May the LORD answer you when you are in distress; may the name of the God of Jacob protect you. 2 May he send you help from the sanctuary and grant you support from Zion. 3 May he remember all your sacrifices and accept your burnt offerings. Selah 4 May he give you the desire of your heart and make all your plans succeed. 5 We will shout for joy when you are victorious and will lift up our banners in the name of our God. May the LORD grant all your requests. 6 Now I know that the LORD saves his anointed; he answers him from his holy heaven with the saving power of his right hand. 7 Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the LORD our God. 8 They are brought to their knees and fall, but we rise up and stand firm. 9 O LORD, save the king! Answer us when we call!  Psalms 20:1-9 NIV

 

David wrote this psalm and began it with a prayer. The prayer asks that the Lord would answer you when you are in distress; that His Name would protect you; that He would send you help from the sanctuary and grant you support from Zion; that He would remember all your sacrifices and accept your burnt offerings; that He would give you the desire of your heart, make all your plans succeed and that He would grant all your requests.

 

David sings, “We will shout for joy when you are victorious and will lift up our banners in the name of our God.” Whenever one of us is successful and victorious it is a time for all of us to rejoice. A victory for one is a victory for all because Jesus is the One Who gives us the victory.

 

The Lord saves His anointed children and answers them from his holy heaven with the saving power of His right hand. You can trust the Lord to save you and protect you when you call on Him. If you trust Him, He will not let you down. Even though some people love God, they still do not trust God. They trust in what they can do themselves – they trust in what they have in their own hand – and they utterly fail.  

 

Some trust in chariots and some in horses – earthly resources and natural strengths – but they are brought to their knees and fall. We trust in the name of the Lord our God and – because we trust Him – we rise up and stand firm.

 

So he said to me, “This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel: ‘Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the LORD Almighty.  Zechariah 4:6 NIV

 

If we want the Lord to move mightily on our behalf, then we better wake up and realize that we are going to have to trust Him and not ourselves and that we must trust Him completely. We must allow Him to do things His way because He knows the best way. It is only when we demonstrate our faith in Him by showing that we trust Him, that He is able to supernaturally deliver us. When we run out of our own strength and power that is when we see His ability at work in our lives. It is not by our might nor by our power, but by the Spirit of God!

 

When God called Gideon and the Israelites to defeat the Midianites, Gideon had only about 32000 men on his side, but their enemies that had settled in the valley were as thick as locusts and their camels could no more be counted than the sand on the seashore (Judges 7:12).

 

The natural mind says that Gideon would have to find a lot more men than that to fight at his side before he could hope to defeat an army that large, but the LORD said to Gideon, “You have too many men for me to deliver Midian into their hands.” (Judges 7:2) To make sure that Israel could not boast against God that their own strength had saved them, God cut their numbers down to only 300 men  and only then did He send them up against Midian (Judges 7:7). God defeated Midian and Israel had to give Him the glory.

In Joshua 6:1-27, the Lord sent the priests out ahead of the people with trumpets and the Ark of the Covenant.

 

Joshua and the people marched around the city as God told them to do and when they shouted, the wall of the city fell flat and they easily took the city. When we do things God’s way, it will always be the easy way in the end. Marching around the city did not make sense to their natural minds, but their obedience opened the door for God’s salvation and victory to be made manifest in their lives.

 

Don’t look for the answers to your problem in natural things or in your own talents and abilities. Look to the Word of the Lord. Obey what He tells you to do and see His saving hand give you the victory!