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!
[Slide] May he send you help from the sanctuary and grant you support from Zion. (v. 2)
The people have prayed that God would answer the king, protect the king, and now they pray for help and support for the king.
The sanctuary is where God’s holy presence was and Zion represented Jerusalem in general and the Temple Mount specifically.
The term grant “you support” can also be translated “strengthen.” They pray that, even if the king’s knees go weak, God would send help and strengthen him for the battle.
[Slide] May he remember all your sacrifices and accept your burnt offerings.
The king would offer sacrifices, or have them offered, on the eve of battle. As the representative of the people, he offered whole burnt offerings for his sin and theirs. This was a confession of guilt, a request for forgiveness, and to seek the favor of the Lord.
As the King offered these sacrifices, the people were praying that God would accept them, literally turn to ashes, on his behalf. Remember, he is their representative. As goes the king, so goes the people.
In your Bible, there is a footnote that says, “Selah.” This could either be a term that means to pause and meditate on what you just read or, in the context of a song, it could be a musical interlude, like a lyre solo.
[Play a lyre solo]
[Slide] May he give you the desire of your heart and make all your plans succeed. (v. 4)
This is a crazy prayer if you really think about it. Consider our elected officials today. Would you be comfortable praying that God would give them the desires of their heart and make all their plans succeed? I certainly wouldn’t!
Some preachers take this out of context and make it about the prosperity Gospel.
But the people knew what David was praying. As their representative, he was praying for the deliverance of the people. They trusted him and his heart for them. They trusted that his prayers were in line with God’s will. They had confidence that his plans were for their good and their victory.
Remember, as goes the king, so goes the people.
[Slide] May we shout for joy over your victory and lift up our banners in the name of our God. (5a)
They are already planning the victory party. That’s how confident they were in the victory that God would bring the king. They will shout for joy with gratitude and lift up their flags presenting their tribes.
May the Lord grant all your requests. (5b)
They trust David. They know that is his requests are their requests - for answers, for protection, for help and strength, for forgiveness and favor.
As he prays for them, they pray for his prayers to be heard and answered.
Because remember, as goes the king, so goes the people.
The Confidence these Prayers Bring (6-9)
[Slide] Now this I know: The Lord gives victory to his anointed. He answers him from his heavenly sanctuary with the victorious power of his right hand. (6)
The pronouns change in this verse. Verses 1-5 have been the “we” of the people but verse 6 is singular. It is the response of a Levitical priest or even of the King himself.
Now he knows, which means knowledge that has come to complete understanding.
"Yet this is no cause for shame, because I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him until that day.” (2 Timothy 1:12)
God gives victory to his anointed. All kings were “anointed,” figuratively and literally. A prophet would anoint their head with oil to signify their being chosen by God to lead the people.
But the word “anointed” has a whole difference meaning. It literally means “Messiah.” We will return to that in a minute.
David hears the prayers of his people and expresses great confidence. He says, “With my people praying for me, I can’t lose!”
God hears and answers him from heaven and with his right hand of power. Why does it always have to be the right hand? :)
[Side] Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God. They are brought to their knees and fall, but we rise up and stand firm. (8-9)
This verse should be VERY familiar to you! It’s our memory verse for the year!
In battle, horses and chariots were the “nuclear weapons” of that time. If it came down between a group of foot soldiers and a fleet of chariots, the chariots would cause total chaos and victory was assured.
The king recognizes that it would be very easy to trust in military might, or power, or strength. We can trust in money, culture, tradition, our charisma but that will always let us down. But he proclaims that that he and his people will trust in the name of the Lord their God.
This doesn’t mean they he would run up to an enemy on the battle field and say the name of God and they would fall down dead.
To trust in the name of God means to place your confidence in the character, goodness, strength, and power of the God of Jacob.
In His words to king Zerubbabel, God said, ‘Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the Lord Almighty.” (Zech 4:6)
The enemies will be brought to their knees. This is a picture of enemies bowing in submission in surrender.
But the king and the people will stand on firm ground, as we learned in Psalm 15, they will be unshakable!
[Slide] Lord, give victory to the king! Answer us when we call!
The people cry out one more time for victory for the king because as goes the king, so goes the people.
Applications
Now that we have walked through the verses of the psalm, let’s walk through a couple of questions together.
But first, can I make a personal plea? I’m not comparing myself to a king or to David but, as your pastor, can I ask you, beg you, to pray for me?
I know some of you daily and I appreciate that more than you know. But pastors need everyone in their church praying for them.
We see a beautiful picture of this kind of support in Exodus 17:
“So Joshua fought the Amalekites as Moses had ordered, and Moses, Aaron and Hur went to the top of the hill. As long as Moses held up his hands, the Israelites were winning, but whenever he lowered his hands, the Amalekites were winning. When Moses’ hands grew tired, they took a stone and put it under him and he sat on it. Aaron and Hur held his hands up—one on one side, one on the other—so that his hands remained steady till sunset. So Joshua overcame the Amalekite army with the sword.” (Exodus 17:10-13)
Would you be willing to hold my hands up by praying for me? Here are ten prayers that you can pray for me and my family:
Pray for courage and strength and that I would fear God and not man
Pray for wisdom to lead well and to sense God’s direction
Pray that I would have great confidence in God’s Word, that I would delight in it, and preach it with boldness, passion, freedom, and joy
Pray that I would love my little redheaded girl well and that I would lead and love the Williams clan
Pray for my protection from discouragement, from the world, the flesh, and the devil.
