Our text this morning comes from Psalm 20.
Don't be too disappointed. We're going to come back to Acts.
We'll continue Acts next week, just a little break this week, as we look at Psalm 20.
Before we read Psalm 20 and consider it together, let's go to the Lord in prayer asking for his blessing upon His Word.
Let's pray.
Our Heavenly Father. We thank You that You have given us your word, that you are not a silent God. Lord, we long for you to speak and Lord hear you do in your Word by the power of your spirit and Lord, I pray that you will give us ears to hear it this morning, that you will unstop our deaf ears, that we might hear of him crucified for sinners like us, open up again our blind eyes to behold the glory and power of our risen Lord. Soften our hearts to receive it.
Break our hearts that they might be healed by Christ. Lord, we believe in the Holy Spirit. We ask your your spirit would do his work amongst us now, and it's in Jesus's name we pray.
Amen.
People of God, hear God's word for us this morning from Psalm 20.
To the choir master, a Psalm of David,[1] May the Lord answer you in the day of trouble! May the name of the God of Jacob protect you! [2] May he send you help from the sanctuary and give you support from Zion! [3] May he remember all your offerings and regard with favor your burnt sacrifices![4] May he grant you your heart's desire and fulfill all your plans! [5] May we shout for joy over your salvation, and in the name of our God set up our banners! May the Lord fulfill all your petitions![6] Now I know that the Lord saves his anointed; he will answer him from his holy heaven with the saving might of his right hand. [7] Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God. [8] They collapse and fall, but we rise and stand upright.
[9] O Lord, save the king! May he answer us when we call.
He who has ears, let him hear now the Word of God. Please be seated.
Imagine you're a soldier, if you want. You can imagine you're an airman or marine Guardian even, but imagine you're a soldier and the battle is going to begin in the morning. The war is approaching and it's starting the next day. And what might you do to prepare for such a day as you know you're about to enter into battle, you might make sure all your gear is out and set to make sure your weapon is operational and review the battle plan again and maybe again, you're going to try to make sure everything that can be prepared is prepared.
Everything that can be controlled is indeed controlled.
But you also know the reality of war and that there are things outside of your control. You have no control over the response of the enemy. You have no control over the chaos or the fog of war, as it's sometimes called, and you can't control even who comes home, even in yourself, when death is staring you in the face, a question arises that lays underneath everything, what am I really trusting in, what is my confidence in? Where is my hope? Is it in my strength? Is it in my preparation? Is it in my resources? Or is there something deeper, unshakable, unmoving, to be rooted in, to be fixed in, to be anchored in in the day of trouble, Psalm 20 was written for that very moment to answer such an important question as we consider Psalm 20 before even we get into it, it's important to remember that when David, the king of Israel wrote This Psalm, Israel was constantly at war. There's a famous moment in David's life that begins when the days when the kings would go to war. It was a way of life for Israel.
They had enemies surrounded them, and they were constantly at war. But also, as we consider this psalm, it's also too important to remember that there has been an ongoing war since the very beginning of time all the way back to Genesis. We are told, Genesis, chapter three, verse 15, you might remember that enmity, the war between the seed of the serpent and the seed of the woman, between Christ and Satan, between the.
World and the flesh and Christ, between the light and darkness, between good and evil. It's also important to remember that battle is happening this very day.
You know, sometimes I've said in the pulpit that this is not a safe place, not hopefully, physically, hopefully, it's a physical safe place for you. But as you've come here this morning, this is not a safe place for your sin. Christ will have dominion over land and sea, in every place in your heart.
And He has come to conquer both enemies, foreign and domestic.
And he will conquer he is indeed the king. And there is no sin that is safe here. There is no sin safe before the power of the Holy Spirit, where he will seek to root out, to see her, to cut out as a master physician, the Psalm is a reminder that also for us, that the Christian life this morning is not a life of neutrality. You sit here in the pews, and there is no neutral place in your understanding of Christ. You're either for Christ or you are against Christ as King, as Christians, we are not on a cruise ship of life. The Psalm is a reminder that we are indeed still on a battleship. We are fighting. We are fighting the war against our flesh, this world and the devil. We fight against our sin. We fight against temptations. We fight against the lies of the devil.
Remember, John has told us, Do not love the world or the things in the world, the desires of the flesh, the desires of the eyes, the pride of life. It is not from the Father, but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires. But whoever does the will of God abides forever. This psalm calls us to stop trusting in worldly strength and worldly things.
Instead, put our trust in the Lord, in the name of the Lord, because Christ is risen.
He is risen indeed, and he is the only one that will stand.
And you will only stand if you are found by faith in Christ alone. Therefore our trust, our confidence, indeed, must be found in Christ alone.
This psalm unfolds in three there are really three voices that you read, that you see in this psalm.
