1/9/2012 9:02:37 AM
SPIRITUAL DIARY
My Worship Time Focus: Prepare for Battle
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Psalm 20
Message of the verses: “1 ¶ «For the choir director. A Psalm of David.» May the LORD answer you in the day of trouble! May the name of the God of Jacob set you securely on high! 2 May He send you help from the sanctuary And support you from Zion! 3 May He remember all your meal offerings And find your burnt offering acceptable! Selah. 4 May He grant you your heart’s desire And fulfill all your counsel! 5 We will sing for joy over your victory, And in the name of our God we will set up our banners. May the LORD fulfill all your petitions.
“6 ¶ Now I know that the LORD saves His anointed; He will answer him from His holy heaven With the saving strength of His right hand. 7 Some boast in chariots and some in horses, But we will boast in the name of the LORD, our God. 8 They have bowed down and fallen, But we have risen and stood upright. 9 Save, O LORD; May the King answer us in the day we call.”
This psalm is a prayer to the Lord for victory over the enemy before the battle, and Psalm 21 is a psalm of praise after the battle. In verses 1-5 the people are praying for the king and in verses 6-8 David the king encourages the people and then in verse 9 both the king and the people are speaking and the King there is Jehovah God.
There are some who read the OT have trouble with all of the blood and battles that are found in there, but when we look at David and the battles that he fought he fought against those who had invaded the land that the Lord had given to Israel and so these were just wars. Dr. Wiersbe writes: “In this regard, David is a picture of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Commander of the Lord’s armies (Joshua 5:14-15), who one day will ride in victory against the armies of the world (Psl 45:3-7; Rev 3:14; 17:14; 19:11-21). Just as physicians fight a battle against disease and death, so our Lord wages a war against sin and evil.” “This psalm describes three essentials for victory as God’s people fight against the forces of evil.”
A Praying People (vv.1-5): “1 ¶ «For the choir director. A Psalm of David.» May the LORD answer you in the day of trouble! May the name of the God of Jacob set you securely on high! 2 May He send you help from the sanctuary And support you from Zion! 3 May He remember all your meal offerings And find your burnt offering acceptable! Selah. 4 May He grant you your heart’s desire And fulfill all your counsel! 5 We will sing for joy over your victory, And in the name of our God we will set up our banners. May the LORD fulfill all your petitions.”
1 ¶ "When you go out to battle against your enemies and see horses and chariots and people more numerous than you, do not be afraid of them; for the LORD your God, who brought you up from the land of Egypt, is with you. 2 "When you are approaching the battle, the priest shall come near and speak to the people. 3 "He shall say to them, ’Hear, O Israel, you are approaching the battle against your enemies today. Do not be fainthearted. Do not be afraid, or panic, or tremble before them, 4 for the LORD your God is the one who goes with you, to fight for you against your enemies, to save you.’” (Deu. 20:1-4) In these verses we see that before a battle against the enemies of Israel there was to be a time when the soldiers were to dedicate themselves to the Lord and in Psalm 20 we can see such a service of dedication.
I have highlighted the word “may” the six times that it is used in verses 1-5 of Psalm 20. This word is used to ask the Lord in prayer what the petitions of those who were praying this prayer and so they were asking for six different things from the Lord and these were requests from the people for the king as he went into battle. It was not only the lives of the king and his soldiers that were involved here but also the glory of the Lord as seen in verses 5-7.
We see in verse one that the people were praying that God would answer the king’s prayers and that he would lift him above his enemies. We also see that this verse speaks of a day of trouble. Psalm 46:1 reads as follows, “God is our refuge and strength, A very present help in trouble.” Psalm 46 is the psalm that inspired Martin Luther to write “A Mighty Fortress is Our God.”
The prayer is to the “God of Jacob” and this is a very familiar way to pray to the Lord in the psalms and according to my concordance it is used fourteen times in the book of Psalms. Dr. Wiersbe writes about this, “It suggests that God works on behalf of those who are weak and in special need (see Genesis 35:1-3)” “1 ¶ Then God said to Jacob, "Arise, go up to Bethel and live there, and make an altar there to God, who appeared to you when you fled from your brother Esau." 2 So Jacob said to his household and to all who were with him, "Put away the foreign gods which are among you, and purify yourselves and change your garments; 3 and let us arise and go up to Bethel, and I will make an altar there to God, who answered me in the day of my distress and has been with me wherever I have gone.’”
