A Prayer For Battle
Psalms 20
December 16, 2018
Tonight we look at this 20th Psalm and after reading it,
It is a pretty easy Psalm to understand.
It is the song sung on the eve of the battle.
David’s battles are well-documented in Scripture. He was a man of war.
As one commentator said, “David’s sword may have been severely hacked, but it was never rusty.”
But it wasn’t just that David knew about battle,
David also knew about victory.
• Some of David’s victories are the most improbable and yet famous in all the Bible.
• We are even mindful of that great accommodation which David received that he had slain his “ten-thousands”.
David was a successful warrior.
Tonight we get a song that shows us what made this warrior tick
And what allowed him to so boldly go forward.
The setting is not given, but the scene is yet obvious.
Just a few clues from the text help us understand the scene.
• In verse 1 we know that it is “the day of trouble”. There is a battle to be
fought.
• In verse 2 we know that David has entered “the sanctuary” that he might
seek God’s help.
• In verse 3 we learn that he is offering sacrifice to God.
David is about to go to battle and before he does,
He is seeking the help of the Lord.
WHAT IS ALSO CLEAR is that as King David approaches the Lord
THE PEOPLE HAVE GATHERED ABOUT AND ARE PRAYING FOR DAVID.
• They are praying that God would answer David.
• That God would help David.
• That God would accept David and his offering.
Those things become clear to us, and so we see the setting.
There is a king going to war
And the people are praying for him as he goes.
The Psalm obviously teaches us about the importance of prayer,
But even more than that it teaches us to have confidence in prayer.
Here we can answer some of those questions:
• Why is prayer so important?
• Why does prayer work?
• What does a lack of prayer say about us?
This Psalm is an encouragement to us
Regarding the necessity of CALLING upon God
And TRUSTING the God to whom we call.
You may have never thrown a rock at a Philistine, but you are aware that we are continually in a battle.
Paul lays that battle out very clearly for us.
Ephesians 6:12 “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.”
And then after commanding us to put on the gospel armor, Paul reminds:
Ephesians 6:18-19 “With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints, and pray on my behalf, that utterance may be given to me in the opening of my mouth, to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel,”
Now earlier when we studied Psalm 5
We said that it was a good example of this type of prayer.
• I have no problem saying that when David entered the sanctuary he prayed
Psalm 5.
Psalm 20 is the prayer of the people who are praying for David.
• Psalm 5 would be an example of Ephesians 6:18 “pray at all times in the
Spirit”
• Psalm 20 would be an example of Ephesians 6:19 “and pray on my behalf”
Both however are prayed before the battle.
So let’s work our way through it this evening.
4 points.
#1 THEIR PRAYER
Psalms 20:1-3
Now we do make here a point of clarification.
We know that David has obviously stopped by the sanctuary of God to offer prayers and sacrifices to God before the battle.
But what we don’t know is what David prayed.
That is not revealed to us. (As I said, maybe Psalms 5)
We don’t know what the conversation was between David and the LORD
What we are given here is what the people prayed
On David’s behalf as they waited outside of the sanctuary.
And to clarify it we can break their request down into 3 parts.
• May He ANSWER YOU
• May He ASSIST YOU
• May He ACCEPT YOU
That’s the first request: May God ANSWER YOU
(1) “May the LORD answer you in the day of trouble! May the name of the God of Jacob set you securely on high!”
Here we are mindful of A WONDERFUL AND GRACIOUS REALITY
That is available for the believer.
They are NOT here praying that God would give David what he is asking for. (That prayer comes in verse 2.)
The prayer here is that God would calm David’s heart and anxiety
Simply by showing up and being willing to answer.
No doubt the people understood the anxiety of battle.
• The very fact that David had entered the sanctuary to pray
• Demonstrated that this battle; this “day of trouble” was taxing on him.
• The people could see the struggle
So as David enters the sanctuary the first request of the people
Is that God would “answer” him.
But even more specifically that “the name of the God of Jacob set you securely on high!”
Often times in the Psalms we get a picture of a person in anxiety
And the cure for that anxiety is typically something along the lines of
God putting me in a large place.
For example:
Psalms 18:19 “He brought me forth also into a broad place; He rescued me, because He delighted in me.”
Psalms 118:5 “From my distress I called upon the LORD; The LORD answered me and set me in a large place.”
• The picture is that of a claustrophobic situation that threatens to smother until
you can’t believe.
