Intro to Psalm 20
Concerning spiritual warfare in both Old and New Testaments
It’s important to keep in mind, as we read Psalms, that everything in it was used in the worship of the ancient, Old Testament church. Psalms is more than a hymnal. It is also a prayer book and a liturgy book. Everything here is here for a reason. So when we come to a particular psalm it’s good to ask why it is here, why it was included.
This psalm, Psalm 20, seems to have had a specific purpose, or use. From all appearances Psalm 20 was either sung to, or prayed over, the king before he went into battle. We read about something like this taking place in 2 Chronicles 20 with King Jehoshaphat. And if you want to open your Bible and look at that for yourself, I would invite you to do so.
If that’s the case, that gives us a setting for the use of this psalm in the liturgy of the Old Testament. As you read this psalm, then, picture David about to go out to war, but he will not go out unless it is God who is on his side, God who fights for him.
How would this have looked? Picture an assembly of the people gathered. Priests are present. Offerings are made. And as the smoke of the offerings ascends from the altar up to heaven, the priests and the people begin to sing or chant this psalm. It is probably responsive in nature. This prayer is written to be prayed over the king before he goes out to do battle against the enemies of God and God’s people.
The early church also understood this. The ancient Christian church utilized this psalm in its worship as an expressed “amen” to the work Christ accomplished on our behalf to redeem us. It did so because it saw David as pointing forward to Christ.
In the Psalms, David typically typifies Christ in some way. (See what I did there?) In addition to that, the office of king in ancient Israel also typified, or pointed forward to, Christ. So this prayer, written by David, this psalm prayed or sung or chanted over the king as offerings were offered to God (in faith) before he went into battle, shows us, at the most basic level, what was right and proper for them to pray during that dispensation of the covenant. But it shows us more than that. It also speaks to the Christian’s spiritual warfare.
In the New Testament, our warfare, our battle, is not physical warfare, nor is it waged with carnal, that is, this earthly, fleshly, weapons. Our warfare is spiritual because our kingdom is spiritual, and as Paul says in…
2 Corinthians 10:4-5 ESV - the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ,
We also know from the New Testament that Christ has come, as the Son of David, to win the victory for us, and that that victory was won at Calvary, where Jesus died in our stead, was buried, then rose from the dead the third day. This was the theme of Psalm 18. Paul says in his epistle to the Colossians that…
Colossians 2:15 ESV - He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.
So, obviously, this psalm points to Jesus, and that’s why the early church saw and interpreted it the way they did. And here I’ve already given you the ending before we’ve even begun giving the exposition of this wonderful psalm. But I promise to have more to say about King Jesus at the end of the week.