Pray that I would have a white hot love for people far from God, to have compassion on the hurting and hopeless, and for opportunities to share the Gospel.
Pray for my physical health and for my emotional health as I often deal with depression.
Pray that the Holy Spirit would empower me and that prayer life would prosper
Pray for my focus, squirrel!
Pray for my rest and renewal.
Second, a question that I have been asked many times over the years.
How were people saved in the Old Testament?
People were saved from their sin in exactly the same way we are - by placing their faith in God’s Messiah.
Now they didn’t know His name or when He would come, but the did know God’s plan.
It started in the very first chapters of Genesis with the first proclamation of the Gospel in the pronouncing of the curse on the snake:
“And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.” (Gen 3:15)
So they understood there was a Seed promised. This is a singular Person, who would be a descendant of the woman, that would be wounded by the forces of evil but ultimately will crush the head of the serpent.
They would look back to the promises made to Abraham and the fact that he believed the Lord and it was credited to him as righteousness (Gen 15:6, see Psalm 106:31; Rom 4) It wasn’t through the Law or by doing good works that made him right with God, but through his faith.
They would remember the moment when Abraham raised the knife to kill Isaac and God told him to stop and provided a ram, caught in a thicket, to be offered in Isaac’s place. (See Gen 22:13)
They would have heard the prophets saying that there was coming a once and for all sacrifice for sin - a perfect lamb that would take away the sins of the world.
They might not have known His name but they knew He would be born in Bethlehem, be born of a virgin, live in Nazareth, spend time in Egypt, would make blind people see, deaf people hear, lame people dance, and dead people, well, not dead, and will be called Immanuel, which means “God with us.”
They would know the writings of Isaiah in which the makes it clear that this Messiah would suffer for us in our place to redeem us from sin:
“Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.”
They didn’t know all of God’s plan. They couldn’t see that far. But they could put their faith in the light that they had.
In the hall of faith chapter in Hebrews, the writer states, “These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth.” (Hebrews 11:13)
When the people of the Old Testament sang Psalm 20 together, they were actually praying for God to help, strengthen, and give victory to the Messiah! Psalm 20 is a royal, Messianic psalm, along with Psalm 2, 110, and 132.
Where is Jesus in Psalm 20?
In verse 6 of Psalm 20, the king proclaims that God saves his anointed. Now anointed on the surface of the psalm means David. But it also means the Son of David because the Hebrew word for anointed can be translated “Messiah.”
But wait,, there’s more! The word saved is the same root word where we get the name…JESUS!
We don’t pray verses one through five anymore because this King has already won the battle and secured the victory!
The Lord answered Him in the day of distress and he sent help and strengthened Him for the task ahead.
Jesus was offered up as a burnt offering on the cross to pay the penalty for our sins, in our place, to secure forgiveness and freedom from bondage.
Jesus’ desires and plans were to do the Father’s will and God granted Him all His requests.
God saved His “Anointed One” and after being crucified was raised to life again!
Therefore, woe don’t trust in human wisdom, good works, military might, or political power, we trust in Jesus’ finished work of atonement on the cross!
He fought the battle for us and defeated the enemies of death, hell, and hopelessness once and for all!
And as goes the King, so goes the people!
[Chronicles of Narnia clip - Aslan’s resurrection].
Have you placed your faith and trust in the finished work of Christ on the cross?
Can this Psalm be applied to us?
What is Jesus doing right now? According to Scripture, He’s praying for you!
Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them. (Hebrews 7:25)
And in the in middle of the majestic words of Romans 8:
“What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.” (Romans 8:31-34)
So take heart Christian. In the day of distress, He hears your cries. He is praying for you. He loves you. He understands your pain.
This week, Rick Astley’s 1980’s video, “Never Going to Give you Up,” hit one billion views! While it is a catchy tune and Rick’s dancing was 80s gold, I think the reason why people like the song so much because they are searching for someone who is
Never gonna give you up
Never gonna let you down
Never gonna run around and desert you
Never gonna make you cry
Never gonna say goodbye
Never gonna tell a lie and hurt you
We’ve got good news for the world. That Person is Jesus Christ.
God won’t trade you away to another team like the Cubs did with Kris Bryant, Javier Baez, Trevor Williams, Craig Kimbrel, and Anthony Rizzo this week!
Robert Murray M’Cheyne, a 19th-century Scottish minister, said,
“If I could hear Christ praying for me in the next room, I would not fear a million enemies. Yet the distance makes no difference; he is praying for me!”
We are going to end the service today by shouting for joy over Jesus’s victory and lifting up our banners, praise, in the name of our God.
