We're in Psalm 20 today, and I'm not going to tell you what it is, so I'll leave that. But Psalm 20 involves, like I said, a king and a nation preparing to go into battle. And the king was the military leader as well as the political leader. Remember, later on, David got in trouble because it was a time when kings went to war and David stayed home, and so there was a problem there. But here, David and his people are preparing to go into battle. We don't know the specifics about this particular battle, but it was something important And before they could sing the song of triumph in Psalm 21, they had to seek the face of God. They had to remind themselves that their faith to win or lose ultimately rested in the hands of the Creator. And it's interesting that David's preparation for conflict, his message to the people, is not a military document, it is not a inspection of the troops, it's not a set of orders or a top secret war strategy, but rather it's a song. Not all songs are happy songs. Not all songs are songs of rejoicing. Sometimes songs are sober and reflective. Many, if not most of the Negro spirituals were born out of the afflictions of slavery and they were not happy songs, but yet they sung them nonetheless and music and songs play an important part in our lives, and in this case, even in a battle setting, this same idea plays out in 2 Chronicles chapter 20. It's a neat story over there. God's people were besieged by three very fierce enemies. There was the Moabites, the Ammonites, and the people of Mount Seir. And the people went to Jehoshaphat, and they said, well, you know, we've got a very serious situation here. What are we going to do? And Jehoshaphat said, we have no life against this company that comes against us. Neither know we what to do. So they came to Jehoshaphat, asked him what to do. And it's a pretty bleak situation when you come to your king, your chief military leader and strategist, and you ask him, what are we going to do? And he says, I got nothing. I don't know what to do. Well, then Jehoshaphat comes up with a brilliant idea. This battle strategy of his is this. Let's get a choir together. Now that's sort of a non-sequitur, we would think. But listen to what he said in verse 21 of that chapter. When he had consulted with the people, he appointed singers. unto the Lord, that they should praise the beauty of holiness. And as they went out before the army, and to say, praise the Lord for his mercy endureth forever. He said, before we engage the enemy in battle, we'll serenade them. I mean, you would think, well, that's sort of inane. That's sort of as silly as, Gideon's 300 men blowing their trumpets. But look at verse 22 now. It says, and when they began to sing and to praise, the Lord set ambushments against the children of Ammon, Baalad, and Asir, which were coming against Judah, and they were smitten. So God used music, in this case, singing, praising, songs of praise, as part of the instruments of battle. Now how can we apply this to ourselves? It shows us that there is value in praising God. That's what this entire book, the longest book of the Bible, is a song book. of songs of praise and different things, but all of them have the one common denominator that they are sung unto the Lord. I mean, we're going through a crisis, and here's how we pray. Lord, this is terrible. This is awful. Help me. Get me out of this. Well, there's nothing necessarily wrong with that prayer, but you left something out. No matter what your circumstances are, no matter how bleak your outlook is, no matter what happens at work or at the doctor's office or the mechanic shop or what you see on TV, God is good. And as such, he is worthy of our praise, worthy of our gratitude and our worship. So getting back to our thoughts here in Psalm 20, it shouldn't seem unusual to us that David prefaces this battle with a song. It's easy to sing when the battle is over, when the victory is secure. But it's something else when we're facing the enemy, we're getting ready to go out into battle. Psalm 137, the people of Israel at this time had a tough time. By the rivers of battle, there we sat down. Yea, we wept when we remembered Zion, and we hanged our hearts upon the willows in the midst thereof. For there, they that carried us away captive, required of us a song. And they that wasted us, required of us birth, saying, sing us one of the songs of Zion. How shall we sing the Lord's song in a strange land? So a lot of times it's not easy. to sing, and I'm using this as a, to put a face on a positive attitude toward God, to keep remembering that God is good, that God is great, that God is powerful, and so how do we maintain a positive attitude under less than ideal circumstances? Well, one way is to remind yourself the glory and the goodness of God perhaps through a song. Psalm 100 verse 4, enter into his gates with thanksgiving and into his courts with praise and Now we don't physically enter into the gates of God, and we don't enter into His courts, but when we come before Him in prayer, we ought to come with thanksgiving and with praise. No matter what happens in our lives, God is worthy of our praise, and He's worthy to be praised, and we ought to do that. So let's see how this Psalm of David encouraged God's people and prepared them for the coming battle. So now we're in the search of the text and the first thing we