Let's begin in verse one. We already covered. Just read Psalm 20. And we are trying to teach out of this Psalm how to support your leaders. Obviously, David was the king. And he is also encouraging the people. As we saw in verses 1 to 4, the first voices heard in this psalm are those of the people. Let's read that, 1 to 4. The Lord hear thee in the day of trouble. The name of the God of Jacob defend thee. Send thee help from the sanctuary and strengthen thee out of Zion. Remember all thy offerings and accept thy burnt sacrifice, Selah. Grant thee according to thine own heart and fulfill all thy counsel. This is a record of the people's prayers for David. And it also gives us a pattern of what we need to do for our leaders. What do we pray? Letter A, that God would hear his cry, that God would hear the prayers. Letter B, that God would protect him. The name of the God of Jacob, defend thee. So answered prayer, protection, Let her see that God would help and support him. Send the help from the sanctuary and strengthen thee out of Zion. So there, praying for God's help, praying for God's strength. Verse three, that God would accept his worship. That's what the people were praying. Remember all thy offerings and accept thy burnt sacrifice. If you're reading the Old Testament, you know how David sacrificed for God, not only in his personal life, but if you remember, he, he was the one that prepared all, gathered all the materials for the temple. And remember when the angel came with the sword of the Lord, and he went and built an altar on the threshing floor of Onan. And David said, I'm going to pay for this, and I'm going to pay for the animals' sacrifice. He said, I'm not going to worship God without something that costs me. And that's what I always say about worship. Worship should require our sacrifice. We don't do it out of convenience. Oh yeah, I'll do that if I can. Or I may give if I have some leftovers. That's not what David did, amen? And they prayed, God remember that. And then verse four, that God would give him the desires of his heart and make his plans successful. Verse four, grant thee according to thine own hearts and fulfill all thy counsel. Well, we know about the heart of David. His heart was after the heart of God. And so they had the assurance that when they prayed that God would grant David's Request or desires they knew he desired the Lord's will above all things And we did look at our Responsibilities today now lit number two You are to encourage your leaders Encourage your leaders Verse number five We will rejoice in thy salvation. And in the name of our God, we will set up our banners. The Lord fulfill all thy petitions. So what are they expressing here? The people again, they are expressing confidence in David as king. They sent David riding off into battle with the full assurance that they were behind him and that he would return victorious. That's the picture here. Their faith stirred within him enormous energy and a lion-hearted courage to face the enemy. That's the responsibility of the people of God, to encourage their leaders. That's what they did. Remember, what is the context? This is a prayer before battle. This is the prayer before battle. So what does it say here in verse five? A few things. Letter A, that God would grant him a mighty victory, amen? We will rejoice in thy salvation. That's what it means. They're not praying for him to get saved. They're praying for him to be saved in battle, to be blessed, to return triumphant to Jerusalem. And they would celebrate. Remember, after every victory, there was a celebration. and the whole nation. Not only would David be saved and the armies of David, but the whole nation is saved. So they were supporting David. Now, when they got back, that's what it says, in the name of our God, we will set up banners. They were singing, they were shouting, they were rejoicing. When it says we will rejoice, amen, that word is to express joy loudly, to sing and shout for joy. And that's what the flags, the banners were lifting up banners in the name of God. The great and all powerful God who had valiantly conquered the enemies, they would be raising up banners to God. They were displaying his holy name as a testimony of his faithfulness. And that the Lord would grant all of his requests. And so David, here they said, Lord, the Lord fulfill all thy petitions. David was encouraged by the people's prayers, support and faith, certainly You know, some of the things that you do to encourage leaders are to say, I'm praying for you. Not just, you know, some spiritual cliche or, but really mean it. Amen. And he believed that God was going to answer their prayers. It's a blessing. And they asked God to answer all his petitions, every single thing that he requested from the Lord. They wanted no prayer to go unanswered. The Lord fulfill all thy petitions. Think about leaders today. Leaders need encouragement, especially within the church. Satan has used discouragement to defeat many godly leaders. And that's what he wants to do today. He wants to discourage godly leaders. You go back to Moses time. What did they do? They complained. They murmured against Moses. And what happened to Moses? He struck the rock. He got angry. And he forfeited his blessing. But really, it's the people that stirred him up by their complaining. How about Elijah? He's another man that, man, he had this great victory at Mount Carmel. He slew all the prophets of Baal and calling down fire from heaven. He had a great victory. And he called the people, you know, who are you going to serve today? But yet, shortly after, What happened? He ran away and got discouraged. Jezebel was threatening, and he begged God to take his life. Well, thankfully, there were 7,000 men that didn't bow the knee to Baal, and he had to hear that. to be encouraged and get up and do the right thing. That's when he got up and went and anointed Elisha and called him. Cast a mantle on Elisha. How about Joshua when he succeeded Moses in leading Israel? God had to, how many times did the Lord have to tell him to be encouraged? Take courage. Three times in chapter one. Because he knew. He knew what happened to Moses. I mean, remember, Joshua was right there next to Moses. In the New Testament, Barnabas was the son of consolation or the son of encouragement. He was such a blessing to the apostles. Think of all that he did for Saul of Tarsus, how much he encouraged him, how much he was with him and presented him to the brethren and had confidence in him. But the reason he had that name, the Son of Consolation, Son of Encouragement, is because of what he did. Because he was a man who encouraged others when they needed it. That's what we need to do. We need to be encouraging leaders as much as we can in every way possible. That's what this psalm's about, the people praying for David, the people encouraging David. And how far did that go? Amen? What kind of man was David? when the people were encouraging him and strengthening him. Well, it made him a better man. It made him a more godly leader. And you know, if you have complaints about your pastor or you have complaints about leadership, you have to ask yourself a question. How much did you pray for that? If you would just replace your complaining with prayer requests, God would transform the leader into the leader that he needs to be. Or maybe instead of complaining, go encourage him. God would use that encouragement to make him what he ought to be. So this is an important psalm. So we see what the people did for David. Obviously, we're gonna move into another voice and that's the voice of God Amen Or David, I'm sorry comes David and David now is responding to the people Verse six. What does he say? We'll read it. I I don't think I'll be able to get into the rest of it, but we have enough to cover next week. It says in verse six, now know I that the Lord saveth his anointed. This is David now. Just because if you read verses one to five, and everything that the people were doing, what is David saying? Now know I that the Lord saveth his anointed. He will hear him from his holy heaven. with the saving strength of his right hand. Amen. Do you think he got encouraged? Do you think God answered his prayers? Yes. And so David knew that God was answering the prayer of the people. And David got encouraged. by the prayers of the people and their words of encouragement. Remember, this is a public meeting. This is what the people were shouting out, praying out, calling out publicly to the Lord. And David heard that. He was in the midst. And that's what encouraged him, gave him strength. And he confidently says now, Now know I that the Lord saveth his anointed. He's talking about what God's going to do with him. He will hear him from his holy heaven with the saving strength of his right hand. We'll pick up with verse six and I think we'll be able to get through the rest of the Psalm. I do have, um, Another handout, we'll get that to you next week to finish out Psalm 20. All right, we're going to go to the Lord in a moment of prayer. Father, we do want to thank you for this promise of Psalm 20, for the encouragement that we receive from the instruction we received by the example of God's people in the example of David.