her Lord, and
pleads that he may be heard in his cries and tears. The agony in the garden was
especially a gloomy hour; he knew that his Father heard him always, yet in that
troublous hour no reply came until three times he had fallen on his face in the
garden; then sufficient strength was given in answer to prayer, and he rose a
victor from the conflict. On the cross also his prayer was not unheard, for in
Psalm 22 he tells us, “thou hast heard me from the horns of the unicorns.” The
name of the God of Jacob defend thee. Or, as some read it, “set thee in a
high place.” By the name is meant the revealed character and Word of God;
we are not to worship “the unknown God,” but we should seek to know the
covenant God of Jacob, who has been pleased to reveal his name and attributes
to his people. The glorious power of God defended and preserved the Lord Jesus
through the battle of his life and death, and exalted him above all his
enemies. His warfare is now accomplished in his own proper person, but in his
mystical body, the church, he is still beset with dangers; the name of the God
of Israel is still the defense of the faithful. The name God of Jacob is
suggestive; Jacob had his day of trouble, he wrestled, was heard, was defended,
and in due time was set on high, and his God is our God still. The whole verse
is a very fitting benediction to be pronounced by a gracious heart over a
child, a friend, or a minister, in prospect of trial; it includes both temporal
and spiritual protection, and directs the mind to the great Source of all good.
How delightful to believe that our Heavenly Father has pronounced it upon our
favored heads!
2. Send thee help from the sanctuary. Out of heaven’s sanctuary came the angel to strengthen our
Lord, and from the precious remembrance of God’s doings in his sanctuary our
Lord refreshed himself when on the tree. There is no help like that which is of
God’s sending, and no deliverance like that which comes out of his sanctuary.
The sanctuary to us is the person of our blessed Lord, who was typified by the
temple, and is the true sanctuary which God has pitched, and not man: let us
fly to the cross for shelter in all times of need and help will be sent to us.
People of the world seek help out of the armory, or the treasury, or the
pantry, but we turn to the sanctuary. And strengthen thee out of Zion.
Out of the assemblies of the pleading saints who had for ages prayed for their
Lord, help might well result to the despised sufferer, for praying breath is
never spent in vain. To the Lord’s mystical body the richest good comes in
answer to the pleadings of his saints assembled for holy worship as his Zion.
Nothing can give such strength as waiting upon God in the assemblies of his
people.
3. Before
war kings offered sacrifice, upon the acceptance of which they depended for
success; our blessed Lord presented himself as a victim, and was a sweet savor
to the Most High, and then he met and routed the embattled legions of hell.
Still his burnt sacrifice perfumes the courts of heaven, and through him the
offerings of his people are received as his sacrifices and oblations. We
ought in our spiritual conflicts to have an eye to the sacrifice of Jesus, and
never venture to war until first the Lord has given us a token for good at the
altar of the cross. Selah. It is well to pause at the cross before we
march on to battle. We are too much in a hurry to make good haste. Rest awhile,
meditate on the burnt sacrifice, and put your heart right for the stem work
which lies before you.
4. Christ’s
desire and counsel were both set upon the salvation of his people; the church
of old desired for him good speed in his design, and the church in these latter
days, with all her heart desires the complete fulfillment of his purpose. In
Christ Jesus sanctified souls may appropriate this verse as a promise; they
shall have their desire, and their plans to glorify their Master will succeed.
We may have our own will when our will is God’s will. This was always the case
with our Lord, and yet he said, “not as I will, but as thou wilt.” What need
for submission in our case; if it was necessary to him, how much more for us!
5. We will rejoice in thy salvation. In Jesus there is salvation; it is his own, and hence it is
called thy salvation; but it is ours to receive and ours to rejoice in.
The people in this psalm, before their king went to battle, felt sure of
victory, and therefore began to rejoice beforehand; how much more ought we to
do this who have seen the victory completely won! Unbelief begins weeping for
the funeral before the dance of victory begins! If joy were more general among
the Lord’s people, God would be more glorified among us. And in the name of
our God we will set up our banners. We wave the flag of victory over the
fallen adversary. The faithful go to war in Jesus’ name, the name of the
incarnate God, Immanuel, God with us. The times are evil at present, but so
long as Jesus lives and reigns in his church we need not furl our banners in
fear. The Lord fulfill all thy
petitions. The church cannot forget that Jesus is her advocate before the
throne, and therefore she sums up the desires already expressed in this short
sentence. Be it never forgotten that among those petitions is that choice one,
“Father, I will that they also whom thou hast given me be with me where I
am.”
6. He who
thinks he knows everything will miss the joy of finding out new truth. Souls
conscious of ignorance will be taught by the Lord, and rejoice as they learn.
Earnest prayer frequently leads to assured confidence. The church pleaded that
the Lord Jesus might win the victory in his great struggle, and now by faith
she sees him saved by the omnipotent arm. She evidently finds a sweet relish in
the fragrant tide of “anointed”; she thinks of him as ordained before all
worlds to his great work, and then endowed with the needful qualifications by
being anointed by the Spirit of the Lord; and this is evermore the choicest
solace of the believer, that Jehovah himself has anointed Jesus to be a Prince
and a Saviour, and that our shield is thus the Lord’s own anointed. God’s
holiness and power will both come to the rescue of the Saviour in his conflict,
and surely these two glorious attributes found congenial work in answering the
sufferer’s cries. Since Jesus was heard, we shall be; God’s strength is in the
hand which is most used and which is used most readily—the right hand. What
encouragements are these for pleading saints!
7. Here the
church sets forth the creature-confidences of carnal men in contrast with her
reliance upon the Prince Immanuel and the invisible Jehovah. Chariots
and horses make an imposing show, and with their rattling, and dust, and
fine caparisons, make so great a figure that vain man is much taken with them;
yet the discerning eye of faith sees more in an invisible God than in all
these. The name of the Lord our
God. This is Jehovah, and this should never be forgotten; the self-existent,
independent, immutable, ever-present, all-filling I AM. Let us adore that
matchless name, and never dishonor it by distrust or creature-confidence. You
must know it before you can remember it. May the blessed Spirit
reveal it graciously to your soul!
8. The
enemies of God are uppermost at first, but ere long are brought down by force,
or fall of their own accord. Their foundation is rotten; and where is their
boasted strength? As for those who rest on Jehovah, they are often east down at
the first onset, but an Almighty arm uplifts them, and they joyfully stand
upright. The victory of Jesus is the inheritance of his people.
9. The psalm
is here recapitulated. That Jesus might himself be delivered, and might then,
as our King, hear us, is the two-fold desire of the psalm. The first request is
granted, and the second is sure to all the seed; and therefore we may close the
psalm with the hearty shout, “God save the King. God save King Jesus, and may
he soon come to reign.”
Excerpt from:
The Treasury of David
By Charles H Spurgeon
