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The Chariots of Men vs. The Cross of the Messiah (Psalm 20) · Reformed Thinking

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Welcome to Reform Thinking. I am your host, and I am sitting
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down once again with our resident theologian to walk
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through the Scriptures. Yeah, it is.
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It is really good to be back at the table.
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We are here to help you think God's thoughts after him
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standing on the shoulders of the Reformation and holding to the
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Westminster Confession. That is our theological stance.
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Right, our core framework, yeah. And today we are not looking at
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a greeting card verse, we are looking at a war cry.
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We really are. We are opening up Psalm 20
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today, and I think a lot of people know this Psalm, or at
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least they think they do. Right?
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It gets used in benedictions a lot.
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You hear it at the end of the service.
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May the Lord answer you in the day of trouble.
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Yeah, it sounds very soothing. It does.
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It sounds like something you say to someone having a bad week at
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work. You.
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Know right? It feels like a spiritual pat on
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the back, but the sources we are looking at today for this deep
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dive paint a completely different picture.
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This isn't a bad Wick at the office.
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This is life or death. Spot on.
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It is a covenant liturgy for a people staring annihilation in
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the face. Annihilation.
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Yes, if we want to grasp Psalm 20, we have to.
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We have to strip away our modern, comfortable context.
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We have to put on sandals. We need to stand in the dust of
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the ancient Ear East. We do.
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So let's set the stage. The sources point to a very
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specific historical backdrop for this text.
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We aren't just floating in a vacuum here.
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This connects to 10 Samuel Chapter 10.
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That is correct. Most conservative scholars place
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this Psalm right in the middle of the Cyro Ammonite war.
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OK, this was likely the most dangerous moment in King David's
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entire reign, and it starts with something that sounds almost
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comical to our ears, but it was a deadly insult back then.
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You're talking about the ambassadors?
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I am Nahash, the king of the Ammonites, dies.
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David, being a man of honor, sends ambassadors to Hannon, the
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new king, to offer condolences. Just standard diplomacy.
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Right, David says. I will show kindness to Hannon,
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just as his father showed kindness to me.
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It was a diplomatic mission of peace.
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And how does Hannon respond to that?
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Well, he listens to his paranoid advisors.
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They tell him David is spying on the city.
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So Hanun takes David's ambassadors, shaves off half
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their beards and cuts their garments in the middle, right up
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to their buttocks and sends them away.
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OK, let's pause there for a second.
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Shaving half a beard? To us, that looks like a a bad
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frat prank, but in that culture that was devastating.
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Wasn't. It oh, it was a symbolic
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castration. Seriously.
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Yes, the beard was a sign of masculinity, of maturity and
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dignity. To shave it was to strip a man
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of his honor. And cutting the garment.
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That was public exposure is total shame.
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And Noon wasn't just being rude, he was provoking a war.
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He was sending a message. Right, he was saying, I do not
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fear you, and I do not respect your God.
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So the Ammonites realize they have kicked the hornet's nest.
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They know David is coming for them.
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They. Absolutely know it, and they
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know they cannot fight Israel alone, so they go shopping for
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an army. Mercenaries, yeah.
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The Texan Tutan Samuels says they hired the Syrians of Death
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Rehab and the Syrians of Zoba. That is 20,000 foot soldiers.
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That is a lot of guys. Plus the King of Makkah with
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1000 men and the men of Tab with 12,000 men.
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So we are talking about a massive coalition.
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It is a superpower alliance and they bring something to the
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battlefield that Israel did not have.
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They bring the ultimate weapon of the Bronze and Iron Age.
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The. Chariot the Rekhev in Hebrew.
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I really want to spend some time here because I don't think we
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appreciate what a chariot was. When I see Chariots in the
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Bible, I usually picture a parade float or maybe just a
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fancy wagon. A.
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Lot of people do. But that's not what we're
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dealing with here is. It not even close.
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You need to think of the chariot as the tank of the ancient
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world. The.
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Tank. Or maybe an attack helicopter is
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a better analogy because of the speed.
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This was a highly mobile hiring platform.
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Paint the picture for me. I'm an Israelite soldier.
