Now let us turn to the psalm
that we've read, Psalm 20, the short psalm, the psalm of David,
and in particular, the opening two verses of the psalm. Psalm
20, verses one and two, the Lord hears thee in the day of trouble.
The name of the God of Jacob defends thee, send thee help
from the sanctuary and strengthen thee out of Zion. And in particular, I want to
take up the theme of help from the sanctuary. As he'd spoken
of here at the beginning of the second verse, send thee help
from the sanctuary. We had a prayer meeting at Hegendon
Tuesday evening and I sought to speak then on the subject
of help, just taking the first two words that we find in the
12th Psalm. Help, Lord, we sought to see
it in its context, the verse reads, help Lord for the godly
man ceaseth, for the faithful fail. from among the children
of men." Thinking in particular of those two words and that petition,
that request for the Lord's help. And of course we see it several
times in scripture, we see it in the course of the ministry
of the Lord Jesus Christ, we read of that man who comes to
Christ in the gospel with his son who is possessed and now
he makes a request, he appeals to the compassion of the Lord
Jesus Christ. When he says there in Mark 9,
22, have compassion on us and help us. Such a simple prayer
really, just those two words, help us. And then we're told
how the man goes on and cries out, and says with tears, Lord,
I believe, help thou mine unbelief. And how often we have to come
with that prayer, we profess to be believers, and yet we are
so conscious of that sin which does so easily beset us, or that
accursed unbelief, how it cleaves to our very fallen nature. And
we have to say with that man again and again, Lord, I believe,
help, thou mine own belief and then again in the gospel we have
mentioned of course of the Canaanitish woman who comes with her with
her daughter and The disciples want her to be sent away. The
Lord Jesus seems to ignore her. She's a woman of Canaan, and
the Canaanites were prohibited from the congregation of the
Lord, we're told in the Old Testament. They were the people, of course,
who inhabited that land that God had promised to Abraham and
Isaac and Jacob. And they were a sinful nation,
a wicked nation. and they were cut off and yet
here in the gospel we read of a Canaanite, a woman of Canaan
coming with her sick child and though she seems to make little
headway yet we're told how she would not be denied and it says
she worshipped him saying Lord help me, Lord help me and the
Lord of course Gracious Lord, he is overcome by the request
of that woman and he helps and he heals the daughter. It's a
wonderful expression, isn't it, when we can come and make that
simple prayer, Lord help me. Many, many times we have to pray
in that very fashion. Well here tonight, at the beginning
of the second verse in the 20th Psalm, We read this petition,
send thee help from the sanctuary. Send thee help from the sanctuary. Let us go back to the beginning
of the psalm and consider how the psalm begins. It's the psalm of David and he
says, the Lord hears thee in the day of trouble. The name
of the God of Jacob We have mentioned then of the day of trouble. The day of trouble. And we can
say, I suppose, in a sense that we live in a day of trouble.
There's much that troubles us, much that makes our lives rather
bitter and we're troubled time and again. Sometimes we scarce
know how we should conduct ourselves, what we should be doing. I think
of the language again that we have in scripture there in Jeremiah
30 verse 7. Alas, it says, for that day is
great, so that none is like it. It is even the time of Jacob's
trouble. But he shall be saved out of
it. Oh, there is the time of Jacob's
trouble. Jacob, of course, who becomes
Israel. Jacob identified them with the
Israel of God and their salvation. Now, when we read of that time,
even the day of Jacob's trouble, we're not to think in terms necessarily
of a literal day. It refers to a season of time. Though it speaks of a day, it
might be a long day, it might be a short day. It's a season
of time, and we're told, aren't we, in the New Testament, in
that first epistle of Peter, now for a season, it says. If
need be, you are in heaviness through manifold temptation. Now, there, the apostle speaks
of a season, literally a little while, a short period of time. In fact, he says now, just now. for a season. And then he has
those three words, if needs be. It's only as it is necessary
that the Lord does what he does when he comes to us with trials. Or the day of Jacob's trouble,
it might be that time, thinking back when we were under the conviction
of sin. When our eyes were opened and
we were aware that we were in a lost state. Maybe we can remember
being in that condition, wanting faith and yet finding faith such
an impossibility. Wanting to believe, believing
in a certain sense. Accepting the truth of scripture
and yet knowing that one was not in possession of that faith
that is saving, that faith that has trust in it. Well that's
the time of Jacob's trouble when the Lord begins with us and convinces
us. when the Lord brings us into
the season of trials and troubles and difficulties. The life seems
to us to be so hard and we wonder when will all of this come to
an end. And when we're in those trials
of course, God is doing something in us we trust. All our false
hope will then be consumed away. And sometimes we'll wonder if
we have anything at all. But what does David say here
in the opening clause of the psalm? The Lord hear thee in
the day of trouble. The Lord will hear us in the
midst of all our troubles, even when we have to come before Him.
