Psalm 21

The crown of pure gold in verse 3 was not only ornament. Ancient royal crowns were made of real weight in precious metal, and the account of David's Ammonite campaign says the crown taken from the enemy's king weighed a talent of gold — heavy enough that it can only have been held above the head or set on the throne. A gold crown was portable treasury as much as headgear.

"He asked life of thee, and thou gavest it him, even length of days for ever and ever" was the standard greeting shouted to kings across the region — may the king live forever. In most courts it was flattery. Israel sang it to a king who was plainly mortal, which left the phrase reaching for someone it fit.

"Thou shalt make them as a fiery oven in the time of thine anger" draws on the bread oven of an Israelite home or village: a clay dome heated with brushwood until the walls glowed, then swept out for baking. Anything left inside was gone.

"Their fruit shalt thou destroy from the earth, and their seed from among the children of men" is the ancient way of ending a dynasty. A defeated royal house had its heirs killed so no claimant remained — brutal, and standard practice from Egypt to Assyria.