Psalm 20 And 48

Introduction

In your Bibles to the 20th Psalm. Psalm 20. We’ll begin there, and then we’re going to make our way also to the 48th Psalm this morning. First of all, it is good to have each and everyone who is visiting with us today. We thank you for joining us as we’ve come together to offer these praises to our God. And certainly I was glad that we could sing this last psalm because the psalms that we sing are a means of instruction. And the songs that we sung this morning were a means of instruction and reminding us who our God is and what our God does for us and why we can, in fact, go to Him and praise and go to Him with our petitions. And so what we’re talking about this morning rely on that.

1. The Battle Had Not Yet Been Fought

And we’re talking about our God and what our God has done for His people. And with that in mind, let’s go back to Psalm 20. This is the Psalm that our brother Matthew Floyd read for us at the beginning of our service this morning. And as we see even in the heading, this is a psalm of David. And as you noted when you read through there, there is this is most likely a psalm or a psalm reflecting a time when David and the army of Israel was to go off into battle, to go to war. And just looking at some parts of the Psalm, the battle’s not fought yet. In fact, when you go to the very concluding verse of the Psalm, verse 9, when it says, Save, O Lord, may the King answer us in the day we call.

The King there is not speaking of the earthly king in Jerusalem. It’s not speaking of David. In fact, in the New American Standard has taken the liberty of adding a capital K there to King and to represent that this is in fact God. Because the whole Psalm is actually a petition by the people and perhaps by the king himself to God that the king would be victorious. You’ll note that just reading through the Psalm. Let’s read again. May the Lord answer you. So you have a plural people petitioning the Lord that he would answer an individual. And so this is most likely the people praying on behalf of the king, that the Lord would answer you, answer the king. May the Lord answer you in the day of trouble.

May the name of the God of Jacob set you securely on high. May he send you help from the sanctuary and support you from Zion. May he remember all your offerings and find your burnt offering acceptable. The idea of offerings before battle is one that’s well known in the Old Testament. You may recall in 1 Samuel the seventh chapter that there Samuel offers those kinds of sacrifices as the people are about to go into battle with the Philistines. We are also reminded in the 13th chapter of 1 Samuel that Saul took it upon himself to offer those same kinds of sacrifices before Samuel arrived as he was about to go into battle, and that was a sin for Saul to do. But the point being here in verse 3, as the people are petitioning God, may God remember your burnt offerings as you are about to go off into battle.

May he remember your sacrifices. And so in verse 4, may he grant your heart’s desire and fulfill all your counsel. We will sing for joy over your victory. And in the name of our God we will set up our banners. May the Lord fulfill all your petitions. And then verse six. Now I know that the Lord saves his anointed. He will answer him from his holy heaven with the saving strength of his right hand. Some boast in chariots, and some in horses. But we will boast in the name of the Lord our God. They have bowed down and fallen. We have risen and stood upright. Save, O Lord. May the King answer us in the day we call. I’ll say again, the battle had not yet been fought.

You see those indications here in the Psalm as they’re petitioning again that you would remember the sacrifices of the king and this final petition to save O Lord. But you’ll also notice that there is language in the Psalm as if the battle had already been fought. There is this assurance, there is this confidence that yes, victory is going to be attained. Going back to verse 5, we will sing for joy over your victory. The battle had not yet taken place, and yet the people can confidently assert we are going to sing for joy over this victory. And then in verse 6, now I know that the Lord saves his anointed. That is actually a verb that’s given in the past tense in the Hebrew. It is this the Lord has already saved his anointed, but we put it in the future tense and recognizing that this is a future battle, and yet there’s this confidence that the Lord will save.

2. The Psalm Rests Upon God and Who God Is

He saves his anointed. And he will answer him from his holy heaven with the saving strength of his right hand. So the battle had yet been fought, and yet there is the assurance by the people that our king will be victorious. Why? The Psalm rests upon God and who God is. You may have noticed that three times in the Psalm, the name of God is petitioned. In the first verse, may the name of the God of Jacob set you securely on high. In the fifth verse, and in the name of our God, we will set up our banners. And then finally, in the seventh verse, after he says, Some boast in chariots and some in horses, that may ring a bell to some, as you consider what is said in Deuteronomy 17 and verse 16, how the king was not to multiply for himself horses and chariots.

Yes, the kings of the earth rely on horses and chariots, but not us, because we will boast in the name of the Lord our God. There have been nations, there have been peoples who use the name of their gods as almost a magic talisman. That if we will just invoke the name of our deity, then we are going to be victorious, that there is power in the name itself. Well, God never sanctions such a use of his name. But the name of God is all about revealing the very character of God. It reveals who God is.

As he and his mother have deceived his father Isaac, and then he is going to have to flee for his life from his brother Esau. We remember in Genesis the 28th chapter that as Jacob is fleeing for his life and is making his way up into Mesopotamia, that he stops at a place that will be called Bethel. He will rename it Bethel, literally the house of God. But it is there that Jacob sees in the vision this ladder descending from heaven, and the angels of God ascending and descending on that ladder in Genesis chapter 28. And it is there that God says to Jacob, I will be with you. And as you are leaving this land, I will bring you back to this land, and I will multiply your descendants.