want to see is the king's prayer. Let's read verses 1 through 5 here in chapter 20. Now a psalm is not a chapter, they're individual psalms. But Psalm 20, verse one, the Lord hear thee in the day of trouble. The name of the God of Jacob defend thee. Send thee help from the sanctuary, and strengthen thee out of Zion. Remember all thy offerings, and accept thy burnt sacrifice. See love. Grant thee according to thine own heart, and fulfill all thy desires. Council, we will rejoice in thy salvation in the name of our God. We will set up our banners and the Lord fulfill all my petitions. So First part of this section is petitioning God. David is praying a blessing upon himself and his people, specifically his soldiers, as they go to battle. And he said, may the Lord do this He named eight different things that he asked the Lord to do in the petition. First of all, he said, the Lord hear thee. And then that term, I looked it up, and it seems to have the idea of paying attention. Here they pay attention, Lord, to what we are saying. Now, does that mean that God would God needs to be reminded to hear us? No, it doesn't. But what what what it does when we say, May the Lord hear the we're reminding ourselves. that God will do these things. We're not questioning, we're not doubtful that God will hear us, but we're just, we're reminding ourselves, grounding ourselves in the idea that God will pay attention, it's all made for. What is man that thou art mindful of him? And we need to remember the great mercy of God. as he condescends to be mindful of us. I mean, you know, the total mess-ups that we are. Yet God is mindful of us. He hears us. And then, he says, may God defend thee. The name of the God of Jacob defend thee. Now, as I have said, and you've heard it about from other sources, that when it says name, like the name of the Lord, it's not just talking about the title. Lord, Jesus, God, whatever. But the name here means honor, it means authority. It means his overwhelming presence Listen, there's nothing magical about just speaking one of the names of God. And as songs are written, and I guess I can't really be too critical, but you know that song? Well, I just speak the name of Jesus and all my troubles disappear. That's unlikely. It's not a magical abracadabra potion type of deal just to say the name of Jesus. Now, there's nothing wrong with that and we need to hold the Lord's names in reverence and not take his name in vain. But the literal names, the titles that we give to God, they're nothing magical. about speaking Him, when we pray in Jesus' name, it means we're praying in His authority and within His ability to do what we have asked Him to do. And therefore, we should pray in a way that reflects what we believe the heart of God to be. we pray in Jesus name because we we believe that that's what that's the way Jesus would want these things now do we have the perfect mind of Christ no we don't and so praying in Jesus name not only means to pray in the will of the Lord but also it means Lord I am giving you And we don't give the Lord anything, but just bear with me as I use these words. But Lord, I understand that I might be praying this, and I give you the latitude, the grace to do what you know is best, not what I think is best. All right. So the Lord hear thee, he said, may the Lord defend thee and entirely send thee help, send thee help from the sanctuary. Now here, the sanctuary would be the tabernacle, later on the temple after Solomon's time. And we loosely associate the tabernacle or the temple Now, the Old Testament with the church in the New Testament, it's not exactly the same. The tabernacle, the temple, that was a specific physical place where the Lord dwelled. Well, in the New Testament, it says, ye are the temple, we are the temple. collectively and individually. We are the temple or the temples of God and he dwells within us and I believe that God does send help to us from within the sanctuary or the church in the New Testament. In Philippians 2.4, it says, look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others. Obviously, this can be taken individually, but remember that Philippians was written to a specific church. And so he says, within the church context, be aware of the needs of others. Don't just live in your own little world. We should not exist in a vacuum, but we should be cognizant of the needs and troubles and problems of others. And then in Galatians 6-2, it says, bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. So within the church, we find We should be able to find help. And I don't mean being a parasite. And, I mean, we're supposed to... Paul said, if you don't work, you need to eat. Don't be one that just siphons off of the church's resources and take advantage of the goodness of God's people. The Bible tells us we are to distribute to the necessity of saints. And he's given us opportunity to be a blessing, to bear one another's burdens. I've got to move on. The fourth thing he says, may God strengthen thee out of Zion. Zion, of course, being a reference to Jerusalem. That was the primary place where the Lord was worshiped. Now, he says in Zion, in Jerusalem, where you worship, you'll receive strength. Worship is effort. It can be a physical effort, depending on in what way we're worshiping the Lord. It can be a spiritual, mental, emotional effort as we focus on things