When God is with you (Psalm 20)

Introduction

We often hear the statement: May God be with you! or God is with me! But what does that mean precisely? How is it like when God is with us? One of names given to Christ when he came into this world was Emmanuel which means God is with us. I believe that in this Psalm we can see 6 signs that God is with you.

I. He answers your prayer in times of trouble (v.1a)

a) God is with you in troubled times when you obey and listen to him in good times.

Proverbs 1:24-28 I have called and you refused to listen, have stretched out my hand and no one has heeded, 25 because you have ignored all my counsel and would have none of my reproof, 26 I also will laugh at your calamity;I will mock when terror strikes you, 27 when terror strikes you like a storm and your calamity comes like a whirlwind, when distress and anguish come upon you.28 Then they will call upon me, but I will not answer; they will seek me diligently but will not find me.

-God is god for the bad times but also for the good times. Some people want God to be their firefighter who gets them out of problems only, but he does not want to be the God of his good time. Where do you get that from?

-Sometimes God doesn’t seem to hear you because you do not seem to hear him when his talking to you.

Why didn’t we hear and obey God? Because we think we are fine, we know we have problems but we do not nothing about them or if we do something about them we do it superficially so we can lie to ourselves that we are trying. The reason God is not with us the way we want him to be is ultimately our laid-back attitude, our self-satisfaction with our spiritual life. Our wrong mentality that we are good spirituality as long as we do not commit any “big sin”.

God is with you as much as you allow him to be.

II. Protection (v. 1b)

-Protection is guaranteed as long as you stay under God’s authority.

a) What kind of protection?

1) spiritual protection and 2) physical protection. God always prioritizes your spiritual protection. Over your physical protection.

III. Emotional strength / support (v.2)

-the same verb appears in Psalm 41:3 The Lord sustains him on his sickbed in his illness you restore him to full health.

IV. Accepts you spiritual activity (v.3)

V. Fulfills your plans (v. 4)

VI. Saves you (v. 6)