Psalm 20 "The Lord of the King" Scott Hoezee

Once upon a time in an election year it was said that the Labor Day weekend was the kick-off for presidential campaigns. But that is clearly no longer the case as we have already been deluged with these campaigns for over a year now. We've known for nearly that long who the two main candidates for the White House would be and we knew well before either party's formal convention who even the vice-presidential candidates would be.

Not so long ago things were very different. As recently as the 1950s the matter of who would represent the party was decided on the convention floor. John F. Kennedy narrowly missed being the vice-presidential candidate in 1956, the selection of Estes Kefauver coming late in a suspenseful night of balloting. In 1920 it took 44 ballots to select the Democratic ticket of James Cox and Franklin D. Roosevelt. Four years later in 1924 the balloting lasted into the wee hours of the morning, requiring over 100 separate rounds of voting by the delegates before a nominee at long last received the required number of votes.

The lack of suspense, and the greatly lengthened period of time, that attend current-day elections can make us alternately weary and cynical. Yet we cannot deny that these are important matters and that as Christians we need to think carefully about them. In the coming months while I am away, probably Pastor Bob and our guest preachers will have the good sense of steering clear of politics! Yet tonight I will lead us into some thoughts surrounding this topic (and then promptly flee town for four months when I'm finished!). But we think about this tonight not in the specifics of candidates or issues. Instead Psalm 20 sets a tone for our Christian consideration of the upcoming political season by framing this entire matter in a properly divine perspective. So let's look at this highly interesting little Hebrew poem tonight to see what it has to teach us.

Before we get specifically to Psalm 20, it is well to recall the vast difference between Israel's situation and our own. Israel was God's Chosen People in a way that had never been true of any other people before and, in its political dimension at least, has never been true of another nation since. Israel was a theocracy, not a democracy, whose constitution was God's covenant. They were God's beachhead in the world, the place from which God would launch a global plan of salvation that would finally range vastly farther afield than just one nation occupying one small chunk of Middle Eastern real estate.

The unique status which Israel enjoyed is vital to keep in mind. Those in history who have naively transferred the structures and laws of Israelite society onto any other nation have greatly confused church and state in ways that have almost always done violence to the gospel. But even when we keep these things in mind, there is much God's Word, and tonight Psalm 20 in specific, wants us to bear in mind as we make our way in this world.

Psalm 20 is a song for two voices. Verses 1-5 are a series of benediction-like wishes and blessings directed toward an unspecified person referred to only as "you." In English the word "you" can refer to either one person or a group--we cannot tell the difference between the singular and the plural. So in the English translation of Psalm 20 it could be assumed that these blessings are being addressed to many people. But most languages, including Hebrew, helpfully have different words for the singular "you" and the plural.

In the case of Psalm 20:1-5 it is clear in Hebrew that these blessings are being directed to just one person. At first it is unclear who this is, but in the course of the psalm it becomes clear that the target for these blessings is the king of Israel. In all likelihood Psalm 20 was originally composed for use at some kind of official ceremony having to do with Israel's king: maybe it was part of the worship service that would surround the coronation of a new king or perhaps it was part of a prayer service to be used during a time of national crisis.

But whatever its precise original setting, these were the words that came from the people of Israel to the king of Israel. The people wanted the king to thrive, to have his prayers and sacrifices heeded by God, to have his plans succeed. They wanted all this for the king because he represented the people. How things would go for Israel's population was largely dependent on how well the king served God.

And so a string of blessings on the king makes up the first five verses. Then in verses 6-8 there is a shift as the psalm adopts the voice of someone speaking in the first person. This is perhaps the part of the psalm that was to be read by the king himself or by some representative of the monarch. Finally in verse 9 the voice of the people returns with a plea for their God, Yahweh, to save the king and hear their pleas for the king's well-being.

That is the basic structure of this psalm. But now let's delve into those various parts to see their content. Curiously, despite this psalm's being addressed to the king, what the psalm is really all about is God! The psalm is bracketed by the cry "Answer us, O God!"--that plea is in the opening and closing verses, thus providing a kind of frame. In between God remains the ultimate point of reference: in verses 1-5 when the people speak it is God's protection that is sought for the king, God's support that will determine the success of the king, and God's receiving of the king's prayers that will bring the victory.