And we must come before Him. We have to come with our cries,
with our groanings, with our moanings. I think again of how
God brought the children of Israel into such circumstances when
they were there in Egypt. They'd gone there, of course,
in the days of Joseph. They'd been provided for because
there was a pharaoh who knew Joseph. But then, when that pharaoh
dies, there are other pharaohs and they know not Joseph. And
they are the people of God. The Hebrews are there so cruelly
persecuted. Their life is made a great burden
to them. And we're told, remember, at
the end of Exodus 2, how the children of Israel sighed by
reason of the bondage and they cried. and their cry came up
unto God by reason of the bondage. And God heard their groaning,
and God remembered His covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and
with Jacob. And God looked upon the children
of Israel, and God had respect unto them. Or as the Hebrew literally
says, according to the margin, and God knew them. Oh, God knows
His people. when it is Jacob's time of trouble. And God hears his people. The
Lord hears them in the day of trouble. The name of the God
of Jacob defends them. And so, as there is the day of
trouble, so there is that defense that God himself provides for
his people. as we have it there at the end
of that opening verse. The second clause, the name of
the God of Jacob defend thee, or as the margin says, set thee
on an high place. Set thee on an high place. Or we can think of the language
of another psalm, Psalm 61, where my heart is overwhelmed lead
me to a rock that is higher than I." Now we need to be led to
that rock that is so much higher that will dwarf all our troubles,
all our trials, all our difficulties. When we're unable to stand upon
that rock, which is of course the Lord Jesus Christ, the name
of the Lord, He's a strong tower, we're told. The righteous runneth
into it and is saved. Who are the righteous? There's
not a just man upon the earth who doeth good and sinneth not.
There's non-righteous. No, not one. All our righteousness
is our filthy rags. Who are the righteous, then,
who are running into that strong tower? It's those who are righteous
in the Lord Jesus Christ. It's those who are justified
sinners. They have no righteousness of
their own, but they're trusting in that righteousness that was
accomplished by the life and the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. The name of the Lord, we're told,
is a strong tower. And here, again, at the end of
this opening verse, it's the name of the God of Jacob. And
what is God's name? Well, God's name, of course,
as you know, is a declaration of Himself. His name is the revelation
of Himself. His name is that that declares
to us the character of God. And who is He? Why, He is the
Lord. That is the one that David is
speaking of here at the beginning of the psalm, the
Lord. Jehovah, the God of the covenant. And what is God's character? Well, He is the faithful. The faithful God which keepeth
covenant. I am the Lord, I change not,
therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed. This is where our
defense is. All of our defense is in the
Lord. And the Lord as He has being pleased to reveal himself,
and reveal himself in that covenant, those sure mercies of David,
that covenant that's ordered in all things. And sure, this
is our comfort. All the believer, we are told,
shall dwell on high. His place of defense shall be
the munitions of rocks. There is defense, and there's
the day of trouble, And we cannot avoid it. In the world, says
the Lord Jesus, ye shall have tribulation. You cannot avoid
it. We must, through much tribulation,
enter into the kingdom of God. Be of good cheer, says Christ.
I have overcome the world. The Lord hear thee in the day
of trouble. In the name of the God of Jacob,
defend thee. Send thee help from the sanctuary,
and strengthen the out of Zion. Well, let us come now to what
I said I wanted to really address as my theme tonight, and that
is help from the sanctuary. And we have it, of course, here
in this second verse. Help from the sanctuary. What are we to make of the sanctuary?
