Psalm 20
Praying for the King
Many times we will have directly called out to Jesus in prayer. Just like the blind man who cried out in desperation, “Have mercy on us, Son of David!” (Mark 9.27).
But have you ever prayed for Jesus? I’m not sure I’ve ever done that knowingly, but that is what David is inviting us to do in this Psalm.
In 2 Samuel 7, God made a promise that he would establish an eternal Kingdom for one of David’s offspring. And so in this Psalm, David leads us as we pray for his offspring, and for Jesus to reign triumphantly as our eternal King.
For where Christ is victorious, we share in that triumph as the people of his Kingdom (vv5, 9).
For the director of music. A psalm of David.
1 May the LORD answer you when you are in distress;
may the name of the God of Jacob protect you.
2 May he send you help from the sanctuary
and grant you support from Zion.
3 May he remember all your sacrifices
and accept your burnt offerings.
4 May he give you the desire of your heart
and make all your plans succeed.
5 May we shout for joy over your victory
and lift up our banners in the name of our God.May the LORD grant all your requests.
6 Now this I know:
the LORD gives victory to his anointed.
He answers him from his heavenly sanctuary
with the victorious power 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 are brought to their knees and fall,
but we rise up and stand firm.
9 LORD, give victory to the king!
Answer us when we call!
There’s a trap we are so prone to falling into when we approach the Scriptures. It is reading individual verses out of context. So when we read something like verse 4, we can easily take it to mean God granting us the desires of our own hearts. But we are actually praying for God to make the plans of his King to come to fruition.
But why would we pray for the King? Because as the head of the Kingdom, where he is triumphant, we also succeed. The victory he wins as King becomes our own, when we are joined to him in faith, professing him as our Lord.
It’s like if our parents gain a promotion, the household benefits. Or if the Prime Minister doesn’t scare the markets, our bank accounts don’t suffer. Or if Finn Russell were to kick the winning penalty in the World Cup final, all of Scotland can say they are world champions.
And so David summoned his people to pray for one of his descendants who would become King. To pray that God would hear his prayers, strengthen him with the power of heaven, receive his sacrificial offerings and fulfil the desires of his heart.
Let’s dwell for a moment on v4 and what that means for followers of Jesus. In Matthew 9.36, we see Jesus’s compassion for the lost, that they would find a home in the presence of the good Shepherd. In Matthew 11.28-29, we learn that Jesus’s heart is gentle and lowly and his desire is to give rest to the weary and wounded. If God is to fulfill the desire of the King’s heart, it culminates in our blessing.
And the confidence we have when we lift up our prayers for the King is that God is faithful.
In vv6-8, David proclaims his confidence in the LORD. And it is rooted in his promises. In Psalm 2, God declared that his anointed King would purge the world of evil and rule in justice and grace. As we learned in the intro, God promised that the anointed Son of David would reign over his Kingdom forever.
The word for anointed is where we get Messiah from. And the Messiah is revealed to be Jesus, the son of a carpenter from a small out of the way town. And God gave him victory. Victory over the devil through the cross (Colossians 2.15) and over death in his resurrection (Revelation 1.18).
So we refuse to place our confidence in the power of the world. David would not trust in chariots or horses. We will not trust in aircraft carriers or stealth planes. We trust in the unmatched and unmatchable might of our Sovereign God. For he brings the proud low and lifts up the humble and faithful.
One of our favourite modern hymns opens, “In Christ alone, my hope is found.”
Our hope is found in him, because God has promised to bring salvation and victory through him. So we pray that God would give victory through the Son of David.
We have seen the beginning of that being fulfilled in Jesus’s first coming. And we pray for that to find its full and beautiful culmination when Jesus returns in glory, to judge the living and the dead, and to bring his people into the his loving embrace.
Glory be to God the Father, who empowers his King from his heavenly sanctuary.
Glory be to God the Son, our triumphant King, who succeeds through great distress.
Glory be to God the Spirit, who raises us up from weakness into the victory of our King.
Ever three and ever One.