Now we're turning to Psalm 20. Psalm 20. I think some while back we had a look at Psalm 16, and that took us a number of weeks, but Psalm 20 we want to focus in on this Psalm, just for one week. And we were thinking, if memory serves correct, and it's one of the best these days in one's memory, we're thinking of Tuftown's graveyard, and we, under that same theme, Father, we thank you that you still have us sitting in place. We thank you for the wonder of your Word and for the blessing and glorious truth that it conveys to us. And so we ask, Lord, that as we come together, that you would just, by His Spirit, minister to every heart and life. No man, no creature can do that, Lord. Only the Spirit of God, taking the Word of God, can bring life to each one of us. and bless us together, your people, right round the world, not least those in persecuted lands. We pray that they too we will rejoice in thy salvation. And in the name of our God, we will set our manners, and the Lord fulfill all thy petitions. Now and awhile that the Lord saith it is anointed, he will hear him from his holy arm, from his holy hand. Let me read that again. Some trust in chariots and some horses, but we will remember the name of the Lord our God. They are brought down in form, but we are risen and stand firm. Save, Lord, let the King hear us when we call. Amen to God's precious truth. I was brought up on the authorised version, but over the years I've gone through different versions and thank God for more. King James Version, but I don't read it as often now as I once did, so you'll have to forget the slip up there with fruit going to that particular verse. But as I said, last time we were together, or the time before last anyway, we were thinking of the theme of tough times, great God. And we want to return to that this morning in this particular psalm, Psalm 20. It is the psalm of battle. It is the psalm that the children of Israel, I understand, usually sang when they went into the war. And I understand that Psalm 21 was the psalm that they sang after the battle. So 20 is when they went into it, 21 is when they came out of it. And in between, Our key phrase this morning is a phrase that is very, very particular and well-known to us, I'm sure, and you'll find it there. on the planet, on the Earth. We think of the trouble nationally with regard to Britain and with regard to the shenanigans, one could say, in Parliament this week, it's riveted it is that they are in trouble for so many Christians who live in persecuted lands, who are going through great difficulty. And I trust and I hope that you pray for them and think about them. It's impossible to think of every one of them, but there are certain areas and certain lands and certain peoples I want specifically to think about the day of trouble, not so much internationally or nationally or even locally, but personally. Whatever troubles you and I might have, whatever difficulties you might be going through, this particular song is not only a challenge, but a real encouragement. I think in some ways it was the Israeli's national anthem, certainly when David a deal of trust, and a deal of triumph. Those three things, when brought together, give us an understanding as to what the psalm is all about. Now, there's one expression that occurs three times, and you'll find it there in the translation that we've been reading from this morning. And the expression is, we will. Verse five, we will rejoice in thy salvation, And then in verse 7, we will remember the name of the Lord our God. Now these particular expressions, mentioned three times in the psalm, and that would give us a good understanding as to what the psalm is all about. That they have trouble. And yet the antithesis of all that is that David encourages his people with full assurance We will. Now one of the things about trouble, as you know as well as I know folks, is that trouble tends to understandably get us down. We often get overwhelmed by it. We can't see the wood for trees. We find ourselves in circumstances perhaps that are very difficult to see an end to. It's something that we all experience. time or another. Maybe on this particular Sunday morning, there are troubles that you identify in your life, in your family, in your work, wherever, and you think to yourself, how am I going to get through? under the direction of God's Spirit brings to us. So let's have a look at these three things, shall we? In verses 1 to 4, the expression is, we will rejoice. Now that seems to be a crazy kind of thing to talk about. I mean, you're in the middle of trouble. we're going through trouble. I mean, for one of us, the small exchanges again in David's own life, when we find this reality, when things are too big for heaven, the normal response in David's heart is to look to the Lord and find that God and I look to him. Now it's interesting that in those four words, or four verses rather, in verses one to four, we have a picture in David's mind, a wonderful picture of the God that he believes in. Just follow through with me for a moment, will you, in relation to David's view of God. Number one, he says that he believes in the But here in our English, in the original, I understand, could also mean the Lord answer, hear our answer. It depends upon the accent, the little mark in Hebrew, and it can be interpreted either way. So David says that day of trouble, I want to thank