Psalm 20 (reminiscent of Ps. 147, which Luther uses in the Small Catechism for the prayer returning thanks after a meal) contrasts trusting in horses with trusting in God: “Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the LORD our God.”

death-pale-horse-blake-lPatrick Henry Reardon, in his magnificent Christ in the Psalms, notes how the horses in which men trust will turn on men, bringing destruction in the great tribulation:

These “horses,” in which men put their trust, represent the designs of the worldly and powerful, but they are profoundly vain. Holy Scripture will finally describe these horses as white and carrying a conqueror, as red and bearing a warrior, as black and transporting famine, as pale and ridden by Death. These horses and their riders represent the forces of the world in its opposition to God, and “power was given to them over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword, with hunger, with death, and by the beasts of the earth” (Rev. 6:1-8). That is to say, these horses, in which men put their trust, will return to exact their toll on human happiness and human history.