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I have a spear in a tunic. What am I looking at across the
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field? You were looking at a vehicle
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built for shock and awe. It is typically drawn by two or
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four horses, and these are animals bred for aggression and
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stamina. The chariot itself is wood
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reinforced with bronze or iron. It has a driver who is an expert
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at maneuvering over rough terrain at high speeds, and it
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has a warrior, usually an Archer or a Spearman.
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And the noise? That must have been terrifying.
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Deafening. The sources talk about the
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rumble of the wheels. When you have hundreds or
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thousands of these things, charging the ground literally
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shakes. It feels like an earthquake.
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It does. It creates a dust cloud that
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blots out the sun. If you are an infantryman, a
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foot soldier like the Israelites were, the psychological effect
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is pure terror. Because you can't fight that on
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foot. You know you cannot outrun them,
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you cannot out muscle them. They can circle you, rain arrows
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on you from a distance, and then run you down.
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South Militarily speaking, this is a mismatch.
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It is suicide and the tactical situation in Second Samuel 10
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makes it worse. How so?
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Joab, David's general, marches out.
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He finds the Ammonites lined up at the gate of the city, but the
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Syrians, the ones with the Chariots, are hiding in the open
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field behind them. It's a trap.
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It is a classic Penser movement. Joab is surrounded, enemy in
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front, enemy in back, no way out.
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This is the day of trouble the Psalm speaks of.
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It is the moment where logic says you are dead.
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That raises a massive question for me.
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If Chariots were the standard military tech of the day, if
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they were the F sixteens of the ancient world, why didn't Israel
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have them? That is a great question.
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Why didn't David just buy his own chariot division?
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That is the $1,000,000 question right there.
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And the answer isn't economic, it is theological.
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We have to go back to the book of Deuteronomy, chapter 17, the
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law. Of the King.
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Right when God laid out the rules for the future king of
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Israel, He gave a very specific prohibition.
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Deuteronomy 17.16 says only He must not acquire many horses for
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himself, or cause the people to return to Egypt in order to
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acquire many horses, since the Lord has said to you, you shall
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never return that way again. OK, unpack that for us.
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Why does God care about horses? Is he against cavalry?
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He is against where the horses come from and what they
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represent. Egypt was the arms dealer of the
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ancient world. They had the monopoly.
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They bred the best horses, they made the best Chariots.
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For the King of Israel to build a chariot division, he would
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have to enter into trade alliances with Egypt.
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You'd have to rely on the very nation God had delivered them
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from. So relying on horses meant
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relying on Egypt. Precisely.
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It meant going back to the House of bondage for security.
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But more than that, God wanted Israel to be unique.
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Distinct from the nations around them.
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Every other nation trusted in their military hardware.
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Their security was in the strength of the horses legs.
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God wanted his people to have a different center of gravity.
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He wanted them to be clearly, visibly dependent on him.
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That feels incredibly risky. It's like telling a modern
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country you can't have an Air Force, you just have to trust
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God. It is terrifying to the flesh
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and that is why it was such a massive test.
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Later kings like Solomon failed this test miserably.
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Solomon had Chariots, right? Lots of them.
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Solomon built the House of the Forest of Lebanon, which is
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basically a giant garage for his Chariots.
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He had thousands of stalls. He thought I need to be like the
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other nations to be safe. But David is different here.
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David, in this moment in Psalm 20, is sticking to the
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prohibition. He is outgunned, surrounded and
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he has no tanks. And that is where the liturgy
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begins. The people are gathered.
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The king is about to go to war, and the congregation lifts up
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this prayer Verse one, the Lord hear thee in the day of trouble.
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The Hebrew here is a justif form.
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Yassif. It expresses a strong desire or
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a petition. May Yahweh answer you the day of
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trouble. Here is the crisis point.
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It is the moment the pressure clamps down.
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And we can tie this to the ultimate day of trouble, can't
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we? Looking forward to Christ.
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We absolutely can. The theological connection goes
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straight to Gethsemane and Golgotha.
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That was the day of trouble where the Messiah faced the
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wrath of God for us. Yeah, and then the congregation
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says the name of the God of Jacob.
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Defend thee. Now I have to ask about this.
