The sermon by James Lundquist focuses on Psalm 20, emphasizing the importance of prayer during times of trouble. It begins with a prayer of blessing, asking God for protection, support, and fulfillment of desires. The speaker highlights the significance of trusting God over worldly means, like chariots and horses, and stresses the importance of praying to God, especially in times of difficulty. The sermon encourages believers to remember God's past faithfulness, to rely on His strength, and to rejoice in salvation even amid adversity. The speaker underscores Jesus' role in salvation, encouraging believers to use prayer as a spiritual weapon and to rely on God's promises and support. The sermon also discusses the communal aspect of prayer, where believers unite in their petitions and share in the joy of God's salvation.

Psalm chapter 20 to the chief musician a Psalm of David. May the Lord answer you in the day of trouble. May the name of the God of Jacob defend you. May He send you help from the sanctuary and strengthen you out of Zion. May He remember all your offerings and accept your burnt sacrifice.

May He grant you according to your heart's desire and fulfill all your purpose. We will rejoice in your salvation And in the name of our God, we will set up our banners. May the Lord fulfill all your petitions. Now I know that the Lord saves His anointed. He will answer him from His holy heaven with the saving strength of his right hand.

Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we will remember the name of the Lord our God. They have bowed down and fallen, but we have risen and stand upright. Save, Lord. May the King answer us when we call. God, we pray for our brother, for our own sakes, that you would anoint him and help him to preach your word with great faithfulness and power.

Oh Lord, attend by your spirit, attend the preaching of your word and give Him the ability to preach with power and give us the ability to hear and receive. How happy we are to be under the authority of Your Word. Thank You for this great gift of Your Word and of the preaching of Your Word. Please bless it in Jesus' name. Amen.

We're spending a couple weeks in the Psalms. One of the things I think of when I think of the Psalms is in our Bible reading plans, sometimes we get to the section on the Psalms, we're reading four to six Psalms a day. And sometimes it seems like that, I just got to plow through this, I get through six Psalms. Now some of them are really short. But still, sometimes it seems like we got to plow through them.

They're not narrative. They're poetry, which can be hard to understand at times. But this is God's Word. They're not disjointed. They're ordered well.

This is God's Word. So one of the helps to us, as I pray for us as we spend a couple weeks on the Psalms, it would just help us to want to slow down when we get to them. Just spend more time meditating instead of plow through to get through a reading plan. That's been helpful to me the last couple of weeks. It's been helpful as we preach through some of them at the nursing home, just to help us slow down, meditate on them, and as we see today, a psalm of prayer and a psalm of singing, that we would pray, that we would use these for prayer.

I've titled Psalm 20, Save Lord. This is from verse 9. It really psalms up the psalm that's talking about this day of trouble. And this day of trouble that we either have or we will have or we have had. But it psalms up, save Lord.

We're going to talk about the Gospel. We needed the Lord to save us first. We've needed the Lord to save us our whole life. We need the Lord to save us, open our eyes and ears to the Gospel and our desperate need for Him, and then we continue to need the Lord to save us, to keep us now and forevermore. So save Lord.

This is focused on the Lord. Yes, it's a day of our troubles, but this message is focused on the Lord and His care for us. I'm broken down in a few sections. Let's start in verses one through four. One through four, this is a prayer of blessing.

This is also a song. These are songs that are being sung. This is to the chief musician, a Psalm of David. This is a prayer in the form of song, a prayer of blessing, like a benediction here at the beginning. Verses 1 through 4.

May the Lord answer you in the day of trouble. May the name of the God of Jacob defend you. May He send you help from the sanctuary and strengthen you out of Zion. May He remember all your offerings and accept your burnt sacrifice. May He grant you according to your heart's desire and fulfill all your purposes.

Start here with what seems like an easy question. Who are we praying to here? Who is this being sung to? James, this is easy. It's God.

When we look through the beginning of this psalm, these first four verses, there are three ways that God through David is using to grab our attention of who this is that we're praying to. I want to lay that foundation first in these verses. It really lays the foundation for the whole psalm. At the beginning of this it says, may the Lord, Capital L, Capital O, Capital R, Capital D. May the Lord.

This is signifying God the Lord Almighty. His most holiest of names. So holy that the Jews wouldn't even dare try to pronounce this. This is the most holy God. This is Yahweh, Jehovah, our God and Father.

This is the self-existent, the divine, I am God. That's who we are directing not just this prayer to, but All of our prayers are being directed to God. Be in awe of this start. Days of trouble, people of prayer. Jesus, His days on earth were full of troubles.

