Psalm 20 - The God Who Hears You

Podcast Transcript (Auto-Transcribed by Apple Podcasts)

Well, we've come to the end of another week together, and we are in Psalm 20 today, and this will release on Good Friday.

And so, we've got a special service plan tonight, kind of a time of introspection, of looking at our relationship with God, of reminding ourselves again of what Jesus did on our behalf, of the price that He paid for our sin, of the separation, of the

agony that He went through for all of mankind. And looking at that, and then looking at our own lives, and saying, Lord, am I following You?

Am I viewing what You did with kind of a passiveness that says, I don't really care, or do I realize that the very God of heaven died for me, that He was buried, and that three days later, He rose again?

I'd like to encourage you today, even as we start off, where in Psalm 20, it doesn't necessarily have anything about Jesus' resurrection in there, at least not in direct writing, I want to encourage you, let's consistently remember that, that the

fact is that Jesus paid a tremendous price for our sin, and He rose again, and now He has all authority over our lives as a result. Are we submitting to Him? Are we obeying Him? Are we seeking His face?

If you're here on the podcast, there's some element in which you are wanting to pursue God and hear from Him. And so thank you for joining me today. I was thinking even before hitting record today, man, I need some of this time in God's Word.

It's been a week, so I want to dive right into that with you today. For the choir director, a Psalm of David, and it says this, May Yahweh answer you in a day of trouble. May the name of Jacob's God protect you.

May he send you help from the sanctuary and sustain you from Zion. May he remember all your offerings and accept your burnt offering, Selah. So here's this kind of prayer.

Some places, I was looking earlier, the kind of original language grammar. You could also phrase this. The Lord will answer you in a day of trouble.

The name of Jacob's God will protect you, depending on there's just some grammar things going on. And whether here it's a prayer for someone else, may God answer you. May he protect you.

May he help you. May he remember you. Or if it's that promise that God will, in either case, the cry here is that our true assistance only comes from the Lord.

And as we recognize who he is, the fact is that he has chosen to minister to us, to help us, to interact with us, to hear prayers, to receive spiritual offerings now.

And so we can go to him in faith that we know that God is there for us, that we're not just saying words to the ceiling, but that we are genuinely praying to the God of heaven, that he wants to hear us in a day of trouble.

Hear the name of Jacob's God. This is the patriarch Jacob, who was later named Israel. This is, hey, Israel's God and his name.

It's his authority. It's his power. When we sing about the name of Jesus, we're singing about the authority that he has, that he is King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

And so that's what David here writes. May the name of Jacob's God protect you. May he send you hope from the sanctuary, sustain you from Zion.

From where God lives, may he bring you assistance in your life. May he remember all your offerings and accept your burnt offering. Here he's saying, may God recall that you have pursued him and have followed him.

Sometimes we can go, God, I've served you for many years. Do you remember me? Like I don't maybe feel all the big feelings that I once felt, but I'm still pursuing you.

Are you still with me? And here God remembers us. He remembers what we have done for him.

Verse number four, may he give you what your heart desires and fulfill your whole purpose. Let us shout for joy at your victory and lift the banner in the name of our God. May Yahweh fulfill all your requests.

Here in verse four and five, what an incredible thought. As we think about God assisting us, I think of David and he had so many enemies.

He had battles, literal battles that he was facing versus his own countrymen, versus nearby nations, versus his sinful flesh. Like he had tons of battles that were going on.

And yet here not only does God help us out of our troubles, but in verse four, may He give you what your heart desires. The goal here is not just everything that you think may God give it to you.

We've talked before about, you know, if you're a parent, you can't just feed your kid candy for every meal. That would be bad for them.

But here in what we truly need in our souls, that maybe connection with other people, maybe victory over sin, maybe a roof over our head, maybe some security in our life, this is a great prayer to pray. May God give you what your heart truly desires.

He doesn't say may He give you everything that your mind wants. He says what your heart desires. What does your heart desire?

Is it in line with God's Word? We know that God cares about our provisions. We know that God cares about the fact that we are able to provide for our family or for our loved ones.

We know that God wants us to be able to have enough in order to be generous or to bless other people. Are you praying God help shape my heart so that I want what you want? Because that's what we should really want out of life.

God, help me to have everything that I need in order to accomplish your will. Not so that I can be happy and self-sufficient and never need to interact with anyone ever again.

But may we have a heart that says, God, please equip me so that I can do your will with my life. It says, let's shout for joy at your victory. Lift the banner in the name of our God.

May the Lord fulfill all your requests. When God answers prayers, we ought to have a rejoicing, a thankfulness as a result of what He's done. It says, now I know that Yahweh gives victory to His anointed.

We've talked about this word before. It's Mashiach. It's Messiah would be how it's sometimes phrased.