Well, when we come to the New Testament, remember how we read
in Hebrews 8, 2, of the sanctuary and the true tabernacle which
the Lord pitched and not men. What is being spoken of by the
Apostle there in Hebrews 8? The sanctuary, the true tabernacle. Well he is referring of course
to God manifest in the flesh. Paul says to the Corinthians,
we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened. Well,
God was manifested in the flesh. The Lord Jesus tabernacled amongst
men. That is the true tabernacle which
the Lord pitched. As we read in Hebrews 10, Christ
says to his Father, a body has thou prepared. And that worldly
sanctuary that he's spoken of in Hebrews 9, the worldly sanctuary,
that is the sanctuary that belongs to this world, that tabernacle
that stood in the Old Testament and was eventually replaced by
the temple, that was simply a type of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
so here, when we read of help from the sanctuary and strength
coming out of Zion, are we not to think in terms of the Lord
Jesus Christ as he is manifested in this world in the fullness
of the time, the antitype, the antitype of the sanctuary that
was there in Israel? Or we're told, and a man shall
be a hiding place from the wind and the covets from the tempest,
a man, even the man Christ Jesus. The Psalms speak to us time and
again of the Lord Jesus Christ. We believe that the Lord Jesus
is here in all the Scriptures. Doesn't He open up to those on
the Emmaus Road, all those things that were written in the Prophets
and the Psalms concerning Himself. Here in the Psalms we see the
veil being drawn aside, and we're permitted to look, as it were,
into the very soul of the Lord Jesus Christ. The reality of
His human nature is set before us, and Christ is in this psalm.
Verse 6, Now know I that the Lord saveth His anointed, He
will hear him from his holy heaven with the saving strength of his
right hand. David is the author of the psalm.
David is the Lord's anointed, anointed by Samuel, but who is
the one who is truly the anointed? It's the Messiah, the one of
whom it is said, The Father giveth not the Spirit by measure unto
him. He is the anointed and we see
the Lord Jesus in this psalm. This psalm sets before Christ
surely in particular in his priestly work. And this is where help
comes from. send thee help from the sanctuary,
when we can rightly contemplate the ministry of the Lord Jesus,
and I'm thinking now in particular of his priestly office. Remember
what we're told in the New Testament, we have not an high priest, which
cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but was in
all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Oh, this is our sanctuary, to
come to that one who is the great high priest of our profession. And what do we see? Well, he's
a sacrificing priest. Look at verse 3, remember all
thy offerings and accept thy burnt sacrifice, see thou. What
do all those offerings of the Old Testament, those offerings
that David might have offered in the tabernacle, offering them,
of course, by means of the Aaronic priesthood, or all those offerings
that were made in Solomon's temple. All those Levitical rites, offerings,
sacrifices point to the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the one who
has made the great sacrifice. And again, It's in the Hebrew
epistle that these things are made so abundantly clear to us. Look at the language that we
have there in Hebrews chapter 10. Just turn to those words, Hebrews
chapter 10, verse 12. This man, it says, This man, after he had offered
one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of
God, from henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his
footstool, for by one offering he hath perfected forever them
that are sanctified. O the Lord Jesus Christ is that
one who was made the sacrifice. And the sacrifice that he made,
of course, was himself. He is not only the High Priest,
he is the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world. He's the Paschal Lamb, even Christ
our Passover has been sacrificed for us. And this is our hope
as we come before God. We shelter under that precious
blood that was shed that fountain that's been opened for sin and
for uncleanness. What a help is this, when God
sends help from the sanctuary and strengthens us out of Zion,
when we're reminded of all that the Lord Jesus Christ accomplished
by His work here upon the earth, that obedience unto death, even
the death of the cross. He's a sacrificing priest, but
He's also a supplicating priest, a praying priest. And isn't that
really the emphasis that we see in the psalm? He says at the
beginning, does David, the Lord hear thee, the Lord hear thee
in the day of trouble. And then the language that we have really
time and again throughout the psalm In verse 4, grant thee according to thine
own heart and fulfil all thy counsel. The end of verse 5,
the Lord fulfil all thy petitions. The end of verse 9, let the King
hear us when we call. There's a constant emphasis really
upon the matter of prayer, calling upon God, seeking the face of
God. And the Lord Jesus Christ, of
course, having accomplished his great work as a priest upon the
earth, has now entered into that within the veil. He is risen
from the dead, he is ascended on high, and he ever lives to
make intercession for all that come to God by him. But we see
him also praying whilst here upon the earth. And he doesn't pray in vain.