of God and worship Him. But worship also strengthens us. It's true that Galatians 6-5 says, every man shall bear his own burden. We're to bear one another's burdens but, he says, every man is responsible to bear your own burden. But let us not focus so intently on the bearing of our burden and all this is heavy and I got to work at it and I'm straining and just laboring and toiling bury my burden, but don't get so wrapped up in that that you fail to seek the Lord's face and worship Him. I mean, it may be a rough week. We have, you know, BBS and those of you that work in BBS know how tiring that work is. But that's no reason to stay home on Sunday. Well, I'm just tired. No, we need to. that after laboring so hard, we still need to worship the Lord, to seek his face, and to be strengthened out of that worship. And you will be strengthened when you worship God. Next, he calls upon God to remember. Remember all thy offerings. He said, again, a mention of the offerings of worship. Now, we don't generally bring physical offerings like a bullet or a turtle dove. We believe that that covenant has changed, and Jesus was our ultimate sacrifice, the Lamb of God, and so we don't bring the offerings of, you know, to sacrifice. to the Lord, but we do have offerings. The sacrifice of praise, the Bible says. And they ask God to remember our offerings. And then next, to accept thy burnt sacrifice. Literally, that word accept means turn to ashes. You say, well, what does that have to do with anything? In 1 Kings chapter 18, you remember the story. Elijah was having a confrontation with the prophets of Baal there on Mount Carmel, and they spent all day dancing around the altar and their sacrifice and calling upon their gods to sit down and fire and consume the offering and all that. And they didn't get anywhere. And Elijah was needling them. Well, maybe you need to cry louder. Maybe your god's taking a nap or something like that. And so finally, he said, all right, it's my turn. And you remember what happened. He set up the altar of God. He put the sacrifice there. And then he watered it down with like 12 barrels of water. I mean, it was not conducive to a burnt offering. But then it says, then the fire of the Lord fell. and consumed the burnt sacrifice, and the wood, and the stones, and the dust, and lifted up the water that was in the trench. So, what I'm getting out of this is that this was the sign that God had accepted Elijah's sacrifice. After the prophets of Baal did their thing and didn't get any response, Elijah prayed. It was only one verse of prayer. And he prayed, Lord, I'm trying to prove a point here to these people. If it be your will, let the fire of God fall. And it did. So it was a sign that God Elijah's sacrifice. Now, as I already said, we don't bring that kind of sacrifice to the Lord. There's no need for that. But in Psalm 51, verse 17, the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise. So we are to come to God and offer Him our broken heart, our contrite heart. That's what He really wants. He wants to see us coming to Him in repentance, being sorry for our sins and returning to walk in the right way. He accepts that kind of sacrifice. And then, number seven, he said, grant thee, may the Lord grant thee according to thine own heart. He said, and I think that he's talking here about the heart of God, and I disagree, but according to thine own heart. I think this is related to not my will, but thy will be done. As I mentioned, what it means to pray in Jesus' name. That which we believe is the heart of God. David, the author of this psalm, was called a man after God's own heart. And so, he says, grant thee according to thine own heart, and then lastly, fulfill all thy counsel. It means to fulfill, fulfill means to fill the overflowing. Fulfill. Fill it full. Fill it with what now? What is God going to fill us up with? Money? Pleasure? Fame? Well, I mean, He can do that if He wants to. But, in this case, look what He said. Fulfill all thy counsel, the wisdom and purpose of God. Again, it's not let me have my way, but fulfill your counsel, your purpose. Too often when we pray, we've got this attitude in the back of our minds that here's how I want the Lord to answer my prayer. We've got it figured out. Somebody said, I saw this on Facebook, and of course, Facebook memes don't actually add up always to good theology, but this was something good. He said, it's hard to hear the voice of God when you've already decided what you think you ought to say. So we need to give God that latitude. Again, we're not giving Him anything, but we need to, in our purposes, in our hearts, we need to allow God to have the opportunity to do what's best for us, not what we think is best for us. So that's the petitions that David made unto God. And secondly, in verse five, we see him praising God. First of all, here's exaltation in the first part of the verse. He says, we will rejoice in thy salvation. Salvation here is not necessarily referring to our conversion experience. Salvation just means deliverance. It means, in this case, I think it means deliverance from the enemy. We will rejoice in thy salvation. David was already counting. on the victory. And he said, when we get the victory, we will rejoice in that salvation. And then there's an exhibition in the second part of the verse. And in the name of our God, we will set up our