“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. Some boast in chariots and some in horses, but we
will boast in the name of the Lord,
our God. They have bowed down and fallen, but we have risen and stood upright.
Save, O Lord; may the King answer
us in the day we call.” (Psalm 20:6–9, NASB95)
“Anointed” means to be specially set apart for service as in
the case of the priests and kings of Israel. The root of the word means to
smear, anoint, spread a liquid, consecrate. David was anointed as king by
Samuel at the instruction of God, just as Samuel had anointed Saul before him. When
Samuel was a young boy, his mother who had promised to lend her son to God for
service (1 Samuel 1:24-28), brought young Samuel to Eli the priest after he had
been weaned. Scripture records for us her prayer when as yet Israel did not yet
have its first king.
“And Hannah prayed and said, “My heart exults in the Lord; my horn is exalted in the Lord. My mouth derides my enemies,
because I rejoice in your salvation. “There is none holy like the Lord: for there is none besides you;
there is no rock like our God. Talk no more so very proudly, let not arrogance
come from your mouth; for the Lord
is a God of knowledge, and by him actions are weighed. The bows of the mighty
are broken, but the feeble bind on strength. Those who were full have hired
themselves out for bread, but those who were hungry have ceased to hunger. The
barren has borne seven, but she who has many children is forlorn. The Lord kills and brings to life; he brings
down to Sheol and raises up. The Lord
makes poor and makes rich; he brings low and he exalts. He raises up the poor
from the dust; he lifts the needy from the ash heap to make them sit with
princes and inherit a seat of honor. For the pillars of the earth are the Lord’s, and on them he has set the
world. “He will guard the feet of his faithful ones, but the wicked shall be
cut off in darkness, for not by might shall a man prevail. The adversaries of
the Lord shall be broken to
pieces; against them he will thunder in heaven. The Lord will judge the ends of the earth; he will give strength
to his king and exalt the horn of his anointed.”” (1 Samuel 2:1–10, ESV)
She closes her prayer with, “He [God] will give strength to
his king and exalt the horn of his anointed.” And this was the praise of David
in Psalm 20 when He again had seen God’s deliverance. God had proven Himself to
David, and David knew for sure the power of God to deliver. It was in this that
the people of Israel were to rejoice. It was not their own might, but the power
of God. It was not in their own ability to withstand, but God who made them to
stand, and God had made them so that they could stand straight.
Jesus Himself, we read was anointed. We read that He was
anointed by God with the Holy Spirit and power at the time of His baptism, and
we read that He was anointed with expensive oil by one of His followers for
death. In Matthew 3:13-17 we have the record of His baptism, and in Acts 10:37-41
we have commentary on this event.
“You yourselves know the thing which took place throughout
all Judea, starting from Galilee, after the baptism which John proclaimed. You
know of Jesus of Nazareth, how God anointed Him with the Holy Spirit and with
power, and how He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by
the devil, for God was with Him. We are witnesses of all the things He did both
in the land of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They also put Him to death by hanging
Him on a cross. God raised Him up on the third day and granted that He become
visible, not to all the people, but to witnesses who were chosen beforehand by
God, that is, to us who ate and drank with Him after He arose from the dead.”
(Acts 10:37–41, NASB95)
In these verses we read that Jesus had been empowered by the
Spirit to fulfill as God-man the purpose for which He was sent by the Father,
and we know that He did this fully. As Jesus neared the end of His ministry,
two days before the Passover and His arrest, we find Mary (the sister of Martha
and Lazarus) moved to bless Him with the best she had, to which the others were
caught off guard. We read, “While He was in Bethany at the home of Simon the
leper, and reclining at the table, there came a woman with an alabaster vial of
very costly perfume of pure nard; and she broke the vial and poured it over His
head.” … “Let her alone; why do you bother her? She has done a good deed to Me.
For you always have the poor with you, and whenever you wish you can do good to
them; but you do not always have Me. She has done what she could; she has
anointed My body beforehand for the burial. Truly I say to you, wherever the
gospel is preached in the whole world, what this woman has done will also be
spoken of in memory of her.” (Mark 14:3, 6–9, NASB95)
While David had been set apart and anointed to lead God’s
people in life, Jesus here was anointed to die. From ages past God had ordained
that He would send a Savior for His people and in so doing He would bless all
the nations. Jesus, the Son of God, is the One set apart to do this work on our
behalf. And as we read the Bible we see that He fulfilled perfectly the mission
which only He was qualified to do and for which He was sent.
King David had seen God deliver His people from aggressors.
We have seen the King of kings deliver us from all of our sins and deliver us
to eternal life.
In 2 Corinthians the apostle Paul, sure of His calling from
God, wrote, “Now He who establishes us with you in Christ and anointed us is
God, who also sealed us and gave us the Spirit in our hearts as a pledge.” (2
Corinthians 1:21–22, NASB95) The first several times I read this I thought of
the special call that Paul and those with him had in bringing the gospel
message. And as I continued to reread it I read, “…He who establishes us with
you in Christ….” His comment includes “us,” all of us, as those who have been
set apart and sealed and given His Spirit as a pledge of His faithfulness and a
hope of things yet to come.
In 1 John 2, in view of the end times, we read, “The world
is passing away, and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God lives
forever. Children, it is the last hour; and just as you heard that antichrist
is coming, even now many antichrists have appeared; from this we know that it
is the last hour.” … “But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you all
know.” … “As for you, let that abide in you which you heard from the beginning.
If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, you also will abide in the
Son and in the Father. This is the promise which He Himself made to us: eternal
life.” … “As for you, the anointing which you received from Him abides in you,
and you have no need for anyone to teach you; but as His anointing teaches you
about all things, and is true and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you,
you abide in Him.” (1 John 2:17-18, 20, 24-25, 27, NASB95)
John is writing to tell believers in these last days that
things are going to get worse, but not to become dismayed by the struggles and
the spread of evil. Rather he points to the special anointing that we all have
as those saved by Christ and sealed by the Holy Spirit. He points to the sure knowledge
that we have about salvation and the truths of God’s Word. He points to the
Spirit who resides in us to make these truths alive in us. This anointing is
not a smearing of oil on the head, but one that results from the shedding of
blood. This anointing is a living one, and one in which we are to daily abide. If
you have trusted Jesus Christ for your salvation you have a living hope, an anointing
by God which is absolutely true.
It is not that no one can teach us more of God’s truth, but
that God’s truth is complete and man has nothing to add. His Spirit testifies
to this and in that we can daily hope. Our God is faithful to finish that which
He started. He is our Deliverer and living in us is the certainty of that hope
in His Spirit.
In that we can stand with David and loudly proclaim,
“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. Some boast in chariots and some in horses, but we
will boast in the name of the Lord,
our God. They have bowed down and fallen, but we have risen and stood upright.
Save, O Lord; may the King answer
us in the day we call.”
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