Week 22: Day 5

Intro: Hello and welcome back to Orbit, a short reflection to help you put God at the centre of your life from the team behind Satellites - I'm Liz Grier. Every day I share a little bit of the Bible with you, give you a chance to pray and think about it, and provide you with one practical way to put it into practice today.

Bible: Today let’s look at Psalm 20:6-8

Now this I know: the Lord gives victory to his anointed. He answers him from his heavenly sanctuary with the victorious power of his right hand. Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God. They are brought to their knees and fall, but we rise up and stand firm.

Thoughts: Psalms 20 and 21 are a pair of royal psalms. They were written for the King in a time of battle. This section starts with ‘Now this I know’. There is such confidence in these words. The psalmist knows that God will hear and that God will come and fight for him from heaven. He isn't trusting in the military might of his nation. In their chariots and horse. Chariots were source of confidence. If you had them. And fear if you didn't. Israel was called neither to fear or to trust them. Because the psalmist knows that Israel's greatest weapon was trust in God.

Think about David fighting Goliath. Goliath had everything going for him. The armour, the stature, the skill. The Israelite army were terrified of him. Yet David, a shepherd boy with a sling and a stone confidently goes before him and says. ‘You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied’. I imagine Goliath was laughing at this small shepherd boy until the moment he was hit.

The psalmist knows that the victory will be God’s. That their enemies will fall to their knees and that they will remain standing firm. And although all these verses have been full of confidence. The Psalm ends with ‘answer us when we call’. It hasn't happened yet. Yet the psalmist remains certain. You can see the faith in every line.

We don't face a battlefield like the original people who prayed this psalm. But just like them we can be tempted to put our faith in the wrong things. In our own abilities. In our plans for the future. In popular opinion. In social media. Or our friends. But all these things ultimately can let you down. We need to put our faith in God. Our battle is spiritual. We don't fight it with worldly weapons but with God on our side. And we can live in the same place as the psalmist. No matter how tough sometimes things are. We can live with confidence of what will happen in the end. Sometimes it feels like the battle will never end. Sometimes it can even feel like we are losing. Yet we can have confidence that God will answer our prayers. That is faith. Knowing what God promises yet still boldly asking for asking for God to hear us.

Prayer: Father thank you that you always hear us and you promise to answer our prayers. Forgive me for when I have put my trust in the wrong things. Help me to always trust in you. Amen

Action: This psalm is all about praying for a nation. Think about something that you really care about that you would like to see changed. It might be the environment, or social justice, or racism. Is there something at national or international level that really bothers you. Ask God where the battle is that He wants you to join in and then ask what you could do. Does he want you to pray? Or write a letter? Raise awareness? Even if the matter seems so huge that nothing you can do could possibly make a difference have confidence that with God the battle is already won.

Outro: And that's it! Thanks so much for joining me this week.