Look at verse 6. He will hear him from his holy
heaven with the saving strength of his right hand. He never prayed
in vain. The Lord Jesus knew what prayers
were. As a man, as a real man, he was
much in prayer. He would spend whole nights in
prayer. And we see him praying, for example, at the grave of
his friend Lazarus, and there it speaks of how he was assured
that the Father would always hear him. They take the stone
away from the place where the dead was laid, and we're told
at verse 41 in John 11, Jesus lifted up his eyes and said,
Father, I thank Thee that Thou hast heard me, and I knew that
Thou hearest me always. But because of the people which
stand by I said it, that they may believe that thou hast sent
me. And this is the assurance that
we have here at this sixth verse in the psalm. He will hear him
from his holy heaven. Or the Lord never prayed in vain. And some of his praying whilst
he was here upon the earth was those groanings. He knew what
it was to groan. in his prayers. Amazing, is it
not? We read of him, remember Hebrews
5, 7, who in the days of his flesh when he offered up prayer
and supplication with strong crying and tears unto him that
was able to save him from death. and was heard in that he feared,
though he were a son, yet learned the obedience by the things that
he suffered." And there at the grave of Lazarus we read of it,
John 11, 38, Jesus groaning in himself, it says. Jesus groaning
in himself. All the day of trouble. The Lord
Jesus certainly knew what it was to endure that day of trouble
the Lord hear thee in the day of trouble and what a day of
trouble was Gethsemane in the experience of the man Christ
Jesus we read of him being in an agony and praying more earnestly
and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground
and an angel's dispatch from heaven to help him Oh, Joseph
Hartz captures it. Dispatched from heaven, an angel
stood, amazed to find him bathed in blood, adored by angels and
obeyed, but lower now than angels made. He doesn't take upon him
the form of the angels, he takes upon him the seed of Abraham. All he comes, he identifies.
He's touched you, sir, with the feeling of all our infirmities.
He knows what our prayers are, even our groans and our sighs. He understands these things.
But Christ, in His prayers as a supplicating priest, doesn't
only sigh and groan, but He also expresses His counsels and His
desire, because He's never anything less than God. manifest in the
flesh. And so here at verse 4, grant
thee according to thine own heart and fulfill all thy counsel. All these words must apply to
the Lord Jesus that God will grant all that he asks according to
his own heart and God will fulfill all his counsel. And we see it,
of course, when we come to consider that remarkable high priestly
prayer in John 17. And as he prayed, Father, I will
that they also whom thou gavest me shall be with me where I am,
that they may behold my glory. He speaks of that glory which
I had with thee before the world was. Father, I will Well, when
we pray we cannot use such strength of language as that. We say,
Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven. But now the
Lord speaks there again, there in verse 19 of that chapter.
He says, I pray for them. I pray not for the world. He's
praying for His disciples. And I've said before that the
particular verb that He uses there, several words, have the
idea of prayer in the New Testament, but that one, I pray for them,
it's a strong verb. And Archbishop Trench says it's
not a petition of a creature to his creator, but
it's the request of a son to his father. and he asks as one
who has an equal dignity with his father. That's the force
of the word. He stands on an equal footing
to the father. And what is it that the Lord
is praying for there in that prayer? He's praying for the
safety of his people. He's praying that they'll be
kept safe. Send thee help from the sanctuary. Strengthen thee
out of Zion. John 17, 15, I pray not that
thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest
keep them from the evil. Oh, the Lord intends us to be
in this world, even in such a diocese. Have we not come to the kingdom
for such a time as this? It's where the Lord intends us
to be. He is sovereign in all of our lives. And isn't that
prayer of Christ being answered? that we might be kept, that they'd
keep us, or keep them, he says, from the evil, or the Lord keep
us in and strengthen us. And we see then the Lord Jesus
Christ as that one set before us, the one who prays for his
people. The Lord hear thee in the day of trouble, the name
of the God of Jacob defend them. Send thee help from the sanctuary.
and strengthen thee out of Zion." Oh, Zion, isn't that the great
place of safety? Isn't it an oasis when we come
together, as it were, in this fashion, even to unite in our
praises and in our prayers? The Lord has chosen Zion. He
has desired it for His habitation. He says, this is my rest forever.
Here will I dwell, for I have desired it, or that we might
find then that little sanctuary in Him who is King in Zion, even
our Lord Jesus Christ. Well, the Lord help us as we
come tonight to seek His face in our prayers. Now, before we
pray, we're going to sing our second praise, which is the hymn
265, the tune Saxby 409. Lord, what a heaven of saving
grace shines through the beauties of thy face and lights our passions
to a flame. Lord, how we love thy charming
name. The hymn 265.