In verses one through five, it is the congregation's prayer.
You think about it, this is your prayer in verses one through five, verses six through eight is actually the king of Israel stepping forward then to address the people as they are about to go into battle. Maybe I should make that clear. Psalm 20 is a psalm that is meant for people, for the people of Israel right before they're about to launch into battle the very next day.
And verse nine is the congregation all together, the king himself crying out with this final rally, crying.
So as we consider first here the prayer of the people, it's interesting to note that David writes this prayer for the people to pray to Him, the king stands before the people and it says, Pray this for me, and he gives them the words to pray. Now, why does David want the people to pray for him? Because in Israel, the king and the people were very much bound together. If the king falls in battle, Israel falls if the king is victorious in battle, well, Israel is victorious. The life of the people is bound up in the king.
And so they pray in verse one, may the Lord answer you in the day of trouble, may the name of the God of Jacob protect you.
Now, what's interesting, we come to this phrase, the God of Jacob, and maybe you've read this in different places in the Psalms, and why does it say the God of Jacob, why not the God of Isaac, or the God of Abraham, or simply the God of our fathers?
Well, I think if it said the God of Abraham, some of us might be tempted to say, well, Abraham was a pretty honorable guy, pretty respectable. But if you read the story of Jacob, you say He's a scoundrel.
He's a deceiver, he's a manipulator, and he's made a mess of his life, and he deserves the misery and sorrow that it's brought on him, and yet God gives what is clearly undeserved favor to Jacob. He pours out grace and mercy to a great, great sinner like Jacob.
And as we read that phrase, the God of Jacob, it is to be a reminder to us that we, in fact, are just like Jacob, aren't we?
Failure after failure, sin after sin, and it's caused.
Arm in our life, and it's hurt others around us too. Why would God answer me? Why would God help me? Why would God love me?
Why would God have favor towards me?
Because he's the God of Jacob, the God who shows mercy to undeserving sinners.
The prayer continues. May He send you help from the sanctuary and give you support from Zion.
The sanctuary was the very presence of God, and so the prayer is essentially, essentially saying, may God Himself come to your aid.
And what better help is there than God's help? What better help is there than sanctuary help? It reminds me of the the account that happens in Second Kings, chapter six. You might remember, the Syrian army has surrounded where Elisha is staying. He's one man. Went there with his servant, and he is surrounded by horses and chariots, and a massive army has encircled him. And elisha's servant wakes him up in terror and says, Alas, my Master, what shall we do? And Elisha responds, do not be afraid, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.
Then God opens his eyes to see the reality of the heavenly presence. He sees the mountains are all around filled with horses and chariots of fire and reminding him, as reminding you this day of a true reality that cannot be seen with your eyes.
But it is no no less true. God is with his people. He has not forsaken his people. God is with his people.
May he remember all your offerings in regard with favor, your burnt sacrifices. May He grant you your heart's desire and fulfill all your plans there in verses three and four. Now these verses, I think, left to themselves, could be easily misunderstood. If you read them by themselves. It might you might be a walk away thinking, well, if I do enough offerings and I do enough for God, then he'll just give me what I really want. That's not what the psalm is saying. We can't manipulate God. We God doesn't owe us anything good. The question is, what was the king's heart desire? What was David's heart's desire for himself and also for the people of Israel. What did the king long for? What did the king want? Well, David tells us what his heart's desire is in First Samuel, chapter 17, that that account where he goes to battle Goliath, he says it is his desire that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel for the battle is the Lord's that's what the people are praying for, that the David's desire, that God would be glorified. Let your name be honored throughout all the nations.
And that's the people's prayer.
Now the king steps up and addresses the congregation in verse six, he says, Now I know that the Lord saves his anointed. He will answer him from his holy heaven with the saving might of his right hand.
And also just notice the timing of that statement. Psalm 20 is the psalm before the battle.
Psalm 21 is the psalm right after the battle. The two of those psalms go together, but Psalm 20, the war hasn't even started, and David is already proclaiming victory. His faith is rejoicing before the victory is even visible. He says, some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God, you see horses and chariots in that time were the symbol of power, the most powerful military technology available at the time. They represented strength and security power. But David says you cannot put your trust and confidence in them.
Horses stumble, chariots break, armies fail, empires collapse.
Now it's important to remember that you do indeed trust in something. You do at this very moment you are trusting in something. I think that's maybe the homework for to consider is, what am I indeed trusting in?
What indeed is my confidence and my hope in in this life and in the next?
It's not if you trust but what you trust.
And if you trust in anything other than the Lord, you will not merely stumble for a moment.
You will collapse and fall completely. This is not a mere statement about losing a battle.
They will be. This is actually a statement that addresses ultimate reality. This is a statement that takes us back to another.
