Verse 20. - Save us... that all the kingdoms... may know, etc. God's true servants desire deliverance and triumph over enemies, not alone for their own sakes, not even for the sake of the country or people whose fate is bound up with their own, but for the glory of God, that his honour may be vindicated in the sight of the world at large. It is a large part of the satisfaction of Moses at the passage of the Red Sea, that "the peoples would hear... the dukes of Edom be amazed... the mighty men of Moab tremble," etc. (Exodus 15:14, 15). David would have his foes "consumed" in order that they might know that "God ruled in Jacob, and unto the cads of the earth" (Psalm 59:13), and again, in order "that men may know that thou, whose Name alone is Jehovah, art the Most High over all the earth" (Psalm 83:18). It has been well said that "the object of all the judgments which the true prophet desires is to bring all nations into subjection to God."
Now therefore, O Lord our God, save us from his hand,.... The hand of the king of Assyria. The Lord had promised that he would and Hezekiah believed he would; but he knew that for this he would be inquired of by him, and he pleads covenant interest, in him, and entreats for salvation upon that account, as well as for the reason following:
that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that thou art the Lord, even thou only; by doing that which other gods could not do; they could not save the nations that worshipped them from the hand of the Assyrians; if therefore the God of Israel saved his people from them, this would be a proof to all the world that he is God and there is none besides him.
that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that thou art the Lord, even thou only; by doing that which other gods could not do; they could not save the nations that worshipped them from the hand of the Assyrians; if therefore the God of Israel saved his people from them, this would be a proof to all the world that he is God and there is none besides him.