(1) Day of trouble . . . God of Jacob.--This certainly recalls the patriarch's words (Genesis 35:3), "I will make there an altar unto God, who answered me in the day of my distress." The "name" alone of the God of Jacob was a safeguard to the people, called after their great forefather "Israel. So even under the shadow of the greatness of human monarchs and heroes whole peoples have often felt secure and strong, using no other weapon but his name.

Defend thee.--Better, set thee up on high (comp. Psalm 69:29; Psalm 91:14) as in a fortress, out of the reach of foes.

Verse 1. - The Lord hear thee in the day of trouble. The people intercede for their king in a "clay of trouble" or "distress," when danger impends, and he is about to affront it. They are made to ask, first of all, that God will hear the king's prayers, which are no doubt being silently offered while they pray aloud. The Name of the God of Jacob defend thee. (On the force of the expression, "the Name of God," see the comment upon Psalm 7:17.) "Jacob's God" - a favourite expression with David - is the God who made him the promise, "I will be with thee, and I will keep thee in all places whither thou goest" (Genesis 28:15). "Defend thee" is scarcely a correct rendering. Translate, exalt thee.

20:1-9 This psalm is a prayer for the kings of Israel, but with relation to Christ. - Even the greatest of men may be much in trouble. Neither the crown on the king's head, nor the grace in his heart, would make him free from trouble. Even the greatest of men must be much in prayer. Let none expect benefit by the prayers of the church, or their friends, who are capable of praying for themselves, yet neglect it. Pray that God would protect his person, and preserve his life. That God would enable him to go on in his undertakings for the public good. We may know that God accepts our spiritual sacrifices, if by his Spirit he kindles in our souls a holy fire of piety and love to God. Also, that the Lord would crown his enterprises with success. Our first step to victory in spiritual warfare is to trust only in the mercy and grace of God; all who trust in themselves will soon be cast down. Believers triumph in God, and his revelation of himself to them, by which they distinguish themselves from those that live without God in the world. Those who make God and his name their praise, may make God and his name their trust. This was the case when the pride and power of Jewish unbelief, and pagan idolatry, fell before the sermons and lives of the humble believers in Jesus. This is the case in every conflict with our spiritual enemies, when we engage them in the name, the spirit, and the power of Christ; and this will be the case at the last day, when the world, with the prince of it, shall be brought down and fall; but believers, risen-from the dead, through the resurrection of the Lord, shall stand, and sing his praises in heaven. In Christ's salvation let us rejoice; and set up our banners in the name of the Lord our God, assured that by the saving strength of his right hand we shall be conquerors over every enemy.The Lord hear thee in the day of trouble,.... All the days of Christ were days of trouble; he was a brother born for adversity; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with griefs; he had his own sorrows, and he bore the griefs of others; he was persecuted by Herod in his infancy; he was tempted by Satan in the wilderness; he was harassed by the Scribes and Pharisees continually; he was grieved at the hardness, impenitence, and unbelief, of that perverse and faithless generation of men, and was sometimes made uneasy by his own disciples: at some particular seasons his soul or spirit is said to be troubled, as at the grave of Lazarus, and when in a view of his own death, and when he was about to acquaint his disciples that one of them should betray him, John 11:33; but more particularly it was a day of trouble with him, when he was in the garden, heavy, and sore amazed, and his sweat was, as it were, drops of blood falling on the ground, and his soul was exceeding sorrowful, even unto death; but more especially this was his case when he hung upon the cross, and is what seems to be principally respected here; when he was in great torture of body through the rack of the cross; when he endured the cruel mockings of men, of the common people, of the chief priests, and even of the thieves that suffered with him; when he had Satan, and all his principalities and powers, let loose upon him, and he was grappling with them; when he bore all the sins of his people, endured the wrath of his Father, and was forsaken by him: now in this day of trouble, both when in the garden and on the cross, he prayed unto his Father, as he had been used to do in other cases, and at other times; and the church here prays, that God would hear and answer him, as he did: he always heard him; he heard him at the grave of Lazarus; he heard him in the garden, and filled his human soul with courage and intrepidity, of which there were immediate instances; he heard him on the cross, and helped him as man and Mediator, Isaiah 49:8;

the name of the God of Jacob defend thee; that is, God himself, who is named the God of Jacob, whom Jacob called upon, and trusted in as his God, and who answered him in the day of his distress: Jacob was exercised with many troubles, but the Lord delivered him out of them all; and which may be the reason why the Lord is addressed under this character here; besides, Israel is one of the names of the Messiah, Isaiah 49:3; on whose account the petition is put to which may be added, that Jacob may design people of God, the spiritual sons of Jacob, the church of the living God, whose God the Lord is; and the phrase may be here used by the church, to encourage her faith in prayer: the petition, on account of the Messiah, is, that God would "defend" him, or "set" him on "an high place" (n); or "exalt" him: he was brought very low in his state of humiliation; he was in the form of a servant; he was in a very low and mean condition throughout the whole of his life; through the suffering of death he was made lower than the angels, and he was laid in the lower parts of the earth: the church, in this petition, prays for his resurrection from the dead; for his ascension into the highest heavens; for his exaltation at the right hand of God; for the more visible setting him on his throne in his kingdom; in all which she has been answered.

(n) "elevet te", Pagninus, Montanus; "exaltet te", Vatablus, Museulus, Michaelis; "in edito collocet te", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator; so Ainsworth.