Psalm 20
PASSAGE: The Lord answer you in the day of trouble!
The name of the God of Jacob protect you!
May he send you help from the sanctuary,
and give you support from Zion.
May he remember all your offerings,
and regard with favor your burnt sacrifices.
Selah
May he grant you your heart’s desire,
and fulfill all your plans.
May we shout for joy over your victory,
and in the name of our God set up our banners.
May the Lord fulfill all your petitions.
Now I know that the Lord will help his anointed;
he will answer him from his holy heaven
with mighty victories by his right hand.
Some take pride in chariots, and some in horses,
but our pride is in the name of the Lord our God.
They will collapse and fall,
but we shall rise and stand upright.
Give victory to the king, O Lord;
answer us when we call.
COMMENT: This affirmative psalm, attributed to David, is a prayer for the king’s victory in battle. I think its greatest help to us today is in its progression from hope to certainty. In a sense it describes the creative process by which we bring the infinite substance of the divine into tangible expression as our life experience. We begin by imagining the good we want to express: “May we shout for joy over your victory, and in the name of God set up our banners.” And then, with what Paul describes in the New Testament as “the assurance of things hoped for,” we affirm our absolute faith that our prayerful intention will be expressed by affirming “Now I know.” There is no need to beseech the divine and hope to be kindly received. We are one with the divine, and our purpose in this human experience is to express that divinity through our prayerful choices.
Blessings!
Rev. Ed
