August 18 Sermon: Beyond Chariots and Horses

In a world that often trusts in the strength of "chariots and horses," Psalm 20 reminds us to place our confidence in God alone. Join us as we explore how turning to prayer, relying on God's providence, and trusting in His faithful deliverance can transform our lives and battles.

Contemplate these questions as you listen to this message from Psalm 20:

1. In what ways do you find yourself relying on "chariots and horses" (worldly strengths) instead of turning to God in prayer?

2. How does Jehoshaphat's example in 2 Chronicles 20 challenge your approach to facing overwhelming challenges?

3. What specific steps can you take to prioritize prayer and reliance on God's providence in your daily life?

Transcript:

There is a great story in the book of 2 Chronicles that doesn't get much attention. The story is fantastic, but I don't remember hearing it in any of my Sunday school classes growing up. And I don't remember hearing about it in my undergrad or my seminary Old Testament survey classes. Now, I'm guessing that this is because, well, it doesn't involve many of what we would know as main characters from the Old Testament. You know what I'm talking about. Noah, Abraham, Jacob, Moses, or even David. But still. This story shows us the power of God to save his people and his power to preserve them as the people of God. Well, in this story, the people of Judah are facing an enormous threat that will bring disaster upon them. And there is this tremendous army preparing to invade them. And they know that they are no match for this army. Now, Jehoshaphat... Jehoshaphat was the king of Judah at the time, and he was fully aware that they were not only outnumbered, but they were outmatched. Now, the situation was absolutely hopeless. There was no way that they would survive against such formidable enemies. And 2 Chronicles 20 tells us that Jehoshaphat did something extraordinary. Instead of getting as many soldiers together as possible, and trying to come up with some strategic plan to overcome the odds that they faced, he instead turned to prayer. He called for a fast throughout the land for the purpose of seeking help from God. And then gathered in Jerusalem with men and women and children standing before the temple, Jehoshaphat prayed to God. And we see this here in 2 Chronicles 20, verses 6 through 9. He said, O Lord, God of our fathers, are you not God in heaven? You rule over all the kingdoms of the nations. In your hand are power and might, so that none is able to withstand you. Did you not, our God, drive out the inhabitants of this land before your people Israel, and give it forever to the descendants of Abraham, your friend? And they have lived in it and have built for you in it a sanctuary for your name, saying, If disaster comes upon us, the sword, judgment, or pestilence, or famine, we will stand before this house and before you, for your name is in this house, and cry out to you in our affliction, and you will hear and save.