banners. Set up our banners. Banners are used for several purposes. First of all, they were used for identification purposes in the Old And, I mean, I've watched John Wayne movies like you have. And, you know, in the old west when they had the desert soldier patrols, and they would have maybe 10, 12, 20 men traveling together. And, they always had one man that was dedicated to carrying a pennant. on a pole and it identified the group. It identified that they were Army or Navy, whatever, and it identified what particular patrol or group that they were. So, banners are used for identification. Banners are used for patriotism. I'm talking about, of course, our flag. We put the flag up on July 4th. Some people have it flying all the time. And I'm for that. I'm a patriotic American. Like somebody said, America may not be number one, but we're leading number two, whoever that is. So I believe that, and I love my country, and I'm glad I was born here. And then third, and this is what I want to emphasize, banners were used for claiming possessions. Claiming possessions. I got a picture here. Now, most of you, if you're 30 years old or more, you will recognize that as the Iwo Jima statue, the raising of the flag over Iwo Jima. The American forces in World War II had conquered this island very near to Japan, and they were raising the flag to show we claim this island. He says here, in the name of God, name of our God, we will set up our banners. When we claim victory, when God gives us a victory over something in our lives, it is not appropriate for us to say, I handled that pretty well. I did all right. No, we need to give honor and glory where it is due. We give the honor and glory to the one who won the battle for us. Do you realize when something goes right in our lives, Do you realize the other side of the coin, how it could have gone wrong, it could have gone the other way? Well, we need to see the hand of God working in that. It's not just that we were better than our circumstances. God is blessing in our lives. And then thirdly, as he's praising God, he has an air of expectation. Last part of the verse, verse five, he said, the Lord fulfilled all thy petitions. And of course, he just listed eight of them in the first four verses. That word, petition, is the same word as used in verse four when he talks about, let's see, where am I? The Lord will fill all thy petitions. The word fulfill, that's what I'm looking for, is the same word. And he said he's gonna fill it up. He's not gonna miss it. I'm gonna give you a glass half full. God will fulfill all his counsel. He will also fulfill all the petitions of his people, provided they petition him within his will, within his heart and his counsel. So that's the king's prayer. Now I'm gonna move on, verses six through eight, the king's proclamation. First of all, we see David's conviction in verse six. Now know I, or I know, now know I that the Lord saveth his anointed. He said, I know, I am convinced, I am convicted I have a conviction that God is going to do this. Perhaps he is at that moment recalling the time that he faced the giant Goliath. You remember when he went out there? I don't know how old he was. He was probably still a teenager, or at least not more than just early 20s. And here he is, sort of the runt of the family, facing nine-foot Goliath. And he said it is. He said to the Philistines, thou comest to me with a sword, or with a spear, or with a shield, but I come to thee in the name of the Lord, Host, the God of the armies of Israel. So David had a conviction about him that God was greater than his armies, no matter their enemies, no matter the size of Israel's army, God was able to win the victory. It wasn't always a matter of who had the greater military might. It was who was trusting in the Lord God. And he said, I know, I know. He had a conviction about it. Then we see David's confidence in verse 7. Well, I should finish verse six. Now I know that the Lord saved his anointed, he will hear him from his holy heaven with the saving strength of his right hand. Now verse seven, David's confidence. Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we will remember the name of the Lord our God. Now, the obvious thing, Leaving God out of the equation for just a second, the obvious thing to do when you're facing a battle is to take inventory, to measure your military strength. So you can imagine them counting. Of course, they had spies that went and infiltrated the enemies. And so they pretty much knew what they were facing. And they said, OK, now we've got 3,000 chariots, and they've got 5,000. But they only have 10,000 horses. We've got 15,000. So that would seem like the obvious thing to do. And that would be reasonable and expected under normal circumstances. He says, but some trust in their military might, the chariots and the horses. But we will remember the name of the Lord our God. We have to remember that Israel was a theocratic nation. That means that their political and military and spiritual leadership were all one and the same. They had human leaders, they had their priests, they had their kings and all that, but they followed the direct leadership of the Lord God. America was not established as a theocracy and we are not a theocracy. We do not have a government-sponsored religion. that rules in the political realm as well. But Israel was special. They