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Why Jacob? It stands out, doesn't.
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It it does, why not the God of Abraham, or the God of Moses, or
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just the God of Israel? Jacob was a bit of a.
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He was a mess. Jacob was a schemer.
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He was a deceiver. He stole his brother's
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birthright. He tricked his father.
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His name literally means something like that.
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Right, his name literally implies supplanter or heel
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grabber. He was a man with a lot of
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baggage. So why invoke his name when you
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are praying for the King's life? Because it is an appeal to
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grace, not merit. If they said the God of Abraham,
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you might think of Abraham's great faith.
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If they said the God of Moses, you think of the law.
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I see where you're going. But when you say the God of
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Jacob, you're appointing God to his election of a flawed man.
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That is really beautiful. It's like saying God, you stuck
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with Jacob even though he was a mess.
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Stick with us now. Exactly.
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It highlights sovereign election.
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God loved Jacob not because Jacob was good, but because God
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is gracious. The prayer is Lord, defend our
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King based on your covenant loyalty to unworthy people.
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And the word defend there in the Hebrew.
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The word is sagab. It literally means to set on
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high. It means to put someone up on a
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Cliff where the enemy cannot reach them.
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So may the God of the flawed but chosen put you up on a high
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rock. I love that.
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Now let's look at verse 2. Send the help from the sanctuary
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and strengthen the out of Zion. This is critical for our
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Reformed understanding of how God works.
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Note the location help comes from the sanctuary, comes from
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Zion. That is where the Ark was.
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That is where the Tabernacle was pitched.
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Right. And this tells us something
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about the means of grace. We often want help from nature,
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we want help from our bank accounts, or we want help from
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some mystical experience out in the woods.
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Just a feeling. Yes, but the psalmist says help
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comes from the place where God has covenanted to be.
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It's locative. God has an address.
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In the Old Covenant, that address was the Holy of Holies.
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It was the place where the blood was shed and sprinkled.
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The help Israel needed on the battlefield was sourced in the
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atonement happening in the tent. That connects right to the
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Westminster Confession concepts of worship.
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It does. We do not look for grace and
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mysticism. We believe God uses the Word,
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the sacraments and prayer. These are the sanctuary for us
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today. They are the ordinances.
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Exactly when we need help, we don't run away from the covenant
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community, we run to it. That is where the help from Zion
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resides. Now we get to verse 3, and
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honestly, this feels like the theological core of the whole
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Psalm. Remember all the offerings and
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accept thy burnt sacrifice. We have two different Hebrew
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words for offerings here. We do, and the distinction is
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not accidental at all. The 1st is mincha.
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This is usually translated as the meal offering or grain
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offering. This was the bloodless one,
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right? Yes, it consisted of fine flour,
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oil, frankincense, and salt. Why specify fine flour?
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Is that just an indicator of quality?
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It's about quality, but also about the process.
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To get fine flour, you have to crush the grain.
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You have to grind it and sift it until there's no lumpiness, no
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unevenness. It is perfectly smooth.
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And theologically. Theologically, this has always
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been seen as a type of the act of obedience of Christ, his
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character, his perfect, sinless humanity.
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Jesus was the fine flower. He was tested, tried, ground
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down by suffering, yet he remained perfect.
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There's no leavenous sin in him. His life was a sweet aroma to
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the Father. So that is the mincha.
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What about the second offering? Mention the burnt sacrifice.
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That is the Ola. This is the heavy one.
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The Ola was a sacrifice of total consumption.
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In other sacrifices, the priest got a cut of the meat or the
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worshipper ate a portion. Right, but not this one, no.
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With the Ola, the entire animal was placed on the altar.
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It was completely given over to the fire.
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It represents total dedication. Total dedication, but also total
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propitiation. It represents the substitute
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taking the full hit of God's judgment.
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Now I want to drill down on the word accept in this verse.
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The English text says accept thy burnt sacrifice, but I was
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looking at the source notes and the Hebrew word here is yet
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Hashanah and it does not mean accept like I accept a package
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from the mail carrier. No it does not.
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It is a very graphic word. The shin means fat or ashes as a
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verb, yet Hashanah literally means to turn to ashes or to
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make fat. May God turn your sacrifice to
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ashes. That sounds destructive.
