Psalm 20

To the Choirmaster, a Psalm of David

⁰¹          The Lord answer you

 in the day of trouble!

            The Name of the God of Jacob

protect you!

⁰²             May He send you help from the sanctuary,

grant you support from Zion.

⁰³                   May He remember all your offerings,

regard with favor your burnt sacrifices.

Selah

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May the Lord Know You!

For the Lord’s Day:  the 25^th of July 2004

Introduction:  Like our own “Battle Hymn of the Republic,” this notable Psalm should be remembered in the same way for the Theocracy of Jehovah in the time of David, the steward king.  Spurgeon notes: “we have before us a National Anthem, fitted to be sung at the outbreak of war, when the monarch was girding on his sword for the fight.  … A happy people here plead for a beloved sovereign, and with loving hearts cry to Jehovah, ‘God save the king.’”

 

We will indeed take up that same phrase in translation at the end of this patriotic hymn.  But, let me be quick to say – that given the phrases here, the patriotism displayed is more focused on God’s good will and providence than upon the victory of the king himself.

 

A second point to consider comes from the German evangelical commentator Delitzsch, who establishes this psalm’s place in the Psalter because of its close connection to the prayer with which the nineteenth was ended.  “Keep me from sin”, David had prayed and then closed with the request that his own words and thoughts might be found acceptable before the throne of heaven.

 

In this psalm, David’s prayer is that the Lord may bless his necessary military adventures in the protection of the Covenant people, the land and tabernacle precincts on Zion’s holy hill.  Delitzsch also looks forward to the twenty-first Psalm with its similar theme of prayer and thanksgiving not only for what the Lord has done, but also for what He will do in the immediate and distant future.  He also notes that the pair of psalms (20 & 21) “delight in rare forms of expression, which are found only in these instances in the whole range of Old Testament literature.”

 

Calvin would enlarge the perspective of this psalm by stating that it “contains a common prayer of the Church in behalf of the King of Israel, that God would succor him in danger; and in behalf of his kingdom, that God would maintain it in safety, and cause it to prosper: for in the person of David the safety and well-being of the whole community centered.  To this there is added a promise, that God will preside over that kingdom of which he was the founder, and so effectually watch over it as to secure its continual preservation.”

 

And a third introductory point if you will allow?  I am reminded of the title of a J.I. Packer book:  Knowing God: and having read that volume some years ago, I came away with the impression that it could have been better titled: “Known by God.”  And this is the introductory theme that I would encourage here in my title for the first sermon on this lovely patriotic psalm, but I have phrased it slightly differently:  “May the Lord Know You!”  In singing this psalm – the people do indeed trust their faithful steward, the household troops and the assembled militia to the disposition of the Almighty, and therein is the reason for the prayerful tone of the whole psalm: wherein trust the victory to the Lord in the hopes that many of the warriors may return home in safety.

 

Development:  With that said, we may turn to the hopeful, prayerful phrases of verse one: 

 

”The Lord answer you in the day of trouble!

The Name of the God of Jacob protect you!”

 

Fortunately David does not reign in our day and time; otherwise the people could not be publicly enjoined to pray for their leader in time of war.  In fact, I just read this week that there is an organized effort on the part of atheistic, socialistic and humanistic organizations to visit churches in Oklahoma to make certain that no pastor prays for the president’s success in any way, shape or political form!  After all, that would be an endorsement to the people in the pew, in the eyes of every politically energized despot, who cannot endure the influence of the Christian faith in any public square.

 

Thankfully, David lived in a time when the nation at war could unashamedly plead to the God of heaven for his assistance in defeating every foul enemy.  And such enemies were exceptionally numerous in David’s time.  This is very probably a psalm that was used repeatedly whenever the military forces were mobilized!  Calvin even notes that “the design of the Holy Spirit, in my judgment, was to deliver to the Church a common form of prayer, which, as we may gather from the words, was to be used whenever she was threatened with any danger.”  Given the ongoing cultural war being more seriously engaged by the enemies of Christ, this is a psalm that ought to be given much more attention in our day and age.

 

The first petition here is simply that the prayers of the king and his forces might be answered.  It goes without saying, then – that it is presumed that the king and the majority of his warriors were serious in their prayers.  Spurgeon lifts the theme here from David’s day to that of Christ Himself:  “All the Saviour’s days were days of trouble, and he also made them days of prayer; the church joins her intercession with her Lord’s, and pleads that he may be heard in his cries and tears.”

 

The second petition demonstrates that the national prayers should not be to just any generic god or goddess worshipped by a multitudinous population.  No indeed, the God of heaven and earth has a specific Name above all names.  And for this reason – there are many who by conscience who will not recite any pledge of allegiance to only a generic god.  After all, practically any religion could affirm the deity so enjoined in our national life.  If we are to be faithful to our God and King – we must be reminded here in this second line of Psalm Twenty to be specific to whom we bow our knees in prayer and worship.

 

Sadly, today – you could go into any number of churches and realize that most of the world would be comfortable in far too many pews – simply because the Son of the only God is not there worshipped, honored or recognized.  David and his people realize who their God is, because they are not only known by Him, but have recognized His love, mercy and attention to those who are descended from Jacob.

 

”The Lord answer you in the day of trouble!

The Name of the God of Jacob protect you!”

 

In the following verses, David writes specific requests as to how that protection may apply.  Altogether there are seven specific petitions scattered through the whole of this psalm.  Today we will consider only the first four which are enumerated in verses two and three.  These four petitions include:

 

”May [the Lord]    send you help from the sanctuary,

grant you support from Zion.

