Psalm 20

⁰⁸          They will bow down and fall;

But we shall rise and stand upright.

⁰⁹             [God] save the King,

O Lord, answer us when we call.

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God Save the King

For the Lord’s Day:  the 21^st of August 2004

Introduction:  Just as there are two verses here at the end of this psalm, so are there two important issues – so we shall divide our comments between them.  Beginning with verse eight, the proper image here, whether it be at the end of David’s war, the anticipated victory or on the final day when all heaven breaks loose: is clear.  For the people of God the news is good, they are lifted up and stand before their king and God in exultation, joyous at what the Lord has accomplished.  By contrast their former enemies are bowed before the victorious king and in that fallen estate they must submit unwillingly to his rule.

 

Spurgeon notes:  “How different the end of those whose trusts are different!  The enemies of God are uppermost at first, but they ere long are brought down by force, or else fall of their own accord.”  Delitzsch catches the same thread of thought:  “The glory of Israel is totally different from that of the heathen, which manifests itself in boastful talk.”

 

We may anticipate the application of this text in not only the past, but also in our own time as well as the final day of all things.  In David’s day, this patriotic piece was enjoyed whenever the king returned to his own city, having won by God’s grace and mercy another in a long line of victories as God strengthened David’s reign and established Zion as an earthly symbol of the city of God. 

 

And in the working out of God’s eternal purpose we ought not to be surprised that God’s people – the spiritual and material descendants of Abraham: have survived and even prospered down to the present time.  To the Jewish mind and experience there had been 3,760 years of old covenant heritage to celebrate before Christ appeared.  For the Christians, we may count approximately another 2,004 years of God’s gracious providence on our behalf under Christ’s administration of His new covenant.

 

No other tribes or nations may count God’s special blessings in anything like those millennial grants.  Truly the worldly nations have fallen on hard times as we well know from history.  Certainly we know that both Covenant Churches have likewise known feast and famine, yet ever and anew the Lord is building His Church – the Bride of Christ.  And whenever the Church seems weak and vulnerable, suddenly the Holy Spirit revives refreshes and reforms the faithful for another generation’s work and witness.

 

Truly did the psalmist here write:”They will bow down and fall; but we shall rise and stand upright.”  This is, whether the secularists would admit it or not – the way of God’s world.  Nations rise and fall, but the visible Church remains.

 

Development:  Our second verse in today’s selection is a little more complex than first appearances.  My Translator’s Handbook outlines “four possible interpretations of the Masoretic text without suggesting a preference:”

 

1.        “O Lord, save; may the king answer us the day we call (to him).”

2.        “O Lord, save; may God answer us the day we call (to him).”

3.        “O Lord, save the king; may (the king) answer us the day we call (to him).”

4.        “O Lord, save the king; He (God) will answer us the day we call (to him).”

 

Calvin inclines towards the third interpretation.  “Some read in one sentence, “O Jehovah! Save the king;” perhaps because they think it wrong to attribute to an earthly king what is proper to God only … but if we turn our eyes towards Christ, as it becomes us to do, we will no longer wonder that what properly belongs to him is attributed in a certain sense to David and his successors, in so far as they were types of Christ.”

 

Spurgeon associates the whole blessing of the people here to David’s greater Son:  “that Jesus might himself be delivered, and might then as our King, hear us, is the two-fold desire of the Psalm.  The first request is granted, and the second is sure to all the seed; and therefore we may close the Psalm with the hearty shout “God save the King.”  “God save King Jesus, and may he soon come to reign.”

 

 

Delitzsch points us towards Psalm 118: 25 which is regularly cited to explain the meaning here:  “Save us, we pray, O Lord! O Lord, we pray, give us success!”  Calvin suggests that in this verse, “there is a prayer in the same words, and it is certain that it is the very same prayer.  In short, this is a prayer, that God, by blessing the king, would show himself the Savior of the whole people.”

 

And thus, by a careful and progressive consideration of these Fathers of the Church and that ordered application of their thoughts, I am inclined more towards the fourth proposition and to that end I have framed my own translation to allow the King in question here to be David’s greater Son by capitalizing the word “King.” 

