Psalm 20 & 21

Battle Songs

We are going to look at two Psalms today. Psalms 20 -21. Both of these are authored by David and therefore we can think of David when the psalm talks about the King but “the king” can also be used or interpreted in several different ways so let’s dig in and see how these Psalms brought hope and deliverance to the people of Israel.

They are similar in nature because they are battle songs with 20 being a pep rally song to build up the army before battle and 21 is a Praise for Deliverance a song to praise God for the salvation that He brought for them after the battle. We are not going to spend a whole lot of time on chapter 20 but I want us to read through it and pull out some of the meat that God has for us there. Read Psalm 20.

The New King James Version Psalm 20:1–3

May the LORD answer you in the day of trouble;

May the name of the God of Jacob defend you;

May He send you help from the sanctuary,

And strengthen you out of Zion;

May He remember all your offerings,

And accept your burnt sacrifice.

You can imagine a commander walking in front of his army preparing them for battle. He is trying his best to build up the confidence of a whole contingent of very sacred young men. They will need this confidence as they go out to face the enemy. The commander knows there is no need to sugarcoat this; not everyone is going to make it back home but this is both an attempt to psyche them up as well as type of prayer to ask the Lord for help. The Commander asks God to hear their call to answer them in their distress. He asks God to defend them and to send them heavenly help. He asks for strength and to remember their faithfulness.

The New King James Version Psalm 20:4–5

May He grant you according to your heart’s desire,

And fulfill all your purpose.

We will rejoice in your salvation,

And in the name of our God we will set up our banners!

May the LORD fulfill all your petitions.

In verse 4 he makes the prayer / pep talk more personal by asking God to fulfill their individual desires and to give their life purpose. Then in verse 5 the commander changes his perspective from the here and now to his belief that God will prevail. He states their joy in knowing that God will save them and because of that they will rally behind God’s banner. There is joy and more importantly peace found when we give up trying to fight all of our battles by ourselves and when we place our trust in God fighting the battle. Only God can bring the victory and only God can turn our defeats into His victories. All we can do is hold on and have faith that He is going to do a good work.

The New King James Version Psalm 20:6

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.

Verse 6 continues this confidence in the salvation of the Lord. The commander is confident in the fact that he is one of the anointed and that God will save them. God will answer their requests and He will fight their battles for them. We too can find our confidence in knowing that we are apart of the family of God as John 1:12 reminds us, “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name:” The Lord will save His anointed and we are His anointed children.

The New King James Version Psalm 20:7–8

Some trust in chariots, and some in horses;

But we will remember the name of the LORD our God.

They have bowed down and fallen;

But we have risen and stand upright

Vs. 7 moves the perspective again. Where we gain our strength is of utmost importance and our commander recognizes that he can either rely on the strength of his own hands or he can put his confidence in the name of the Lord. Those that choose to fight their battles on their own will be crippled by their own weaknesses and in doing so they will fall but those that choose to place their confidence in the Lord will be held upright no matter the outcome of the battle because the Lord is their strength and their ultimate victory.

Vs. 9 finishes it out. However, it is kind of odd. The words here in the NKJV are “Save. O Lord;” but in the Hebrew there is a connotation of the saving being asked for by the author toward another and that other is the King therefore in the ESV the verse is Psalm 20:9 O LORD, save the king! May he answer us when we call.

This makes more sense as we continue into chapter 21 when we see the King mentioned often. Read Chapter 21

The New King James Version Psalm 21:1

The king shall have joy in Your strength, O LORD;

And in Your salvation how greatly shall he rejoice!

The returning victors from battle are now able to reflect on the battle and more importantly they are able to give credit where credit is due. We tend to think of our battles in a very personal manner. God helped me with this battle, with this struggle, with this mess, and with that drama. This is a very self focused view of God’s salvation. However, I was reminded this past week to not read the OT with a self-focused mindset because that is not how the people of Israel were to think about their relationship with God. They instead were to look at their relationship with God as a national relationship. The King was their head and therefore the king was an extension of themselves before God, so when they say the king shall have joy in the strength of the Lord it is a joy meant for the entire nation. God’s salvation was not just for one individual but for all those whom God loved. It is a perspective that helps us today because we need to think a bit more about the victories of the church as a whole and not as much about our own personal victories. Sure we need victory over the enemies of our individual lives but we are not just a single individual Christian we are to be a part of the BODY of the church and as a part of the whole our true victory comes when we are all saved by God.

The New King James Version Psalm 21:2–7

You have given him his heart’s desire,

And have not withheld the request of his lips.