And this is a prayer that Jehoshaphat has made here that is a prayer of complete dependence upon Almighty God. Jehoshaphat knows they don't have the military might for victory over their enemies, and so he declares his reliance upon God and his trust in his steadfastness and his steadfast love and faithfulness to his people. In response to this prayer, God promised that the battle belonged to him. And the next day, as they faced their enemies, Jehoshaphat did something even more surprising than gathering people for prayer instead of having a military strategy meeting. Jehoshaphat appointed singers to lead the army, praising the beauty of God's holiness and giving thanks to the Lord. And as their praise for God's steadfast love and faithfulness was being sung, other nations that God ordained to be waiting in ambush against this nation came against the enemies of Judah, and the vast army that was coming at them was defeated, without the nation of Judah striking a single blow. And this amazing story from the history of the people of God reminds us of a statement that we read, in Psalm chapter 20, verse 7. Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord, our God. This is not just a statement for ancient warfare conducted by kings and armies. This statement invites us to reflect on the challenges we face in life and how we respond to them. Where is our trust placed? Do we rest on the powers of this world? Or do we trust in the power of God? And so as we think about this psalm today, we know this story of Jehoshaphat. He led his people in heartfelt prayer rather than gathering his army. He modeled a profound trust in God's sovereignty in the face of overwhelming danger. So in the same spirit of reliance and reverence, let us now look at the opening verses of Psalm 20, and consider how we should turn to God in prayer when we are in need. So as we consider these verses today, we see a communal prayer as this psalm starts out. Not only asking for divine help, but it also displays an expectation that God is going to protect his people. So as we look at the first verse here, we see the hope that Yahweh would answer his people, in the day of trouble. And underlying this statement is the idea that an easy and prosperous life is not the expectation for the people of God. This psalm implies here what you and I know to be true. That trouble does come. In a fallen world, there will be things that happen that will be troubling to us. There's more to this than just the fact that we live in a world of trouble. There's more to this than just the fact that we live in a fallen world where bad things happen. We also know that standing up for God, being the people of God, standing for truth, is going to ensure that difficulty is going to come our way. The enemy attacks, and the world knows that to stand for the things of God is to stand against the world. It's not easy to be bold and to be steadfast for God when the pressure comes against you. And throughout the psalms that we have looked at this summer, we have seen this continual theme, this idea of the Lord as a fortress for his people. And it continually reminds us that the people of God will experience hardship. The people of God will be under attack. Life is not guaranteed to be easy. If that weren't the case, if life was going to be easy, why would we need a refuge? Why would we need a fortress? And so in this prayer, we not only get this reminder of our need of God as a safe haven, but we also see this idea that he remembers his people. This prayer here calls upon God's faithfulness to them. And there is an expectation that God will do what he has promised to do. Now, this psalm was used before battle. And these opening five verses were about preparing to go and face what was coming upon them, what they were going to face. And so this is important to know as we read these words here. When it says, may he remember your offerings and your burnt sacrifices, the idea here is that they have obeyed God's commands. And they want God to remember that. But there is more to that than just the idea that they've done what God said. It's also the idea that they are the people who know the commands of God. The pagan people that they would have been going to battle against would not have offered sacrifices. They would not have given burnt offerings because they did not know God. They wouldn't have done any of those things. But God knows his people. And his people know him. He commanded them to give these offerings because he knew them. He was in relationship with them. These are the people of God. And the reason they are the people of God is that they were the chosen ones. They were the ones chosen to be in the line to the Messiah, the one who was promised all the way back in Genesis 3. And while there were kings who acted unjustly, who were sinful and rebellious, any attempt to wipe out the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and then later the descendants of King David, all of these attacks would be seen and understood these nations being agents of the serpent trying to stop the coming of the Messiah. Remember the promise. There would come one who would crush the head of the serpent. And so the serpent and the seed of the woman are at war with one another. And so any attack on the people of God would be seen as those people being agents of Satan, agents of the serpent, trying to stop the promise from coming to pass. Because wiping out all those in the line to the Messiah would cause the promise of God to fail. And so this was a direct assault, not just on a group of people. It was a direct assault on God. It wasn't just an attack on a group of people who happened to inhabit a particular tract of land east of the Mediterranean Sea. It was an attack on all the people of God who were waiting on the promise of the Messiah. And so when this psalm prays here, hoping that God will give them their heart's desire, it isn't that they're hoping that God is going to give them more material possessions. The psalmist isn't declaring, that he hopes the king or anyone else who would pray this psalm would get more gold than they know what to do with. The deepest desires of the heart of the anointed one of God should not be for their own advancement, but the building up and the protection of the kingdom of God. Again, this is a war psalm. And so the plans being talked about here are not a plan for a vacation or for expanding the palace. The plans that are talked about here are plans of war, plans to protect and advance God's people. And so this is a good time for a quick aside to remind us of the importance of considering Scripture in its context. I have seen verse 4 here use more times than I can count by itself, just this verse, as a way of saying that God wants people to be prosperous. And if you isolate one verse from the others and from the type of psalm it is, it sure does sound that way, doesn't it? But this isn't how interpreting Scripture works.

We first consider the context of where this verse is in Scripture as a whole. Then we look to the type of literature we're reading. This is a war psalm. And then we check out what this verse means in light of the verses around it. And then we arrive at an understanding of the text. That's how we deal with Scripture.