You can think of them. Full of troubles, all leading up to a day of trouble. When he took on the wrath of God to save sinners, he who knew no sin became sin for us. He did not deserve a bit of what he got on earth. He didn't deserve any of what happened on that cross, much less taken on the wrath of God.

But he did. Now is a day of trouble. Psalm 20 is a psalm. It's also a prayer for the day of trouble. If we don't pray, if we don't pray in our days of trouble, if not then when?

When would we cry out to God if not in our days of trouble? That's what's so helpful I think in this Psalm. Of all the days we should be crying out to God, it would be the days of trouble. Yes, it shouldn't be it. But if we don't have a pattern of praying to God as we're being helped here in days of trouble, when then?

When? When would we have enough attention? When would God get our attention enough that we would pray if not then? Jesus, before going to the cross, he spent all night in prayer. And Jesus knew the end.

He knew when the end of his trouble was. And he still spent all night in prayer. And he had a big pattern for prayer. If your troubles ever led you to spending all night in prayer? I know they have for me and it one particular one I'm thinking of that it did you know what that night brought?

Probably one of the sweetest times of prayer I've ever had. But his communing with his God, with his father, over a day of trouble, Brothers, sisters, if you're in that place, I urge you back and say thank you. I am more confident in my God. You are the God. You are most Spurgeon says, What a mercy!

What a more blessed privilege that No trouble can prevent the Lord from hearing and caring for you in the day of trouble. He is. Cry out to Him. He will hear. In these first four verses, I want to point us to five requests for God's help in the day of trouble.

Number one, seen in verse one, may He protect you. That's what this word means, defend. May He set you securely on high. He defends you. Maybe just being prideful and thinking you should be defended, why would He defend you?

He cares for you. He defends His kingdom, whom Christ died for. And you're His daughter. In that day of trouble, remember, God is defending you. The second way that we request for God's help in the day of trouble is seen in verse 2.

"...you help from the sanctuary." The sanctuary represents the Lord's presence. This is sent directly from the presence of God. Think of when God sent angels to Jesus right after Satan had come. God sent you from the presence of God. God has sent you from the presence of God.

God sends you help from the church body. Then you need help from the church body. Psalm 20 for you. And have your name before the most holy God. He sends help through our Sunday, the Lord's Supper, through our fellowship.

This is help from God. God in days of trouble is seen in verse 2 as well. May He comfort you, may He refresh you, may He grant you support, may He hold you up. The idea here is that troubles may linger for a long time and we're going to need strength. We need that support.

We need it. We need it through temptations and trials and difficulties and sicknesses and ailments and relational troubles. We need His support and care when we are not repenting and He is chastening us hard. He's chastening us because He loves us. He's caring for us and directing us and conforming us.

We need Him to support that, support us, help us through that. He strengthens you from Zion, from God's dwelling place, from heaven where Jesus is seated at the right hand of God, interceding for us. We are praying in this Psalm. David is praying. We are called to pray.

But you have an advocate before the throne. He is pleading for you up. The fourth way, may God remember all your offerings and accept all your burdens. All the sacrifices would be done in obedience out of faith. So when David's writing this, he's still looking, would they be accepted?

Would they be accepted to you, brother and sister? We know they are now. They are appointed to Jesus Christ and they are perfectly accepted by God. All your burnt sacrifices, yes He does remember. So I just said Jesus is right by Him and His work.

Preach that to yourself in the day of truth. You are accepted in God. Because of the sacrifices and offerings of Jesus. The Sila. And this is just a music.

Whether it's read or not, doesn't really matter. In our prayers. Don't think that we just have to talk and talk and talk in our prayers. When we pray, let there be pauses. We're pauses to meditate on what has been prayed and maybe You're continuing a prayer in your own mind and enjoy the presence of God, the Holy Spirit, helping you amongst your church body.

Just in stream. Just be still. Gather your thoughts. Think about it. Sometimes in those Salahs or some of the Mozart praying, I'm like, okay, alright, I'm done trying to fool God.

This is what's really specific about particular sins, specific about this day of trouble and how you're thinking about it. Then in verse 4, we have the, the, grant you according to your heart's desire and fulfill all your own heart. We know those well, we know where our heart has led us before. We were told last week that this is a person that is saturated in God's counsel, who sets the Lord before himself always can then have his heart instruct him. In that same way, here in this psalm we see a person whose confidence is in the Lord, in his perfection, in his goodness, and in his righteousness.