Selah

For You meet him with the blessings of goodness;

You set a crown of pure gold upon his head.

He asked life from You, and You gave it to him—

Length of days forever and ever.

His glory is great in Your salvation;

Honor and majesty You have placed upon him.

For You have made him most blessed forever;

You have made him exceedingly glad with Your presence.

For the king trusts in the LORD,

And through the mercy of the Most High he shall not be moved.

In verse 2 we see that God, the “You” of all these verses, has granted the king his request His desire for salvation. The battle has been won and the victory is theirs. As the verses continue we see the blessings that God grants to the victors. God has given them goodness, royalty, long life, glory, honor, and majesty. This earthly king is blessed and because of that blessing the nation is blessed.

Vs. 6 says that there is gladness in the presence of God. This is picture of safety. I am reminded of the picture of John Jr. under the desk of his Father the President JFK. The most powerful man in the world at that time at the helm of the country sitting at his desk and the boy who made it his play place. We can look at our relationship in much the same manner. We get to be at the feet of the most powerful being in all the universe and we can be there in complete security and peace knowing that our lives are in His very capable hands.

Now there is also an element of permanence to this victory for the kings salvation is not just for a moment but for eternity. God has blessed him forever. This means that no matter the outcome of the battle the victory is already won because God has granted His people to be saved if they will put their trust in Him. If the king trusts the Lord, If the People trust in the Lord, the mercy of the Most High will not be moved.

Now interestingly we can also look at this Psalm as being messianic in nature and in that we see that God is still the “You” but the King is Christ. This makes the blessings given as Christs, the crown is Christ’s, eternal life, Glory, Honor, and majesty all for Christ Jesus. Jesus will be blessed forever and because Jesus is God his faithful trusting of the Lord will be never-ending and there will never be an end to God’s Mercy. As we read it with Christ in mind we see the Crucifixion which looked like a defeat was actually a victory given by God who through the resurrection brought the world the Mercy it desperately needed. Mercy, the blessing given by God, to all those who put their faith in the King. He shall not be moved.

The New King James Version Psalm 21:8–12

Your hand will find all Your enemies;

Your right hand will find those who hate You.

You shall make them as a fiery oven in the time of Your anger;

The LORD shall swallow them up in His wrath,

And the fire shall devour them.

Their offspring You shall destroy from the earth,

And their descendants from among the sons of men.

For they intended evil against You;

They devised a plot which they are not able to perform.

Therefore You will make them turn their back;

You will make ready Your arrows on Your string toward their faces.

We see in vs 8-12 another change. The immediate victory is behind them and now there is a need to look toward the future. In the future, God will continue to find and destroy His enemies. There will be no hiding from God. We can take great comfort in the fact that even though we may not see victory in every battle we face God will bring victory to His faithful and more importantly He will bring his wrath down on those who hate Him. The Lord’s fire will devour them. This is quite the word picture. Reread vs. 9. And not only them but all those who follow them from now on into the future all those who are the enemies of God will be destroyed.

Let’s remember a couple of important facts in these verses. We who have accepted Christ as our savior can now depend on the Lord as our Salvation from His coming wrath, but let us never forget that we too were the enemies of God and were deserving of this wrath. It is not our righteousness that bring us the victory it is the righteousness of the king. King Jesus whose sacrifice brings us the mercy we don’t deserve and never will but is freely given all because we ask for it. We are victorious not by our strength or by our means at all but through the resurrection of King Jesus.

This reminds me of Elisha and his servant in 2 Kings 6. The people of Israel are at war with Aram and Elisha is able to tell the king of Israel all the plans of the king of Aram. This upsets the king of Aram greatly so he sends his armies to surround the city where Elisha is at. When Elisha’s servant wakes up one morning and finds the city surrounded by an army he runs to Elisha to tell him of the danger. Elisha’s words to his servant are, 2 Kings 6:16–18 “So he answered, “Do not fear, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.” And Elisha prayed, and said, “Lord, I pray, open his eyes that he may see.” Then the Lord opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw. And behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha. So when the Syrians came down to him, Elisha prayed to the Lord, and said, “Strike this people, I pray, with blindness.” And He struck them with blindness according to the word of Elisha.”

Our eyes have not been opened to see the Armies of God set up against the enemies of the Cross but we can take great confidence in the fact that we are similarly surrounded by fiery chariots and a great army because the Lord loves those whom He has chosen and forgiven. Our enemies have intended more and more evilness and hatred toward us and toward the Lord but the Lord will prevail. The Lord has and will always be the victor and we can place our trust in His salvation.

Pray the Psalm.