Psalms for Turbulent Times - Psalm 20: Who do we trust?

Psalm 20

1    May the Lord hear you in the day of trouble,  
the name of the God of Jacob defend you;
2    Send you help from his sanctuary  
and strengthen you out of Zion;
3    Remember all your offerings  
and accept your burnt sacrifice;
4    Grant you your heart’s desire 
and fulfil all your mind.
5    May we rejoice in your salvation
    and triumph in the name of our God; 
may the Lord perform all your petitions.
6    Now I know that the Lord will save his anointed; 
he will answer him from his holy heaven,
    with the mighty strength of his right hand.
7    Some put their trust in chariots and some in horses, 
but we will call only on the name of the Lord our God.
8    They are brought down and fallen, 
but we are risen and stand upright.
9    O Lord, save the king  
and answer us when we call upon you.
Common Worship: Services and Prayers for the Church of England, material from which is included here,

is copyright © The Archbishops' Council 2000 and published by Church House Publishing.

Where do political leaders get placed in God’s kingdom? Is this psalm nothing more than 3,000-year-old political propaganda of the worst kind? The worst kind: which simply assumes or expects that ‘God is on OUR side’ and that therefore ‘God MUST give us victory’?  

Today, in my social media feeds, involving the views of strangers, friends and family, there was a competing range of responses to the overnight news that our political leader, Boris Johnson, is in intensive care at St Thomas's Hospital, across the river from Parliament and Downing Street. The man at the epicentre of the national fight against an indiscriminate virus is himself now at the epicentre of his own very personal fight at the hand of that virulent enemy. The NHS workers whom he stood and clapped not four nights before are now engaged in attempting to bring him, and tens of thousands like him, back to full health.

The responses swung between two poles: ‘We must pray for our PM and his full recovery’ and ‘I will not spare him a thought because I do not agree with anything he stands for – the ordinary people whose lives are being devastated are whom we should be praying for’.

If the psalms teach us anything they teach us that every human being hits rock bottom, becomes utterly disoriented, at least once in their life, sometime and somewhere. A deadly virus shows no partiality. And the most cocooned or cushioned of lives can be ended in a matter of hours – such is its power to kill and bring low. As the PM lay in intensive care would he be insensitive to his plight, would he bluster his way through with optimism or would a more salutary realism dawn on him? It is one thing seeing the great levers of state in action to enact regulations and laws to respond to this pandemic, this attack, by instigating a state of emergency – that kind of seeing is ‘observing’. It is quite another kind of seeing to understand that your own body is under attack and you are not in control. That kind of seeing/understanding is a deeper kind of ‘I get this now’ wisdom.

It is the kind of seeing/understanding that does not put trust in power or militarism or some arrogant mindset which leads a person to believe they are invincible (as tyrants and dictators, and even democratically elected Prime Ministers might think). It is the kind of seeing that the psalmist gives voice to as the root of faithful trust.

‘Some take pride in chariots and some in horses,’ says the psalmist in vs7. ‘but our pride is in the name of the Lord our God.’ (NRSVA). I prefer the Anglican psalter’s translation: ‘Some put their trust in chariots and some in horses, but we will call only on the name of the Lord our God.’

Tonight, we do put our trust in the medical skills and watchfulness of intensive care nurses and doctors up and down the country. We do so for Boris Johnson and all he represents in a very real way tonight. We do pray that the Lord will answer him and all who are struck down in the ‘day of their trouble’ (vs1).  

Truth is, we do all depend upon our leaders – all nations do, for good or ill. But the theological position occupied by the psalmist is this: that we all depend upon God for our life, our breath, our existence. James Mays, in his commentary Psalms[1] says: ‘As Scripture, the psalm teaches the church to pray for those who hold the power of office, because they, like us, are dependent upon the Lord. It warns against ever letting our dependence on their service turn into trust we owe to God alone. It warns against allowing their fascination with military strength to make us support policies base on trust in military might.’

We pray daily, ‘Thy kingdom come’. Our kingdom has one Lord, the Messiah, Jesus the Christ. In this Holy Week, we continue to remember he did not resort to violence but submitted himself to his Passion. He was done to, like a hospital patient. In fact the root of the two words – the Passion of the Christ and a hospital patient is one and the same: and its meaning is the same – to be helpless and to be ‘done to’.

So, as our PM and the thousands of other Covid-19 sufferers, submit to being ‘done to’ at the hands of the NHS, we pray and we put our trust in the name of the Lord. PMs and paupers are all saved by the endless reign of the one who suffered to obliterate the power of death and deadly impulses. We trust in the name of the Lord our God.

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[1] Psalms, Interpretation (Louisville: John Knox ©1994) p103