Psalm 20

To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David.

1 May the LORD answer you in the day of trouble! May the name of the God of Jacob protect you!

2 May he send you help from the sanctuary and give you support from Zion!

This is a prayer for the king. It is likely part of a coronation liturgy where audience participation took place. A prayer of the king will follow in Psalm 21. These are the kinds of things that any people would pray for their leader and so it’s not a stretch to think of this as a model prayer for government, church, and family leaders today. “May the LORD answer you in the day of trouble!” Trouble will certainly come to any leader, and our prayer is that the leader in trouble will seek the LORD for help. The reference to “name” in verse 1 is the first of three, where the name is representative of the person. This is the first time in the Psalms where YHWH is identified as the God of Jacob, but whenever Jacob is mentioned I think of so many stories from his life -- his slippery nature, his vision of heaven, his wrestling with God, his poor parenting, his love for Rachel. He was everyman -- complex, much to admire and much to criticize. To me the term “God of Jacob” is a way of saying “My God” because I am so much like Jacob. I don’t know what the term meant to David and the Jewish people, but I would assume they have a similar place for Jacob in their thoughts -- complex yet ultimately faithful. The prayer of the people is that YHWH would send help from the sanctuary, from his home on earth in Zion. This is an acknowledgement that God has come to dwell with men, that God himself resides in some fashion in a tent (later a building) made by human hands. He is the God who came near. This has been true since God walked with Adam and Eve in the garden. Pray for your leaders today that they would seek God for help and that they would know his presence in a real and powerful way. Pray this for yourself as well.  

3 May he remember all your offerings and regard with favor your burnt sacrifices! Selah

4 May he grant you your heart's desire and fulfill all your plans!

5 May we shout for joy over your salvation, and in the name of our God set up our banners! May the LORD fulfill all your petitions!

The congregation prays for the king’s effective worship, that the LORD remember with favor his offerings and burnt sacrifices. This implies the understanding that the king will be faithful worshiper. The king’s prayers accompany these cultic acts and with them is the prayer that the LORD would grant his heart’s desires and fulfill all his plans. In turn the nation hopes to celebrate the king’s victories and in the name of the LORD set up banners proclaiming it. The congregation puts an exclamation point on it all by asking for the LORD to grant all the king’s petitions. I would love to see what this looked like. My imagination is colored by movie portrayals of this era that I assume have been somewhat carefully researched. It’s estimated that the population of Jerusalem was 5,000 at the time of David’s rule and we may assume conservatively that those numbers probably doubled for events like this as people came from around the country for this once in a lifetime event. Of course there were also political opponents -- David’s civil war with the house of Saul had just ended so perhaps not everyone was praying on the same page. At any rate, this is a heartfelt expression of the desire for a successful reign of the king. In reality, Jesus is the fulfillment of the messianic king so these promises are completed in him. In applying this prayer to our context, I think it’s appropriate to apply this to our civil and church leaders, and pray for their worship. Out of their worship flows all else because worship teaches us to accept our place in the world and not become arrogant. It humbles kings to bow before the God who bestowed his authority on them. It humbles church leaders to know that they are not building a kingdom for themselves but for the One that called anointed them. Pray for your leaders today. They are human just like you. Be gracious to them and pray that their worship will be strong. 

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.

This verse is the response of the king to the prayer of his subjects. The king expresses his confidence even before the LORD acts. He is unwavering in his belief that God will answer him from his holy heaven with the saving power of his right hand. How can one be so sure that an all-powerful divine being will respond when requests are made upon him? God is sovereign afterall and does whatever he pleases (Psalm 115:3). It must be that the kind understands the nature of God and believes that his own actions and judgements are in alignment with God’s will. This is the model of kingship in the ancient near east. The king acts as an extension of God’s power and judgment on earth. On a personal level, there is also something very empowering when you know that others are praying for you. When you are stepping up to a difficult task with trepidation, and yet you know that others are bringing your name before God, you can’t help but feel even more confident. Which then begs the question, whose names are you bringing before the Father that he might save them with the power of his right hand? In a roundabout way, this psalm has much to teach about the power of intercessory prayer. Don’t treat it like a ritual with no meaning. Apparently God has set up the universe so that we can participate in its running both directly through our actions and judgments on the earth and indirectly through our petitions to the Sovereign All-Powerful God. 

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.

9 O LORD, save the king! May he answer us when we call.

Chariots and horses were one of the most powerful weapons of ancient warfare. Fast, mobile, and lethal, they were also difficult to defend against and could quickly intimidate and overrun and infantry. Even today our attack helicopters have picked up the name cavalry to describe what they do -- quick and lethal attack. Today we might say that some trust in attack helicopters, guided missiles, and drones, but we trust in the name of the LORD our God. I agree with the principle, but I’m still glad that we are the ones with the helicopters and drones and that they are manned by a good and just people. I suppose that is one of the big differences between the military of the USA and those of the ancient world. We are not expansionist and we use our weapons to protect the innocent and punish the guilty (although I’m sure there are some in our free country who would disagree with that assessment). Having just acknowledge my trust in the US military, I’ve done exactly what the people in this psalm did not do. In God’s sovereignty, he allows nations to rise and fall, and certainly history is witness to this. The great empires of the world have turned to dust, but Israel still stands and the church still stands. And our hope as Americans is not in the power of our military but in the inevitable advance of the gospel through the church. Notice the final prayer is worded as if the people are praying to the king, reinforcing the idea that God and the king are functioning as one. “May the king answer us when we call” is the most likely interpretation from the context although the use of the pronoun makes it vague, as in “May he answer us”. This is an example of how the king functions as a representative of the people before God.