God that I believe in the God of Spirit. me his heart, and his passion, and his encouragement. David says, I believe in a speaking God. He's the God who speaks, and he's the God who answers me. It's interesting that David uses the expression, the God of Jacob, as well. I mean, what could have been the standard if he'd said the God of Abraham, that man of faith? Someone said that Jacob was so crooked he'd hide behind a corkscrew. individual who in so many ways wasn't good for his family or for the nation, but God took him, made him straight and made him right. similar to this in verse 1b and 2 there, that he's a God who surrounds us, a God who surrounds us. He defends us, says David. He's like a wall, or as in Job's case, he's like a hedge, that God has put a hedge around us. And of course, it was the devil's accusation, wasn't it, to God? You put a hedge around Job's shoulder, you can't attack him. And God, for a short while, removed the hedge. But here we have the whole understanding, you see, that the God that David what do we mean? We believe that God is omnipresent, that God is everywhere. Nobody like that. I know that sometimes when we come to pray and want to understand why we do it, we say, Lord, we come into your presence. But in reality, we're always in God's presence. But we know what we mean when we pray that we come into your presence. We want to have Now if God is everywhere, what is the sanctuary? When you put it like this, the sanctuary is God's immediate dwelling place. Would you allow that just to maybe sink into your mind and your thinking? God's immediate dwelling place, where God in his in every Christian life. But here is David saying that from the sanctuary, from God's immediate dwelling place, he's setting me up. Now I find my folks this morning a tremendous encounter. You and I, or whatever situation we find ourselves in, struggling with our heart, wondering how things are going to turn out. And David says that right from Do you remember that wonderful prayer in Jonah, chapter 2? It's an amazing chapter, is that chapter 2. Jonah swallowed by that great fish, often referred to as a whale. And in Jonah, chapter 2, we find that he's on his knees. He didn't go into the downward journey. Of course, he goes down the drop, and he goes down into the boat, and he goes down into the sea. You can read it there in chapter 1. And then when he gets down, knees, chapter 2, records for us the prayer that he made. And Matthew Henry, that interesting, fascinating commentator, I'll just move this to the side of me, Matthew Henry, Matthew Henry says that Job's prayer was prayed in the lowest depths, but heard in the highest heights. And so dear folk this morning, He allows things to happen from time to time to take away the edge or to remove a bit of place the sanctuary. But the place where God is, is what the Bible refers to as heaven. As heaven. So right from heaven, right to the Grange, or wherever we might live, God sends help. He sends help to your home. He sends help to your heart. He sends help to us Troubled with your experience there, God is the God who, from heaven aside, brings us the answer. Now isn't that staggering? Isn't that amazing for us? That he's the God who gives us poor strength into our lives. That even in our weakest moment, he is the one who gives the strength that we need. Now perhaps this morning, though no one knows it, Within your own heart you might feel so weak, so desperate, so down, so overwhelmed, you put on a good smile there. time he remembers your sacrifices, he remembers your offerings. Later on we'll be coming round the Lord's table and thinking of our wonderful Saviour's sacrifice upon that cross, dying for us that we might be saved from our sin, from our shame and from heaven itself. Certainly as we remember the Lord's sacrifice, a remembrance of the sacrifices and offerings that God's people give. He's rejoicing in that fact. But the God that we believe in is the God who The offerings, the voluntary expression of our love for God and giving to God and to giving to God's work. God is the one who satisfies that. We freeze and fray for a moment and we ask ourselves, is God satisfied with my offerings and sacrifices? It was more entirely The founder of modern missions, as some have put it, who said this, it's quite a staggering thing to think about momentarily, because it's highly heparan, but this is what he said, I understand. He said on a particular occasion that he And so I began to delve a little deeper into what he was saying. And I discovered this. I discovered that when he thought about God's sacrifice to him, the Lord sees your sacrifices and your offerings. There in Old Testament days there were no offerings of course, but God is satisfied with the response of his people to his word, to his commands. I often say in my own heart, thou Lord, are you satisfied with me? The God who surrounds and the God who strengthens and the God who is satisfying. And then he knows why David rejoices in verse 4. He's the God who supplies. He gives you the desires of your heart and fulfills his house. So here the God that David believes in is the God who, with regard to his own desires and longings, and in it through them and other things he's going to lead them in the way to the plan and in the plan there is hope. And so David rejoices in God because the Lord meets his every need. Isn't it wonderful