So God's great disposition is to love us, to show his love and his care, and his delight in you. He gave you a new heart. Remember that. He gave you a new heart, filled you with the Holy Spirit, gives you new desires that your will would be His will. And he will gladly, gladly give you desires.

He wants you to have golly desires and good desires. We still have bad desires, but he wants you, he gave you that new heart for new desires. He will gladly give you your heart's desires, fulfill all your plans. He wants to happily do that for you. Verse 5.

5, talking about rejoicing. We will rejoice in your salvation. In the name of our God we will set up our banners. May the Lord fulfill all your petitions. This is switching from the personal you.

We have may you, may he answer you, may he defend you, may he strengthen you, may he remember all your offerings, grant you to we. In church we are now united in our prayer with one another. The prayer is prayer for a blessing. When you see what the Lord does for you, Christ should lead us to rejoicing. Even in that day of trouble, it should lead us to rejoicing, which begs us to go back to Philippians.

I've been out very long. Please turn to Philippians 4. Your Bibles should be able to open to this very readily now. Find it very quickly if you still have the pages there. Philippians 4.

Now I'm going to read verses 4 through 7. As I'm reading it now, now think of this day of trouble as part of this. Philippians 4, 4 through 7. Rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I will say rejoice.

Let your gentleness be known to all men the Lord is at hand. Be anxious for nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication. The peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard your heart. Look at this passage through the lens of Psalm 20. Always hurry.

Don't worry about that day of trouble. Don't be anxious. Let your requests, we just went through five requests, be made known to God and minds through this day of trouble. And you'll ask, brother, how can you do this, sister? Let me tell you about my God.

He provides us with sending help from his presence, from Zion, from the sanctuary. Let me tell you what a comfort this is. We can rejoice always even in trouble because our troubles are not the end. No matter what comes our way, and eventually it will be death, no matter what comes our way, our source of joy is through Jesus and his salvation, we will rejoice. And rejoicing here in Psalm 20 also has this idea behind its meaning of singing for joy, even in the day of trouble.

When I think about singing for joy in the day of trouble, I think of my favorite hymn, It is Well with My Soul. That was penned by a man right after we're in a shipwreck in the Atlantic and his four daughters perished. Sweet song. In the day, in his day of trouble, God gave us a sweet song. We can sing in the middle of our day of trouble.

We can sing while we weep. We can sing during our weeping, our sorrow, and our heart. That's a prayer. It's a song too. Sing this song as a prayer.

We are rejoicing and we are raising God. These are victory banners in the name of our God of His kindness, His love, His mercy, His grace. Banners that can be raised now even in the day of trouble, they can be victory. Our day of trouble, your day of trouble, the Lord doesn't return. It may be quick for some of us, instant death, but these are banners of victory even in that day of trouble.

In Exodus It says, Moses built an altar and called its name, and in that day there shall be a root of Jesus. We know that is Jesus. And in that day there shall be a root of Jesus. Who shall stand? For the Gentiles shall seek him, and his resting place shall be.

You have a banner, who is the Lord, who is God, who is Jesus. You have been saved, and you can rest in him. The Lord is with you in all your days, including the days of your days, rest in your banner. That banner can put up not saying how great I am, that banner can put up to tell everybody how great Jesus is. Look on him!

Look on the Lord! Look on his name! Look at what he is! Look at his perfect, infinite attribute! Look at the Savior!

Look on him! He comforted us. He blessed us. He was the Lord. He was the wonderful Lord.

The end of verse 5, we're back to a prayer of blessing. May the Lord fulfill all your petitions. Not my will, but my will we pray. May it care to buy it, but request it according to your will, O God. You are good.

In the state of trouble, you are to keep on working. You are to conform. That is what it is. That is righteous. And We want that.

We want to be conformed. We want to be conformed. Which means, we want to be conformed. We want to be reformed. And that is not what it feels like.

It's a lot. It really doesn't feel good. In trouble. Forgive me, reform me. Forgive me, reform me.

May the Lord fulfill all your petitions and fulfill all your requests. May the Lord fill your greatest requests. He opened your eyes and ears to the gospel and you said, Lord, forgive me? He did. He answered that request for us thousands of years ago and fulfilled that.

Why would you doubt that he would ever not care to rejoice in the day of trouble? Jesus is born and I can rest in his glory. So know that the Lord saved his anointed. He will answer him from his holy heaven with a simple we will remember the name of the Lord our God They have bowed down Lord May the key answer us when we call Prayers in verses one through five should lead us to an assurance. It should lead us to a faith.

