“In times of trouble, may the Lord answer your cry. May the name of the God of Jacob keep you safe from all harm. May he send you help from his sanctuary and strengthen you from Jerusalem. May he remember all your gifts and look favorably on your burnt offerings. Interlude May he grant your heart’s desires and make all your plans succeed. May we shout for joy when we hear of your victory and raise a victory banner in the name of our God. May the Lord answer all your prayers. Now I know that the Lord rescues his anointed king. He will answer him from his holy heaven and rescue him by his great power. Some nations boast of their chariots and horses, but we boast in the name of the Lord our God. Those nations will fall down and collapse, but we will rise up and stand firm. Give victory to our king, O Lord! Answer our cry for help.” Psalms 20:1-9 NLT
This chapter talks a lot about God and his power. It shows him as this dependable thing. It kind of reminds me if you take the bus to work that’s always every 15 minutes or consistent. Then all of sudden the bus you’re relying on is late. Or maybe you catch a ride. Or drive yourself but use an alarm but your phone is dead. Either way then you’re late to work. Relying on the things on earth always has a chance of failure. Machines fail, people fail, tools fail, and everything on earth fails. God is the only things that doesn’t. This not saying don’t trust people, machines, or tools. They are great resources but you can’t rely on them to be infinite, always consistent, or even the same. So in this passage when it talks about people relying on chariots and horses to win wars. David responds to that with I trust in God. Looking at it from what we know God to be, what he claims to be, and what we understand about the world. It seems pretty obvious why. But it’s not easy and it’s something we have to constantly work on. One of the ways I work on it is by taking time each day to thank God, reading my bible every day, and relying on him when things get hard.
This post first appeared on my personal website.
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