to reflect morning as a Christian minister and pastor, and as a Christian, I have God meets in Eden. He can too. The Lord meets our need and he makes our plans succeed. He begins to fulfill his plans in our lives. Now I know that we all know that God has got a plan for our lives. But whatever troubled circumstance you might find yourself in, we say, well, Lord, even through this trouble, you have a purpose and a plan. I might not understand it. I might not be able to think my way through it. And Lord, you know, I've got no answer to the problem that's there. I know how good it is to know that it's enough, that God has a plan for our lives. I love the story of the young fellow who, after a church service, went to one of the elders and told him that he felt that God was calling him to go to Brazil. And the elder, very wise and clearly this morning, someone gave me a bar of Brazil nut chocolate. And I thought that that was the answer that I was looking for, that I should go to Brazil. That's how he thought, dear Lord. The wife over there said, son, I'm glad that God is calling you. And I'm so glad that he didn't give you a Mars bar. some weird and wonderful ideas propounded by so many different folk on God's plan and God's will. There's no greater way of knowing the will of God than seeking to live close to him, seeking to be guided by his word. He will make all our plans succeed. He will give us the desires within our hearts. that we need, we know that all kinds of desires, that's a powerful force, is the realm of desire. But when we surrender ourselves to Him and yield ourselves to Him, He gives us those desires wherein, not only are we assured that those desires are for us, and because he believes in the God who meets his need and the God who is going to see him through. I love that expression in Psalm 91 verse 15 where the psalmist says there, I will be with you in the day of trouble. Now as we move down the chapter and the psalm we discover this, not only do we rejoice as David, but we will set up our banners. So we will rejoice and we will raise our banner. I ask you folks this morning, what does an Englishman know about banners? Well, I know a bit more now after 53 years living in Ireland. I do. There's much I don't understand, mind you, but I know a little bit more. In the north-east of England, on the second Saturday, in the county of Durham, and in Durham City itself, they have a great biowave. I come from a mining village, or was a mining village, and so the miners in the county of Durham gather still They gather still with their banners, there's a lot of speech you find from the politicians, which is not as interesting or amusing or annoying as the case might be. And so, you know, I got a little taste of banner carrying there. 200,000 people gathered yesterday. Mind you, when we came here in 1969, I thought I'd seen what it meant to raise banners, because my father would take me along to Durham to the big meeting there, but of course, someone invited me on the very first year that we were here to come along to the 12th of July. So I'll tell you, that was an education for me. I'll tell you who he was. And I thought I was just going to be there a couple of hours. But of course, my wife and I, little boy, were in Belfast for most of the day. I knew nothing then about buggers at all. Nothing at all. In those early days, and of course it'll be true now, I'm going I was invited to Kenalbana. I couldn't even pronounce it properly then. I called it Carnal Banner. You know Kenalbana, not too far from one. And I was invited to speak to the Black Presidium. Now fortunately I didn't have a clue as to what the Black Presidium really were. So, literally as an ignorant Englishman, I turned up to preach for me. Fast forward that number of years and I invited them again, I was doing a mission up the Shankle Road and one evening the Black Perceptory invited along for the evening and I was so glad to have them in. And as the men and their wives came, I told them the story about my introduction into the Black Perceptory world So over the years, as I've said, I've known a little about what banner waving is. I know that there are dangers in the whole business of flag waving, and we all do, don't we? that David knew anything about the July to some, he knew what it meant to lift the banner. So in the day of trouble then, in the day of trouble, he not only rejoices, but he lifts up his banner. We were raised on that. We lifted the banner and he said, God listens. I love that verse in Exodus 17 verse 15 there where it says, David says, the Lord is my banner, Jehovah Nisai. 