Today's reading.
Psalm 20:7 is one of my favorite verses in Scripture. It hits me like a song lyric: "Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the LORD our God."
Why should we be so confident in the name of the Lord? An updated version of this verse might read something like, "Some trust in fighter jets and some in nuclear submarines..." or "Some trust in ballistic missiles and some in smart bombs..." When you think of it in those terms, can you say, "but I trust in the name of the LORD our God"?
Why could the psalmist put his trust in a name rather than the military muscle of the nations of his day? Why is he more confident in God than in the latest, most powerful, most destructive weapons available?
Because "the Lord saves his anointed" (20:6).
He is the answer to all the prayers of 20:1-5, he is the reason that "we rise and stand upright" (20:8). Whatever the danger, whatever struggles we may face, God has set forth his purpose in his anointed—his Son, the Lord Jesus. The truth of the gospel—God's desire to save a people for himself—is the most fundamentally true thing about the universe. When we let that truth sink into our innermost being, we can't help but shrug off tactical missile strikes and nuclear crises. The most dangerous force in existence—the wrath of the Almighty—has been pacified. Christ has delivered us from harm's way. What are a few chariots or horses?
What seeming danger do you face right now? Yesterday, I was tempted to fear for our financial well-being again (it seems like that always happens on Mondays). I was letting myself be overwhelmed by powerful, earthly forces. I was forgetting that every heavenly force is aligned on my side. Whatever the outcome of our current circumstances, we can't lose. In Christ, "we rise and stand upright."
Trust in the name of the Lord our God today. On account of Christ, he has delivered you from your greatest danger. What makes you (me) think he won't deliver you (me) from all others? Trust him.
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