Psalm 20
Trust in the Name of the LORD Our God
TO THE CHOIRMASTER. A PSALM OF DAVID.
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
May he grant you your heart’s desire and fulfill all your plans!
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!
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.
I’m going through this again as I will be throwing this into our theme… for the year? Not necessarily, but at least for this season. I’m not saying I made a mistake when I proclaimed that 2023 would be a year of movement – We did move, after all, it’s just that I forgot that in the first moments of unveiling this theme, apparently I said that the Year would be a Year of Movement… With Christ.
Apologies all around, to my readers, to the congregations I spoke to, and most especially, to the One who was actually doing all the moving, so we would move – Jesus Christ Himself.
I’ve made that clarification last week during our last Sunday of the year, but I also have to add something that Joseph Prince also adds whenever he does the unveiling of his own theme of the year – that is, that last year’s theme does not cancel out; No, the theme we have for this year is merely compounded on the theme for last year. So with that being said, I’m appending, or compounding meditations on trust and thanksgiving, on top of our awareness that as Christ was actually the One moving us forward, higher, wider, and deeper last year, so He is doing the same thing this year.
We sing every day with the Lord is sweeter than the day before, but I guess this also applies for years, or seasons. Every year with Christ is sweeter than the year before. Every season with Christ is sweeter than the season before.
Now in the previous dive into Psalm 20, I believe one primary takeaway was that trusting God and thanking Him go hand in hand – In other words, you automatically place significant trust in God when you give Him thanks, and you automatically giving Him thanks (or, at least acknowledge Him) when you place your trust in Him. And I’m assuming that we made the consideration that it’s Christ who fulfilled the well-wishes of the Psalm… Leading us to say the following:
Christ is the Lord’s answer for you in the day of trouble.
Christ is God’s help from the sanctuary, and God’s support from Zion.
Christ is the response for all our offerings, and the favor regarded from our burnt sacrifices.
For that second line, we also dug into the Hebrew word actually used for ‘name’, in ‘the name of the God of Jacob’, and while I forget the actual word used, it is translated to ‘honor, authority, and character’; So the name – that is, the honor, authority, and character of the God of Jacob serve as our protection… And I’m going to stretch it a little further here by saying that it is Christ who is the ultimate embodiment and expression of God’s honor, authority and character. Christ, therefore, protects us.
Now I am fully aware that there are other ‘well-wishes’ stated in the later part of the Psalm but because of the ‘Selah’ present, we had to dive into those four before it, first. I think it’s just timely, I don’t know if I went into this much detail the last time but I think what follows after ‘Selah’ needs a little more attention.
Because, see, sure – Christ is the ultimate desire of our heart, and the ultimate fulfillment of all our plans. It is as if to confirm what Paul wrote to the Romans, so many generations later – Romans 11:36 says that to Him are all things. But that’s not all it says, now does it? Yes, Paul also says from Christ are all things – which is to say, Christ is the source of our desires (giving us a new heart upon His resurrection, after all), and He is the One who establishes (initiates) our plans; And here we see yet another point of view of what it means for us to have the mind of Christ – that is, all our desires and plans are not only made with Him, but they also come from Him. Or, again, citing Romans 11:36 – Our desires and plans are from Him, and our desires and plans are towards Him; He, therefore, deserves all the glory.
And as well-wishes go, apparently these are also done with Christ – for, see, just as Christ rejoices over our salvation, so we join all of heaven in rejoicing when others find salvation in Him as well! In Christ – or in the Name of God, in His honor, character, and authority – In Christ do we set up our banners, our flags – our testimonies, that we would rejoice as others see our petitions fulfilled in Christ… and when they see the goodness of God that leads to repentance, we would rejoice as they receive Him!
At this point I think my argument for also including the Truth of God’s presence in there with the link of trust and thanksgiving lies in our realizing what is implied when we trust in His name. To recap, when we trust in His name, it is also like saying we trust in His honor, authority, and character; and as we come to the realization that Christ is the ultimate expression of God’s honor, authority, and character, much as He is the ultimate representation of God’s name, we also realize something: Immanuel. God is with us. That is, God is honored, just as we would be honored as Christ died and rose again to proclaim us righteous and worthy to be in His presence. God’s authority has been demonstrated through Christ, who defeated sin and death that separated us. Finally, God’s character is revealed in Christ, who completely reconciled us to Him.
So with that mentioned I see two things come to light – (1) Christ is the embodiment of God’s help towards us, but also (2) because of Christ’s finished work we can be so bold to claim that God Himself helps us. So while Christ Himself is our salvation and our anointing, He has also made it possible for God Himself to save His anointed – and whether it is us or Christ that the ‘anointed’ is directed to makes no difference – we still rejoice! Moreover, Christ Himself is God’s answer from His holy heaven, with the saving might of His right hand; but also, we can say that through Christ, God answers us with His might!