It should lead us to a confidence in our Lord. It should. This Richard's here to give us that confidence in our Lord and give us that assurance and that hope throughout. This is to the anointed, to the saints in Jesus. Those saved, praise the mercy of God.

Friends, do you lack assurance in your salvation? If you're not saved, you show the assurance. But friends, those that are the saints of God, do you lack assurance of salvation? This is an answer to your prayer. Pray these wonderful truths of scripture.

Pray them as a form of preaching to yourself, teaching yourself, reminding yourself who this God is that saved you and what he will continue to do. Pray. Do you lack hope in God's promises that they will come to pass? Pray. Do you lack faith in God alone?

Pray. Do you lack confidence in God's prayers? Just pay peace to God. Pray for yourself pray for each other me in here pray for each other Pray for each other in our gathering we do that Lord answers you from his holy heaven with the saving strength of his right hand. The Lord answers your prayer with encouragement and should be not like this song, He also damaged what He does by the might and power of the right hand of the Lord.

That He's caring for you, that He has fun in you, that He's delighted in you by this beautiful passion. Show them. Have you seen it? Have you seen these carefree in the days of trouble? We sing a lot of good songs.

I don't know how much time you take. Look at the songs you're going to be singing from the week to week. Truth, I believe this, I want to sing with all my heart and bless the Lord oh my soul. In the second verse, Your name is great and your heart is kind. For all and do you believe there are 10, 000 reasons, in other words, an uncountable number.

Do you believe that? Do you know that? If not, how did you see that? Maybe you need help with this. You're thinking, how has God helped?

Well, okay, let's go back. Let's start very basic. Before you were saved, before you were saved, You were in complete rebellion. I was in complete rebellion to God. I deserved death and His full wrath.

His long suffering, He didn't do that for me or you. He prayed for many others. And He saves. There's one. There's a ton right there.

And then he continues to keep us and care for us. Sends us his Holy Spirit. Because God delights in Jesus, he delights in you. And he's caring for them, understand them, look for them. In the day of trouble especially, look for how...

Be confident in the saving strength of his right hand. And in verses seven and eight, Trust in God and those that do. The difference between those that have their confidence in the Lord and the effects towards those that have their confidence in the Lord. Now, talking about pacifism at all, they just sit back and let God. David, who killed lions and bears to protect his flock, his responsibility, No problem doing that.

He didn't wear the king's armor, but because it didn't fit him. He wasn't comfortable with it. There's a sling in these stones, because that's what I've used often. That's what I'm going to take and arm myself with in killing the Lord. He uses other people.

Praise God, He uses doctors and medicine and government. We are thankful for God's provision of His protecting us through various means. We are thankful for those means that God provides. We love them. But it's God providing.

The Lord is the first. We are to go to God first and most. Are you running to earthly help first? Even trouble, but also is ordained how he's going to sustain, care for you, and get you through this trouble. Used by God to help you.

I'm not the one that can absolutely solve this for you. You are Wonderful to be, you're wonderfully used by God to support people in their days. You support them whenever. As much as we're thankful for one another, we're thankful that God to support and help one another. Now, that day of trouble, if there's a heart attack, call 911.

If there's a fire, call 911. Please do that. Nehemiah back, go back and read the prayer in Nehemiah. Read Nehemiah 1 and 2. He was afraid before the king.

He says he was dreadfully afraid. He did that. Before that day of his trouble, that moment of trouble, he's the cup bearer, he's a very important person. Before that day came, when the king saw that he was downcast and asked him, and he was dreadfully afraid of having to pray, to prepare himself for that day. Let's pray.

We know that. We've been there and they are coming. That the Lord would remember. That the Lord would remember us. Here in verse 7 we say, we will remember.

We will remember the name of the Lord our God and all of His perfect infinite attributes. We prayed for God to remember us, now we're saying we will remember. I want you to listen very carefully. Children, children, my children, please listen to this very carefully. A couple things here.

In order for you to remember anything, in order for you to remember anything, you have to have known it first. Right? You can't remember what you don't know. So Listen to this very carefully. You first know the Lord your God.

You know God. I'm not talking, oh yeah, I'm hearing what you said. I know what you said. Jesus who is God as your Savior. Do you know Him?