• It’s a picture of your options dwindling and the walls closing in around you.
And the relief is seen in that God sets you in a “large place”.
That doesn’t mean that God physically changes your location,
It simply means that He addresses your anxiety and gives you peace.
That is what the people are praying here for David.
That God would “set you securely on high!”
• That God would carry you above your problems.
• That God would replace your anxiety with security.
And they even give the BASIS for that prayer.
Namely that “the name of the God of Jacob” would accomplish that for him.
When we speak of “the name” of God we are referring to
God’s Nature, God’s Reputation, and God’s Character.
We are talking about who God is.
So perhaps now you better understand that initial request.
God answer Him, and remind Him who You are,
So that You may quiet his nerves.
They aren’t yet referring to David’s specific requests,
They just want God to be gracious and to calm David’s spirit.
• Calm him God
• Give him assurance God
• Settle him God
• And do it with a reminder of who You are.
I think about in Ephesians 6 when Paul said:
Ephesians 6:19 “and pray on my behalf, that utterance may be given to me in the opening of my mouth, to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel,”
I think he would have been more than ok with them praying that God would answer Paul, remind him of who He is, and settle His nerves.
Or Consider:
Colossians 4:3-4 “praying at the same time for us as well, that God will open up to us a door for the word, so that we may speak forth the mystery of Christ, for which I have also been imprisoned; that I may make it clear in the way I ought to speak.”
You pick up on that “the way I ought to speak”
There was clear fleshly battle expressed there.
He knew what to speak, and he knew how to speak it, but it’s still hard.
He would have welcomed a prayer for God to calm his nerves.
Well that’s their first prayer for David. May God ANSWER YOU
Secondly, May God ASSIST YOU
(2) “May He send you help from the sanctuary and support you from Zion!”
Now we are talking about practical aid.
• We have moved beyond peace.
• Now we want literal, actual, physical help.
• Not help from the armory…
• Not help form the treasury…
• But help from the “sanctuary”.
That God would SHOW UP AND PROVIDE ASSISTANCE
For victory in this battle.
And we don’t know specifically what that is, I doubt the people even knew
• Maybe he needs hailstones like Joshua enjoyed
• Maybe he needs the sun to stand still to lengthen the battle
• Maybe he needs confusion in the opposing army like Gideon witnessed
• Maybe he just needs accuracy with his slingshot
Who knows what it specifically looked like,
But the people understood that on his own David was toast,
But if God would show up to help then David would be victorious.
And so that’s what they pray for.
And without this aid, the battle is hopeless.
Samuel Chadwick said, “The one concern of the devil is to keep Christians from praying. He fears noting from prayerless studies, prayerless work, and prayerless religion. He laughs at out toil, mocks at our wisdom, but trembles when we pray.”
Charles Spurgeon said, “Prayers are the believers’s weapons of war. When the battle is too hard for us, we call in our great Ally, who, as it were, lies in ambush until faith gives the signal by crying out, “Arise, O Lord.” Although our cause be all but lost, it shall soon be won again if the Almighty doth but bestir Himself.”
Prayer is mightily important on the eve and during battle.
I’m reminded of the wonderful story of Peter.
Acts 12:1-5 “Now about that time Herod the king laid hands on some who belonged to the church in order to mistreat them. And he had James the brother of John put to death with a sword. When he saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded to arrest Peter also. Now it was during the days of Unleavened Bread. When he had seized him, he put him in prison, delivering him to four squads of soldiers to guard him, intending after the Passover to bring him out before the people. So Peter was kept in the prison, but prayer for him was being made fervently by the church to God.”
Regardless of all the enemy had done…
All the intimidation…
The death of James…
The arrest of Peter…
The four squads of soldiers…
The prison bars…
The writer only says one thing,
And we know the circumstances are about to change.
“but prayer for him was being made fervently by the church to God.”
What a difference! What a necessity!
• “For a church that refuses to pray is most certainly a church filled with
arrogance, having forgotten their weakness.
• A church that refuses to pray is most certainly a church filled with apathy, not
caring if they are victorious.
• A church that refuses to pray is most certainly a church filled with apostates,
having no concern at all for the cause of the kingdom.”
Prayer is essential!
Even Jesus prayed before the feeding of the 5,000
Even Jesus prayed before calling out Lazarus.