2 Samuel 22 verse 48, you are my strength for the battle. And so it's important for us when we're going through trouble and difficulty and hardship, In the name of the Lord, and the Lord's name in the Jewish mind stood for all that he was and all his character. In God's name, I'm lifting my banner and I'm singing to make my stand in the midst of the situation where I find myself in. but in Isaiah 13 verse 2 there, Isaiah talks about the banner on a hill. On the high mountain, he talks about our witness. So in the midst of trouble and difficulty, we know that we send out silent messages by the way we respond, by the way that we react to the situation like that. can be positive and negative. Now our immediate reaction of course is, so often, depending on the trouble, shock, despair, fear, worry. Let's understand that. But how we react, and how we raise our bar when we're going through it, know folks so often, we feel that we're witnessing, just with our words, with our life, there's a greater point of witnesses than none. Folks see us, they know us in a small community of them, they see us like grains, they know us very well, though it's expanding and developing, yes, and they're looking at Christians. They're saying, how do these Christians react. And so there's the banner on the hill and then in Solomon 2 verse 4 there's that well-known banner, the banner on the house, he brought me into his Babylonian house and his banner over me is love. This wasn't someone's witness but wonder that he's invited the king of kings to the banner house that he might raise his banner and way, the goodness and blessing of God. A banner of that. Know how we need such a banner in our old homes because so many old homes under great pressure have been so fractious to say the least. And then of course, there's no time to think about it, there's the banner in the eve of battle, Psalm 60 verse 4, God has given us a banner. So, when we're in the middle of the battle, we need to lift up the banner and say we're trusting in God, we're depending upon God, and the Lord, heavenly, is in the middle of so much horror and difficulty at the moment, and lifting up the banner. And that's why it's important, is it not, not only for us to lift up the banner, But for those that we know and love so well in family, and in church family particularly, help us to lift up that banner. I understand that in the American Civil War, 1861-65, there was a particular battle. The North, as you know, were engaged with the South. It was a very sad time for America. And on this particular occasion, the Northern Army was so strong that they were pushing the Southern Army right back. And it was seen at that particular moment that the Northern Army was certainly going to win. And there was someone in the stand, a little boy, a little drum boy who saw the oncoming enemy to him and he put down his drum. So the little boy put down his drum very quickly, ran to the flag, got his hand around the pole, wanted to picture the scene, and he digs the pole in the ground, and the flag is flying there, the enemy are attacking. The little boy is frightened, the little boy thinks and knows that it could be his end, but he's going to do the right thing and raise his hand up. See the courage of the wheeler. So here's David saying in the day of trouble, folks, you've got to raise a value. You've got to say, I'm not the best Christian in the world. I feel in my own heart that I may be the weakest Christian in the world, but I'm making my stand. And then notice, thirdly, and very, very briefly as time has gone on, Sava says in verse 7, we will remember the name of the Lord our God. That word remember is a fascinating word and in the newer translations it is translated like this, we will trust in the name of the Lord our God. To remember God's name means more than just using that expression. It means that Lord, we're trusting you in our trouble, in our battle, we're resting and relying upon you. That's what David was saying. Now notice the contrast here in the verse. He said, there are some that trust in chariots, and there are some that trust in horses. But we won't remember or won't trust in the name of the Lord our God. Now, I just think of that for a moment now. He said there are those that are trusting in the material, the chariot. Israel and Israel didn't have the chariots. They don't and they didn't know how. It made sense from what I understand. But what Paul was saying now, look, in a battle, in a fight, surely that which is material will meet the need. Trust in the animal, as well as the material. We believe as Christians that man is more than an animal, made in the image of God, originally. But assuming for a moment that man is just an animal, and we believe more than that, as I said, There are so many that say, he'll do it. She'll do it. I remember when I first came living in the Belfast area, I would often hear concerning a certain person, words like this, he's horrible, huh? Whatever is happening in our world, either nationally or in our lives personally, we're not going to trust the material, a better house, a better car, all those things can be important of course, but we're not trusting a horse. And we're not trusting man. Where has the problem been? I'm sure there have been a number of problems, as you know, but the basic problem is, can we trust? Can we trust? And David Aschenbrenner, the imprisoned Yad Vashem, because Lord, you're the one who delivers me, saves me. And let the king hear us as they respond to David's message. When we call, what are they calling? Lord. I find the psalm so encouraging. The way to evil trouble, David gives the answer. Let's pray together and then we'll sing. Our Father, we know that David lived a long time ago. We know that we're in trouble, Lord, in this world. The world's in a mess. We're waiting for the King to come back. But Lord, in the meantime, we want to rejoice in all that you are, to raise our vows as Christians and In a situation, Lord, that's difficult to see any way out, we ask our Father that your living Word might become an increased reality within our lives. And this week, for our Lord's speeches and the marches and the flat-flying