This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

(upbeat music) - I want to welcome you to week four, day five of our look through
the book of Psalms, Psalm 20 today. This will be our last Psalm that we look at
together this week. And I'd like to begin by reading the entire Psalm, Psalm 20,
verses one to nine.

May the Lord answer you when you're in distress. May the name of the God of
Jacob protect you. May he send you help from the sanctuary and grant you support
from Zion.

May he remember all your sacrifices and accept your burnt offerings. May he give
you the desire of your heart and make all your plans succeed. We will shout for
joy when you are victorious.

We'll lift up our banners in the name of our God. May the Lord grant all your
requests. Now I know that the Lord saves his anointed.

He answers him from his holy heaven with the saving power of his right hand.
Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord
our God. They are brought to their knees and fall, but we rise up and stand
firm.

Oh Lord, save the king. Answer us when we call. Earlier this week, we looked at
Psalm 18 together.

It's a Psalm for the day of great victory. Today, we're looking at a Psalm for
the day of great trouble. That phrase in distress, when I'm in distress, it
literally is in the day of trouble.

What do you do in the day of trouble? I like to call this a prayer before the
battle Psalm. As you're facing a day where you know there's going to be a big
battle, there's a lot of trouble, and maybe you're facing that kind of day today
or you just came out of that kind of day, what do you do to prepare for the
battle?

This Psalm tells us to do two specific things. These are the two things you do
to prepare for the battle. First, you pray.

That may seem obvious, but sometimes we forget to do the obvious. First, you
pray. And you pray in some of the specific ways that this Psalm encourages us.

You pray the prayer that God will answer you when you're in distress. God, this
is a day of trouble. I need your answer on this day.

You pray the prayer that God's name would protect you no matter what in that
day. May the name of the God of Jacob protect you. That God's name, God's name
is a place of power, place of great strength.

So you rest in God's name. God's name expresses the character of God, the
characteristics of God. So you rest in God and who he is on that day of battle.

And you pray that God would send you help from God's people. He prays here from
the sanctuary, from Zion. God's people today are the church.

So you pray God surround me, not just with myself and my battle, but with others
who I can help them in their battle and they can help me in my battle. 'Cause
we're in this together. You don't fight the battle alone.

You pray that. You also pray in this prayer that God would accept the things
that you're giving to him, those sacrifices. Out of your sacrifices of your
heart, your mind, your spirit, God is working through that.

Now I am so grateful that we no longer need to give burnt offerings as a
sacrifice because of Jesus' offering for us. He ended that kind of sacrifice
that they had in the Old Testament once for all. And you can see that kind of
sacrifice, not just in the Old Testament, but in those who worship false gods,
all through the years.

They would make sacrifices hoping somehow that whether they were mimicking in a
false way what the Israelites were doing or they were being led in a demonic way
into some copycat kind of religion, they would see themselves sacrificing in
evil ways. Alexander the Great, you might remember if you've read his story, he
would make many, many sacrifices before every battle. It wasn't 'cause he
trusted in the true God.

It was a superstition towards false gods. Well, our sacrifices, they are towards
the real God. And because they are, they're not a superstition.

They are worship. They're not a way to try to control God. Sometimes that's what
our sacrifices can be.

God, I'm giving you this money so you will do this for me. No, that's not a
sacrifice. That's a bargain.

It's not a way to control God. It's a way to trust God. I'm spending a moment on
this because when you're facing a great battle in your life, the way that you
have given yourself to God, sacrificed yourself before the Lord is the way you
prepare yourself for that battle.

So you say to God, God, I'm a living and holy sacrifice. If I'm going to win this
battle, you're going to win the battle. And so I'm giving myself to you.

And as David is praying for victory on this day of battle, he prays often in
this prayer that God would give the desire of your heart, that your plans would
succeed so that we can shout for joy when you are victorious. May the Lord grant
all of your requests. It may not happen when you want or how you want, but God
is working to grant those requests that he has planted into your hearts.

He's working to allow the plans that he has for your life to succeed, to allow
the desire that he's put into your heart to be given, to allow the requests that
he's put into your mind to be granted. God is working. So you rest in that.

You pray for that. What do you do on the day of battle? You do two things.

First, you pray. But then you do a second thing. And you could say that this is
a prayer, but it's a specific thing in your prayer that's extremely important.

Number two, you express your confidence in God. You say, God, I'm confident in
you. There's no doubt that this victory in you is going to be won, whether it's
today or tomorrow or in eternity, it's going to be won.

Look at verse six. Now I know. Now I know that the Lord saves his anointed.

He answers from his holy heaven with the saving power of his right hand. So you
recognize, now I know that there's a conviction that's needed in our hearts if
we're going to, in faith, expect that God's going to work the victory. So you don't go
to God with doubt, or you do go to God with your doubts, and you say, God, would
you take these doubts and would you translate them, would you transform them
into a conviction that even though I might be doubtful about myself or my
circumstances, I'm not doubtful about you.

I'm not doubtful about the fact that you are the one who can win the victory.
And so I express my confidence in you. And you hang on to verse seven.

I love verse seven. Some trust in chariots, some trust in horses, but we trust
in the name of the Lord our God. Now it wasn't that God didn't sometimes use
horses and chariots in the battles that the Israelites won.

The issue was, what did they trust in? And any time they trusted, tried to trust
in the horses and chariots, they'd lose the battle. It's when they trusted in
the Lord our God that he used whatever they gave to him to win the battle.

Now we don't have horses and chariots today. We have different issues. So think
about it this way with me.

Some trust in bank accounts, some trust in stocks, but we trust in the name of
the Lord our God. Some trust in human strength, some trust in human energy, but
we trust in the name of the Lord our God. Some trust in spreadsheets and some
trust in planning charts, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God.

Some trust in their company name, some trust in their own name, but we trust in
the name of the Lord our God. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, the name of God. We
trust in His power.

We trust in His presence. We trust in His strength. And then David ends this
psalm by praying, "Answer us when we call.

" Literally, that phrase is, "Answer us on the day that we call. " So this psalm
begins by talking about the day of our trouble, and it ends by talking about the
day that we call. And the question is, in my life, in all of our lives, the
question is, will the day of your trouble be the day that you call?

Or will you wait, trying to figure it out yourself first? Or will you wait,
doubtful that God wants to love you and be with you through even this that
you're facing? Why wait one second to call?

He is waiting to answer your prayer. He is waiting to reward your confidence. So
let's talk to Him.

God, today, on the day of our distress, today we call on you. We call on your
strength. We call on your power.

We call on your love. We call on your grace. We call on your name, on who you
are.

And we put our prayer before you. God, grant the request of our hearts that
you'd work even in the midst of this battle to bring about your victory. We'd
like to see it today.

But whenever it comes, God, we will give you praise for that victory. And God,
in faith right now, we express our confidence in you. You will win the victory.

You will win it because you are the God of the universe. You're the God of all
power. And God, we know that in eternity, every victory will be won.

And so we look forward to that day. But we also know that on this earth, many
victories are won, even before we get to heaven. And so we pray for that today.

May your victory come into our lives. May we see the victory in eternity and let
that color the way we think about everything today. We ask this in Jesus's
powerful name.

Amen.