David had brought the Ark of the Covenant into Jerusalem which meant that God was enthroned among His people and He would help them. David had also brought sacrifices to the altar and had dedicated himself to the Lord (burnt offerings) and given thanks to the Lord. (1Sam. 7:9ff and 13:9ff).
We see in verse four that the prayer is to answer the heart’s desire of David and we know that David was a man after God’s own heart, but this is also the way that we should pray to the Lord. Prayer is lining up the desires of my heart with the desires of God’s heart and so that I am so in tuned with what the Lord wants me to do that I am praying about it back to the Lord. In this way I will receive the answer from the Lord along with bringing glory to the Lord. As I was reading in the book of Genesis yesterday God had come to Jacob in a dream and told him to go back to the Promised Land with his wives and children and the Lord told Jacob that He would be with him and would bless him. Jacob was fearful of his brother Esau and so Jacob began to pray back to the Lord the promises that God had given to him. This was the desire of Jacob’s heart that God would bring him and his family back into the land where he was born.
Verse five is a prayer for victory and this shows that David had spoken to the Lord about the strategy of how he would fight this battle. The people were praying that God would bless these plans. Looking at 1Samuel 23 we see how this strategy for the battle worked in the life of David.
Dr. Wiersbe write about “Jehovah our banner and says that it “was one of God’s special names (Ex. 17:15-17). The theme of salvation (victory) is repeated in verses 6 and 9.”
A Confident Leader (vv. 6-8): “6 ¶ Now I know that the LORD saves His anointed; He will answer him from His holy heaven With the saving strength of His right hand. 7 Some boast in chariots and some in horses, But we will boast in the name of the LORD, our God. 8 They have bowed down and fallen, But we have risen and stood upright.”
David is praying in this section and he is assured that God will answer the people’s prayer of verse one which was “May the Lord answer you in the day of trouble.” David was the anointed of the Lord, the one that the Lord had chosen to be on the throne of Israel and therefore David had confidence in the Lord that He would give victory to Israel in the upcoming battle.
We see in verse seven that others boasted in the armies that they had, that had many horses and chariots, but David and the people of Israel boasted in the name of the Lord who was their God. I see in this verse the attributes of being all powerful and also judgment which belong to God. This verse also reminds me of when David defeated Goliath for David knew that he was more powerful that he was, but not more powerful in God, and Goliath was defying the name of the Lord and this greatly offended David. Goliath was like this army that David was leading his army out to fight against in that they were boasting in their strength because of their horses and chariots, while David and his army were boasting in the name of the Lord.
A Sovereign Lord (v.9): “9 Save, O LORD; May the King answer us in the day we call.”
There is a division as to whether the “King” in this verse is David or the Lord, but the NASB and many other versions show that it is the Lord who is spoken of. Either way verse nine affirms that the Lord is sovereign because He hears prayer and is able to answer.
Dr. Wiersbe writes this as he concludes his commentary on Psalm 20: “David plans his strategy (v.4), but the Lord alone can determine the outcome.”
Spiritual meaning for my life today: I find it interesting that while in church yesterday that our Pastor spoke on prayer in the morning service and in the evening service he spoke about plans that we may have for the New Year and Psalm 20 is about prayer and also we see that David trusted the Lord with the plans that He made for the battle, however David knew that the Lord would determine the outcome, and that is what I have to do when I make plans. I have to first of all pray about those plans, and prayer is difficult work, and I want also to be sure that these plans and prayers are the desire of my heart. I want to align my will with God’s will for His is perfect. I need to then trust the Lord with these plans and prayers, but also I need to be willing to have the Lord change or alter these if it is His will to do so. Then after that I will need to do as Psalm 21 speaks of and that is praise the Lord after the victory.
My Steps of Faith for Today:
1. Psalm 130:23-24.
2. Romans 12:1-2.
3. Ephesians 6:10-18.
4. Proverbs 3:5-6.
5. 1Cor. 10:13.
6. Philippians 4:11b.
1/9/2012 10:43:43 AM
Love this, thank you for your hard work, and dedication to spreading the word of God! Blessings to you and yours!
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