were the people of God. And because of this, they often fought their battles in very unorthodox ways. You have Gideon versus the Midianites, I already referred to him, where he had 300 men against this nation looked like grasshoppers camped over on the hillside. He took 300 men and they didn't even have weapons. They had trumpets and lamps and God used that to win the battle. David versus Goliath, as I've already mentioned. I remember marching around the walls of Jericho. They didn't use battering rams. They didn't use dynamite or explosives. God told them, said, look, I just want you to go out there every day and march around the walls one time. Don't say anything. Don't sing. Don't yell. Just march around the walls. The last time, on the seventh day, march around seven times, and then blow the trumpets and shout. And when that happened, what happened? The walls fell. Unorthodox, but that was God revealing to them, look, this is being done by my power. You can't claim any. You can't claim any credit for what's been accomplished here. Now we don't know the specifics of David's impending battle in Psalm 20, but we do know that they went to war trusting God to direct their actions and secure the victory. And then David's contrast in verse 8. They are brought down and fall, but we are risen and stand upright. He said they're going to be brought down. They're going to be fallen. Israel's battle history, and especially in the land of Canaan, was very bloody. God often directed them to be utterly ruthless. in wiping out a specific enemy. Partly, that was God's judgment upon wicked nations. Remember, he held Israel back from fighting against the Amorites. He said, no, not yet. The iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full. God said, I'm going to wait till they get worse and worse and worse. And finally, when their iniquity is full, then I'm going to turn you all loose on them. And you're going to wipe them out completely. You say, well, that doesn't sound like God. To me, no, it doesn't sound like the God as the world thinks about God. God is love, and God is all fuzzy, fuzzy, and it wouldn't hurt to flee. Now, God is a God of judgment upon iniquity. And so, partly, the fact that they were going to battle was perhaps God's judgment. upon their enemy. And then too, there's the idea that Israel, when they went into the land of Canaan, they did not fully obey God's commands to drive out all the inhabitants of Canaan. And that's one of the primary reasons for the problems that Israel had with their enemies as they settled the land. I mean, frankly, those enemies should not have been there in the first place, and they wouldn't have been there if the Hebrews had done their job when they first came into the land. Read the first part of the book of Judges, the first couple of chapters there, and it talks about all the inabitants that Israel did not drive out. And they said, well, we'll put them to tribute. We'll collect taxes from them. And we'll make them work for us. And there rose up to be a thorn in their flesh. So David finds himself fighting battles against enemies to whom his ancestors showed mercy instead of driving them out as God had commanded. But anyway, that was the contrast. They'll fall. We are going to stand. And then lastly, in verse 9, the king's plea. First of all, there's a plea for intervention. Save, Lord. That's very succinct, very terse. Save, Lord. Intervene in this situation. We don't know if Israel was outnumbered in this particular battle or not. They usually were. but he said save or deliver us intervene in this situation and then he prayed he pleaded for intercession verse 9 let the king hear us when we call now this is a reference to the king that's God himself Today we understand the term saved, and it says saved in the Lord. We understand the word saved meaning salvation of the soul. Hebrews 7.25, wherefore he is able also or my dears, to say there to the uttermost, to come to God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them. We have an intercessor. We have a high priest that's ascended into the heavens, seated at the right hand of God, making intercession for us. And so as we see David's plea for intercession in a battle, We seek intercession for the battles that we face, and that brings us to the application. How confident are you that God will hear your prayers and protect you in your spiritual battles? That's a good question to contemplate. How confident are we? We ought to have confidence in God. Even when we don't, we can't see what's gonna happen, we don't know how this is gonna work out, Lord, I just don't, I can't see how this is all gonna turn out for my good and for your glory. But I believe that you are gonna take control of the situation and work it out in the best way. Father, bless your words that we have sought to expound today. And I pray, Lord, that we would be encouraged. As we face battles, we face an enemy that seeks to destroy us. Give us victory, we pray, and not only that, give us confidence as we proceed in the battles of life that we would understand that ultimately, you have the control. You give us strength, and yes, you tell us to bear our burdens, but in the end, it's in your hand. We pray that you would intervene in our lives and intercede for us. Be our God, our deliverer. Bless now the following service, we pray in Jesus' name, amen.