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Why would our congregation pray for that?
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Think about the mechanics of the altar.
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You put the animal on the wood, you light the fire.
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The fat of the animal drips down onto the coals.
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It causes the fire to flare up to consume the meat until
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nothing is left but white ash. OK, I am tracking with you.
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Now, how do you know God has accepted the sacrifice?
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Because it is gone. Because the fire consumed the
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substitute instead of consuming. You think of Elijah at Mount
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Carmel. He builds the altar, puts the
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bowl on it, and what happens? Fire falls from heaven.
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It consumes the burnt offering, the wood, the stones and the
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dust. It turns it all to ash.
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Then the people standing there were safe.
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That is the whole point. If the fire falls on the lamb,
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it does not fall on the Sinner. The ash is the proof that the
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judgement has been exhausted. The wrath has been spent.
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That is the gospel of penal substitution right there in a.
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Nutshell, it is the very heart of the gospel.
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We are not saved because we are good people.
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We are saved because the fire of God's justice, which should have
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burned us to ash, fell on Jesus Christ at Calvary.
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You took the hit. He was the Ola.
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He was completely consumed when he cried out.
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My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
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That was the fire falling on him.
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And when he said it is finished, that was the sign that the
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sacrifice was turned to ashes. The debt is paid in full.
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Exactly, and this verse acts as a sharp polemical weapon against
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so many theological errors we see today we need to be clear
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about. This Let's walk through some of
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those errors based on the source material.
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Start with Rome. Well, the Roman Catholic
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doctrine of the Mass teaches that it is a propitiatory
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sacrifice. They believe Christ is being
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offered again and again in an unbloody manner.
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But looking at Psalm 20. If Psalm 20 is right, if the
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goal is for the sacrifice to be turned to ashes, then it implies
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finality. If it is ash, it is over.
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You cannot burn ash again. Hebrews 10 says once for all.
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Right, there are no more sacrifices to be made.
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The ash heap of Calvary is the evidence that we are safe.
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We do not need to re sacrifice, we need to trust the finished
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one. What about the liberal view?
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We hear a lot of commentators talk about how the cross was
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just a display of love, a moral example, and not about wrath.
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That is a moral influence theory.
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It says Jesus died to show us how much God loves us, to
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inspire us to be better people. But without the fire, without
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the yet Hashanah, there is no dealing with justice.
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It ignores the holiness of God. If there is no wrath falling on
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the substitute, then the wrath is still hovering over you and
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me. Liberalism offers a cross
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without a hook. It does not save anyone.
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It is just an example. And lastly, the source mentions
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our Armenian friends. The error there is more subtle.
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Arminianism tends to view the atonement as making salvation
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possible. God provides the sacrifice, but
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it is up to you to add your decision to make it effective.
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It's like a bridge that goes 90% of the way.
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But the text says the fire consumes it entirely.
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The text implies the fire does the work.
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When the sacrifice is consumed, the work is done.
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Redemption is accomplished, not just made potential.
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For the reformed believer. The ashes mean we are actually
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saved, not just potentially saved.
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That is a rock solid foundation for assurance.
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OK, moving to verse 4. Grant the according to thy known
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heart and fulfill all thy counsel.
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Now I have to play devil's advocate here for a second.
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This sounds a bit like the prosperity gospel.
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God give me the desires of my heart, name it and claim it.
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It certainly sounds that way if you RIP it out of its context.
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But we have to remember who is being prayed for here?
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This isn't a prayer for you or me directly.
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This is a prayer for the King. For the Messiah.
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Yes. So whose heart are we talking
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about? We're talking about the heart of
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the Anointed One. We are talking about the Counsel
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of the Trinity. This connects to what
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theologians call the pectum salutis.
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The Covenant of redemption. This is a concept that is
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absolutely vital but often neglected in the modern church.
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Before the world was created, before there was a single center
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to be saved, the Persons of the Trinity entered into an
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agreement. Like an inter trinitarian
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contract like. A divine blueprint for history.
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The Father appointed the Son to be the mediator.
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He gave him a people. The Son agreed to do the work.