Now I know that the Lord gives victory to His anointed, His Messiah. He will answer Him from His holy heaven with mighty victories from His right hand. God is powerful, that He is working, that He is from the heavens.

He's not someone lowly on earth, no. The reigning King, when He moves, when He acts, it is an incredible thing that the God of creation is coming down and He is working in your life. He is saving that person.

He is giving healing in this scenario. He is working out a relationship and shaping hearts together. It's an incredible thing when God works.

Verse 7, some take pride in chariots and others in horses, but we take pride in the name of the Lord our God. Man, this is a very, very important verse to think about. Even in America, we can be very proud of the military that we have.

We can be very proud of the government that we have. We can be proud of our police forces and many physical things. And some people, here the verse says, do take pride in their military might or in their police might.

It says, but we take pride in the name of the Lord our God. Are you as proud of God? Do you talk as much about God as you do about your country or about your state or about maybe your favorite part of what America is?

Do you talk about God as much as you talk about other things? Are you more civically proud than biblically proud? And this is something that was very commonplace in these days here.

What David would be speaking about and interacting with is other nations had their own gods, and they viewed their military forces as directly connected to their gods.

So you'd have maybe like Mars, a god of war, or Ares, I think would be the Greek equivalent for that.

That you have these gods that they work through the chariots, they work through the horses to be able to establish the reign of this country, of Greece, of Rome. But for David, as he's looking at his country, he says, God, I know it's not about me.

David's the one that saw the slain of thousands, and David's his tens of thousands. David knew what it was to be a successful king, to maybe have some of these military resources. He says, but I'm not impressed by what I can do.

I'm not impressed by what my military can do. He says, I'm impressed with what my God can do. Think of even his fight with Goliath.

That it wasn't about the armor that he had or was attempted to have given from Saul. It wasn't that he had a sword. It wasn't that he had a bow and arrow.

It was just a sling and a stone. Obviously, a sling, especially in those days, was a very effective weapon. It was something that really could do some damage.

But especially when looking at the giant, when looking at all of the forces, when looking at the huge weapons that Goliath had, the sling looked really puny. But he says, God can accomplish this thing. God is the one that's going to give the victory.

And that's what he told Goliath. And so I think even as David looks at military might and how he had personally been a mighty military person, he goes, but that's nothing compared to who God is. And God is the one that gives true victory.

God's the one that hears your personal prayers. God's the one that delivers you when you are in trouble. Verse number eight.

They collapse and fall, but we rise and stand firm. Lord, give victory to the king. May he answer us on the day that we call.

Here he says, the nations of this world, they collapse and fall, and we realize that every nation that was in existence at that point in time is now well defunct and is gone, but the Lord is still here. He's still working.

He's still performing miracles, and he will hear us on the day that we call. I think even as today is on the day of this release, is Good Friday, that Jesus, as he cried out to God, he cried out a couple of things.

He quoted from Psalm 22, which we'll read on Tuesday of next week, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why have you abandoned me? Why are you so far from me?

And they're calling to mind for the Jews that were present. This is who I am, this Messianic Psalm that talks about the Messiah. This is me.

While at the same time, he was apart from God in that moment, that he was undergoing pain and just an awful separation of presence, that the one who had never known sin was now made sin for us. So he cried out to God.

But as the end of Psalm 22 says, you answered me, you heard me, you have not abandoned me. And when Christ cried out to God, God responded back.

And we know that by the end of Jesus' time on the cross where he says, Father, into your hands I entrust my spirit.

And what an incredible thing that even for our Lord and Savior, as he died on the cross for our sin, that God heard him and God answered him. And to you today, I don't know what difficulty that you're going through.

I know some families in our church right now are going through immense difficulties and health struggles, relational struggles, all sorts of things. Can I encourage you today, call out to the Lord. He will answer you.

He's the one that wants to rescue you. He's the one that wants to give you the desires of your heart. He's the one that will save you, that is more reliable, more secure than horses or chariots back in the day or maybe today tanks and F-22s.

God is more secure for you. Today, will you call out to him? Will you pray to him?

Will you realize, God, I know that you love me, that you oversee my life, and so I want to worship you because you are worthy of it all. Thanks for tuning in today. Hope that you have a great Easter weekend if that's when you're listening to this.

And on Monday, we'll start back up with Psalm 21. Thanks for tuning in today.

I will say next week is another one of those ones that just has some absolutely incredible Psalms with Psalm 22, Psalm 23, one of the most well known of all the Psalms, any portion of scripture in the Bible is one of the most well known, and then

Psalm 24, which is an excellent Messianic Psalm. So thanks for tuning in today. I hope that would be an encouragement to you. See you on Monday.

Bye.