God remains very much the focal point when the king picks up the dialogue in verse 6. It is Yahweh alone who answers the cries of his people and of his anointed king. It is Yahweh alone who saves. And despite the fact that Israel did have an army with some chariots and horses, from the midst of Israel's equivalent of the Pentagon, the king declares in verse 7 that the source of Israel's hope and confidence--the thing they trust above all to keep them safe and secure--is most definitely not the military but Yahweh alone.

Archaeologists have found a great many mosaics, paintings, and other artistic artifacts from the ancient world which show the leaders of Egypt, Syria, Babylon, and Persia seated in stately chariots and surrounded by other powerful chariots and the stallions that pulled them in battle. Whether it was a Pharaoh or an Emperor, it was common to paint the official portrait of leaders in a heavily military setting. But not so for Israel.

Psalm 20 paints its own official portrait of the king but it shows him not nestled into some military setting looking all strong and confident on his own. Instead what fills the portrait is the majestic figure of Yahweh, next to whom the human king of Israel looks like a puny little toy figurine. But at the end of the psalm this human king has one index finger raised up, pointing to that towering figure of Yahweh and so conveying the message that it is this sovereign God who is the stronghold of Israel.

Such were the politics and theology--and the God-mandated co-mingling of politics and theology--that characterized ancient Israel. But we don't live in ancient Israel. We are neither Israelites nor Jews but Christians who believe that our highest loyalty is to the citizenship we have in God's kingdom. What's more, we believe that the kingdom of God is always bigger and more important than any given nation, that God's kingdom knows no political borders, and that the Jesus who is that kingdom's bright center has little if anything to do with the kinds of power-brokering, arm-twisting, high octane-lobbying that characterizes much of this world's political systems and governments.

So what can we glean from Psalm 20 as well as from the wider biblical witness regarding a Christian's relationship to the powers that be? Well, one item is the importance of praying for leaders. When you transition from the Old Testament to the New, many things change. Christians in the first century lived under the pagan government of the Romans and were even persecuted by that government. But despite that you do not find anywhere in the New Testament agitation to foment some kind of coup or even very much direct criticism of the powers then in charge. Both Jesus and Paul urged the paying of taxes and Paul, in the famous passage of Romans 13, even urges the Christians in the heart of it all, Rome itself, to submit to the ruling authorities and pray for them as God's deacons, his servants.

But throughout Scripture the motivation for such prayer is the belief that whether the ruler knows it or not, it is ultimately God who is in charge and it is finally God who is taking care of his world through any and all who have authority. That is what underlies Psalm 20 but it is equally what lies behind Romans 13. There are, of course, a great many specific things we may pray concerning a given leader, but the final reason why we pray at all is because we know what many in our world do not know: namely, our world belongs to God!

But because we, like the poet of Psalm 20, see God as the overwhelming figure who looms over all, we remain on guard against what we talked about this morning: namely, the fact that the kingdoms of this world sometimes are dominated by what Paul called "the principalities and powers" of evil. We do not naively assume that any leader, government, party, or nation is only and ever on the side of good. Even in Psalm 20 when it is Israel which is in view, it is clear that the king of Israel is himself not the savior but the saved one!

If that was true of even the king of God's unique chosen people, it is even more true of all leaders since. They are not our saviors. Sometimes it may even be the case that they oppose God and end up representing the very evil from which, in the Lord's Prayer, we ask to be delivered. This is a chastening thought but it is one which reminds us again of the limits of life in this world and of why we need always to keep our primary focus on God's coming kingdom and on the One who really is our only Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ.

Yet throughout our recent series on the Lord's Prayer, it has been clear that despite the perils, pitfalls, and limits which attend this world, those who pray the Lord's Prayer do not seek to isolate themselves from the world but rather to engage it. If God's kingdom is to come and his will is to be done on this earth, if the petition for daily bread means seeking also bread for all, if the forgiveness of sins and the deliverance from evil apply to the real people and situations that surround us in society, then clearly we are right to be involved with this world and, therefore, with its leadership.