He makes the very promises to Jacob that he made to Abraham and then to Isaac. And Jacob swears that if you’ll bring me back to this land, you will be my God. Well, he skipped forward to the 35th chapter of Genesis, and God has brought Jacob back to this land. He goes to Bethel. He makes his sacrifices to God. What does it mean to invoke the name of the God of Jacob? In doing so, you are invoking the name of the God who makes promises to Israel. Certainly Jacob’s name would be changed to Israel, even there again reiterated in the 35th chapter of Genesis. Name changed to Israel. God makes his promises, and God kept his promises. When the people say in the name of the God of Jacob, they are invoking the name of the God who had been faithful to their forefathers, with the recognition that this God, the name of our God, will be faithful to us as well.

The second invocation of the name of the Lord is simply in verse 5 in the name of our God. No qualifier is given to it. This is the term that we often use in speaking of our Father. We simply would say God or our God. Well, in the Hebrew, it is that word Elohim. And Elohim stands for might and for power. We might literally say the mighty one. Well, why would a people invoke the name of the mighty one? Well, they’re going into battle. And it may have been, in fact, that the host that they were going to be battling was more powerful than they. The host that they were battling may have had more chariots, may have had more horses, but we go to battle with the name of our God.

Our mighty one. And then the last invocation of his name is verse 7. We will boast in the name of the Lord our God. The name of the Lord Yahweh, Jehovah. The one who said to Moses, I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The eternal one. And again, associated with the covenants. This is the God who makes covenant. This is the God who keeps covenant. He is eternal. And all that he has said and promised will be established. The people can have confidence as their king goes off into battle as they go off into battle because they go into battle in the name of our God. They go to battle in the name of the Lord our God. And so there is this trust, as again you see in verse 7 that while some put their trust in other things, whether it be chariots and horses, or whether it be Abram’s tanks and self-bombers today.

3. God in Her Palaces Has Made Himself Known

And yet they say our trust is in the name of the Lord our God. And so the final petition to save, O Lord, with the confidence that yes, the Lord would even save. Now skip over to the 48th Psalm. And read with me, Psalm 48. Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised in the city of our God, his holy mountain. Beautiful in elevation, the joy of the whole earth is Mount Zion in the far north, the city of the great king. God in her palaces has made himself known as a stronghold. For lo, the kings assembled themselves, they passed by together, they saw it, and they were amazed. They were terrified, they fled in alarm. Panic seized them there, anguish as of a woman in childbirth.

With the east wind you break up the ships of Tarshish. As we have heard, so we have seen. In the city of the Lord of hosts, in the city of our God, God will establish her forever. We have thought on your loving kindness, O God, in the midst of your temple. As is your name, O God, so is your praise to the ends of the earth. Your right hand is full of righteousness. Let Mount Zion be glad, that the daughters of Judah rejoice because of your judgments. Walk about Zion and go around her, count her towers, consider her ramparts, go through her palaces, that you may tell it to the next generation. For such is God, our God forever and ever. He will guide us until death.

And doing this week’s Bible reading, after you’ve read Psalm 20 and then you read Psalm 48, you just see the parallel thoughts there. They are both recognition of God’s protection. And they are both petitioning God for that protection. In Psalm 20, as David is about to go into battle, and in Psalm 48, it seems as if now the battles have been fought, the battles have been won, the battles are in the past. And so as the people could go into battle with great confidence, knowing that the Lord, their God would save, and now the consideration of what God has done. Of course, Psalm 48 takes place in a different time in the time of David, perhaps. We’re not given when this occurred. It’s a Psalm of the Sons of Korah.

It’s a Psalm of Zion. But it’s an interesting Psalm in that it does not seem as if any earthly locale is under primary consideration. Zion, of course, rings in our minds with Jerusalem, and no doubt within the Psalmist, their primary thought may have been Jerusalem. But when you consider what is said of Zion in this passage. Beautiful and elevation, verse 2, the joy of the whole earth. Not a whole lot of instances in Old Testament history where Zion, literal Zion, the city of David in Jerusalem, could have been referred to as the joy of the whole earth. Perhaps in the reign of David and Solomon, you might come up to that idea. But our minds may go to pastors like Isaiah chapter 2, when the nations would stream to God’s holy mountain.

The true Zion. And then, as it says, even of Zion, it is Mount Zion in the far north. If you’re familiar with your geography, you couldn’t really say that Jerusalem is in the far north. This too may be a picture of the idea of being in heavenly realms. There’s a passage in Isaiah in Isaiah 14 and verse 13, this being a rebuke of the powers that be at that time and how they would make themselves something great against God and elevating themselves and saying that we inhabit the heavenly places, we inhabit the far north. And so perhaps here now Zion is being put in those kinds of terms. It is the heavenly Zion. It is the Zion of the far north. But the start feature, the striking feature, rather, of Zion in this passage, is not the city itself, is that God is in her palaces.

