Sermon Tone Analysis
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*Wedding Message for Loren and Debbie*
*Psalm 20*
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.
/Selah/
4 May he give you the desire of your heart
and make all your plans succeed.
5 We will shout for joy when you are victorious
and will lift up our banners in the name of our God.
May the LORD grant all your requests.
6 Now I know that the LORD saves his anointed;
he answers him from his holy heaven
with the saving 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 O LORD, save the king!
Answer a us when we call!
We look at Psalm 20, a little regarded psalm that has a very
simple two part structure: Loren you have said to me keep it simple.,
so I am keeping it simple.
The psalm is about prayers offered and a statement of confidence.
So let’s dig in and take a close look.
The picture here is this: the king is going out into battle against the enemy, and the people pray corporately for the king.
They ask for God’s protection over him (Ps.
20:1-2).
They also ask that God remember the king’s worship practices, his submission and humility before God (Ps.
20:3).
And they ask that God grant the desire of the king’s heart (Ps.
20:4-5).
If God will do these things, they promise rejoicing and worship in response.
This psalm reminds us that we are not the apex of the universe.
Rather, we are a people supporting the advancement of the king.
However, the king, we are praying for his no longer David but our King, Jesus.
These prayers for David are prophecies concerning Christ the Son of David, and in him they were abundantly answered; [1]
The concern of this psalm is not calling God to remember our sacrifices; the concern is calling us to remember Christ’s sacrifices.
The concern is not the granting of the desires of our hearts, but rather the transformation of the desire of our hearts into the desire of the messiah’s heart.
Just as Jesus’ heart was to be in tune to the heart of the Father so it is to be with our heart.
Ultimately, our challenge is not to gaze upon our own agendas, but for us to gaze upon Christ and to let his agenda become our agenda.
At the very core of our being we desire our hearts to be in tune with God's.
We come from the heart of all creation.
We come from One who has fantastic relationship as Father, Son, Holy Spirit.
We come from the Fellowship of hearts.
Sometime ago, Time Magazine came out with an issue on “the
science of happiness,” and it talked all about the human quest for happiness.
Some treat the quest as though happiness were an end goal in and of itself.
C.S. Lewis had a different idea.
In his spiritual autobiography Surprised by Joy, he talks about finding joy in the losing of himself.
He only approached that sense of joy when he was so engrossed that he forgot himself.
It’s like the magic eye prints: if you try to look at the print, you won’t see the picture.
But if you stop trying to look and let your eyes blur, suddenly a three dimensional figure swims into your perception.
You quit looking, and suddenly you find.
Loren the moment you gave yourself up to to Gods will, was the moment God gave you the desire of your heart.
*When you lose yourself to something larger than yourself, you forget yourself, and you discover joy*.
That’s a bit of the view that we have to have with this psalm.
We have to lose ourselves in the Creator’s heart to find true Joy, and only then can you give yourself in way that brings joy to your lover’s heart.
All the passionate pursuits that are depicted in the
medieval romances are but allegories of the heart’s passionate pursuit of God.
For Lewis, that is what it meant to be in relationship with a living God.
Then comes the second half of the psalm, which dramatically asserts
*confidence in God’s power.*
We see the confidence that God saves the king in
verses 6 and 9. Then we have the most powerful verses in verses 7 and 8:
“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.”
Do you see where this is going?
They are putting their trust in the Lord,
not in chariots and horses.
They make *faithfulness to the Lord their primary*
*determinant of success,* come what may.
They abandon themselves to the
direction of the king.
And with this abandonment comes contentment:
“I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances.
I know
what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty.
I have
learned the secret of being content in any and every situation,
whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.
I can
do all things through him who gives me strength” (Phil.
4:11-13).
the plans of the LORD stand firm forever,
the purposes of his heart through all generations.
[2]
\\ ----
[1]Henry, Matthew: /Matthew Henry's Commentary : On the Whole Bible/.
Complete and unabridged in one volume.
Peabody, MA : Hendrickson Publishers, 1991, S. Ps 20:6
[2]/The Holy Bible : New International Version/.
1984 (Ps 33:11).
Grand Rapids: Zondervan.
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