A Prayer For The King - Psalm 20 Series

Summer in the Psalms

Psalm 20: A Prayer for the King

Pastor Jefferson M. Williams

Chenoa Baptist Church

08-01-2021

Aslan is not a Tame Lion

[Slide] In seminary, a friend was talking about the Chronicles of Narnia and I told him I had never read them. He was shocked and pulled “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe” off his shelf and handed it to me.

I didn’t grow up in a thriving Christian home so I missed out on experiences like the Chronicles. But I made up for lost time. I read the book in two days and brought it back to him. He smiled and told me that there were six more books! I read the whole series in less than two weeks. I couldn’t put it down.

Fast forward many years later. I’m standing in front of a movie theater with a group of teenagers. We had just seen the movie version of “The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe.” I said that I was so overwhelmed by how they animated Aslan and how beautiful a picture he is of Jesus.

One of the students spoke up and said, “Pastor Jeff, Jesus wasn’t in that movie. That movie was about a lion.” Before I could speak, one of the other students said, “Edmond is seduced and taken captive by the White Witch. In order to rescue, redeem Edmond, Aslan is killed by the forces of evil on the stone table. He dies in Edmond’s place, to pay the penalty for his treason. Then Aslan is resurrected and defeats the White Witch and her hordes of evil once and for all.”

The other student’s eyes got big and she exclaimed, “That’s the gospel! Wait…Aslan is Jesus!”

Yes, my dear, Aslan is Jesus.

C.S. Lewis said that he wrote the Chronicles for parents to read to their children in they were young. When they grow older and heard the Gospel for the first time, they would say, “I know that story. That’s the story of Aslan.”

The Chronicles are an allegory - a story where there are multiple levels of meaning.

This is exactly what we find when we come to Psalm 20!

Background on Psalm 20

Psalm 20 is a royal Psalm written by King David. We don’t really know the timing or the specific circumstances of its composition but it is a prayer by the people for the king on the eve of a big battle.

When I prepare a sermon, I go through the Greek or Hebrew and then the commentaries and then try to put together an outline. Many times, I’ll listen to my favorite preachers and see what they had to say about the verses.

But that didn’t work this week because all of them skipped Psalm 20! On the Gospel Coalition website that has hundreds of sermons on the Psalms, there is only one on Psalm 20! On Sermon Central, where my sermons are posted, there are thousands of sermons on the Psalms but there is only one on Psalm 20!

Because of this, I can say with almost certainly that you have never heard a sermon on Psalm 20!

There are multiple layers of meaning in this little preached, under appreciated, Psalm.

Is the Psalm about David the King? Yes! Is the Psalm about the Son of David, the Messiah? Yes! Can the Psalm be applied to us? Absolutely.

Turn with me to Psalm 20.

We will divide the Psalm into two parts

a pray for the King (1-5)

And the confidence those prayers bring (6-9)

Prayer.

A Prayer for the King

The Psalm begins with eight petitions that the people are praying for the King on the eve of battle.

It’s important to remember - as goes the king, so goes the people.

[Glory - clip to 1:01]

[Slide] May the Lord answer you when you are in distress; may the name of the God of Jacob protect you. (v. 1)

The people invoke the covenant name of God, Yahweh. This is the God who keeps his promises.

The first request is that God would answer the king when his in the day of distress. This word actually means “narrow,” or we might say, “in a tight spot.”

It’s the eve of a great battle and the people have gathered to worship and to pray for the King as he leads them into the conflict.

Remember, as goes the king, so goes the people.

Then they ask that the “name of the God of Jacob” would protect him on the battlefield. This literally reads, to set you on high.”

The God of Jacob is used 17 times in the Bible and it is one of my favorite names of God. Jacob was a liar and a deceiver who wrestled with God and walked away with a limp. He was a human, frail, fragile, and flawed. But God is called the God of Jacob!