Sermon Tone Analysis

There’s a phrase in Psalm 20 that’s been stuck in my head since I read it many years ago.

It goes like this:

I think this has been stuck in my head for a few reasons:

1. It’s a little strange; it’s different enough to be memorable.

2. It seems dated, but it’s actually quite relevant.

3. It doesn’t feel like it has any application, but it’s really very applicable to our lives in 21st century America.

Psalm 20 is a psalm for the king; a prayer for David, the king of Old Testament Israel.

The people of Israel are here focused on the king as he prepares to lead their forces to war.

Their attention and concern are justified, for, as it goes with the king and the troops, so it goes for the people.

Their fortunes are locked up with the king’s.

So the people pray for the king in verses 1-5.

Before you check out, disappointed or disinterested because this psalm seems to be about the king, because there seems to be a great deal of distance between this psalm and where you are, between the time this psalm was written and the time in which we live; as if this psalm has nothing to do with you.

It might seem like that, but have patience.

It’s like a couple years ago when the city started to chip and seal 6th Street.

I didn’t think much of it when they were working on the street in front of the post office.

It was a little annoying to have to drive a block out of my way; but really I thought very little of it.

It didn’t really affect me.

But a few days later, I had to correct my thinking.

They were now chipping and sealing the street right in front of our house.

I actually had to call and bug Gordon because for the better part of one day, we had no way to access our house by car!

What did they expect me to do? Park my car on Spruce St. and walk 50 feet to the door like some chump?

The mess by the post office had more to do with me than I had imagined.

I suspect you’ll find the same with Psalm 20; it doesn’t seem immediately important to us, but in fact, it has very much to do with you and me, we’ll just have to work our way there.

Psalm 20 is a prayer we can still pray.

Verses 1-5 record the prayer of the people:

THE PRAYER WE CAN STILL PRAY

The people pray that the Lord Yahweh will answer [the king] in the day of distress, or trouble.

The king is facing a serious situation, possibly a defensive war.

Distress could mean that Israel has come under attack or something of the sort.

They are in trouble for some reason; we just don’t know what exactly.

The people pray for the name of the God of Jacob to protect the king.

Speaking of Yahweh as the God of Jacob illustrates that He is the covenant God who makes commitments and sticks to them.

This verse sounds a lot like Jacob’s words to his clan in Genesis 35:3—listen:

What a God to have in life’s dark hours, huh?

The psalm reminds us of this powerful truth, as Dale Ralph Davis puts it: “We have a Jacob God for a David situation.”

We have a God who protects; that is, literally a God who sets his servant in a high place, out of and above the reach of his enemies or would be destroyers.

It’s like when my sister’s monsters, I mean children, came to stay: anything valuable was carefully set atop the kitchen cupboards, well out of their reach.

So it is: God sets His people in a safe place.

He protects the king.

He protects His own.

And if you belong to Him, He protects you…

The people pray for the Lord to send [the king] help from the sanctuary and grant [the king] support from Zion.

The Lord’s throne is in the heavens—and that is the ultimate source of His help.

But His earthly sanctuary is the place of His feet, the appointed place of the Lord’s presence where His people are right to expect His aid.

Help comes from the Lord who reigns above and who has chosen to dwell here below with His people.

He will help.

He will give support.

In verse 3, the people mention the king’s burnt offering and gift offerings.

This is not some ritual motivated by legalism.

The king has used the God-provided means of atonement; burnt offerings were the payment for sins in the Old Testament.

In light of the king’s obedience and worship, the people pray that the Lord Yahweh will give him (verse 4) his heart’s desires, fulfill his plans and strategies and all his requests.

And (verse 5) the people themselves vow to delight in and celebrate the victory the Lord gives the king.

Let’s remind ourselves why the people are so fixated on the king’s success: the welfare of the people rested on the success of the king.

Disaster for the king = disaster for the people.

There’s an amusing analogy to this situation; a story from the Civil War:

Charles Dana was an observer at the Battle of Chickamauga.

He was at staff headquarters behind Union lines.

He had been taking a nap when he heard the loudest noise of rifles and cannons.

The Confederates had overrun a Union flank and were pouring in.

Dana says the first thing he saw as he sat up was General Rosecrans, a devout Roman Catholic, genuflecting.

Dana knew instinctively that if the general was crossing himself, the army was in deep trouble.

So Dana jumped on his horse and skedaddled.

That is the thinking here, especially regarding King David.

In one sense, David is Israel.

Were David killed, Israel would flounder in darkness and confusion.

His death would spell disaster for them.

The people are intricately united to their king.

I mentioned earlier that this prayer was a prayer we still pray today.

And it’s true.

It’s just a little different for us living in A.D. time.

We pray something like verses 1-5, though differently because the Son of David, David’s Lord already sits enthroned (see Psalm 110).

Unlike David, Christ is not going out to fight the Philistines or the Syrians, nor is He waging a defensive campaign against the enemy.

Rather, the Root of David has won the victory (Revelation 5:5).

He crushed death to death on the cross.

He has risen, ascended, and sits at God’s right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that can be invoked, not only in the present age but also in the one to come (Ephesians 1:20-21).

He has already won the war, has vanquished every invisible and visible foe—only the “clean-up” work remains.

So, unlike the pray-ers in Psalm 20, we do not pray for Jesus to be victorious; we pray because He has been victorious.

On the day Jesus began to reign, our prayers changed a bit.

That day changed everything.

Like the people of Israel, we are inseparably united to our King; we are victorious because our King has won the ultimate victory.

Indeed, the only thing for Him to do is to return and set the world at rights.

And friends, that day’s a comin’!

We celebrate Jesus’ victory (very much like the celebration in verse 5), but we don’t pray for Jesus’ victory.

We pray that Jesus would manifest, display, make open and public His victory, that the scoffers would see Jesus as Victor and give their lives to Him, that His people would rest in the victory He won until He takes us home or returns victorious, riding on the clouds.

We pray, but we pray on the basis of a victory already achieved.

Psalm 20 gives us a prayer we can pray (albeit a little differently).

And Psalm 20 reveals the position we must take.

See verses 6-8:

THE POSITION WE MUST TAKE

In these verses, the king himself is speaking (notice in verse 6 the shift in pronouns from the second person singular you to the first person I).

The king seems completely confident of the Lord’s help—now this I know…

It seems a tad bit premature; the king hasn’t even gone out to battle yet, and still the king says, “The Lord gives victory…”

The verbs in verse 6 are in a past tense—the Lord gives…He answers...

The king is so convinced of the Lord’s saving him that he depicts it as having already happened.

This is like Paul in Romans chapter 8, verse 30—

Glorified in the past tense.

Not will glorify, but glorified.

It hasn’t happened yet; it’s still future, yet to come.

But since God has determined to do it, it is so certain that it can be spoken of as already having occurred.

It hasn’t happened yet.