Even Jesus prayed in the garden and bid His disciples do likewise.
Without God’s involvement, there can be no victory.
David’s people knew that and so they prayed that
Not only would God ANSWER David, but that God would also ASSIST him.
And they pray that God would ACCEPT HIM
(3) “May He remember all your meal offerings and fine your burnt offering acceptable! Selah.”
So the implication is that David has approached God
In order to offer sacrifices to God. He is entreating God’s favor.
And the request of the people is that God would in fact accept David.
In fact the phrase “find your burnt offering acceptable”
Is actual translated “turn to ash”
It was a Hebrew idiom that indicated God’s acceptance.
You knew God accepted your offering if He sent fire to consume it.
Leviticus 9:24 “Then fire came out from before the LORD and consumed the burnt offering and the portions of fat on the altar; and when all the people saw it, they shouted and fell on their faces.”
1 Kings 18:38 “Then the fire of the LORD fell and consumed the burnt offering and the wood and the stones and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench.”
Judges 6:21 “Then the angel of the LORD put out the end of the staff that was in his hand and touched the meat and the unleavened bread; and fire sprang up from the rock and consumed the meat and the unleavened bread. Then the angel of the LORD vanished from his sight.”
The prayer here is that God would be willing to accept David.
The fact that David is sacrificing tells us something else of the posture and attitude of prayer.
• David understands that he has no personal claim on victory nor merits that God should reward.
• David cries in humility and desperation in need of grace
And the people ask God on his behalf that God may grant it.
So as David prays, the people are outside praying in this manner for him.
And the very scene on strengthens our conviction that prayer is essential.
• If God doesn’t show up the battle is lost.
• If God answers, but the answer is “no” the battle is lost.
• If God doesn’t accept the petitioner, the battle is lost.
This is an essential step.
• Do we really believe we are going to see the lost saved by our own charisma
and intellectual argument?
• Do we really believe that we are going to resist the temptation in our own
strength?
• Do we really believe that the necessary courage to stand is just a natural part
of our flesh?
Of course not!
We are ever aware of how desperate we are for God to move.
And verse 3 ends with “Selah” (Pause)
Just keep praying until David comes out of that tent.
Who knows how long it will take.
Their Request
#2 THEIR ENCOURAGEMENT
Psalms 20:4-5
Well now David has emerged from the tent,
And he is looking into the face of his people.
He is about to depart for battle, but before he goes,
THE PEOPLE HAVE A WORD OF ENCOURAGEMENT FOR HIM.
(4-5) “May He grant you your heart’s desire And fulfill all your counsel! We will sing for joy over your victory, And in the name of our God we will set up our banners. May the LORD fulfill all your petitions.”
It is a very encouraging statement.
• We believe that God will “grant you your heart’s desire”
• We believe God will “fulfill all your counsel!”
And while you go fight,
• We’re going to “sing for joy over your victory”
• And we’re going to start decorating for the victory party; “we will set up our banners.”
We see here an absolute confidence on the part of the people.
• David is about to go to war and the people are giving him a pep rally.
• We know you’re going to win!
• We know you will be victorious!
But what is important to recognize is that
Their confidence had nothing to do with David’s track record
Or David’s ability.
When he comes out THEY DON’T SAY,
• We pity the Philistines because you are David the Philistine killer!
• Who can throw a stone like you?
• Who is wiser in battle than you?
• Many have faced you and all have fallen!
• You are David the slayer of ten-thousands!
That’s the type of pep talk that people in our day would give.
That’s NOT the encouragement here.
The encouragement of the people to David is that
He should be confident because God is on his side.
(Implied then is that God did in fact accept that burnt offering.)
And as David stands before the people
They know that God’s acceptance of the offering
Was a sign of God’s intervention in the battle.
And so the people build David up in confidence regarding his God.
• “May He grant you your heart’s desire”
• “in the name of our God we will set up banners”
• “May the LORD fulfill all your petitions”
What we have there from the people is not only the belief that prayer is essential, but also the BELIEF THAT GOD ANSWERS PRAYER.
And they are encouraging David with that belief.
God will answer you! God will respond!
I’m reminded of Paul encouraging Timothy:
2 Timothy 1:12 “For this reason I also suffer these things, but I am not ashamed; for I know whom I have believed and I am convinced that He is able to guard what I have entrusted to Him until that day.”
