Psalm 20:1 May the LORD answer you in the day of trouble!
May the name of the God of Jacob protect you!
[2] May he send you help from the sanctuary
and give you support from Zion!
[3] May he remember all your offerings
and regard with favor your burnt sacrifices! Selah
[4] May he grant you your heart’s desire
and fulfill all your plans!
[5] May we shout for joy over your salvation,
and in the name of our God set up our banners!
May the LORD fulfill all your petitions!
[6] Now I know that the LORD saves his anointed;
he will answer him from his holy heaven
with the saving might of his right hand.
[7] Some trust in chariots and some in horses,
but we trust in the name of the LORD our God.
[8] They collapse and fall,
but we rise and stand upright.
[9] O LORD, save the king!
May he answer us when we call.
Psalm 20 – “May the Lord answer you in the day of trouble!” A high view of God makes such texts of Scripture as Psalm 20 utterly amazing. It is a person with a very small God who complains that God did not deliver him in the right way (or at all). People who say that if God is as big as we say that he is then He ought to come across for us, are very ignorant people. It could be that they are talking out of their pain and we perhaps should cut them some slack and understand that. But does pain give people the right to tell the Creator of the universe that He doesn’t know what He is doing? That is arrogance gone mad. We need to see here that the Psalmist does not gripe about his troubles here nor does he tell his readers that they have been given a raw deal by their Creator. Trouble is the result of the fall and we are going to have plenty of it. This Psalm is written to tell people where to turn when they have it. Do we go to Him with demands that He come through exactly the way we have determined He should? Are we the doctors who prescribe a cure and God is the pharmacist who reads the prescription and simply does what the wise doctor has dictated? It seems that is how some view the situation. God is God and we are not. There will be unimaginable trouble for people in this world and the purpose of trusting Christ is not to get ourselves a trouble free life this side of glory.
But the fact remains that to be able even to ask God for help is an immense privilege. What does God owe us? Why should He who does whatever He pleases, who knows the end from the beginning, who ordains all things that come to pass yet is not guilty of anything that is sinful, even bend His ear to hear what my request is? Answer? Jesus Christ. God does what He does for us because we are in Christ. And we are in Christ because He loves us. This is stunning
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