Psalm 20: Need Awareness is Humility

Recognizing our need for God

Our greatest problem is not that we need God’s help, but that we often fail to recognize our dependence on Him.

In Psalm 20, David emphasizes his awareness of need and his expectation that God will respond. He uses the verb "answer" three times in the NIV translation to highlight this dependence:

• Verse 1: "May the Lord answer you when you are in distress; may the name of the God of Jacob protect you."

• Verse 6: "Now this I know: The Lord gives victory to his anointed. He answers him from his heavenly sanctuary with the victorious power of his right hand."

• Verse 9: "Lord, give victory to the king! Answer us when we call!"

David’s repeated cry for God’s answer is not just a request for deliverance—it reflects his humility and deep awareness of his need for God.

The True Poverty of Humanity

We were created with an inherent void, a dependence on God designed to be our greatest joy. Yet pride deceives us into believing we can fill this void ourselves, only deepening our need. Like a misguided medicine that worsens the sickness instead of healing it, pride does not alleviate our struggles—it multiplies them.

• Blinds us to the poverty that God longs to relieve.

• Numbs us to the emptiness that only God can fill.

• Hides our mortality when God longs to bring life out of death.

• Steals our humility, which God would have exalted, and replaces it with pride, which He resists (James 4:6).