So how do we do that? One of the brightest theological minds, some say the brightest theological mind, America has ever produced was Jonathan Edwards. Much of the time when you hear that name, you maybe think of the fire-and-brimstone preacher and his famous sermon "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God." But Edwards also thought a lot about Christian engagement with society and his vast and supple thoughts on this can be summarized in six helpful points, with which I'll close this evening.

First, God has given us a responsibility to care for his world and certainly for our fellow imagebearers. So we are right to be involved in nurturing people both spiritually and physically. Second, Edwards said that with our doctrine of common grace firmly in hand, we can join forces with non-Christians to achieve good things for society. Christians do not have the good-idea market cornered--the residue of God's image in non-Christians leads them many times to do the right thing. When we see that, we may support those efforts.

Third, Christians should support with taxes and uphold in prayer the government and its leaders. But where necessary, Edwards suggested, Christians are also right to criticize the government and call it back to God's order for creation. Fourth, in the long run politics is relatively unimportant. It will never substitute for the life and witness of the church. Our primary calling is to witness to Jesus Christ as the true Lord to whom all people from all nations must submit. Doing Jesus' work as a church (and not expecting any government anywhere to do that holy work for us) is our primary task and focus.

Fifth, Christians should be wary of having too much national pride or nationalism. We can be thankful for what's good in our land, even proud of it. But the kinship we share in Christ with brothers and sisters all around the world and all across history is more important than any national identity (and sometimes too much belief that God is present in our society in a way not true of any other can eclipse our Christian unity with others).

Sixth and finally, the chief political interest of Christians should be care for the poor. Giving a voice to the voiceless, making visible the invisible, feeding the hungry, housing the homeless, caring for the mentally ill, and not letting children get punished for the mistakes of their parents are surely concerns near to the heart of God. Few of God's laws for ancient Israel were more consistent and stringent than the ones governing the care of the orphans, the widowed, and the poor. Jesus carried on that concern in the very way he conducted his own ministry and the people in whose company he could most often be found. Such a concern needs to remain dominant for us also today.

Such were the suggestions of Jonathan Edwards. What they point to is that delicate balancing act between kingdom and state, church and society. It is a precarious enterprise which most of us get wrong now and again. But the Bible's urging of us to pray for those in authority and to always, always see our true God and Savior as looming over them, authorizes us to struggle with this.

In many ways this last sermon before I leave for a sabbatical did not turn out the way I thought it might. In truth I think that five months ago when I picked Psalm 20 for my last pre-sabbatical sermon, I only gave it a glance and thought that perhaps this psalm's benedictions could be used by me in the sermon as my own parting blessing on Calvin Church before I went away for some months. But then when I studied it this week, I realized that the real content of Psalm 20 led in a different direction.

Yet in another sense a sermon that challenges us to think, to pray, to ponder, and to struggle with living out God's ways in a mixed-up world may be a good way to wrap things up before I take a break. It is my prayer that the ministry I've had among you these past seven years, as well as the ministry that I pray will continue in late-December, has been thought-provoking in the best sense. It is my prayer that we can hear God's Spirit calling us to careful, thoughtful discernment of what discipleship is all about.

Recently when I was paging through one of the pew Bibles in this sanctuary, I discovered one of our Visitor cards tucked into the Bible. Who knows how long it had been there but on it someone had written a note to someone else which said, "Shhhh!! It's rude to think in church!" Perhaps this was just a piece of silliness or merely a joke, perhaps it was a criticism. But even as we have wrestled with the nature of evil this morning and with the always dicey world of politics tonight, I hope and pray that we will never stop thinking in church, never stop praying for discernment wherever we are, never stop our holy explorations of the endlessly rich life of service and witness to which our God calls us.

I leave you now for a period of study and reflection. But in many ways that should be but a concentrated example of the vocation to which we are all called all the time. We are called to love the Lord our God with our whole heart, soul, strength, and mind. So my prayer for you is now as it has always been: that God's love will fill your hearts, that God's Spirit will bring comfort to your souls, that God's resurrection presence will give you strength when you feel weak, and that God's wisdom will challenge your minds in all the things you ponder. "May the Lord answer you when you are in distress; may the name of the God of Jacob protect you. May he send you help from his sanctuary and grant you support from Zion." Amen.