Psalm 20. The Lord hear thee in the day
of trouble. the name of the God of Jacob,
defend thee. Send thee help from the sanctuary
and strengthen thee out of Zion. Remember all thy offerings and
accept thy burnt sacrifice. Grant thee according to thine
own heart and fulfill all thy counsel. We will rejoice in thy
salvation. And in the name of our God, we
will set up our banners. The Lord fulfill all thy petitions. Now know I that the Lord saith
his anointed. He will hear him from his holy
heaven and with the saving strength of his right hand. Some trust
in chariots and some in horses, but we will remember the name
of the Lord our God. They are brought down and fallen
but we are risen and stand upright. Save Lord, let the King hear
us when we call. Let's pray. Lord, we come into your presence in the name of thy son, the King. And Lord, we pray, let the king
hear us when we call. Lord, we would see thy son. We would hear your gospel. We
would, by your grace, be enabled to worship you. That's our desire.
And we pray that we might be enabled to do that. Oh, Lord,
that your gospel would be preached and that you would give us hearing
ears. Speak for Christ's sake. Forgive
us of our sins for Christ's sake. Cleanse us. Wash us. Lord, we are a needy people,
we would ask for you to meet our need, which we know you will.
We pray for our friends that are going through difficult times.
We would remember Lindsey. We pray for your grace upon Tim
and Jessica at this time. We pray for Jim Murphy. We pray for your blessing upon
the surgery tomorrow. All those that are going through
physical afflictions, emotional afflictions, we thank you that
you're the great physician, and that you're too wise to err,
too kind to be cruel, and too powerful for your will not to
be done. And we give thanks. We pray for
your people everywhere, wherever your gospel's preached. Meet
with us for Christ's sake. In his name we pray, amen. Notice to the chief musician,
there are 55 psalms that are addressed to the chief musician. And that means that this is a
psalm that is meant to be sung publicly. It's a part of public
worship. Now, I love long psalms. I love Psalm 119 as far as that
goes. But I love to try to preach from
short psalms because you can read them twice. You can't read
Psalm 119 twice in a half an hour. But you can read Psalm
20 twice. And I want to look at it first
as spoken of Christ himself, either the words of Christ or
spoken of Christ, then I want to read it again as spoken of
David and all of his people. So we're going to read it in
that light. Now, first, let's consider this
as spoken of Christ, the Lord hear thee in the day of trouble. Now, what is the day of trouble
for the Lord Jesus Christ? That's talking about the cross.
That's the day of trouble. Now, the Lord did hear him. If you think of his first and
last words from the cross, father, forgive them. You know what? The father heard him and he forgave
everybody he prayed for. And I think of his last word
from the cross, into thy hands I commend my spirit. And you
think of the father willingly taking him in his death. But there was also a time when
the Lord was not heard from the cross when he cried out, my God,
my God, why have you forsaken me? And the reason The first
and last words were heard is because those words were not
heard. He was forsaken. He had no response
from his father, nothing but his frown. And because of that,
because of his great substitutionary death, he could pray, Father,
forgive them. And they were forgiven. The Lord hear thee in the day
of trouble, the name of the God of Jacob. What name does God
use to describe himself more than any other name in the scripture?
The God of Jacob. I love Jacob, and he's the God
of Jacob. And notice it says, defend thee,
my marginal readings has set thee on high. And how high was
the Lord set? at the right hand of the father
after his victory in the day of trouble. Verse two, send thee
help from the sanctuary and strengthen thee out of Zion. Now, when I
think of the, obviously I don't understand this, but the Lord
was so, his human, perfect human nature was so weakened at the
thought of drinking that cup, the cup of the sins of his people,
that angels were sent to strengthen him. If somebody says, explain
that, I wouldn't dare. I have no idea, but who knows
what all that means when he sweat great drops of blood. But the Lord strengthened him
from the sanctuary, the holy place out of Zion, the mountain
in Jerusalem, Look what he says in verse three, remember all
thy offerings and accept thy burnt sacrifice. Now this is
the acceptance of his life. God, the father accepted his
life and he accepted his death. That's the burnt sacrifices. He accepted his life. He accepted
his death. and he accepted everybody he
lived and died for. Complete acceptance by God the
Father because of his life and because of his death. Verse four,
grant thee according to thine own heart and fulfill all thy
counsel. Grant your every desire. What
was his desire? Well, I think we could say it
twofold. Number one, to glorify his father. You remember when
he said in John chapter 17, verse one, Father, the hour has come,
glorify thy son, that thy son also might glorify thee. That was his desire in what he
was doing. But not only that, he came to
save his people from their sins. That was his desire. Thou shalt
call his name Jesus. He shall save his people from
their sins. And that's exactly what took
place. Verse five, we. Now, don't you
love it when the Lord prays as a we? We. He's not just talking about himself,
but he's talking about every one of his people. He can never
be separated from his people. When he says we, he was talking
about poor old Todd Nyberg. and every other believer, we.
