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 all your victory and raise a victory banner in the name of our God. May the LORD answer all your prayers. Psalm 20: 1-5, NLT.
Dear God, we are truly grateful that we can come before You to offer our praise for Your loving-kindness toward us. In the name of Jesus, we bring our thanksgiving and lay it at Your feet, as we enter the study of Your Word. Amen.
This Psalm is a prayer of the people for their king as he goes out to battle that he may be victorious in battle. I thought it would provide a good devotional for us to contemplate as we enter into our weekly rest. All during the week we have been engaged in battle. We have resisted foes without and within. Like the people, we are aware, that if we are to be victorious in the battle of life, the King of kings will have to grant us the victory through His divine intervention. So we, like the people, call upon the LORD, with the prayer that, “in the time of trouble,” He will answer our cry.
May we take shelter beneath that name which is above every name. “For there is no other name under heaven, given among men whereby we must be saved” (Acts 4: 12). The song-writer invites us to “Take the name of Jesus with you, child of sorrow and of woe; it will joy and comfort give you; take it then where’er you go! In the heat of the battle call upon His holy name, and watch the powers of darkness flee!
May God remember that the gifts we bring to Him are gifts of love. We bring them not to obtain favor but to show that we have entered a relationship of love with Him, and that He is the center of our life. Our gifts are not brought to appease Him; but to please Him, by showing Him our love!
May the angelic host, represented in decorative form, within the sanctuary at Jerusalem, come to our rescue. The promise is that “the angel of the LORD will surround them that fear Him and deliver them (Psalm 34: 7). We have seen the angel of the LORD enter prison houses and set God’s people free. They have not lost any of their power. What they did for Paul and Silas, what they have done, and are doing for people in our day, they will do for us, in the day of our trouble.
INTERLUDE
I love this portion of the psalm in a special way. May God grant that we will pray with this kind of earnestness for each other! It is such a heartfelt petition. It is an act of solidarity with each other!
May God grant you what your heart desires! When we pray according to God’s will, let us do it believing that what we have asked for, we will receive! Lay all your plans at Jesus’ feet that success may be yours. For nothing is blessed, unless He blesses. And when He blesses, our plans are destined to succeed!
When we have prayed for you, and God gives you the victory, we will jump and shout for joy! Your joy will be our joy. God’s victory in your life will be cause for our rejoicing! We will raise banners of victory in the name of our God! We will give God the praise for answering your prayers. Our hope is that all of your prayers will be answered!