Seriously, imagine that we had a time machine. And we could land in the middle of a group of people in Judah praying this psalm before they went to battle. And then afterwards, after they got done praying it, we went up to them and said, hey, you know what that verse you prayed, may He grant you your heart's desire and fulfill all your plans, you know what that means? That means that you're supposed to be prosperous and successful and you're supposed to have personal success. They would look at us like we had three heads. They would have no idea what we were talking about. They're about to go to battle against those who are opposing God. This isn't a prayer for your business plan to work out as you hope or to get the big raise you asked for. You get my point. We want to handle Scripture well. And the primary way we can be sure we are doing that is by looking at the context of what is being said. And the context here drives home what the desire of their hearts would be. And it's shown to us in the verse that follows here in verse 5. It says that the people will shout for joy over the salvation that they receive from the hand of God and they will give credit to Him for the victory that they receive. They will not set up their banner they will set up their banners in the name of their God. It is their God alone that will give them the victory in this battle. It is Yahweh that will fulfill the requests of their prayers and bring salvation to His people. And before we move on I want to draw out the use of the personal name of God here once again. We've seen this so many times as we've been in this altar. And here the psalmist says they will set up their banners in the name of their God. Well, what is that name? It is the Lord. It is Yahweh. That personal name that the God of Israel has revealed to His people and to them alone. He knows them and they know Him. There's an intimacy here of their knowledge of God. So as we move on to the second part of this psalm we see why they try to trust that God is going to bring salvation. They understand that He's sovereign. He is the God who is in control and He answers His people from His holy heaven. And verse 6 draws out here what I mentioned previously. This is not just an expectation that God is going to bring victory to some random group of people. The psalmist says that He knows that Yahweh saves His anointed. And as I alluded to before the anointed of God is not just about who is king or somebody who is liked more than someone else. The anointed of God here is alluding to the one who is designated as being in the line of the promised one. And as we continually see the Bible is not a book of random stories about random things that God does. It's all about the promise of God coming to pass. It's all about the salvation of His people. From the fall of our first parents in the garden from there on we can track the promise of God. Sometimes the promise of God is shown to us with very little detail. Think about all the names and genealogies. But still those lines those genealogies are about the promise of God coming to pass because we're seeing that the faithfulness of God is going from generation to generation. Other times in the Bible we have very detailed stories about this promise. Think about how we look in on the lives of Abraham, Jacob or David. But the big story is always about the preservation of the anointed of God. About keeping that great promise of God going. And it's really easy to see the story like the one I talked about in 2 Chronicles 20 and simply talk about how God did something amazing to help the people win a battle. But once you understand the deeper story at work underneath all of it about all the drama of Scripture that story that I talked about from 2 Chronicles 20 becomes more amazing and more beautiful. So many times throughout Scripture we get this idea Oh no! The promise of God might fail. Because the one who is in the line might be wiped out. They might be defeated. Now it might be from a threatening army, it might be from a personal attack or even the barrenness of the wife of the one in the line to the promise. Think about Sarah, right? But what happens? The promise of God always prevails. The anointed of God is preserved. And the point of all these stories can be simplified down to this line here. Now I know that Yahweh saves His anointed. Because the psalmist knows that truth and because God is sovereign and answers from His holy heaven. God is in control and He has shown that He brings victory for His anointed over every possible circumstance. And because the psalmist knows this truth the beautiful statement of verse 7 has had deep meaning for the people of God throughout the ages. Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God. All the people around them trusted in their own strength. The people of God put their trust in the name of Yahweh. They knew that He would keep His promise to His people. And so many stories from Scripture illustrate this truth. The one I shared from 2 Chronicles 20. The walls of Jericho falling down. God making the army of Gideon smaller and smaller and smaller and still He wins victory. The story of David and Goliath. This is a reoccurring theme in Holy Scripture. This is who God is. And it's what He does and it's exhibited for us most deeply in the person and work of Jesus Christ. It seemed as though the anointed of God was finally defeated. At the cross. He was humiliated. He suffered at the hands of the Roman and Jewish authorities. He died like a criminal on a Roman cross. It seemed as though the powers of the world had finally prepared well enough to destroy the anointed of God. And He was dead. He lay cold and stiff on a slab of stone. But while the serpent trusted in the earthly powers of Rome and the cross that the Lord had been crucified on, the Lord our God raised Him from the dead. Defeating the enemy that had been threatening the people of God throughout history. But it was not chariots and it wasn't horses and it wasn't a Roman cross that prevailed. It