                                remember all your offerings,

regard with favor your burnt sacrifices.”

 

The first petition here is for divine help in the midst of the troubles experienced in and through war.  Certainly, we have learned to listen to any number of troubles experienced first hand by our forces at war.  The regular forces of the Madman of Baghdad were rolled up all too easily, as if they almost didn’t exist.  But unfortunately, out of the rubble any number of the dragon’s teeth have sprouted into sources of explosions, dissatisfaction and destroyed infrastructure.  Lives too have been taken in abundance and in the days of 24/7 news announcements – we do not have the luxury of the years that our constabulary forces in Germany had to accommodate the same type of guerrilla tactics and forces.

 

And what we need in our day is a sense of public patience, so that the war may be carefully prosecuted day in and day out for some years instead of months.  And this would be our prayer in our day – that the Divine protector of all that is right and holy might send help from the heavenly sanctuary.  In an earlier era – this could simply have been the prayers of all God’s ministers, as in the more enlightened days of the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century wars.  Since this is now unlikely, like David – we are forced to prompt the Almighty Himself to do that which a people jaded by trumpets calling so many and varied signals, cannot do as publicly as we ought.

 

But, of course – it is not after all the religious institutions that are finally effective, but only the God of heaven to whom many righteous prayers are offered.  Spurgeon reports “there is no help like that which is of God’s sending, and no deliverance like that which comes out of his sanctuary.  The sanctuary to us is the person of our blessed Lord, who was typified by the temple, and is the true sanctuary which God has pitched, and not man: let us fly to the cross for shelter in all times of need, and help will be sent to us.  Men of the world despise sanctuary help, but our hearts have learned to prize it beyond all material aid.”

 

The second petition here is that those who inhabit Zion’s holy precincts might pray for the king and encourage the public, as well as the army in the midst of every danger: political or military!  Of course, we would always allow that any church worth its salt might refuse to support an unrighteous cause.  After all, there is a means testing for what constitutes a legitimate, lawful and just war.

 

When my sons were growing up, I admonished all three of them, that sometimes fist fights could not be avoided wherever a large number of rambunctious children might be assembled.  Therefore, I could not in good conscience forbid them from fighting if it were necessary.  But, once engaged – they were to know that the use of force had to be justified.  And the first question asked would be if they were in physical danger, or was another weaker person being threatened?  Only once – did I have to intervene and since I knew the rascal student who threw the first punch all to well – I understood that my oldest son had acted in good sense to protect a younger, smaller person from that pernicious bully!

 

Unfortunately the politically correct administration insisted upon punishing everyone involved.  We accepted the punishment under protest – stating that the administration was too lazy to investigate the matter and decide who was in the right or wrong?  Sounds all too familiar on the international stage doesn’t it, in order to see the current matter through, we are all going to have to realize and remember that 9/11 was a date etched in infamy and not just a rabid movie!

 

The third and fourth petitions here regard the religious affinity of the king and his men.  All too often, in the practice of warfare, prayers were and are only a matter of immediate convenience.  During the Civil War, just before a battle – many of the soldiers on both sides would throw away their dice and playing cards and suddenly become faithful students of prayer.  After the battle, all too many would return to their old habits – having survived the fray.

 

Calvin, here lumps both petitions of verse three together and allows that the verse “is, in short, a prayer that God would actually show that the king’s sacrifices were acceptable to him.”

 

In the Reformed faith, we understand that any gifts of benevolence are absolutely worthless unless the Lord God has regard for the giver.  Thus, it may be said that our gifts are given out of gratitude for the great things the Lord has done on our behalf.  This is completely different from the worldly religious feelings whereby every gift is a payment in kind towards ensuring godly attention and affection.

 

Thus, it is in the first sense that verse three should be understood: “May [God] remember all your offerings, [and] regard with favor your burnt sacrifices.”  Now, there are within these phrases two specific kinds of offerings.  The first line considers all of the ordinary gifts to the tabernacle.  But the second may refer to a whole burnt offering, whereby an entire animal was consumed with all the ordinary edible parts as well.  These were not the ordinary sacrifice, but one given in intense devotion, to declare dependence upon God alone.  In this type of offering, the temple priests and workers watched as their portion of meat went up in smoke along with the ordinary offal and fat.

 

Thus, in this type of offering, everyone gave up something for the cause – in order to plead the national cause before the Lord God of heaven and earth.  Thus, in a certain sense – we have here a common commitment of both the secular and sacred spheres of the kingdom, now at war.

 

In Shakespeare’s Henry V, King Harry would not depart for the continent until the Church to had contributed to his war and while we may look upon the means of accomplishing that alliance as political maneuvering – still the greatest of England’s kings well understood that he needed the priestly class of his day to at least pray for the success of their investment!  However, in hindsight – given the tremendous success of English arms at the great battle of Againcourt – God Himself did as Henry claimed rule the day.  And after the battle King Harry did order his knights and followers to sing from Psalm 115:  “Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to thy name give glory, for the sake of thy steadfast love and thy faithfulness!”

 

Application: The list of petitions is here interrupted by the awesome breaking point used throughout the Psalter:  “Selah.”  Pause and consider these petitions, perhaps even sing them at a higher pitch, reflect a while, intensify your prayers.  May the great God of heaven and earth grant the king, the church and even His own Son – the success that His providential will might allow, and why?  That His precious Name may thereby be glorified and His kingdom sustained.  Amen and Amen!

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PREACHING RESOURCES

Calvin, John:  Commentary on Book of Psalms.

Delitzsch, F:  Commentary on the Old Testament – Psalms.

Spurgeon, C.H:  Treasury of David.

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