Psalm 20

Good morning.

I don't know about you guys, but time seems to be moving really quickly.

It's hard to believe we are at the end of October, already coming into November so quickly.

One of the things that's been going on around the church if you haven't had a chance to be a part of it is our Sunday morning Sunday school classes that are taking place downstairs.

That have been outstanding.

Pastor Jim kicked us off early in the fall with some few weeks on Bible study that were really great, and then Ed spent some time in the Psalms introducing us to the Psalms and talking about those, and this morning John talked about prayer.

I believe next week he's gonna talk about personal Bible study and a couple of weeks from now I'll talk about family devotions.

After that Ed's gonna come back and revisit some more Psalms.

What's interesting a little bit about that is last week, if you were here, john preached from Psalm 25.

And this morning I'll be preaching from Psalm 20.

If you need a handout or a Bible, our ushers are available to do that.

If you guys wanna come forward, put your hand up if you need one of those and we're spending a lot of the fall because Ed is preaching or working Sunday school through the Psalms.

We're just spending a lot of time in the Psalms and I think it's interesting.

We didn't really plan that.

It just kinda happened so much so that I even reached out to Ed and didn't wanna conflict because it just happened and I didn't wanna be in the same Psalm at the same time.

But God is great in that way, how he works things out.

It has a certain focus for us at certain times.

So I'd like to talk this morning about a few things from Psalm 20.

And before we do that, I'd like to read through Psalm 20.

So if you'd like to stand, if you're able to, if you could stand with me as I read through Psalm 20, it's not gonna be up on the screen and I'll read it.

And Psalm 20 says this May the Lord answer you in the day of trouble.

May the name of the God of Jacob set you securely on high.

May he send you help from the sanctuary and support you from Zion.

May he remember all your meal offerings and find your burnt offering acceptable.

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.

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.

Verse 7, 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.

Save O Lord.

May the King answer us in the day we call.

Thanks be to God.

So if you have a handout you can see the first point in today's outline is Pray to God.

And as we look at this opening verse, may the Lord answer you in the day of trouble supposes something For the Lord to answer you.

It means that you have called out to him.

It gives us an example.

As David has written, psalm 20, that may the Lord fulfill your petitions.

Also from verse 5 implies that there has been a calling out to God.

May the Lord answer you.

May the Lord fulfill your petitions.

If we have not called out, if we have not sent up petitions to our heavenly Father, there's nothing to answer.

Paul says in Philippians 4, 6, and 7, do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, with prayer and petition with thanksgiving, present your request to God, and the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Pray to God.

Jesus says in Matthew 6, but when you pray not if you pray, but when you pray go into your room and shut the door.

Pray to your Father, who is in secret, and your Father, who sees in secret, will reward you.

Pray to God, james 5, 16,.

Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another that you may be healed.

The prayer of a righteous person has great power, as it is working.

1 Thessalonians 5, 16, 17, and 18.

I think this is the shortest three verses in the Bible.

I had to look at it twice.

This is 16, 17, 18.

This is the shortest Rejoice.

Always Pray without ceasing.

Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

Pray without ceasing.

This can be hard, it can be confusing.

The times I've felt am I just talking to myself, attempting to pray without ceasing?

But if our head and if our heart is directed toward our Heavenly Father, he is hearing our prayers.

May the Lord answer you in the day of trouble.

Pray to God.

Point number two says this worship God.

And it comes from verse three, verse three of Psalm 20.

May he remember all your meal offerings and find your burnt offering acceptable.

They're forms of worship.

Verse five talks about singing to God, setting up banners in God's name Forms of worship.

Psalm 20 gives us these examples of praying to God and worshiping God, and the scripture supports these.

Jeremiah 20, 13 says sing to the Lord, give praise to the Lord.

He rescues the life of the needy from the hands of the wicked.

Worship the Lord and the new Testament.

In Romans 12, one and two, paul says therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living and holy sacrifice acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship, and do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind so that you will be able to prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect, a spiritual service of worship.

We are to worship God.

Now, that was from verse three, as I said, and I'm going to read it again because there's a point I want to make here in a certain term I want to talk about.

May he remember all your meal offerings and find your burnt offering acceptable.

It's kind of interesting to think about this word, this phrase, this offering, burnt offering, mentioned here in verse three, in light of how the new Testament talks about worship and talks about sacrifices.

I looked at a few things just regarding this, just to get some understanding of burnt offering, one of the things from the New Angers Bible dictionary.

It says this regarding the burnt offering the name of this was given because it was wholly consumed into rise and smoke toward heaven.

Meaning, the burnt offering symbolized the entire surrender to God of the individual or of the congregation.

God's acceptance thereof had a view to the renewal and sanctification of the entire man in the consecration to a course of life pleasing to God.

The law of sacrifice doesn't teach that the burnt offering had any reference to atonement or forgiveness For the provision for that was done in other sacrifices and in our case, the Lord Jesus Christ.

There was an assumption of already being admitted into a covenant of grace with the Lord.

May he remember your meal offerings and find your burnt offerings acceptable.

And Paul calls us for a holy sacrifice.

The Zondervan Bible dictionary tells us a handful of things and I want to point four of them out One.

This is the only sacrifice that is completely consumed at the altar.