was Yahweh. He was victorious. And the anointed of God prevailed bringing salvation to His people. This is the deeper story. This is what we come to Scripture to know and to understand. The victory that God has brought to His people. And you and I are those people. The question then is why do we persistently believe in the power of chariots and horses? I was convicted of this so many times as I was meditating on this passage this week preparing for today. I so easily put my trust in the powers of this world. Whether it is military strength or political ideologies or anything of this world, we tend to trust them more than the sovereign God that we serve. We see something that we are concerned about in the world and it affects us deeply. We become worried about whether the structure set up by men will hold. And it so easily becomes our obsession. And now I'm not saying that we should be escapists and not worry about the things that happen in the world. That's not my point. My point is not that we should disregard the world and give up on it. Instead, what I'm saying is that what we're called to do is to trust that God is sovereign. And to trust Him more than the structures that we put in place. To trust that God is in control. Because regardless of what happens in the world, our greatest enemy, death, has been defeated. And so we can approach anything that comes our way in confidence. Because we have salvation and we have the promise of eternal life through our Lord Jesus Christ. And this is why we can come to verse 8 of this Psalm and pray it along with the Psalmist. They collapse and fall but we rise and stand upright. The structures of this world may collapse and they may fall but the people of God rise and we stand upright. Our risen and ascended King gives us confidence. If the world falls around us, the sovereign King remains on His throne. He conquered not through horses or chariots but through suffering. And He was victorious over our greatest oppressors. Sin, death, hell and the devil. And because we are united to this risen and victorious King we can walk in confidence in this world despite what we observe in the world around us. And this Psalm ends with a prayer to save the King and to hope that the Lord will answer their call. So as we pray, as we sing or as we read this Psalm, this final verse should incite confidence in us as the people of God. This prayer, O Lord save the King, may He answer us when we call, it was continually answered. As the people of God went to war, the anointed King who was in the line to the Messiah was preserved throughout the ages because God keeps His promises. In some instances the Kings in the line to Jesus were not good people and they were rebellious and deserved punishment but still God saved the King to keep His promise. The call to God for salvation was heard and it wasn't just for the anointed one, it was to all of those who are united to Him by faith. The faithfulness to the anointed King was a faithfulness for us. It wasn't just a promise that God kept to a King, it was a promise to every last one of us who have salvation in Jesus. It was faithfulness to the whole people of God. So as we close our time together today in Psalm 20 we're reminded of a profound truth that resonates deeply in that story I opened up with about Jehoshaphat and the eternal message of Scripture. Our ultimate victory does not come from the powers of this world but from the sovereign hand of God. When faced with seemingly insurmountable challenges may you and I remember that the same God who delivered Judah who guided David and raised Jesus from the dead is the God that we serve today. This Psalm, a war Psalm, brings us back to the essential heart of our faith, our reliance on God alone, and it compels us to consider our own battles. Not just those of physical armies or worldly strategies, but those that rage within us and around us. Whether we face personal trials, family struggles, or societal upheavals, the invitation to us as the people of God is the same. To turn to God in prayer, to trust in His providence over everything that is happening in the world, and to rest in the assurance of His faithful deliverance. So let this Psalm encourage you to reflect on where your trust is anchored. Are you leaning on the chariots and horses of our time, the visible strength and strategies that the world values, or is our confidence placed firmly in the Lord, whose power and purposes are perfect? So as we step into the coming week, may we seek to embody this truth in every aspect of our lives. Let's choose prayer first. Not as a last resort, but as our initial and most powerful response. Let's cultivate a spirit that prioritizes God's providence over our earthly ideas. And let us hold fast to the promise of God's deliverance, a deliverance that is not merely for temporary relief, but promises us eternal salvation. So may we go out from here not with fear or uncertainty, but with bold confidence, because we know that God is ever faithful. May our lives proclaim that our trust is not in the fading and the fleeting, but in the eternal and all-powerful. And as we do this, may we experience the joy and the peace of being God's people, held and preserved by His mighty hand. May we pray that as we navigate the complexities of life, that we would remain steadfast in the faith, unwavering in our commitment to Christ, and ever joyful in the fact that we have His salvation. We know that He remembers us, and that He has saved us, because we are His people. Amen. Let us pray. Gracious God, we thank You, not only for these words from Psalm 20, that tell us of Your promise, but from the whole witness of Scripture. That You are a God who does His good work for His people. He preserves them. So may we be ever mindful that You are faithful to us, that You are preserving us, and that we have the joy of Your salvation. Grant that this would cause us to live for You with prayerful hope, knowing that You are our God, and we are Your people. It's in the name of Jesus we pray. Amen.