Psalm 20

⁰⁴          May God grant you your heart’s [desire],

make all your plans succeed.

⁰⁵          May we shout for joy over your victory,

 and in the Name of our God

 set up our banners.

                        May the Lord fulfill all your petitions!

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The Lord’s Victory

For the Lord’s Day:  the 8^th of August 2004

Introduction:  These verses remind me of the once proud European practice of hanging the retired battle flags of the various national and provincial regiments and corps in the rafters of the local cathedrals.  Just the fact that these flags had returned with the regiments sent forth, would indicate a minimal success on the part of those soldiers who had survived the rigors and battles of any campaign.

 

Here in Ohio, I can remember my first visit to the rotunda of the State Capital building, when I was in elementary school.  I noted the large number of glass cases along the walls which contained the furled colors of the Ohio regiments who had served in the American Civil War.  There were perhaps some flags there from the Spanish American and even the Great War as well.

 

A few years later, during the centennial remembrance of the war that divided the Union, the Ohio Historical Society began the long and arduous task of unrolling the old colors to study their art and to rerecord the details of those battle scarred banners that once rallied the troops, to lead them forward to any God granted victories they were allowed.  In the process, it was discovered that far too many were damaged beyond recognition, while some few others were retrievable.  In the collection there were even found a dozen or two captured colors from the southern states.  By an act of the legislature – these were returned to the states identified.  As recently as twenty years ago – several of the flags in the best condition were hung for display at the Ohio Historical Society.

 

Just as in the official Memorial Day, were the surviving members of the Grand Army of the Republic were remembered: so too may we appreciate the providential ordering of the battles and wars which too often infect the pages of history, to remind us all of the fallen nature of mankind.

 

Development:  This week, as we return to this “Battle Hymn of Israel,” we are reminded that the preservation of this patriotic verse must surely indicate the success of God’s men and thereby the prayer is sung in remembrance of the now unknown campaign.  Of course, we must also remember that the words here, like many of our own patriotic songs were used down through the years as a prior prayer for new wars, campaigns and battles.  And we should be shamed, that as a matter of national creed we no longer invoke the Name of the Almighty for any participation in just and necessary wars.

 

We begin in verse four with a blessing upon the King and his righteous cause in defending the nation, people and their faith.  There in the Middle East of David’s time, there was no question that any necessary defensive war must be protective not only of property and nationhood, but also to prevent the imposition of any and every ungodly and unholy pagan cult upon the people of Israel – those set aside as the Creator God’s on peculiar and special people.

 

”May God grant you your heart’s [desire], make all your plans succeed.”

 

Here in this verse, the people are invoking by song and poem the Lord God’s blessing upon the militant national purpose of the mobilized militia and full time warriors of the King’s household.  It is understood that in David’s case, his best desires are for the good of the nation, population and prosperity of both.   Calvin writes:  “We know that whenever the fathers prayed under the law, their hope of obtaining what they asked was founded upon their sacrifices; and, in like manner, at this day our prayers are acceptable to God only in so far as Christ sprinkles and sanctifies them with the perfume of his own sacrifice. “

 

If that sounds too particularly militant – in invoking the Name of God for success in battle, Calvin cautions:  “But, as it would be absurd to ask God to grant foolish and wicked desires, it is to be regarded as certain, that there is here described a king who was neither given to ambition, nor inflamed with avarice, nor actuated by the desire of whatever the unruly passions might suggest, but wholly intent on the charge which was committed to him, and entirely devoted to the advancement of the public good.”

 

Given the wars and conflicts for national survival in the Middle East, both then and now – it should not be surprising that the providential ordering of all things by our Creator God should not be petitioned?  But today – unfortunately there is little national or governmental concern that every area of life falls under the divine scrutiny and providential ordering.  David was not a thoroughly modern ruler – he did indeed realize the divine processing of all events, actions, decisions and intentions.  Therefore, he was not ashamed to seek the Lord’s blessing as well as the prayers of God’s people.

 

Spurgeon advances the militant cause to the continuing church of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ:  “Christ’s desire and counsel were both set upon the salvation of his people; the church of old desired for him good speed in his design, and the church in these latter days, with all here heart desires the complete fulfillment of his purpose.”

 

Therefore in the midst of many battles, both spiritual and material – we too may sing this song in anticipation of the great victory of the Lord God at the end of the age.  “Come quickly Lord Jesus, come quickly.”  And may I in that ultimate context also invoke the Lord’s blessing upon the current process by which we here in America choose our national leaders?