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He agreed to take on flesh, to obey the law, and to die as the
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Ola and the Holy Spirit agreed to apply that work to the hearts
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of the elect. So when the psalmist prays,
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fulfill all thy counsel, he is really praying.
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Father, let the plan you made with the Sun come to pass.
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Exactly. It is a prayer for the success
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of the Gospel mission. Let the cross succeed.
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Let the tomb be empty. Let the nations be gathered.
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It is not about me getting a new car or promotion.
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It's about Jesus getting his reward.
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And the incredible thing is, this is a prayer that cannot
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fail. It is impossible for it to fail
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because it rests on the eternal decree of God.
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The counsel of the Lord shall stand.
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So we have the sacrifice in verse 3 and the plan in verse 4.
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Now look at the reaction in verse 5.
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We will rejoice in my salvation and in the name of our God, we
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will set up our banners. Banners.
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This is military language again. The Hebrew word is daigle.
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It refers to a standard, a flag or a pole with an Insignia on
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it. In the ancient world, every
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tribe and every army had a banner.
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It was their rallying point. In the chaos of battle, you look
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for your flag. Right.
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If the banner was flying, you knew you were still in the
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fight. You knew where your brothers
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were. It reminds me of Exodus 17, the
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battle with Amalek. Yes, where Moses holds up the
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staff of God. When the staff was up, Israel
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prevailed. When his arms dropped, they
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started losing. That is where we get the name
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Yawen. Easy.
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The Lord is my banner. But notice the verb the
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congregation uses. Here we will set up our banners.
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It sounds active. It sounds defiant.
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It is a public boast. You do not set up a banner in a
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closet. You set it up on a hill.
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You stick it in the ground for the enemy to see.
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It is a declaration of identity. We belong to Yahweh.
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We trust in His victory. I feel like we need to apply
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this to the church today. There is a strong tendency in
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2026 to hide the banner. We call it seeker sensitive.
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We do not want to offend anyone with heavy theology or specific
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doctrines. So we fold up the banner and put
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it under the Pew. That is a tragedy.
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We think that by lowering the banner we become more attractive
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or welcoming, but actually we just become invisible.
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If you do not have a banner, why would anyone rally to you?
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People are looking for something solid to follow.
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They are The world is waving its banners proudly.
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Banners of pride, of ideology, of self.
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If the church is ashamed to wave the banner of the God of Jacob,
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we have lost the plot entirely. The Reformed believer says no,
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we are going to hoist the flag. We believe in sovereign grace.
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We believe in the blood of the covenant.
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We believe in the Lordship of Christ.
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We let the flag fly and let the chips fall where they may.
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Precisely. We boast in the name, we don't
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hide. It OK we have reached the
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turning point of the Psalm verse 6.
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This is the pivot. Up until now, everything has
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been a prayer. May he hear you grant thee.
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But suddenly the grammar changes.
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The tense shifts dramatically. We move from the justif, which
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is the wish or petition, to the perfect tense.
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The psalmist says, Now I know the Hebrew is yadati.
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It is a statement of absolute fact.
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Now I know that the Lord saves his anointed.
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He isn't asking anymore, He is sure.
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This is the assurance of faith. It's the movement from groaning
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under pressure to total confidence.
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The Holy Spirit has given the psalmist a glimpse of the final
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verdict. And notice who is saved.
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His anointed the Hebrew, is Mashiach, the Messiah.
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This is crucial. The assurance does not come from
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looking at the Israelite army. Remember, the Chariots are still
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out there. The Syrians haven't left the
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battlefield yet. The assurance comes from knowing
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that God has committed himself to the King.
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And the text says He will hear him from his holy heaven with
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the saving strength of his right hand.
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And notice the elevation change here in verse two.
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Help came from Zion, the earthly tent.
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Now the answer comes from holy heaven.
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It has gone up the chain of command to the throne room of
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the universe. God is sovereign over the
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battlefield. If we look at this through the
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lens of Christ, what was the answer?
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Jesus prayed in the garden. He prayed on the cross.
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How did God answer with saving strength?
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The phrase is jibbero yesha. He answered with the
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resurrection, that is the saving strength of his right hand.
