A Word in Season: Remembering God (Psalm 20:7–8)

Trusting in Chariots and Horses or Remembering the Name of the Lord

What is your instinct in trouble? Where do you automatically turn for help when you need it? From where do you think assistance will arise in a time of distress? In Psalm 20 and verses seven and eight, David says, 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. David is speaking as well in a day of trouble. He's declaring where he turns to, what the instinct of his soul is. And it's not unfounded and foolish and pointless for him to turn to God.

He says in verse six, I know that the Lord saves his anointed. He will answer him from his holy heaven with the saving strength of his right hand. And so arises the contrast between the trusting or remembering in chariots and in horses or remembering the name of the Lord our God.

Chariots and horses would have been the heavy weaponry of the day. If you are going to rely on anything to get you out of trouble, it would be chariots and horses. A king who had chariots and horses at his disposal was a force to be reckoned with.

But some will trust in those things. Some will call those things to mind in trouble. Some will look to those things in order to deliver them. And in the same way, there is much in this world that we today might easily turn to in a time of distress.

We may not have armies at our disposal, but even perhaps on a national scale, do we think that our security lies in weaponry? What about more personally? Do we think about our savings? Do we think about our wisdom?

Do we think about our families or our friends? Do we think about the resources that we have at our disposal? Is that our instinct in a time of trouble? Well, those things are given by God to be blessings to us, and they can be means of doing us good.

But if they are the sole grounds of our confidence, then they will prove sadly empty. It is the name of the Lord our God in which we need to trust. It is Him, the covenant-keeping God of our salvation, who is ultimately all our hope.

He can bring the chariots and the horses to nothing in a moment. He can make the most wealthy man to see his riches to fly away taking wings. He can strip us of health and strength. He can do those things to our enemies also.

Everything belongs to Him. Everything is subject to Him. And so when we come into trouble and distress, it is His name that we need to remember. All that belongs to Him, the declaration of His being and His character made known in the scriptures.

The Outcome of Worldly Reliance Versus Faith in God

And what is the consequence of either remembering horses and chariots or remembering the name of the Lord? Well, those who rely upon the world's strength, they have bowed down and fallen. They have been conquered.

Their reliance has come to nothing. They've got nothing to show for their expectation from the chariots and the horses. Although they anticipated that worldly strength would be their success and their strength, nevertheless, it is empty and they have been brought low.

But we, those who are remembering the name of the Lord our God, we have risen and stand upright. Though in the heat of battle, it might have looked like we were being beaten down, nevertheless, because of our confidence in God, we have triumphed and now stand upright as conquerors in the field.

This is not then some breast-beating machismo. This is not some bravado on the part of man. It is a simple declaration that God has preserved us and made us to stand, that he's brought us safely through the day of trouble.

The Petition: Save, Lord

And it leads then this confidence in what we know about God and what we're expecting from God to the petition of verse nine in Psalm 20. Save, Lord. May the King answer us when we call. This then is not the King with his chariots and his horses.

This is the King of all the earth. This is our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. This is God in the flesh acting for us. Who then will we remember in the day of trouble and to whom will we turn? From where do we expect our help to come?

Let us not trust in even the greatest strength that the world holds out, but remember the name of the Lord our God, that we may rise and stand upright, even when all else and all others bow down and fall.