Psalm 20
May Yahweh answer you in the day of distress!
May the name of the God of Jacob set you securely on high!
May He send you help from the sanctuary
And uphold you from Zion!
May He remember all your meal offerings
And find your burnt offering acceptable! Selah.
May He grant you your heart’s desire
And fulfill all your counsel!
We will sing for joy over your salvation,
And in the name of our God we will set up our banners.
May Yahweh fulfill all your petitions.
Now I know that Yahweh saves His anointed;
He will answer him from His holy heaven
With the saving might of His right hand.
Some boast in chariots and some in horses,
But we will boast in the name of Yahweh, our God.
They have bowed down and fallen,
But we have risen and stood upright.
Save, O Yahweh;
May the King answer us in the day we call.
Introduction
When I pray with my children in the evenings, we begin with the Lord’s Prayer (Matthew 6:5-15) and then move onto what we call the “thank you, sorry, please.” It is a very simple formula that begins by thanking God for the blessings He has given that day. But it is not a generic “thank you for your blessings.” Instead, I instruct them to thank God for something specific He has blessed them with in that day. After this, we have the “sorry” where they think back on the day and ask God for forgiveness. Again, this is specific. Sometimes we sit there for some time until they remember (or are reminded) of some way they had sinned against others and against God.
Finally, though, we reach the fun part: the “please.” But this please is not a “please give me a good night sleep” or “please help me in school tomorrow.” This is specifically a please for someone else. In the final part of their evening prayers, they have to turn their minds and their hearts to someone other than themselves and pray for that person.
How beautiful that this psalm opens the same way: “May Yahweh answer you in the day of distress!” Reading this is particularly impactful because when I look down at the page, I see the word of God praying for me. I see Him praying that God would answer me, that He would secure me, accept my offering, and save me.
Almighty God, the three in one
Many people believe the doctrine of the Trinity appears only in the New Testament. Verses like Matthew 28:19 with the great commission present this in a very tidy manner when Jesus commands us to baptize new disciples “in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.” This truth about the nature of God can be demonstrated from texts throughout the New Testament, but it is also a way He reveals Himself in the Old Testament scriptures.
This is just such a passage.
To see that, though, it is helpful to turn the pages back to a pivotal moment in Israelite history at the exodus. In Exodus 23, the Israelites had escaped the Egyptians, crossed the red sea, and received the ten commandments from God at Mount Sinai. They were preparing to journey through the wilderness to the promised land when God speaks these words, “Behold, I am going to send an angel before you to keep you along the way and to bring you into the place which I have prepared. Keep watch of yourself before him and listen to his voice; do not be rebellious toward him, for he will not pardon your transgression, since My name is in him.” (Exodus 23:20-21) The Israelites, therefore, were to obey this angel who had the authority to pardon transgression because this angel had the “name in him.”
Then in the New Testament, Jude confirms the identity of this angel when he writes, “Now I want to remind you, though you know all things, that Jesus, having once saved a people out of the land of Egypt, subsequently destroyed those who did not believe.” (Jude 5) This angel who led the people out of the land of Egypt was one in the same as Jesus Christ, the Son of God. And He is identified as such because He has the name of God in Him.
This Psalm presents the Father and the Son, then, in the first verse. The prayer begins by asking the Father to answer you in the day of distress, and then asks the Son, “the name of the God of Jacob” to set you securely on high. The two persons are clearly distinguished, and supplication is made to each.
It is important to remember that the doctrine of the Godhead is not novel to the New Testament, because God is unchanging from everlasting to everlasting (Psalm 90:2). He was note lonely before creating man, because He was in perfect unity and harmony with Himself in the Godhead.
Boast in the Lord
After praying for your and my salvation, the psalmist asserts in verse 7 that, “some boast in chariots and some in horses, but we will boast in the name of Yahweh, our God.” Being proud of our own strength or salvation is much like feeling a sense of accomplishment after dumping a gallon of water onto the beach because you believe the ocean is thirsty. Let me assure you: the ocean is not thirsty, and your strength to do anything is pitiful in comparison to God.
Rest assured that you can do nothing to deliver yourself from anything. In this very moment, you are able to draw breath by the grace of God. Your heart continues to beat, and your bodily functions persist only because God is pleased to allow it. In everything you accomplish, receive, and enjoy, boast in the Lord. Thank Him, praise Him, and pray for others to receive the very same blessing.
May the Lord bless you and conform you into the image of His Son.
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