 

I know, this is a subtle thing, but the import is - that when the people of Israel prayed for success in war, they looked to God’s appointed man to represent the greater interests of their very own God and King.  Calvin concludes his thoughts on the first portion of verse nine in these words:  “The people pray that the king may be furnished with power from God to deliver them whenever they are in distress, and cry to him for help.”

 

Application:  “[God] save the King, O Lord, answer us when we call.”  In this translation then I have used the common blessing invoked upon Kings since the time of David and in our own English language: since the birth of Britain.  Now what lessons should we draw from such an ordering of the text?

 

1.  By considering David as only a type of the greater King to come, we may anticipate the greater victories over death and Satan that were hard won on the cross by our own Lord, Savior and King:  Jesus Christ.  We may also understand that under His regular rule – victory at the end of the age will certainly be His and in His victory, there is salvation and eternity in very “The Kingdom of God.”

 

2.  And while there are lesser victories to be won in the long and winding progress of the Church, the human leaders chosen and appointed by Christ: only mirror through their work and witness the greater and final victory of the once and future king over the elect of all the earth.  In the Middle Ages, the Brits fabricated a newer king of their own, in the image of David.  Or at least, around the name of Arthurus – they gathered all manner of myths, legends and histories to celebrate the Creator God’s continuing kindness to the men of the west, who had and would found their lives, property and civilization upon the very word of God as He granted them understanding and empowerment. 

 

3.  Finally, we come to the last petition in this grand patriotic poem recorded by King David.  “O Lord, answer us when we call.”  In this humble admission, we must learn from David that all things, good and bad alike – come from the gracious hand of the Lord God of heaven and earth.  And in His sovereign arrangement of our own history He is working His will and purpose out in order that all glory may be accounted to His righteous and holy name.

 

In my closet at home, I have pinned to my old uniform one solitary medal for National Defense Service.  To that one I can add another commemorative medal for having served during the Cold War.  I could have had another couple for good behavior and commendation – but at the time I passed them by since I was only doing my job and didn’t think there was anything heroic in that minimal calling.

 

David’s chest could scarce contain the medallions associated with military glory in the latter centuries.  But of course, like all human institutions, mere humans have learned to corrupt not only the competition of 4-H animals and projects but also the awarding of military ribbons and medals as well.  I still remember a vivid World War One flying movie about the relationships within a German Flieger Eskadron.  Many of the men were simply doing their duty and hoping against the odds to survive the war and return home.  Into that close knit band of brothers there came a medal chaser who was more interested in personal glory than harassing the enemy.  If my memory serves me right he handed out bottles of wine to anyone who would confirm a fictitious kill, after all – he had a political agenda in mind for the future once the war was over and the government in all probability up for grabs.

 

I think that the movie was a take off on Feld-Marschal Hermann Goering’s career, but it has been a long time since.  Of course, there should be no contemporary comparison!  Except in this final application:  every victory worth the celebration is a gracious gift of the Father in heaven and to take personal credit or to magnify any events to impress others for one’s own vain glory is to scandalize the favor of God’s formerly protective hand in the midst of danger.  To Him alone, as David and his subjects well knew – “Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to your name give glory, for the sake of your steadfast love and your faithfulness!”

 

In those magnificent words, David later sums up all the years of his battle experience: verse one of the magnificent 115^th Psalm.  Shakespeare quotes that same verse in the celebration of Henry V’s great victory at Agincourt so many centuries after David, but in the same spirit of acknowledging the providential purpose and blessing that is ours if we serve the King of Kings in humble submission, in order that He may be given credit for all the glories accomplished in His sovereign Name.  So let us fully appreciate that this is the purpose of this great “Battle Hymn of Israel” – to celebrate the gracious oversight of David’s greater Son:  Jesus Christ.  And in the exquisite poetry here, may we be enabled to see beyond David, his battles, failures and successes and know beyond a shadow of a doubt that it is truly King Jesus whose cause and purpose is being advocated for all time.  “[God] save the King, O Lord, answer us when we call.”  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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