Psalm 21

Psalms 21:1-2

The king shall joy in thy strength, O Lord answers Psalm 20 directly, the same king prayed for in trouble now rejoicing in the strength that answered the prayer, and in thy salvation how greatly shall he rejoice repeats the joy for emphasis rather than adding new content. Thou hast given him his heart's desire, and hast not withholden the request of his lips reports the twentieth psalm's petitions as already granted, the two psalms read by the older commentators as a matched pair, prayer before and thanksgiving after. Selah marks the pause after the report of answered prayer, one of the Psalter's seventy one such markers, its exact force still not agreed among the commentators.

Psalms 21:3-4

For thou preventest him with the blessings of goodness uses prevent in its older sense, goes before rather than hinders, God arriving ahead of the king's own asking with good things already prepared. Thou settest a crown of pure gold on his head pictures a coronation scene, gold rather than any lesser metal marking the king's honor as God's own gift. He asked life of thee, and thou gavest it him, even length of days for ever and ever answers a request no earthly king's years could literally fulfill, and Delitzsch and the older commentators note the language outruns any merely human reign, without pressing a single settled reading on what king it finally names.

Psalms 21:5-6

His glory is great in thy salvation, honour and majesty hast thou laid upon him credits every mark of royal splendor to what God has done rather than to the king's own achievement. For thou hast made him most blessed for ever repeats the Psalter's opening word, blessed, now spoken directly over the king rather than over the righteous man in general. Thou hast made him exceeding glad with thy countenance closes the stanza on God's own face, the king's gladness traced to nearness with God rather than to the crown or the years already named.

Psalms 21:7

For the king trusteth in the Lord, and through the mercy of the most High he shall not be moved states the psalm's turning verse in a single line, every gift so far named, the crown, the length of days, the gladness, traced back to trust as their root rather than their guarantee. Mercy stands beside trust as the reason the king is not moved, the gift and the response to it named together rather than the response alone. The verse divides the psalm, blessing already given behind it and the enemies' defeat still ahead in the verses that follow.

Psalms 21:8-9

Thine hand shall find out all thine enemies, thy right hand shall find out those that hate thee turns the psalm from blessing to battle, the same hand that gave the crown now finding out every enemy left standing. Thou shalt make them as a fiery oven in the time of thine anger pictures total consuming judgment, and the Lord shall swallow them up in his wrath, and the fire shall devour them repeats the image of fire twice over for emphasis. The older commentators read the severity here beside the gentleness of the earlier verses without softening either, the same God who crowns the king and consumes his enemies.

Psalms 21:10-12

Their fruit shalt thou destroy from the earth, and their seed from among the children of men extends the judgment beyond the enemies themselves to their line, a totality of defeat rather than a single battle's outcome. For they intended evil against thee names the ground of the sentence, a plot against God himself and not merely against the king, they imagined a mischievous device, which they are not able to perform closing on the plot's own failure. Therefore shalt thou make them turn their back, when thou shalt make ready thine arrows upon thy strings against the face of them pictures the enemies routed before the arrow is even loosed, the drawn bow alone enough to turn them.

Psalms 21:13

Be thou exalted, Lord, in thine own strength closes the psalm where Psalm 20 began, strength named again but now credited entirely to God rather than asked for on the king's behalf. So will we sing and praise thy power turns the whole company back to worship, the psalm ending in the congregation's voice just as Psalm 20 opened in the congregation's prayer. Spurgeon reads the two psalms together as one movement, request answered by thanksgiving, the king's victory finally handed back to the Lord's own strength rather than kept as the king's credit.