Or Paul encouraging the Thessalonians
1 Thessalonians 5:24 “Faithful is He who calls you, and He also will bring it to pass.”
Or Paul encouraging the Philippians
Philippians 1:18-20 “What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed; and in this I rejoice. Yes, and I will rejoice, for I know that this will turn out for my deliverance through your prayers and the provision of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, according to my earnest expectation and hope, that I will not be put to shame in anything, but that with all boldness, Christ will even now, as always, be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death.”
It is not just a commitment to prayer,
But a belief that God responds to prayer.
IT IS A CONVICTION THAT GOD ANSWERS PRAYER.
This was a conviction that Jesus tried to instill in His disciples.
Luke 18:1-8 “Now He was telling them a parable to show that at all times they ought to pray and not to lose heart, saying, “In a certain city there was a judge who did not fear God and did not respect man. “There was a widow in that city, and she kept coming to him, saying, ‘ Give me legal protection from my opponent.’ “For a while he was unwilling; but afterward he said to himself, ‘Even though I do not fear God nor respect man, yet because this widow bothers me, I will give her legal protection, otherwise by continually coming she will wear me out.'” And the Lord said, “Hear what the unrighteous judge said; now, will not God bring about justice for His elect who cry to Him day and night, and will He delay long over them? “I tell you that He will bring about justice for them quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth?”
What was the point? God answers prayer, don’t stop!
What a tragedy when the church either doesn’t feel the need to pray,
Or doesn’t truly believe that God answers prayer.
David’s people are encouraging him
That the God he sought will in fact answer and give the victory.
That’s good Christian encouragement!
Their Prayer, Their Encouragement
#3 DAVID’S ANNOUNCEMENT
Psalms 20:6-8
• So David went to pray and the people prayed for him.
• David emerged from the tent and the people encouraged him.
And now David responds to the people.
It is the last word of the king as he rides off to battle.
(6-8) “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. Some boast in chariots and some in horses, But we will boast in the name of the LORD, our God. They have bowed down and fallen, But we have risen and stood upright.”
• Obviously David is a man of faith.
• Obviously David believes God will deliver.
What is beautiful to us here is that
David gives the theological basis for his confidence.
There is a reason that David is confident
That God will show up and grant him the victory.
“Now I know that the LORD saves His anointed;”
That is to say, “I know God saves those He has chosen to save”
And there is no circumstance that can change that.
Do we remember Paul’s great dissertation to this end?
Romans 8:31-39 “What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things? Who will bring a charge against God’s elect? God is the one who justifies; who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us. Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Just as it is written, “FOR YOUR SAKE WE ARE BEING PUT TO DEATH ALL DAY LONG; WE WERE CONSIDERED AS SHEEP TO BE SLAUGHTERED.” But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
That was Paul saying the same thing.
• We know that no circumstance can change the fact that God will save those He has chosen to save.
• Nothing can change that.
Listen to the conviction of Jesus to that end:
John 6:37-40 “All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out. “For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. “This is the will of Him who sent Me, that of all that He has given Me I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day. “For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him up on the last day.”
That is the truth on which David is hanging his hope.
Perhaps
• As David entered the tent filled with anxiety and began to pray.
• And as the people prayed that God would reveal His name and thus comfort
David.
Perhaps that is the truth that God revealed and thus settled David’s heart.
David, I am the God who saves His anointed!
I deliver My people!
I remember the first time we boarded a plane to go to Africa,
And none of us knew what to expect.
I was pretty well convinced I was gonna die over there.
• Of course during the commissioning service Carrie prayed for me and said, “Lord, You’ve shown me that You will bring him home. We don’t know when or in what condition”
So, my confidence wasn’t really running all that high.
But on the airplane flight from Dallas to St. Louis I pulled out my Bible and began to read. My daily reading that day was in Luke 10.
I read:
Luke 10:17-20 “The seventy returned with joy, saying, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in Your name.” And He said to them, “I was watching Satan fall from heaven like lightning. “Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing will injure you. “Nevertheless do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are recorded in heaven.”
That was God reminding me that
He saves those He has chosen, and I would be fine.
God encouraged David in the same way,
And he reveals that to the people.
“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.”
Then David utters that phrase that you are probably familiar with.
(7) “Some boast in chariots and some in horses, But we will boast in the name of the LORD, our God.”
Now the word “boast” there is ZAKAR in the Hebrew.