He speaks as a we. Put your name in there. If you're
a believer, he speaks as a we. We will rejoice in thy salvation,
and in the name of our God will we set up our banners. The Lord
fulfill all thy petitions. Now, The word set up our banners is
a verb that means make conspicuous, make to be seen. Now we will rejoice in thy salvation
in the name of our God, we'll set up our banners. Now, what
is conspicuous in the death of the Lord Jesus Christ? The name
of God, the attributes of God. Every attribute of God is made
conspicuous in the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. How conspicuous
is His justice? He's going to punish sin. How
conspicuous is His power? He puts away sin. Every attribute
of God is made glorious in the death of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And that's what he says, we'll set up our, this is what's gonna
be made conspicuous, the name of the Lord, our God. The Lord
fulfill all thy petitions and indeed the Lord did everything
Christ asked for, the Father gave him. Now verse six, now
know I that the Lord saveth his anointed. Now his anointed is
Christ. And you know this thing of assurance,
when we can say, I know, I know this, I know the Lord saveth
his anointed. I know the Lord saved Christ
and everybody in him. And that is assurance. I know
that the Lord saveth his anointed. He will hear from his holy heaven
with the saving strength of his right hand. He will answer with
the saving strength of his right hand I love to think of the saving
strength of his right hand. Wherefore he is able to save
them to the utter most who come to God by him. Verse seven, some trust in chariots
and some in horses, armies, political power. This is said to be the
watchword of the Reformation, this verse. Some trust in chariots,
some in horses, but we will remember the name of the Lord our God. This is Christ's complete faith,
and this is our hope. The name of the Lord our God. They are brought down, those
who trust in chariots, and they're fallen. But we are risen, and
this is speaking of the resurrection of Christ. We are risen and we
stand upright. perfectly accepted in the beloved. And then the Lord says, save
Lord. Let the King hear us when we
call the Lord praise this. And so do we. And in him hearing,
we are saved. Isn't that beautiful as the words
of the Lord, Jesus Christ. Now let's consider these as the
words of David and the words of me and you. The Lord hear thee in the day
of trouble. Man that is born of woman is
born to trouble as the sparks fly upward. You see a fire and
the sparks flying upward. Man that's born of woman, he's
born to trouble. The Lord said in the world, you
shall have tribulation. That's God's promise to you.
You are going to have trouble. I'm going to have trouble. One
of the most difficult things about trouble is you cannot separate
our trouble from our sin. Now, if somebody's going through
trouble and you start thinking, I wonder what they did that brought
this on. You're wrong in thinking that way. Don't think like that. But in
your own troubles, you can't separate your sin from your own
troubles. You know, if you didn't have
any sin to deal with, it wouldn't be trouble, would it? But with
your sin. Yet the Lord says, the Lord hear
thee in the day of trouble, the name of the God of Jacob. Now, one of the things I like
to think about Jacob, one of the things that's very evident
from this man's life is he was a very sinful man. Any question about that? He was
a very sinful man. He was always trying to cover
things up. He seemed deceptive. There are just so many bad things
that you could say about Jacob. And yet God calls himself the
God of Jacob. He's the God of sinners. That's
who he is. The God of Jacob, the name of
the God of Jacob, defend thee, set thee on high. And in Christ,
we've been set on high. Verse two, send thee help from
the holy place and strengthen thee out of Zion. Now that's
what I need. Lord, help me. You ever pray
that prayer? Lord, help me. Lord, strengthen me. I'm so weak. I need you to strengthen me out
of your holy place. And then he says, remember all
thy offerings and accept thy burnt sacrifice. Now, what's
our offering? Christ, we wouldn't dare offer
anything else. Our only hope is found in his
death. And here's the way I understand
this verse. He hath made us, what? Accepted. Accepted, completely
accepted in the beloved because of the Lord's offering and his
burn offering. His life and his death has made
every believer accepted in the beloved. Verse four, grant thee
according to thine own heart, and fulfill all thy counsel. Now, what is in the heart of
the believer more than anything else? It's seen in the request of the
Greeks to the apostles in John chapter 12 serves, we would see
Jesus. That is our desire. to see him, and this goes along
with it, to be found in him. Not having our own righteousness,
which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of
Christ, to know him, to know the power of his resurrection,
to know the fellowship of his sufferings, to know what he did
he did for me, to know to become like him in his obedience unto
death, if by any means we might attain to the resurrection of
the dead. Now, what does the psalmist say? The Lord's gonna grant you all
your desires and fulfill all your counsel. We, verse five,
we. Every one of the elect, all for
whom Christ died, every believer, everyone in Christ, we will rejoice
in thy salvation. Now, thy salvation. It begins with God's ancient
choice of his people before time began. If I could say it begins
anywhere because it doesn't, it's eternal. I love to think
of Christ being my surety, taking full responsibility for my salvation
before time began. I think of his incarnation where
in the flesh God actually became bone of our bones and flesh of
our flesh. And in the flesh, he kept the
law for me. In the flesh, he died for me,
put away my sin. In the flesh, he was raised from
the dead and went back to the Father as my representative. And all that he accomplished,
justification, redemption, regeneration, Preservation, me being preserved,
all he accomplished in his salvation. I love the way David says we
will rejoice in thy salvation. And in the name of our God will
we set up our banners. Now remember that set up our
banners means makes conspicuous. What's conspicuous in your salvation?
