Treasury of Daily Prayer, Psalm 20, O LORD, Save the King!

First off, I really like the Treasury of Daily Prayer. Such a cool book for "devotions." It has a Psalm, an Old Testament and New Testament reading, a writing from a church father, a hymn stanza, and a prayer for every day.

Today was a rich day for me. Not necessarily with answers, but sometimes just creating more questions. Today's Psalm is from Psalm 20. It's particularly interesting because it starts out "May the Lord answer you in the day of trouble" so you automatically start thinking this psalm is about me. It even goes on to say "may he grant you your heart's desire and fulfill all your plans!" That sounds pretty sweet. Then after in verse 5 it says "may we shout for joy over your salvation and in the name of our God set up our banners!" Hmm, now it seems like it isn't talking about me but about someone else. Vs 6 "Now I know that the Lord saves his anointed" ok, so this is probably about David or Jesus. But was this psalm written by David or someone else? I don't know. Then whose salvation are we rejoicing in? Then at the end it says "O Lord, save the king, may he answer us when we call" That's an interesting line "may he answer us when we call." IE. May the King answer us when we call. If speaking of David that's quite the responsibility he has to do. But it could also be talking about Jesus. Perhaps its another both/and situation, regarding David and Jesus.

On the side, I think, its interesting how people say "God save the queen." Salvation seems to entail a type of rule. (Sorry stream of consciousness here)

Then the OT reading was in Deuteronomy (the covenant renewed in Moab), the New Testament was the Parable of the Unforgiving Servant... then the writing was from Martin Luther:

"If the mass (holy communion) is a promise, as has been said, then access to it is to be gained, not with any works, or powers, or merits of one's own, but by faith alone. For where there is the Word of the promising God, there must necessarily be the faith of the accepting man. It is plain therefore, that the beginning of our salvation is a faith which clings to the Word of the promising God, who, without any effort on our part, in free and unmerited mercy takes the initiative and offers us the word of his promise. "He sent forth his word, and thus healed them," not: "He accepted our work, and thus healed us." First of all there is God's Word. After it follows faith; after faith, love; then love does every good work, for it does no wrong, indeed, it is the fulfilling of the law (Romans 13:10). In no other way can man come to God or deal with him than through faith. That is to say, that the author of salvation is not man, by any works of his own, but God, through his promise; and that all things depend on, and are upheld and preserved by, the word of his power (Hebrews 1:3) through which he brought us forth, to be a kind of first fruits of his creatures (James 1:18).

The Hymn
"Forgive our sins, Lord, we implore,
That they may trouble us no more;
We, too, will gladly those forgive
Who hurt us by the way they live.
Help us in our community
To serve each other willingly" - Our Father, Who from Heaven

Amen.

The Psalms

Paul says, "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God" (Colossians 3:16).

How come the psalms get so little singing time in worship these days? There is so much good stuff in the psalms! I love the raw honesty. They have so much heart, and dare I say it, emotion. You find yourself wrestling with God, dealing with despair and skepticism, fallen-ness and sin; but you also share in joy, reverence, peace, awe, beauty, mercy and deliverance. It's down to earth but also accompanied with the grace of heaven.

Sure there are psalms sung in church every once in a while by way of vague references, but it's always the flowery psalms that get cherry picked. There is so much more than that. The psalms reveal Christ. They reveal Christ even in the darkest moments, especially in the darkest moments. Whenever I read the psalms I can't even tell if it's about David or the Messiah. I like that. It just shows how close Jesus is with us, sharing in our humanity, trials and temptations.

Why is it that we skimp out on the psalms? Is it our attempts to be relevant and seeker sensitive? Maybe that's part of it. But I think Christianity at large has become pretty comfortable. I think we have become blind to what surrounds us. When was the last time you sang about anguish, terror of death, fear and trembling, and being overwhelmed with horror? Or when was the last time you simply asked God for mercy? And when you look at that, you see how comforting the gospel actually is. How relevant it is. It's comforting but it's not comfortable. It's this word of Christ that dwells in us richly.

That said, I really like this introit. It's a substantial chunk of scripture distilled from Psalm 55. I'm also a sucker for responsive chant and harmony.



I call to God and he hears my voice
He redeems my soul in safety
Cast your burden on the Lord
And he will sustain you.
Give ear to my prayer O God
And hide not yourself from my plea for mercy
My heart is in anguish within me
The terrors of death have fallen upon me.
Fear and trembling come upon me
And horror overwhelms me.
But I call to God
And the Lord will save me.

Glory be to the Father and to the Son
and to the Holy Spirit.
As it was in the beginning
Is now, and will be forever
Amen.

I call to God and he hears my voice
He redeems my soul in safety
Cast your burden on the Lord
And he will sustain you.