Psalm 20: The Battle Hymn of the Church

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Intro:

Why we aren't starting Zachariah just yet.
And so we turn then back to the Psalms this morning and as Jake also picked up a few a while back we now arrive at Psalm 20. This Psalm is well known for at least two reasons. The first and maybe unknown to many is that this is likely one of the Psalms that gave rise to the British national anthem “God save the King” or Queen as it has been for some time before the recent coronation of Charles the 3rd. There is some uncertainty about this because the history of this song is spotty but knowing the time period in which it arose and the near perfect quoting of this Psalm there are many who believe this is where the writer of that song got this phrasing.
For many though this psalm will be most familiar for verse 7:

Some trust in chariots and some in horses,

but we trust in the name of the LORD our God.

Indeed as we will see this verse become central in the application of this Psalm which is why it is so well know. It has a ring to it just as it would have for David and his army as they chanted this refrain as they headed into battle. Most commentators agree that this was the purpose for which this psalm was written, to serve as a prayer and a war chant as the armies of Israel headed off to war. It is impossible to pin this psalm down to any particular battle or period of warring in the life of David because so much of his life was consumed with battle and the conquering and subjecting of Israel’s enemies but it is likely that as they headed off to war this was one of the tunes that they sung or chanted as they went.
One commentator sets the stage well for this psalm:

To enter into its spirit we must transport ourselves in imagination to the old temple at Jerusalem while the special service invoking the blessing of Jehovah upon the intended enterprise is in progress. The courts are thronged with enthusiastic patriots, each eager to strengthen with his own voice the chorus of supplication for Israel’s success. The king in his robes of royalty is standing by the altar in the sanctuary. He has just presented his gifts and offered his sacrifice; and now the choir and the whole congregation break out into this mighty hymn on his behalf, assuring him that in this day of trouble, occasioned by the revolt of his subjects or the invasion of strangers, the Lord will hear him, will defend him, will send him help from the sanctuary, and uphold him out of Zion. These his offerings shall be remembered, this his sacrifice shall be accepted; the desire, too, of his heart—the overthrow of the enemy—shall be granted.

We have heard of “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” and maybe this could be known as the battle psalm of God’s people or the Battle Psalm of the Church.
Lets take a moment to read this brief psalm and then pray before we go any farther, as we read again seek to place yourself in that setting there in Ancient Israel in the courts of the tabernacle preparing to go off to war against your enemies.

Read then Pray

Verses 1-5: Parallelisms

For those who were paying attention during our fall study with RC Sproul you may have noticed something familiar about verses 1-5 of this Psalm. Each of these verses takes the form of a parallelism specifically a synonymous parallelism which RC Sproul defines as a case in the text where the two lines or stanzas say the same thing but in slightly different ways. This would have made the verses easier to remember and it brings attention and focus to the shared intent behind both lines as RC Sproul taught to free us from the potential of missing the intent should we not understand one of the lines.
And so we read first:

May the LORD answer you in the day of trouble!

May the name of the God of Jacob protect you!

As we put these two lines together we can gather that the prayer or request inherent in these lines is that God would respond to the people’s plea for protection, likely in battle, battle certainly providing the necessary explanation for the day of trouble in line one and protection in that battle being the clear implication of the desired response from the Lord from line 2.
We sing now similarly from Psalm 46 that:
“God is our refuge and our strength, a present help in our distress”
Scripture is full of this theme, God’s people turning to God for deliverance through and protection in times of distress, tribulation, and trouble.
That second line has an interesting phrasing. “May the name of the God of Jacob protect you!”
May the NAME, the Name of the God of Jacob, protect you. What does that mean? How does the name of God serve to protect someone? To understand this we need to understand that from much of world history and certainly in the Old Testament times names actually meant something. These days sometimes names have significance maybe a person is named after another individual or some parents do give thought to what is meant by the name that is chosen for a child but often times names are just what appealed to the parents. Now I am not making a case that one is right and wrong, I don't think there is anything wrong with picking a name that you like for a child, we did that! However, because this is how we often interact with naming we are prone to miss the significance of names in the Bible. Names were given because they meant something, the name chose for a child was often associated with what the parents hoped that their child would do or be. We even know that individuals could earn a different name, kind of like a nick name but more substantial than that as they grew and accomplished things and aspects of what they had done or who they had become became ingrained into how it was that people knew them.
Names were more than just the thing you used to get someones attention in a crowd or to greet them with a hand shake. Names were meant to be full of the nature and character of the one named.
Thus when the Psalmist asks that the Name of the God of Jacob protect you he is drawing into this request all that they knew and understood God to be. We have seen one aspect of this naming of God in Haggai recently. We see in Haggai and will continue to see in Zechariah when we start that book that the name “The Lord of Hosts” becomes a favorite of post exilic Israel. You’ll remember that that names calls to mine the fact that this God is the God who directs the vast armies of Heavens angles to do His bidding on behalf of His people.

