Psalm 20 – Christus Victor!

Psalm 20
May He remember all your meal offerings
And find your burnt offering acceptable! — 3

The burnt offering was a substitutionary sacrifice. “…he shall offer it at the doorway of the tent of meeting, that he may be accepted before the LORD. He shall lay his hand on the head of the burnt offering, that it may be accepted for him to make atonement on his behalf”.— Leviticus 1:3b-4

Jesus was the acceptable substitution, the unblemished Lamb of God. By standing in the place of those condemned in Adam, Christ has propitiated the necessary wrath of God — “He Himself is the propitiation for our sins”. — 1 John 2:2. There is now, therefore, no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

We will sing for joy over your victory,
And in the name of our God we will set up our banners.
May the LORD fulfill all your petitions. — 5

The crucifixion, seen by the devil and his seed as the victory of darkness, was instead the end of darkness, of death and slavery to sin. As the Apostle Paul wrote: “And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross”. — Colossians 2:15

Now I know that the LORD saves His anointed;
He will answer him from His holy heaven
With the saving strength of His right hand. — 6

The anointed is, first, David, who is a type of the Christ who is to come. It is also, by extension, all those who are included in Christ, having been purchased with His blood.

“Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives”. — Hebrews 2:14-15

They have bowed down and fallen,
But we have risen and stood upright. — 8

The Lord was raised from the dead, and now sits at the right hand of the Father. His enemies have been vanquished. Death has been killed. “The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil” — 1 John 3:8

Maranatha! O’ Lord, come!