May the LORD answer you in the day of trouble!
May the name of the God of Jacob protect you!
May he send you help from the sanctuary and give you support from Zion!
May he remember all your offerings and regard with favor your burnt sacrifices! Selah
From eSword: Psalms 20:1-9 / THE SAVING STRENGTH OF GOD’S RIGHT HAND / This may have been written on such an occasion as 2 Samuel 10:1-19; The prayer of the soldiers, Psalm 20:1-4. Ready, drawn up for the battle, they salute their king. God’s name is His character.
In 2 Samuel 10 we read that Joab faced the Syrians while his brother, Abishai, faced the Ammonites. Joab told Abishai that brother was to help brother in case one was failing, before edifying him: “Be of good courage, and let us be courageous for our people, and for the cities of our God, and may the LORD do what seems good to him.”2 Samuel 10:12
The way I read it, Joab was telling him that before they were to be courageous for their people, and for ‘the cities of our God’, they were to be of good courage themselves. I feel as if they would draw their courage, aware of what he said next: That the Lord will do what seems good to Him. One way I think we can see this is that as we trust in the Lord we draw courage; and as we draw courage, we trust the Lord. If you’ve been following me for a while now you’re probably used to me seeing parallels and both sides of the coin.
But really, I think we’ve hit a beautiful Truth here. For what was said in Psalm 20, that could be a basis for our courage? It’s all from the Lord. It’s the Lord that answers – the Lord responds, not merely reacts, but RESPONDS to us in our day of trouble. It’s the Lord who sends us help from His sanctuary, support from Zion. It’s the Lord who remembers our offerings (of thanksgiving?), and regards our burnt sacrifices (of praise?) with favor.
And see there – it’s the NAME of the God of Jacob that protect us. eSword tells us that ‘God’s name is His character’ – as if to tell us that it is in the character of the God of Jacob (who is THE God of gods, and OUR God) to protect us. Indeed, it is as Paul says – God is for us, (therefore) who can be against us?
Also, to what extent is God for us? Verse 4 continues: May he grant you your heart’s desire and fulfill all your plans! Here I’m reminded of Psalm 37:4, where it is written – no, suggested by the Psalmist that we ‘delight ourselves in the Lord, and He will give (us) the desires of (our) heart’
That’s another way of understanding Proverbs 3:5-6, don’t you think? For as we trust in the Lord, and lean not to our own understanding, and acknowledge Him in our ways… does this not tell of how we can delight ourselves in Him?
Again, we see reinforcement to our claim regarding courage and trusting in the Lord; Apparently, part of courage is the Lord giving and granting us our heart’s desire… yes, and lest we forget, it’s through Christ’s death and resurrection that we could place trust in our heart – For it is part of the salvation that we have in Him, that we have a new heart, as well as a new Spirit poured into us (see Ezekiel 36:26)
In all this, what I am drawing so far is that we have a new heart with new desires; a new heart we trust as we trust in the Lord; a new heart that is courageous in Him and from Him, knowing that it is in His character to protect us, help us, and support us.
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!
eSword continues: The resolve / Psalm 20:5: Our banners may wave proudly in the breeze, but all is vain if God be not our trust. The Lord is our “banner,” Exodus 17:15. We succeed only as we set out in His name and for His glory.
Indeed, we have so much to claim; rather, so much to take in for ourselves, and so much to proclaim as we trust in the Lord – this is what we do naturally through Christ, who, sure as He rose from the dead, has given all of us who believe in Him a new heart! We naturally shout for joy as we continue to marvel at the depth of just how much we have been completely saved and fully rescued… and see there, He is our banner, proclaiming that through Christ, all of our petitions have been addressed, or are being fulfilled, or will be acted upon.
He Himself is our Banner, and when we raise it up, we say:
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.
Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the LORD our God.
They collapse and fall, but we rise and stand upright.
O LORD, save the king! May he answer us when we call.
Friends, I haven’t been sharing as of late, I know. Things have happened, things are happening, and things will happen. The start of this month was not necessarily rough, but it has been very eventful – in terms of quantity, there was a lot going on, and in terms of quality, what HAS been going on has been pretty impactful. But from a far enough perspective, I could look at all of it, and by the grace of God, I say, as the Israelites did – May the LORD answer you in the day of trouble!
…because, surely as they have bore witness to His goodness in those days of conflict, so I see God’s goodness in all that’s going on for me, today.
Thank God for His goodness. Thank God for His faithfulness.
Until the next post, God bless you.
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