The Source of the Help

In verse 2 we see the source of the help that the psalmist desires:

2  May he send you help from the sanctuary

and give you support from Zion!

You will notice that these verses are in the second person, the psalmist is speak to someone. We will touch on that in a bit. And so we see here that the help that is coming for them, is going to come from the place where God dwells. The sanctuary speaks of the inner courts of the tabernacle, primarily the holy of holies where God’s presence dwelt behind the curtain above the mercy seat of the ark of the covenant and Zion speaks of the city in which the Lord dwelt.
The significance here is the implicit admission that whatever form this help takes whether the direct miraculous providence of God as in the falling walls of Jericho or the secondary agency of help from others in the midst of the battle or the workings of weapons and armor to protect and preserve the soldiers as they fight, whether primary or secondary agency, the source of the help is the Lord.
This is a great truth for us to keep in mind. Many people pray for the miraculous resolution of troubles, it is almost as if they can only see God’s agency in deliverance if there is a supernatural miraculous element to it. This cry for help though assumes that when deliverance comes, in what ever way it comes, that it will have come from the place where God dwells.

God Helps the Righteous

In verse 3 we see the requirement for this help, we see that those who can expect the help and deliverance from God are those who are righteous.
Often in preparation for battle the kings would offer sacrifices to entreat the Lord’s favor. We read the commentator earlier presenting us with this psalm being sung at just such a ceremony.
Now does this mean that it is our own works that bring God’s favor upon us?
Does this verse and the truth contained in it contradict psalms like Psalm 51?

16  For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it;

you will not be pleased with a burnt offering.

17  The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;

a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.

Certainly not! The astute reader of scripture will be able to hold these two truths in alignment with each other when it is understood that the sacrifices offered here in psalm 20 must flow from the heart of psalm 51 if they are to be of any value! The sacrifices offered in psalm 20 verse 3 are the offerer’s admission of his sin and guilt before God and his obedience to the law of God which had prescribed these sacrifices to cleanse on from sin and bring one back into right relationship with God.
In asking that God remember their sacrifices and regard with favor their burnt offerings the psalmist is asking that God see that their hearts are set to be obedient to God’s law. The sacrifices don't purchase the deliverance they show that the person offering them is in right relationship with God and that they understand that it is God’s pleasure to do good to those whom He loves.
This is the same truth that we learned in Micah chapter 7:

Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity

and passing over transgression

for the remnant of his inheritance?

He does not retain his anger forever,

because he delights in steadfast love.

God as we saw in psalm 51 does not delight in the sacrifices of an unrepentant heart but He does delight in showing steadfast love and faithfulness, covenant love and faithfulness, hesed, to those who are walking with Him in faith. These are the sacrifices of the faithful and the trust of the faithful in the deliverance of God.
There are so so many who get this utterly wrong and seek to work themselves into a condition in which they believe God can now help them! They try to offer the sacrifices without the faith and trust and knowing of who this God is or what he requires to step in and act on their behalf. We can not earn God’s favor, we must simply come to Him by faith with hearts of repentance and obedience and we will find that He is ready to come to our aid and protect and deliver us through life's constant troubles.

Verse 4

The person who understands and does this is then the person who can rightly pray:

4  May he grant you your heart’s desire

and fulfill all your plans!