The grace of God, the name of God, the attributes of God in
saving you, You know, what's conspicuous in my salvation?
God's eternal purpose to will my salvation. What's conspicuous
in my salvation? The life and death of the Lord
Jesus Christ in accomplishing it. What's conspicuous in my
salvation? The work of God the Holy Spirit giving me life. This is all the work of God.
And every believer can say amen to this. It's the name of God
that's conspicuous in my salvation. Not me, but his name, his attributes
that are glorified in my salvation. The Lord fulfill all thy petitions. Lord save me. Now here's assurance. Now know
I that the Lord saveth his anointed. Now remember this about assurance. If you're looking for assurance
that you're saved, you're probably not going to have it. That's
not where assurance comes from. Assurance is not believing even
that you are saved. Assurance is believing that God
saves his anointed and your salvation is in the anointed. Now there's
assurance. There's assurance. that God saveth
his anointed and everybody in him. And this is my only hope
of salvation, that God saves his anointed. And if you think
of God saving Christ and accepting Christ, that's where assurance
comes from. If you start thinking, well,
I need to start looking for evidences. Am I changing? Am I better? You're
not gonna get any assurance from that. But oh, the assurance that
comes from this, I know I know the Lord saveth his anointed. He will hear from his holy heaven
with the saving strength of his right hand because of his anointed. He will hear. Verse seven. Now, like I said, this has been
called the Watchword of the Reformation. As a matter of fact, this was
a verse that they would put up in a lot of these meetings that
were taking place back in the 1500s or 1600s, whenever it took
place. But I love this verse. Some trust in chariots and some
in horses. Now those were the main weapons
of battle, a chariot and a horse. These, the more chariots you
had, the more political power you had, the more military power
you had, and oh, we've got a bunch of chariots and horses, we're
in good shape, we're safe. But, you know, this is one of
the definitions of grace. But, but, we will remember the
name of the Lord our God. Now don't miss this word remember
because faith as much as anything else is remembering what God
has said. What do I mean by that? I feel so incomplete And I'm
made to remember what God said, you're complete in Him. That's
what faith does. Remember it said of the Holy
Spirit, He'll bring ALL things to your remembrance whatsoever
I've said to you. The name of the Lord our God,
what's the name of the Lord our God? Sid Kenneth, Jeremiah 20,
36, the Lord, our righteousness. I feel as if I have no righteousness
and I'm made to remember the Lord is my righteousness. We're made to remember the name
of the Lord, our God. That's every attribute of God.
Now, verse eight, They are brought down, those who trust in chariots
and horses, they're brought down and fallen. There's no salvation
for that person who doesn't trust the name of the Lord, his God.
Those that put their trust in chariots and horses, in human
instrumentality, in human anything, they are brought down and fallen. But we are risen. And we stand
upright, risen in Christ, stand upright, accepted in the beloved. They are perished, but we are
risen and stand upright. And here is our prayer. That's not a one-time prayer,
but it's an all the time prayer. Save Lord. Save, Lord. I don't know. Lord,
save me. Save me. Save me from myself. Save me from my sins. Save me
from my circumstances. Save me from the holes I dig
myself in. Save me. Save me. That's a repeated. That's not
a one-time prayer. Well, I'm already saved. Save
me. Save me. Can you pray that prayer right
now? Save me. Save, Lord. Let the King hear
us when we call. May the King hear us when we
call. Amen.