And it DOESN’T MEAN “talk trash” like we commonly think in regard to boasting.
It means “call to mind” or “remember” or “think upon”
David was saying, that he was going to go into battle
And every time he faced the enemy and looked for confidence
He was going to think up or call to his mind the fact
That God saves His anointed.
• He WASN’T going to find confidence in all his horses or all his chariots. Those were not his source of peace.
• He was going to find peace and confidence in calling to mind that God saves those whom He has chosen to save.
David says, other people might find their hope in that,
But we have no such plan.
It’s all on God, and we are confident
He will deliver because He saves His anointed.
To which David utters a statement of victory.
“They have bowed down and fallen, But we have risen and stood upright.”
Because God is on our side, they will lose and we will win.
And we have seen this confidence in David before.
Remember when he faced the Philistine?
Saul wanted David to feel confident in his armor.
1 Samuel 17:39 “David girded his sword over his armor and tried to walk, for he had not tested them. So David said to Saul, “I cannot go with these, for I have not tested them.” And David took them off.”
Isn’t that a great statement? “I have not tested them”
I don’t know if they will work.
But David had tested God and he was confident in Him.
And that confidence was seen when David approached the battle field.
1 Samuel 17:45-47 “Then David said to the Philistine, “You come to me with a sword, a spear, and a javelin, but I come to you in the name of the LORD of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have taunted. “This day the LORD will deliver you up into my hands, and I will strike you down and remove your head from you. And I will give the dead bodies of the army of the Philistines this day to the birds of the sky and the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel, and that all this assembly may know that the LORD does not deliver by sword or by spear; for the battle is the LORD’S and He will give you into our hands.”
“Some boast in chariots and some in horses, But we will boast in the name of the LORD, our God.”
And to this we are reminded not only in the necessity of prayer or in the conviction that God answers prayer.
BUT WE ARE ALSO CHALLENGED TO WALK IN FAITH
IN THE GOD TO WHOM WE PRAY.
Far too often
• We are a people who pray to God for victory and then go to battle as if He
won’t show up.
• We lean more on our contingency than we do upon our God.
I think of this often in regard to ministry work.
EVERY WEDNESDAY NIGHT we gather to pray and often times the subject of that prayer is our youth that we will be teaching later that evening.
Teaching youth is hard. They have short attention spans.
Many have no interest in Bible study, they just are there for the social aspect.
And the temptation is to pray that God will speak
And then run to some sort of plan-B gimmick
To try and be more effective.
The passage that runs through my mind continually is:
1 Corinthians 2:1-5 “And when I came to you, brethren, I did not come with superiority of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God. For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling, and my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God.”
• Do you believe the gospel is powerful?
• Do you believe God honors it?
• Do you believe the Holy Spirit is the only One who can awaken the dead?
• Do you believe you can do that without His word?
Then don’t rely on earthly gimmicks, rely on His word.
That is what David is doing here.
• I prayed to God
• God answered
• I’m going to trust Him
That is David’s Announcement.
And then David in effect mounts his horse and rides off to battle.
And we are left with the final verse.
#4 THEIR REQUEST
Psalms 20:9
“Save, O LORD; may the King answer us in the day we call.”
Commentaries will tell you that this verse can also be translated
“O LORD save the King! Answer us!”
Either way you get the point.
They don’t stop praying once the battle starts, they continue to pray.
They have sought the LORD and they continue to seek Him.
Colossians 4:2-4 “Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with an attitude of thanksgiving; praying at the same time for us as well, that God will open up to us a door for the word, so that we may speak forth the mystery of Christ, for which I have also been imprisoned; that I may make it clear in the way I ought to speak.”
Ephesians 6:18-19 “With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints, and pray on my behalf, that utterance may be given to me in the opening of my mouth, to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel,”
In the parable of the widow, Jesus asked:
Luke 18:7 “now, will not God bring about justice for His elect who cry to Him day and night, and will He delay long over them?”
That is the prayer of these people.
They continue to pray that God would do what He promised.
And there you have a tremendous song about the importance of prayer in regard to the battle.
• Pray for God’s intervention
• Be confident that God will do what He said
• Trust God not earthly means of victory
• Continue to pray until the battle is won
I have often referred to this as “A Psalm of Commissioning”
Since it could very easily be the prayer for those about to go on mission.
In reality it is the prayer for each of us in all of life’s battles.
And it is essential.