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The ultimate day of trouble was Good Friday.
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It looked like the enemy had won completely.
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The Chariots of Rome and the bulls of the Sanhedrin had
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crushed the anointed one. But God heard him, and on the
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third day he answered. So our assurance are now I know
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is anchored in the empty tomb. That is the only place it can be
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anchored. I know I am saved, not because I
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feel good today, but because the king is alive.
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If the head is reason, the body is safe.
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That brings us to verse 7. This is the verse everyone
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quotes. It is the tagline of the Psalm.
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Some trust in Chariots and some in horses, but we will remember
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the name of the Lord our God. The antithesis, the clash of
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worldviews. I love the Hebrew syntax here.
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The first half is a verbalist clause.
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It just says these in Chariots, these in horses.
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It's not static like a snapshot. Is a panorama.
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Imagine standing on the battlefield and looking at the
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enemy line. It is just chariot, period,
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horse, horse. It is a wall of power.
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It is visually overwhelming. It is meant to intimidate.
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You it screams. We have the power, we have the
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technology, we have the future on our side.
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But we but we will remember, or we will make mention of the
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name, the revealed character and promises of God.
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Let's bring this into 2026. We aren't fighting Syrians.
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We don't see iron Chariots on the freeway.
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But the spirit of the chariot is alive and well, isn't it?
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Oh, it is the dominant religion of our age.
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The chariot represents pragmatism.
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It represents trusting invisible created things to secure your
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future, trusting what works of what God has said.
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Give us some modern examples. The sources point to a few
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specific things. What does a chariot look like
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today? Well.
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Look at our economics, the four O 1K, the investment portfolio,
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national alliances. How many of us look at that bank
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number and think, OK, I am safe. I have a high tower that is a
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chariot. Or politics.
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The source material brings up things like Christian
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nationalism or just generally trusting in Princess to save the
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culture. That is a huge 1 the mindset of
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if we can just get the right man in the White House, if we can
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just pass this specific legislation, then the church
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will be safe. When we do that, we are trusting
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in political machinery, We are trusting in horses.
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And the source also brings up secular sociology.
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I see this reported a lot in current events regarding the
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church, things like critical race theory or social justice
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frameworks. We see churches adopting these
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secular frameworks as the primary solution to the human
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condition. Now, regardless of where you
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fall in the political spectrum of those theories, the
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theological issue is replacing the gospel.
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They're saying the gospel is nice, but to really fix society
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we need these sociological tools, we need these Chariots.
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It is functional atheism. We profess God on Sunday, but
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Monday through Saturday we trust the tools of the world.
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That is the definition of pragmatism, and the psalmist
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calls us to reject that entirely.
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He says we will remember the name.
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We will call to mind the character of God, his
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faithfulness, his justice, his covenant love.
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Not a magic word, but his very nature.
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And what is the result of that choice?
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Look at verse 8. They are brought down and
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fallen, but we arisen and stand upright.
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The inevitable collapse, The Hebrew word for brought down
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Kara, means to buckle at the knees.
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It is the image of a soldier who has been struck and collapses in
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a heath on the ground. All that technology, all those
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expensive Chariots, and they just fold.
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They fail because they are created things.
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They are not absolute. When God blows on them, they
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wither. He is a battlefield slaughter
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with a mighty machinery just breaks apart.
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But the believer? The one with no Chariots.
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We rise and stand upright. Yeah.
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The verb there for stand upright is UD, and it is in the hip pole
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form. It is reflexive.
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It applies a restoration of vigor.
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It applies holding firm, getting back up on your feet and
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standing tall. This speaks to justification,
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doesn't it? To stand before God in a legal
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sense. It absolutely does.
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Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect?
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If God justifies, we stand, We stand upright in the courtroom
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of heaven. We have a lethal standing.
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And it speaks to resurrection. The enemy falls into the dust of
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death and stays there. We may fall in death
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temporarily, but we rise. We rise because Christ rose.
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We stand upright in the resurrection of the just.
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I cannot help but think of the story of Dagon in First Samuel
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5. The source brings this up and it
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is the perfect illustration of this verse.
