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Join Nancy Wilson each week as she discusses basic christian living habits and practices.
Welcome to The Fimina Podcast. This is Nancy Wilson. Thanks for joining me today. I've been going through the Psalms lately and I found some gold in Psalm 20 and that's where I'm going today. And of course, if you want to grab a Bible, fine, but I know most of you listen to this while you're on the run. So you can look at it later. The first thing I want you to notice this week, go through the short Psalm is that most of the verses begin with the word may. In fact, that word may appears eight times in the short nine verses, at least in the ESV translation that I'm using with my study of the Psalm. This is a word we hear often in Benedictians. May the Lord bless you and keep you. For example, it expresses a hope, a prayer, and it can also be used in impregatory prayers like may the Lord destroy your enemies. First one, may the Lord answer you in the day of trouble may the name of the God of Jacob protect you. Notice that the context here is a day of trouble where protection is needed. When David had a day of trouble, it most often involved enemies and battles. For us, a day of trouble may be many things other than warfare, but I believe we can apply this Psalm to all our own varieties of troubles, big or small. May the Lord answer us in the day of trouble. Whatever your troubles may the Lord answer you. And this assumes, of course, that you are calling out to him in prayer, anticipating and waiting for an answer. If you're not asking, then why should he answer you? May the name of the God of Jacob protect you. Most often, when we are calling out to the Lord in a day of trouble, our biggest need is for protection. We're vulnerable, fragile beings. Even David, the season warrior needed the Lord's protection. Verse 2, may he send you help from the sanctuary and give you support from Zion. There is no help and no support equal to that which the Lord sends. Where will this help come from? His sanctuary. We're asking him to send help and give support. And the Psalmist says, may he do just that. Then in verse 3, may he remember all your offerings and regard with favor your burnt sacrifices. Say la. This verse calls to mind David's testimony of honoring God with his offerings and sacrifices. I guess we would feel a little sheepish at this point if we thought that I haven't been tithing or giving offering. I haven't been making sacrifices to God. If that is the case, then you're not in a good position to ask him to regard you with favor. But this also calls to mind Romans 121. I beseech you therefor, brethren, by the mercies of God that you present your bodies, a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God which is your reasonable service. Though we are to give offerings of money to the Lord's work, we also present our bodies ourselves as living sacrifices to him. If so, we may say, may he remember our reasonable service and regard it with favor. Verse 4, may he grant you your heart's desire and fulfill all your plans. If our hearts, desires and plans are in the context of our living sacrifice, then our desires and plans will be consistent with his word and with his character. And then we won't be ashamed to ask God to fulfill all our plans and give us our hearts desire. Let's pause and do an inventory here. So far, the Psalmist has prayed, may God answer, protect, send, give, remember, regard, grant and fulfill. And all this in the day of trouble. All the action here is on God's part. We are merely doing the asking. He is answering. But now in verse 5, we get into the action. May we shout for joy over your salvation and in the name of our God, set up our banners. This means that the army is rejoicing, shouting for joy before the battle. They are setting up their banners in God's name with great expectation. Now this means that we in the midst of our troubles should do the same. We should look to God to answer, protect, send, give, remember, regard, grant and fulfill. That is his part. And then we act. We rejoice. We shout for joy. We set up our banners. This is how we should demonstrate our faith and hope in the midst of our troubles as we are crying out to him. Then, verse 5, made the Lord fulfill all your petitions. We are looking to him for this fulfillment while we are rejoicing. Verse 6 demonstrates the faith and trust the Psalmist has in God. 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. Here is our confidence. I know he will. Do you see that? I know he will. Verse 7 and 8, some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God. They collapse and fall, but we will rise and stand upright. Some trust in their military, which looks very impressive, but not us. Our trust is entirely elsewhere. We trust in the name of the Lord our God. Horses and chariots collapse and fall, but in Christ we will rise and stand upright. Verse 9 concludes the Psalm. O Lord, save the King. May he answer us when we call. So the takeaway today is this Psalm itself. God wants his people to call out to him in all our troubles. He wants us to hang our banners out in his name as we face our enemies and troubles, whoever and whatever they are. Call on the Lord. And may he answer us when we call. Thanks for joining me today. Hope you find opportunities to apply this Psalm in your troubles this week. Let's see some banners flying. Before I go, I want to let you know about my page on Canon Plus. That's where you can find all my audiobooks, audio series, conference talks, and more. Go to mycanonplus.com or click the link in the show notes and have a look around.