But then we come to the final lines of the Psalm – which, I think, is what we really should be paying attention to: That is, that no matter who our help comes from, or in what form it does come to us – whether we picture the ‘Help’ we receive as timeless, as Christ is timeless, or whether we see help as literal supernatural or circumstantial help from our great God… the truth of the matter is, God has been gracious to make it all possible for us to trust… in ALL of Him: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We can trust in the Name – the Honor, Authority, and Character – of God, who through Christ (the ultimate embodiment and representation of His Name), and by the power Holy Spirit (the manifestation of Christ poured out on us), we call our Father.
I could ignore ALL of what I just wrote, if only to say that this is a season full of empty promises and lies, a season where it is easy for us to join the populace that places its trust in themselves, other people, other methods, other gods, and/or other things… But this is a season, and at this moment I’m also inclined to say that this is the year where we place our trust in the name of the LORD our God. This is the year when we rise and stand upright, while the rest of the world collapses and falls.
Money is NOT the Lord’s ultimate answer for you in the day of trouble.
Healing is NOT God’s greatest help from the sanctuary, and Health is NOT God’s biggest support from Zion.
It is CHRIST who is the REASON AND the response for all our offerings, and the favor regarded from our burnt sacrifices.
I think I’ll need one more run down to perfect my points for this coming Sunday, regarding this beautiful Psalm.
For now, let me include F.B. Meyer’s commentary for future reference:
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:
After this the king of the Ammonites died, and Hanun his son reigned in his place. And David said, “I will deal loyally with Hanun the son of Nahash, as his father dealt loyally with me.” So David sent by his servants to console him concerning his father. And David’s servants came into the land of the Ammonites. But the princes of the Ammonites said to Hanun their lord, “Do you think, because David has sent comforters to you, that he is honoring your father? Has not David sent his servants to you to search the city and to spy it out and to overthrow it?” So Hanun took David’s servants and shaved off half the beard of each and cut off their garments in the middle, at their hips, and sent them away. When it was told David, he sent to meet them, for the men were greatly ashamed. And the king said, “Remain at Jericho until your beards have grown and then return.”
When the Ammonites saw that they had become a stench to David, the Ammonites sent and hired the Syrians of Beth-rehob, and the Syrians of Zobah, 20,000 foot soldiers, and the king of Maacah with 1,000 men, and the men of Tob, 12,000 men. And when David heard of it, he sent Joab and all the host of the mighty men. And the Ammonites came out and drew up in battle array at the entrance of the gate, and the Syrians of Zobah and of Rehob and the men of Tob and Maacah were by themselves in the open country.
When Joab saw that the battle was set against him both in front and in the rear, he chose some of the best men of Israel and arrayed them against the Syrians. The rest of his men he put in the charge of Abishai his brother, and he arrayed them against the Ammonites. And he said, “If the Syrians are too strong for me, then you shall help me, but if the Ammonites are too strong for you, then I will come and help you. 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.” So Joab and the people who were with him drew near to battle against the Syrians, and they fled before him. And when the Ammonites saw that the Syrians fled, they likewise fled before Abishai and entered the city. Then Joab returned from fighting against the Ammonites and came to Jerusalem.
But when the Syrians saw that they had been defeated by Israel, they gathered themselves together. And Hadadezer sent and brought out the Syrians who were beyond the Euphrates. They came to Helam, with Shobach the commander of the army of Hadadezer at their head. And when it was told David, he gathered all Israel together and crossed the Jordan and came to Helam. The Syrians arrayed themselves against David and fought with him. And the Syrians fled before Israel, and David killed of the Syrians the men of 700 chariots, and 40,000 horsemen, and wounded Shobach the commander of their army, so that he died there. And when all the kings who were servants of Hadadezer saw that they had been defeated by Israel, they made peace with Israel and became subject to them. So the Syrians were afraid to save the Ammonites anymore.
**I may have to be more thorough with this as we go through Psalm 20 as a congregation. Also this:**
Psalm 20:1-4: The prayer of the soldiers. Ready, drawn up for the battle, they salute their king. God’s name is His character. The God of Jacob cannot forsake us, though we are unworthy as the patriarch. “Thou worm Jacob!” Isaiah 41:14.
Psalm 20:5: The resolve. Our banners may wave proudly in the breeze, but all is vain if God be not our trust. The Lord is our “banner,” Exo_17:15. We succeed only as we set out in His name and for His glory.
Psalm 20:6: The king’s voice. Strength is plural, signifying the variety and infinity of God’s resources, on which we may count.
Psalm 20:7-9: The final chorus of the host. As they look across the field, they contrast the might of their foes with their slender equipment. But as they gaze, those embattled hosts are dispersed, as clouds before a gale. Save! is the battle-cry.
Before I DO go back to this Psalm, I’ll need to put my December 2023 thoughts together, and we’ll factor that into our final message… and, God willing, themes for the rest of the month and quarter, just so our child ministries are equipped and informed as well.
And YES, I am aware that I’m typing, to match the copy and pasting as well. Dynamo!!!
Until the next post, God bless you!
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