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It is a brilliant example of false gods collapsing.
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The Philistines capture the Ark of the Covenant, which
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represents the name of God. They think they've won the war,
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so they put it in the temple of Dagon, their fish God.
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Dagon is their chariot, their source of strength.
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And what happens in the morning? They walk in and Dagon is face
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planted on the floor in front of the Ark.
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He is bowed down and flow Cara and Nephal.
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So they prop him back up. Come on Dagon, pull yourself
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together. And the next morning he is down
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again, but this time his head and his hands are cut off on the
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threshold. He is completely broken.
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The false God collapses before the presence of Yahweh.
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That is the destiny of every chariot, every idol, every
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ideology we trust in. It will eventually be face down,
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headless before the King of Kings.
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That is the verdict of history. Nothing stands against the name.
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Finally we reach verse 9, the final cry.
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Save Lord, let the King hear us when we call.
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There is a bit of a textual debate here on the syntax the
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Masoretic Text can be read. Lord save the King may he answer
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us when we call. Or, as the Septuagint and some
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modern translations have it, Lord save, may the King answer
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us when we call. From a reformed perspective, how
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do we synthesize that? What is the right way to look at
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it? In the end, it points to the
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heavenly King. We cry out to Yahweh save and we
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looked at the King Jesus to answer us.
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David is just a shadow of the true King.
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It feels exotological, like we are waiting for something
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future. We are.
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This is the cry of the Church militant.
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Remember, we have the assurance of verse 6.
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Now I know, but we were still living in the tension of verse
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7. The Chariots are still rolling
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around us, so we cry out. Save Lord.
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We are waiting for the Church Triumphant.
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And just to impartially note the dispensational view, the sources
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mentioned they see a distinction here.
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They view this is Israel praying for David historically, while
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the church today is waiting for the rapture or the second
27:04
coming. Right.
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There are different frameworks for reading the timeline, yeah,
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but the core application remains.
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The cycle of the Psalm ends back in prayer.
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It started with May the Lord hear you, and it ends with Let
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the King hear us. Faith does not lead to
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independence from God. Never.
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It leads to deeper dependence. The more you know God is your
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Savior, the more you call on Him.
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Assurance fuels your prayer life.
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It does not replace it. So, to summarize this deep dive,
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we have walked from the terror of the Syrian war machine to the
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quiet confidence of the empty tomb.
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We have seen the danger of trusting in pragmatism, in what
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works, and the absolute necessity of trusting in the
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name. It really comes down to a binary
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choice. Every single person listening to
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this has to decide when the day of trouble arrives and it will
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arrive. What will you lean on?
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Will you lean on the visible, the tangible, the chariot?
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Or will you lean on the invisible, the ancient, the name
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of the God of Jacob? I want to leave you, the
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listener, with a final provocative thought, a framework
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to take this home and explore on your own.
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We like to think in terms of head, heart and hands.
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That is a great way to land the plane.
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Let's start with the head. What do we need to know
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mentally? You need to know the theology of
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the atonement. You need to understand yet
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Hashanah. You need to know that the fire
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of God's wrath has been satisfied.
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If you do not know that in your head, you will always be
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insecure. You will always be trying to
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earn your own safety. Know that the sacrifice is ash.
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The work is done. And the heart?
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What are the affections here? You need to cultivate affections
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of security and joy. Stop looking at the Chariots of
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the culture with envy or anxiety.
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Look at the banner with joy. Let the God of Jacob, the God of
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grace for flawed people, be your delight.
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If God is for us, who can be against us?
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That should bring joy to your heart.
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And finally, the hands. Grateful obedience.
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This is the third use of the law in our tradition.
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Because we are saved, because we stand upright, we act.
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We set up our banners in your workplace, in your family, in
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your community. Do not hide your allegiance.
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Be distinct. Refuse to go back to Egypt for
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horses. Walk in the ways of the Lord,
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even if it looks like you were totally outgunned by the world.
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That is the calling to stand upright in a bowing world.
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Set up your banners in the name of the King.
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Thank you so much for guiding us through this text today.
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It has been a privilege. May the Lord answer you in the
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day of trouble. This is reformed thinking.
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Signing off.