“Some trust in chariots, and some in horses; But we will remember the name of the Lord our God.”

Psalm 20:7

 

PSALM 20 IS A PSALM of the great military figure, David. Both before and after David became king of Israel, he won many great military battles against the surrounding nations. Most famously, and while still a youth, he led Israel to victory over the Philistines by killing Goliath, the Philistine giant and warrior. There too, as in Psalm 20 above, David acknowledged that his victory was not due to his own might, but to God: “for the battle is the Lord’s” (I Samuel 17:47).

As in the military realm, even so in the spiritual realm. Consider now another instance in David’s life, a time not of military victory but one of personal defeat as he fell into sin with Bathsheba. Psalm 51 records his prayer of repentance. “For You do not desire sacrifice, or else I would give it… The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, A broken and a contrite heart—These, O God, You will not despise.”

David realized that in military conflict, his victories did not come through the might of his army, but victory came by the LORD’s strong hand. And in the spiritual realm, David, and each one of us, must come to understand that there is nothing in us–no good works, no offering–that we can present to God to make us acceptable before Him. Rather, it is only as we, in repentance, look by faith to the mercy and grace of God, that our sins are dealt with and God’s wonderful salvation comes to us in Christ.

 

Pastor Craig publishes  "A Word from God's Word" weekly in the "Kootenay News Advertiser".

Craig Montgomery
  • Pastor

Pastor Craig has served as Senior Pastor of Cranbrook Fellowship Baptist Church since 2018. His passion is for preaching and teaching God's Word, as it is through the proclamation of the gospel that God does His work in people's lives.