And if you were to die and you were to stand before the most holy God, we talked about this, the most holy God, because He is perfect in His justice, His Justice demands His complete wrath for your penalty of your sin and complete separation of Him forever. That's what a perfect holy God says. Do you know that you would perish forever if you would stand before Him in your sin. Do you know who Jesus Christ is? Do you know that He is God and that He came to live the perfect life that we could not live, that we were commanded to be perfect as our Father in heaven is perfect.

We're to be holy as He is holy. And we couldn't do that, and we needed a substitute. We talked about the sacrifices and offerings. They didn't save anybody. But they all pointed to our need for a Savior.

And Jesus was that Savior. And He is that Savior who is God forever for all of eternity. And He took on that penalty of sin and the wrath of God that I deserve, that you deserve. And if you die in your sin, you will get that wrath. But, but if you know this God, He gives you a new heart and causes you, the primary cause, causes you to repent, and you will be saved.

And you will stand before that holy God, and your sins are gone. Your sins are gone, and then you, the most just God. And he invites righteousness and holiness, just like he's a just God, to send you away and perish in your sins forever and ever. And remember him. And this can also be translated boast.

So it could have said, some boast in chariots and some in horses, but we will boast in the name of the Lord our God. Galatians 6, But God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. I will boast in Christ. In verse 8, we see the effects of where you put your trust. Listen up.

If you don't put your trust in God, it says you will be bowed down and fallen. You will collapse. You will be brought down to your knees if your trust is not in God alone for your salvation, if your trust is not in God alone as the primary cause for everything, the primary cause for defending you and strengthening you and helping you, the primary cause that your trust in him. If your trust is not in him, your foundation is on Saul. You have no hope.

You really don't. You may see that. We've got some sweet words coming up of what he does for us. Your chariots and horses from the song of Moses and in Exodus 15 your chins maybe your smartness your your own strength what you think you have will will be if you trust in God starting with repenting and believe all your days including the days of trouble you will be made because of God. And what He does, brethren, we begin life in trouble, but then God saves us by His grace.

He gives us eternal life. None shall perish. None shall snatch us from His hand. That sounds like being defended. That's made to rise.

Those who have their trust in God, that's the effect of the day of trouble. As he defends you and sets you on high with his almighty arm, brothers, flee to Jesus. Flee to your Lord. Flee to the Lord again and again. It is only, see here, by the power of his right hand, nailed scarred hands, that you can be, that you and I can be strengthened, that we can be accepted into her forever.

Believe them. And in verse 9, we say a prayer to the Lord, the King, the only one that can save your soul and save you in trouble. May the King answer us when we are in our times of corporate prayer, of our church prayer on Wednesday nights. May the Lord answer us when we call it. He will.

He does. Remember all the ways he has. Let me give you two applications. First application, I want you to turn to Ephesians 6. Turn to Ephesians 6 while you're turning there.

The application is, make use of the privilege and help of prayer. This is a great weapon in our spiritual battles and days of trouble. We see this in this Psalm. We see this in Ephesians 6. Look at Ephesians 6.

We know Ephesians 6 for a few things on children and parents, but we also know it for the armor of God. In verse 13 we see that we are to take up the whole armor of God, and we may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all to stand. Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace, above all taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one, and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, then verse 18, praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end, and with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints. Make use of the privilege and the help of prayer. This is right there in this great armor of God passage.

We love the helmet of salvation, girding yourself with faith. We love all that. Do not stop at verse 17. Verse 18, prayer is an important part of arming yourself for this battle. Such an important part.

He remembers you. He uses, God uses through Paul, imagery of armor to help us understand how it is. Prayer is right there. Use that. It's a great privilege and a great help.

Number two, remember, keep in the front of your mind who is the Lord, the name of the God. If they have trouble, you may be lacking assurance and hope and confidence keep in name of the God of Jacob and let this drive rejoicing and calm of Lord may the Let's pray. Our Lord, our Savior, our Helper, oh I thank you for giving David this Psalm and for having it as part of your inspired scripture. I thank you for your defending us, for strengthening us, for accepting us through Jesus Christ. Your care for us, I thank you that you delight in us.

I thank you that you support us in these days of trouble. Oh God, days of trouble have come for many of us and will continue to come. And we are in the middle. There are people here in the middle of a day of trouble now. God please support them, strengthen them, defend them, and let them see how you're doing this God.

And may it encourage all of us for our day of trouble. You are the great God, the Lord Almighty, the most holy. You are perfect in all of your ways and you never change. May our trust, may our confidence be continually in you. Thank you for giving us a church that would care for one another, that you would cause us to have love for one another, build that love even more God.

And we thank you for your word. In Jesus' name, Amen.