Psalms 20:7

"Handfuls of Purpose"

For All Gleaners

"Some trust in chariots, and some in horses: but we will remember the name of the Lord cur God." Psa 20:7

In the Hebrew poetry the word "trust" is omitted. The literal translation has been represented thus: These in chariots, and these on horses; but we in the name of Jehovah our God make boast. The circumstances under which the text was written probably pointed to a Syrian war. Syria rejoiced in the number of her horses and chariots. The true Israel are upright in soul, are pictured as beholding all the glittering and prancing host, and as setting up confidence in the name of God in opposition to such physical resources and securities. it is possible for men to put their trust in the merely material. But riches make to themselves wings and flee away. The strong man is daily weakening; the mightiest is but hastening to his tomb. All nature is itself a protest against putting confidence in its resources. The hills crumble; the sea makes inroad upon the rocks; the winter exposes the caves of the forest Nature will not permit false alliances with herself. She proclaims herself to be but a type or emblem of higher things; every separate feature of nature points to the creating and sustaining Hand; we cannot therefore make nature a party to our sin or our folly. Rightly interpreted, nature fights for God. The stars in their courses fought against Sisera. The hailstones were part of the artillery of heaven when the enemy dared Jehovah to battle. The nature of the trust is determined by the quality of the object that is trusted in. If we are trusting in something that is itself fickle or transitory, our confidence must partake of its qualities. He who trusts in the Eternal eternally safe. He has no need to reckon or compute or arrange as to contingencies and possibilities; he says, God is my refuge and strength, therefore will not I fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea." Doom is written upon every part of nature. When the great stones of the temple were pointed out by the disciples, Jesus instantly told them that in a short time not one stone would be left upon another. Though we mount up to the heavens and make our nest in the stars, yet shall God pursue us and tear us away from our false refuges. Why should we live a life of folly by trusting for eternal security to things which are themselves temporary? Let us allow that they are good for a season: they are momentary conveniences: they have their high and beneficent uses: but being in themselves temporal, they must of necessity go down by mere flux of time. We are not to trust in the name of the Lord simply for self-protection. We are not to make a mere convenience of God. They who remember the name of the Lord should prove their remembrance by their character. It is blasphemy to trust God in extremity, and then to serve ourselves when the extremity is overpast. Thus, again and again, and at every point, in our perusal of Biblical history, we come down to the solemn and abiding question of character. What are we? What: is our supreme purpose in life? What are we in relation to God when there is no fear, when no danger threatens, and when everything seems to be going according to our own disposition? The Psalmist, speaking of chariots and horses, says, "They are brought down and fallen." Speaking of those who remember the name of the Lord their God, he says, "They are risen and stand upright." The picture is very vivid. It is that of one army pitched against another, and the one army thrown down into the dust and trodden upon by the army that has not lost a man. Blessed are they who fight under the divine banner and who trust to a righteous cause, for at eventide they shall bring home the victory.