 

All too sadly, while we are spiritually in the new Kingdom of our Lord and Savior, we must still – for a little while: remain within the reach of every material impulse, both economic and political.  I am reminded of the dearest desire of the Reformation leaders: “to seek first the kingdom of heaven.”  And in that process, the Lord God Creator blessed the reformation nations with a body politic that we now know as democratic republicanism.  In addition – there arrived in the same context of reformation the material blessings of capitalism: whereby the individual, instead of the members of any “social register” were enabled to reap the benefits of hard work and sacrifice.

 

In the richness of that civilization context here in the west, are we willing and still able to pray that the influence of the “kingdom of the Spirit” may inform the “city of men?”  I am not ashamed, in the light of the wicked and pagan goals of many politicians to pray for the success of those who give more than lip service to our Creator God!  And all we have to do as informed Christians is to measure every candidate’s announcements with the biblical propositions of what is right and good – a measurement that I will leave to you all personally!

 

The fifth verse invokes the blessings cognizant upon the realization of victory:

 

”May we shout for joy over your victory,

 and in the Name of our God  set up our banners.”

Here in the formula of these brief words, we can almost imagine the ladders being brought into the cathedral sanctuary so that the battle flags already flying over the movement of troops active in the field may become a blessed memory of success.

 

Many of the English translations indicate the word salvation in place of victory in the first line of this verse.  Calvin begins this verse with the word “that” in order to highlight the prayerful delight that the saints may always experience in the victory of the Lord’s own hand.  And thereby it is not the welfare and preservation of one man (the king) that is the object here, as Calvin allows, but “it is for the safety and well-being of the whole Church.”

 

I have translated the opening of this verse as the heartfelt prayers of the subjects of the king, be he earthly or in hindsight: divine.  Perhaps I sometimes take the ebb and flow of human history too seriously – but I do indeed prefer to see the hand of God triumphant, rather than the increasing inroads of satanic influence!

 

Certainly, as we understand the success of the Chinese Church, it is not always in the interests of providence to manage the various and assorted kingdoms of this world always by biblical emphases!  However, it is the blessings of worldly toleration that give peace, security and prosperity a present and ongoing reality.  Too much of the Christian church in our day and time has had to look forward repeatedly to the final coming in triumph of our Lord Jesus Christ.  And just as the American slaves realized a worldly deliverance in and through the work of Lincoln and the armies of the Republic – we too should hope and pray that the advancement of the gospel may be more prosperous than at present.

 

If of course, it be the Lord’s design that the American churches should have to go underground, like the legitimate churches in China, than we in this country, and Europe are well along the way to that possibility.  Indeed, in Canada – we may almost sense the future theological climate in the same sorry mode that their medical situation demonstrates the futility of human ordained perfection.

 

Application:  In the second line of verse five we could hardly set up our steeples and signs in the public square without a minimal understanding from history that the freedom of the church is a strong measure of any culture’s success.  Already, the bells in the majority of steeples have fallen silent to municipal codes – enforcing the tyrannical will of a small minority who would rather not be reminded acoustically that the church is still around.  It will not take too long for an increasing paganizing society to demand that Christian symbols also be removed from public view.

 

Already – it is increasingly unlawful for our monuments to be displayed on public property and it can only be a matter of time before the tax exemption favor granted since the founding of the Republic becomes a means by which the pagan majority makes use of their suddenly realized support.  And once they realize that favor – all of those who receive that subsidy must conform to every whim and ill-conceived affront that may thereby be realized!  And it will do no good to agree to pay their immediate taxes – since the ongoing subsidies of history must demand a grandfathering in of any new found controls.

 

And yet, I despair of what might possibly happen, and we must all like the king and people of Israel go to our knees in prayer for the success of King Jesus’ cause in the life and work of His New Covenant Church.

 

“May the Lord fulfill all your petitions!”  David records as he hears the prayers of his people ringing in his ears.  And we today have only to reflect that the church is encouraged to petition the Lord regularly and always to bless the cause of Christ’s Church because thereby is His own glory reflected before the world.  And so, just as the people of Israel realized how bound up with David’s success was their own cause – thereby they were encouraged all the more to hold his worldly success up before the Lord God.

 

Now let us close with the best possible news in the context of this psalm and prayer.  The Lord Himself, in the person of Christ is our King and the Father has promised to bless the work of the Son in all ages – so our hope in this as in every regard is in the person of Jesus Christ.  May we learn to be patient as His will and propose is being worked out now and for all eternity.  Amen.

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PREACHING RESOURCES

Calvin, John:  Commentary on Book of Psalms.

Spurgeon, C.H:  Treasury of David.

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