To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David. 1 May the LORD answer you in the day of trouble; May the name of the God of Jacob defend you; 2 May He send you help from the sanctuary, And strengthen you out of Zion; 3 May He remember all your offerings, And accept your burnt sacrifice. Selah Psalm 20:title–3 (NKJV)

1 FOR THE END, A PSALM OF DAVID. 2 May the Lord hear you in the day of affliction. May the name of the God of Jacob shield you. 3 May he dispatch to you help from the holy place, and may he help you from Zion. 4 May he remember your every sacrifice, and let him increase your whole burnt offering. Psalm 19:1–4 (LES2)

The MT often replaces “hear” in the LXX with “answer,” which is implied but not stated directly. God can answer our prayers in at least four ways: yes, no, later, and silence. If he hears us, it means we have asked correctly. The apostle John wrote:

14 Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. 15 And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him. 1 John 5:14–15 (NKJV)

The rest of this passage agrees fairly well.

4 May He grant you according to your heart’s desire, And fulfill all your purpose. 5 We will rejoice in your salvation, And in the name of our God we will set up our banners! May the LORD fulfill all your petitions. Psalm 20:4–5 (NKJV)

5 May he give to you according to your heart, and may he fulfill your every plan. 6 We should rejoice exceedingly in your salvation, and we will be magnified in the name of our God. May the Lord fulfill all your requests. Psalm 19:5–6 (LES2)

6 Now I know that the LORD saves His anointed; He will answer him from His holy heaven With the saving strength of His right hand. Psalm 20:6 (NKJV) 

7 Now I understood that the Lord saved his anointed one. He will hear him from his holy heavens. In power is the salvation of his right hand. Psalm 19:7 (LES2)

I believe this verse points to Christ. One interesting point is that the MT uses the perfect tense for “saves,” which can signify more than one thing. It normally means completed past action, but it can also mean that a future action is viewed as already completed from a prophetic point of view. It can also be used to describe a state of being. Therefore, it is a bit of a challenge to say which meaning to attach to it. The English translators put used the English present indicative to communicate the meaning.

The LXX uses the aorist indicative tense, which signifies that “saved” was a past completed action. 

So what do we do with this? If we go with the LXX, it seems we have this: the Lord already saved his anointed one, will hear his prayers, and will save him with the power of his right hand, which I believe describes the activity of the Holy Spirit. 

The Lord Jesus would need saving from death and Hades after his crucifixion, just as David frequently needed to be saved from his enemies in battle, but the Word describes this salvation as being already accomplished, just as it describes Jesus’ crucifixion as already finished in Revelation 13:8. One of the profound mysteries of God is that he resides outside of time and calls things that are yet in the future for us time-bound mortals as though they have already been accomplished, because to him they have been. (Romans 4:17) Therefore, from God’s and prophet’s perspective, Jesus and David had already been saved, even if that salvation was yet to be revealed in time. 

Knowing that our salvation is assured gives us and gave Jesus great confidence in prayer. It allowed him pray according to God’s will because he was not trying to hang on to dear life, but desired to accomplish God’s will. (Psalm 40:8) The Holy Spirit would come and did come to his aid with great power. This, of course, happened at the resurrection, but that power was being continually released during our Lord’s public ministry, too.

When Jesus stood in the synagogue in Capernaum at the outset of his public ministry, he read aloud Isaiah 61:1, which is recorded in Luke’s gospel.

18 “The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me, Because He has anointed Me To preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives And recovery of sight to the blind, To set at liberty those who are oppressed; 19 To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD.” 20 Then He closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all who were in the synagogue were fixed on Him. 21 And He began to say to them, “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” Luke 4:18–21 (NKJV)

This passage says that Jesus was anointed once and for all time (aorist tense), but that anointing continues to produce fruit. The verb “is fulfilled” is in the perfect tense, which means it happened in the past but continues to impact the present.

7 Some trust in chariots, and some in horses; But we will remember the name of the LORD our God. 8 They have bowed down and fallen; But we have risen and stand upright. 9 Save, LORD! May the King answer us when we call. Psalm 20:7–9 (NKJV)

8 These glory in chariots, and those in horses, but we will be magnified in the name of the Lord, our God. 9 They were bound hand and foot and fell. But we stood up and were established again. 10 O Lord, save your king, and hear us in whatever we will call upon you today. Psalm 19:8–10 (LES2) 

The MT says, “we will remember the name of the Lord,” but the LXX says, “we will be made great in the name of the Lord.” David understood that his greatness depended on the Lord, not military might. 

If we see Christ in this verse, as Jesus indicated we should (John 5:39), we see that Jesus’ resurrection, his “rising up,” which is the fundamental meaning of the Greek word translated “stood up” in the LXX, established him as Lord of lords and allowed him to re-assume his position at God’s right hand, but this time as a glorified human, which elevated mankind in a previously inconceivable way. When Christ rose, so did we (Ephesians 2:6), which may account for the use of the plural “we.”

The last verse had a fulfillment at the tomb of Lazarus, when Jesus said:

41 Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead man was lying. And Jesus lifted up His eyes and said, “Father, I thank You that You have heard Me. 42 And I know that You always hear Me, but because of the people who are standing by I said this, that they may believe that You sent Me.” 43 Now when He had said these things, He cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come forth!” 44 And he who had died came out bound hand and foot with graveclothes, and his face was wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Loose him, and let him go.” John 11:41–44 (NKJV)