_The Church blesseth the King in his exploits.—Her confidence in God’s
succour._
To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David.
The LORD hear thee in the day of trouble; the name of the God of Jacob
defend thee.
Send thee help from the sanctuary, and strengthen thee out of Zion.
Remember all thy offerings, and accept thy burnt sacrifice. Selah.
Grant thee according to thine own heart, and fulfil all thy counsel.
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.
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.
Some _trust_ in chariots, and some in horses: but we will remember the
name of the LORD our God.
They are brought down and fallen; but we are risen and stand upright.
Save, LORD: let the king hear us when we call.
This is a prayer for kings, rulers, magistrates, and all who sustain
that most heavy burthen of governing the state:—that God, in such
momentous concerns, to which all human diligence and wisdom are
unequal (as even heathen rulers have confessed from their own
experience), would stand by magistrates when exposed to the hatred of
all, to their secret councils and plans of deceit; and would keep all
subjects in their duty, and give his blessing in the preservation of a
good and happy constitution, and public peace; especially when Satan
with horrible hatred against God and the works of God, is endeavouring
to destroy the constitutions of kingdoms, and to confound all things
with slaughter and blood-shed.
Those great and eminently spiritual men who produced this and the like
Psalms, plainly saw that such great and important matters could not be
managed and governed by any human wisdom or human counsels; and
therefore they wished to pen forms of prayer of this kind for the
safety of magistrates and transmit them to posterity. For such prayers
as these were especially necessary for the people of God at that time,
when David and other godly rulers after him, were continually
exercised with new enemies and new afflictions, and those the most
severely distressing.—Therefore all Kings and Rulers are fools who do
not seek for, and expect, the happy government and the success of
their affairs from heaven.
This Psalm belongs to the second commandment, as do all the other
supplicatory Psalms; for it contains a calling upon the name of the
Lord. And it belongs also to the third petition of the Lord’s Prayer,
where we pray that the will of God, not of the devil, may be done.