This is the person who is able to pray as the Lord Jesus Christ instructed us to pray:

“Our Father in heaven,

hallowed be your name.

10  Your kingdom come,

your will be done,

on earth as it is in heaven.

This persons heart’s desire and plan is that the Lord’s will be done through his life! This is alway the essential element of every verse in scripture that talks about God giving us the desires of our hearts, these must be desires of hearts that are first and foremost His to begin with!

Victory Celebrated!

The last element of these synonymous parallelisms is the anticipation of the celebration of victory! These men are to anticipate this victory not because they are following mighty king David into battle; no they are to anticipate victory because all that has come before is true and because it is God who God with them into battle and it is God who will take pleasure in delivering them.
We see a vital element again here though! Notice the second line.

and in the name of our God set up our banners!

The setting up the banners is a symbol of victory. These are likely their tribal standards and they fly them after the battle to show that their side has been victorious and notice that they set these up in the name of their God. They rejoice and give praise for the victory in the battle to the God who has indeed heard their prayers and been pleased to send them aid from the Holy Place where He dwells.
We ought to take note of this. Especially in light of the truth that we learned earlier that God works victory and deliverance for us through both super nature and miraculous direct agency but also through the agency of secondary agents through His divine providence.
I wont put Grace or any of the other kids specifically on the spot here but if you remember your baptist catechism what is the answer to question #15 “What are God’s works of providence?”
The answer is: “God’s works of providence are His most holy, wise, and powerful preserving, and governing all His creatures and all of their actions.”
And so this means that each and every day we are likely to have experienced something of the Lord’s delivering us from troubles just as the catechism says that He preserves us through His providence, whether we even know it or not and this means that we ought often to be at the task of raising our flags in victory in the name of the Lord, we ought often to be at the task of giving Him praise, glory, and thanksgiving for all of the amazing ways in which He cares for and delivers us through each and every day.
Oh, how often we are prone to forget this and to view the mundane and ordinary things of life apart from a God exalting and glory displaying vision of God’s wonderful providence in our lives!
Let us be a people often at the task then of raising banners!
This section of the Psalm simply rounds out with one last line that is not in parallel to the lines before it but is essentially a recapitulation of verse 4 that is pronounced now in light of all of these wonderful truths that fill it as it is spoken:

May the LORD fulfill all your petitions!

Part 2

You could almost view part two, verses 6-9 as the response to what has been very similar to a benediction in the preceding verses.
Notice the shift from second person to first person from “you” to “I” and “we.”
It could very well be that this was ment to be a responsive psalm similar to our “To the Word” sea shanty from the song book.
At any rate the people now respond with this summary of the truths that they are affirming about their God as they head off to face the enemy in battle.

6  Now I know that the LORD saves his anointed;

he will answer him from his holy heaven

with the saving might of his right hand.

7  Some trust in chariots and some in horses,

but we trust in the name of the LORD our God.

8  They collapse and fall,

but we rise and stand upright.

If the first part of this psalm was recited by King David as he stood before his men and the second part was recited by the men back to him it makes sens of how this verse starts.

6  Now I know that the LORD saves his anointed;

This now could signal knowledge gained by listening the the previous verses. If the God of the previous verses is the same God now and He is then it makes sens that what is true of the people in the previous section is not true of their king and they can trust that God will deliver Him along with them in battle.
It could also be an affirmation of the faithful and holy character of David, that he in his benediction to them has shown that he is indeed like the righteous man that we saw in verse 3 and that there is a faithful acknowledgement here on the part of his men that the man they are following has been made worthy by God’s grace for the blessings they have sought in God’s deliverance and protection.
There is also the truth that David was God’s man, God’s chosen king, God’s anointed. Samuel we don't know how long ago but a significant time has passed since the prophet Samuel was divinely directed to pour the anointing oil on the head of David even before Saul had died, before he had face the giant, before he had killed his 10,000’s before all of that he was God’s anointed!
All of this together results in the understanding that God will deliver this man and by extension his army in this day of trouble.
We see the same language noting the source of the deliverance for David, “from His Holy Heaven” again from the place where God dwells.
We also see to borrow some more from our fall sessions with RC some anthropomorphic language. Can any of the kids tell me the anthropomorphic language? _________________________
That’s right:

the saving might of his right hand.