Most of them, it's usually only the fat portion, but this was 100% of it, often referred to in other places in the scriptures as the whole burnt offering, and that's why because it's all of it it was a regular offering for those that were in right relationship with God.

It was done every day, morning and night.

It was also the only sacrifice that a non-Israelite was permitted to offer.

I did see somewhere where they mentioned the thank offering.

Also non-Israelites could do, but if not the only one, it's only one of a couple, which has tremendous meaning as we think about that, as where we are today, this offering, so for Jew or for Gentile, every day, day and night, all of you, 100%, as we're called to worship and sacrifice.

Now I can say I've gotten really good and if you'll just allow me to just brag about myself for a minute, I've gotten really good at giving 60% and if I have an elder meeting that week, maybe 70%, but 100% the whole.

What I'd like to say is the world has gotten so bad and slid so far outside these doors that 60% looks pretty great, but the truth is the church has slid so far that it's what makes 60% look pretty good.

God calls us to worship Him with 100%, to sacrifice with 100%, to give our whole of ourselves, and as I spent time thinking about this in my 60% or 70%, I even wonder.

Sometimes 100% is so far off, I'm not sure I can even see what that looks like.

Can you, as you visualize things on the horizon that are too far out of our, our sight, and as I get older, things that are closer, our father, out of my sight?

You know what I mean, but I'm really not sure I can see that 70% looks painful, 80% I'm not sure I can do.

But the Lord calls us to that hundred percent and I would challenge you today, as we think of this, of worshiping God, let's not do what just looks okay, let's worship God with a hundred percent.

Hebrews 12, 28 and 29 says this.

Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful and so worship God Acceptably, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire, a 100% consuming fire, and from the book of Revelation 147, it says this.

He said in a loud voice fear God and give him glory, because the hour of his judgment has come.

Worship him who made the heavens, the earth, the sea and the springs of water.

So point number one, we are to pray to God.

Number two, we are to worship God.

And number three, we are to trust God.

Verse 7 From Psalm 20 says some boast in chariots and some in horses, but we will boast in the name of the Lord, our God.

Chariots and horses in these times were things of strength, things of power.

Today those things may be money or possessions and the world will tell you every day to trust in whatever those things are of the day.

But the Bible tells us and history confirms it, we should trust in God.

Proverbs 3, 5 and 6 trust in the Lord with all your heart and lead, not on your own understanding, in all your ways.

Acknowledge him and he will make your paths straight.

First Corinthians 5 7, for we walk by faith, not by sight.

Isaiah says trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord, the Lord himself, is the rock eternal.

Pray to God, worship God, trust God.

And again from the Psalms, psalm 62, 7 and 8 my salvation and my honor depend on God.

He is my rock, my refuge.

Trust in him at all times.

You people pour out your hearts to him, for God is our refuge.

Jeremiah said in 17, verses 7 and 8 but blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him.

They will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream.

It does not fear when the heat comes, its leaves are always green, it has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit.

Blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord.

I want to talk for a moment about the word that David chose to use for for God in verse 7.

I'll read verse 7 again and it says some boast in chariots and some in horses, but we will boast in the name of the Lord, our God.

This is the name of God used in Genesis.

In Genesis 1 it's used 31 times, 219 times in the entire book.

In Genesis it is the name of God, elohim.

David goes back to the beginning.

It is the name where we hear this in the beginning, god and the spirit of God moved along the face of the earth and God said let there be light.

This is who God is calling.

This is who David is calling us to trust in, not false gods of our time, david would seem to want no confusion as to who we are to trust in the God of Genesis, the God of the beginning.

Earlier, I read Revelation 14-7 and I want to read it again.

This was in the light of worship.

Listen to how it ends if you didn't catch it the first time.

He said to them it's Revelation 14-7,.

He said to them in a loud voice fear God and give him glory, because the hour of his judgment has come.

Worship him who made the heavens, the earth, the sea, the springs of water.

We are to worship the God of creation.

So Psalm 20 leads us to, and the scriptures confirm with it.

We are to pray to God, we are to worship God, we are to trust God.

I want to read one other verse for you Hebrews 11-6.

And it says this and without faith it is impossible to please him.

For he who comes to God must believe that he is and he is the rewarder of those who seek him.

Why would we seek Him in prayer or in worship, or trust Him, if we didn't have faith in who he is, if we didn't believe on who he is and what he's done for us?

Earlier, I mentioned when talking about sacrifices, being in right relationship with God.

What does that mean?

And I'd love to talk to anyone about that afterwards if you have a question.

But the short answer of being right relationship with God is trusting and believing in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins and for salvation.

Spending eternity in heaven with Jesus and with that kind of faith, that's when we can pray to God, that's when we can worship God and that is when, ultimately, we will trust God with one hundred percent of ourselves.

Let's pray, father, god in heaven.

We thank you, lord, for your word, for its unchanging truth.

We thank you, lord, for the gift of Jesus, for the grace and mercy of His death for each one of us.

Father, help us today to have faith in you, to believe in the truth that you've given us in the gospel of Jesus Christ, father, and through that, father, help us to follow in your ways as disciples and followers of Christ, to pray to you, to worship you, to trust you, lord, with our lives and all things.

We thank you in the precious name of Jesus, amen.