Even as the Psalm begins, great is the Lord, and greatly be praised in the city of our God, his holy mountain. Then verse 3, God in her palaces has made himself known as a stronghold. Zion itself is not considered the stronghold here, only in the sense that God is there. And so God is her stronghold. Then you come to verses 4 through 8. And you see that the battles have all been fought. The kings of the earth, they have been defeated. And this is no localized battle, if you will, for the ships of Tarshish, they’re not local to Palestine. That is in the far reaches of the Mediterranean. And yet they too are defeated in verse 7. And this may make our mind go back to Psalm 2, where the nations rage against the Lord and his anointed, and yet the Lord hath set him on his right hand, and he will rule over all, even with a rod of iron.

Perhaps this Psalm is now picturing the total defeat of those nations that rage against him. And now Zion is firmly established. And so we come to the parallel thought in verses 9 and 10 that we had in Psalm 20. When we have thought on your loving kindness, if we were to put a New Testament term that is associated with the loving kindness of the Old Testament, we would simply say grace. The loving kindness, the sure mercies of our God, that what God has done for his people in his favor for them is typified as his loving kindness in the Old Testament. And so we have thought on your loving kindness, O God, in the midst of your temple, and then as is your name, O God.

The invocation of his name again, and all that that name represents. The name of God representing his fidelity to the people, the name of God recognizing his power. And now, as it says, your right hand is full of righteousness, the name of God being typified in the righteousness of our God. Men may do righteous things, but God is righteous altogether, is the point. God is not just an entity that does some righteous things. His very character, his very nature is that of righteousness.

4. A Picture of the Church Today, True Zion

Walk about Zion and go around her, count her towers, consider her ramparts, go through her palaces that you may tell it to the next generation. For such is God, our God forever and ever, he will guide us until death. I’ll submit to you that Psalm 48 could very easily be made a picture of the church today. Picture of true Zion. That God is in her midst. God is her strength. God is her fortress. Certainly that was to have been the case of Old Testament Jerusalem, that the temple being there and God dwelling there among the people, and in the moments of the height of the kingdom in David and Solomon, that would have been very well true as God protected them. And yet we see so many times the failures of the people.

And so God was not with them. But now in this kingdom, the true Zion, God is with his people. And while it seems as if the nations are so mighty, and the nations are so powerful, and yet the nations have been defeated. God rules and God reigns over all, and God has subjected all things.

We consider your grace, O God, and what you’ve done for us in the sacrifice of your Son. We come together every week, and we remember you every day for your loving kindnesses. And as is your name, O God, so are your praises throughout the earth. What a wonderful thought. That is on this day, and yes, on every day, praises are being given to God throughout this whole earth. And now, yes, his city is spoken of joyously throughout the whole earth. His city is now truly of the heavenly realm. But there’s still the need for protection. He’s our stronghold. We go to him, we praise him for his mercies. But we still need protection here and now. Will we have it? Walk about Zion. Go around her.

Count her towers. Consider her ramparts. Go through her palaces that you may tell it to the next generation. I’ve never been to an old castle. I know that Sister Whitman, Sister Mary, and Sister Kathy, and the blows were just over in Germany, and I believe they all saw an old fashioned castle there. Never seen a real castle. Never seen a building with the ramparts. Well, I’ll take that back. I’ve been to the Kremlin in Moscow. That’s typically an old castle itself. You consider these fortresses of old and the walls that were built and the towers that were built to keep out invaders. And many times are successful. But there’s never been a castle that was not stormed here on the earth. There’s never been a castle that could hold withstand the full force of the powers that be on this earth.

Conclusion

And yet, what the psalmist is beckoning us to do is you consider the protection that your God gives you. You go around and you consider the ramparts. You consider the walls, you consider the towers, you consider the protection that your God is offering you, and you have this assurance that such is God, our God forever and ever, that he will guide us until death. You’ll note he did not say he would protect you from death.

But he said, I will be with you until death. That is the great God that we serve. And as we go to throughout this day, let us be the people that consider his loving kindness. Let us go to him and praise him. Would you with me at this time pray to our great God, and then we’re going to be dismissed to our classes. Great is the Lord, and greatly are you to be praised. For Father, in your city and your holy mountain, truly it is beautiful in elevation and the joy of the whole earth. For it is your city, the city of the great king. And Father, we recognize that you are in your palaces, that you have made yourself known as our stronghold. And Father, we take assurance that even as the kings have assembled themselves together, and they have passed by, yet they have been put to shame.

They have been defeated, Father. For you, Father, and your Son, you rule. And so, Father, we come today, and we think on your loving kindness. And Father, as is your name, so is your praise to the ends of the earth. And your right hand is full of righteousness. And so, Father, we will be glad this day, and we will rejoice because of your judgments. And may we, Father, consider your towers, your ramparts, your palaces. May we tell it to the next generation. For you are our God, you are forever and ever. And we trust, Father, that you will guide us even until death. It’s in your Son’s name that we pray. Amen.