Psalm, even the very first psalm, Psalm one, where it reminds us that the wicked will not stand in the judgment. They will be like chaff that the wind drives away.
Psalm 20, you see, is not just a Psalm of comfort.
It's also a Psalm of warning.
It's warning all who oppose the king, if you reject his rule, if you trust in yourself and in your own righteousness, this psalm gives you a promise that you will not stand in the Day of Judgment. You will fall under Holy, holy, holy judgment of God, as the author of Hebrews says, It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
But just like this psalm, is giving us a bigger picture of an ultimate reality, not just a singular battle, neither was David's kingship in its own but directing us to someone else.
David's King. Kingship was never the final point of this psalm.
Who is the King who truly rises and stands? It wasn't David.
David sinned. David fell.
David has died.
The hope of Israel could not ultimately be found in David.
The Psalm has us longing and looking for a better king, a king better than David, a king who would not collapse, a king who would not fail, a king who could not be defeated, that we need a king who will not stay down but rise.
Who's the psalm talking about?
You think Jesus? Isn't it King Jesus. The Psalm is ultimately directing us to King Jesus, who Jesus trusted in his Heavenly Father's care with perfection, his desire was for the glory of God with perfection. In John chapter 17, he says, glorify Your name father.
And Jesus's battle was infinitely greater than anything David ever faced in battle.
Jesus goes to the cross to bear every sin you have committed, every lie, every act of pride, every moment of rebellion. They all demand judgment. They all demand death.
And we go back to verse one. It says, May the Lord answer you in the day of trouble. Well, Jesus cries out on the cross, My God, My God, why have you forsaken me? Jesus, the great king, enters the greatest day of trouble, but heaven is silent.
It looks like defeat. There's no rescue that by angels. There's no Chariots of Fire. There's no deliverance. Why because, as Jesus goes to the cross, He is not standing in the place of a righteous king, receiving blessing that He alone has merited.
He's standing in your place, bearing your sin, receiving your judgment, drinking the cup of God's wrath that you deserve to the very last drop, and he does it alone. Notice here the congregation is praying, encouraging the king in battle. But when Jesus asked his disciples to pray for him as he were to go into battle. Where did his disciples go? They fled.
They slept. There's no support for the great king as he goes to battle, and Jesus goes to the cross, bearing your sin, and He dies, and he's buried in the tomb. And if that is it, if that is the end of the story, the king collapses, the king fails. And no one stands. No one stands.
But that's not the end of the story.
Is it?
Because on the third day up from the grave, He arose with a mighty triumph over his foes.
He arose a victor from the dark domain, and he lives forever with his saints to reign. He arose. He arose, hallelujah.
Christ arose. The King is victorious. Christ is risen.
And so now Psalm 20 is actually fulfilled. Verse eight, they collapse and fall, but he rises and stands upright.
Is that what it says? Look there in verse eight, remember, don't just listen to your minister.
What does God's Word say?
Did I make that up? I did.
Because that's not what it says.
It says they collapse and fall, but we rise and stand. Isn't that interesting?
Notice it doesn't say he rises and stands. Why?
Because we rise in him. This is our union with Christ. What is Christ is ours now, and this is the very heart of Easter. His victory is not just his. It is our victory, our victory in Christ. His resurrection is my resurrection. His victory is my victory.
When Jesus conquered death, Your death is conquered. When Jesus stands, you stand.
And so the psalm ends with this final rallying cry in verse 9o, Lord, save the king.
And he has He's risen. He is indeed saved.
He is indeed victorious. The Psalm is answered. May he answer us when we call and we beloved in Christ, you have no doubt that when you call upon the name of the Lord, God will hear you and save you.
Because there was a time on the cross when Christ was not heard, that you might now in Christ, be forever heard. When you call upon the name of the Lord, you indeed will be saved, and He will answer you.
And I'll just end that remembering that you cannot be neutral towards King Jesus.
You will either rise with him and stand in His righteousness alone, or you will fall before him and face his judgment. There is no third option that is it, do not build your life on what will collapse and fail? Everything you see in this life will one day fail you. Your strength will fail. Systems will fail. Our bodies will fail. But on Christ, the solid rock, he will not fail you.
Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God. They collapse and fall, but in Christ we stand and we rise.
Christ has risen, and so shall we and that is our hope. That's what we get to celebrate this day in Easter. Let's go to the Lord and thank him our Heavenly Father. We, thank you for giving us your word.
We, thank you for the resurrection hope that we have in Christ. Lord, I do pray that now you would awaken our hearts, that you would help us to repent of putting our trust in worldliness, in the lust of the eyes and the lust of the flesh and the pride of life, that we would recognize that these things are not from the Father But Lord, our only hope is in Christ alone.
Would be merciful to your people, strengthen our faith and let us be found in Christ alone, and it's in his name we pray, Amen.