Where is Your Trust?

We then come to the well known refrain, the affirmation of the source of this peoples strength, hope, and confidence:

7  Some trust in chariots and some in horses,

but we trust in the name of the LORD our God.

Again, name here signifies all of the truth about who God is, His nature and Character as their Covenant God.
What army going into battle wouldn't feel better with a few horses and chariots on their side?
Israel had been explicitly forbidden to pursue these things. These were the M1 Abrams tanks of the ancient middle east and yet the people of Israel were to remember that these were literally nothing, less than nothing in comparison to having the might and power of the almighty Lord of Hosts on your side!
The line continues farther than most will quote it:

They collapse and fall,

but we rise and stand upright.

The “they” here seems to reference back to the horses and chariots they are pulling. The irony in these lines is that, naturally speaking, a horse is going to be able to run faster, farther and longer than a man. A man should collapse in total exhaustion long before a horse but that is a normal man. The man protected and sustained by God; that man will rise and stand long after the horse has run out of steam and fallen to the ground!
Now there is a super important truth that we must, must, must take to heart here!
We can know this truth, we can understand it and trust it to the deepest parts of our hearts, and we can still fail in this regard.
The principle here is to place no trust in earthly sources of hope or deliverance, to place all of your trust directly in God Himself!
Now one man who certainly must have been well familiar with this was David’s son Solomon. How could he not have been well familiar with the psalm that His father and his men likely recited on their way to war?
And yet we read that one of the first things Solomon does when he becomes King is to get for himself horses and chariots, lots of them!
We read in 1 Kings 4 in the summary list of Solomon wealth and wisdom that:

26 Solomon also had 40,000 stalls of horses for his chariots, and 12,000 horsemen.

Yet God had commanded in Deuteronomy 17 that:

15 you may indeed set a king over you whom the LORD your God will choose. One from among your brothers you shall set as king over you. You may not put a foreigner over you, who is not your brother. 16 Only he must not acquire many horses for himself or cause the people to return to Egypt in order to acquire many horses, since the LORD has said to you, ‘You shall never return that way again.’

Solomon explicitly broke all of the laws there in Deuteronomy 17 about kings!
Again he would have been well familiar with this psalm as well and yet we see that even the wisest person who ever live, in a regard, was foolish enough to begin to put his trust in horses and chariots!
If it can happen to Solomon it can happen to us to and it happens likely just like it did for Solomon. I doubt he went out and bought 40,000 horses in one day, no rather he started acquiring them and what seemed to be working he just kept on doing it until, likely a sense of pragmatism, caused him to move to the point of sin and placing His trust in the horses and not His God.
If it can happen to Solomon it can happen to us to and we must be ever on guard against trusting in things rather than trusting in God!

The End

The psalm then ends:

9  O LORD, save the king!

May he answer us when we call.

A prayer by the people in light of the benediction in verses 1-5 and their own affirmation of truth in 6-8:

9  O LORD, save the king!

May he answer us when we call.

Closing

Now as we close for the day we have already made some points of application and so I wont dwell long here but I do want to point out that as we think especially of that raising of banners in thanks, praise, and glory to God for divinely ordained salvation we ought to pause to also remember the greatest truth of all and that is that in Christ, for those who have put faith in Him, we have recieved the greatest delivery, the greatest victory, the greatest provision of salvation possible, through Christ we have recieved salvation fro the very enemies of sin and death, they no longer lay claim to us if we have put faith in the saving work of Christ at the cross! This ought to ever and always be the supreme source of all of our standard raising in thanksgiving.
As we close I thought it might be apt for us to do as these men back them might well have done and take up this Psalm as a responsive reading and so Ill read verses 1-6 and then you can stand and read together verses 6-9.
READ
And on that note Ill end with a quote from Spurgeon from His commentary on this psalm:

Troubles roar like thunder, but the believer’s voice will be heard above the storm.

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