John Calvin Commentary Psalms 20:3

"Remember all thy offerings, And accept thy burnt-sacrifice; Selah" — Psalms 20:3 (ASV)

May he remember. I understand the word remember as meaning to have regard for, as it is to be understood in many other places; just as to forget often signifies to neglect, or not to condescend to regard, or even to behold, the object to which it is applied.

It is, in short, a prayer that God would actually show that the king’s sacrifices were acceptable to Him. Two kinds of them are mentioned here: first, the מנחה, mincha, mentioned in the first clause of the verse, which was the appointed accompaniment of all sacrifices and was also sometimes offered by itself; and, secondly, the holocaust, or whole burnt offering.

But under these two kinds, David intended to comprehend, by synecdoche, all sacrifices; and under sacrifices, he comprehends requests and prayers. We know that whenever the fathers prayed under the Law, their hope of obtaining what they asked was founded upon their sacrifices. In the same way, today our prayers are acceptable to God only insofar as Christ sprinkles and sanctifies them with the perfume of His own sacrifice.

The faithful, therefore, desire here that the solemn prayers of the king, which were accompanied by sacrifices and oblations, might have their effect in the successful outcome of his affairs. That this is the meaning can be gathered still more clearly from the following verse, in which they commend to God the desires and plans of the king.

But since it would be absurd to ask God to grant foolish and wicked desires, it is certain that the king described here was neither given to ambition, nor inflamed with avarice, nor driven by the desire for whatever his unruly passions might suggest. Instead, he was wholly intent on the charge committed to him and entirely devoted to the advancement of the public good. Consequently, he asks nothing but what the Holy Spirit dictated to him, and what God, by His own mouth, commanded him to ask.