Mensa Otabil - The Lord Will Remember Your Offerings (10/18/2025)
Psalm 20, and we are in verse 3: May He remember all your offerings and accept your burnt sacrifice. Selah. Now, as I’ve said, Psalm 20 is written as an intercessory prayer. It’s an intercessory prayer of the children of Israel for their leaders. But as we look at it from this vantage point, it’s also an intercessory prayer we pray for people. You know, many times you want to pray for somebody-probably your husband; you want to pray for your wife, or your wife wants to pray for your husband. Or you want to pray for your parents, or you want to pray for your pastor, and you wonder, «What should I pray for? What should I say to God?»
Now, this Psalm gives us a framework that we can use for intercessory prayer, and it tells us the kinds of things we should pray for people as we intercede for them. I hope that it helps you as you pray for people; it gives you the right guidelines, the outline, and the tools to pray for them.
So, in verse number three, it talks about two things we should pray for. It says, «May the Lord remember all your offerings.» So why is this important? Because anytime you offer something to God, it is also to build a memorial before God. Throughout the Bible, you find that offerings become a memorial before God. It’s like erecting an altar before God. And so we give offerings so that God will see what we are doing, that God will recognize what we are doing, that God will look with favor upon us.
Sometimes you give to the Lord, or you make sacrifices in life, and you wonder, «Does God even see it? I mean, does the Lord remember what I do?» The Lord sees, the Lord remembers, and the Lord rewards. This prayer is saying, «Lord, for all the good things this person has done, for all the great things they’ve done, for all the service they have given to you-the days, the weeks, the months, and the years they’ve served you-Lord, look favorably upon them; remember their offerings.»
Of course, for you to benefit from this prayer, you should be giving to the Lord; you should be giving offerings. If you’re stingy, then this prayer doesn’t really benefit you. But if you’re a generous person, and you’re a giver, and you give to the Lord, then this prayer comes to buttress your giving: «May the Lord remember all of your offerings.»
Then he says, «May the Lord accept your burnt sacrifice.» In Israel, the burnt sacrifice was an animal that would be burnt. The thing about a burnt sacrifice is that after it burns, it’s gone; there are no leftovers, just ashes. Sometimes you wonder, «Does God remember? Does God accept it? Is what I’m doing pleasing before the Lord?» So David says when you pray and intercede, pray that what they give to the Lord, what they sacrifice to the Lord, will be accepted before Him.
Every sacrifice is made with an expectation of reward. If I sacrifice a meal because I want to lose weight, my reward is that I will lose weight. If a parent sacrifices so that the children will go to school, they expect that their children will do well. All the sacrifices we make in life, we make them because we want our children to do well, we want to have a certain physical benefit, a health benefit-we want something good to happen. Every sacrifice has an expectation of something good to happen.
This prayer says, «All your expectations for which you have made sacrifices, may the Lord favor you with them; may the Lord remember them, and may the Lord accept them.» I pray that prayer for you: for every sacrifice you’ve made with God in mind and the service of God in mind-may the Lord remember you, and may the Lord reward you.
Let’s pray. Heavenly Father, You are the God who never forgets. Let my offerings and sacrifices be pleasing to You. In Jesus' name, amen and amen.
Well, I’ll catch you again tomorrow. I’m Pastor Mensa Otabil. Shalom, peace, and life to you.