Psalm 21

Psalms 21:1

“I think that these words had been prophesied by those who had spoken long before David. Since David had learned from the lofty oracles that those words were looking not only at the strength of his own salvation but also that which was going to come forth from his seed, concerning which he said he would rejoice and praise with enthusiasm. Having been assured of those things and the enemies having been thoroughly subjugated with mighty power, to you, God, the author of the victory, he grants the prize of his victory.”

Psalms 21:1

"The king shall joy in thy strength, O Lord." Jesus is a Royal Personage. The question, "Art thou a King then?" received a full answer from the Saviour's lips: "Thou sayest that I am a King. To this end was I born, and for this purpose came I into the world, that I might bear witness unto the truth." He is not merely a King, but the King; King over minds and hearts, reigning with a dominion of love, before which all other rule is but mere brute force.

Psalms 21:2

“Thou hast given him his heart's desire,.... Which the church had prayed for in Psa 20:4; whatever Christ's heart desired, or his lips requested, has been given him; and hast not withholden the request of his lips.”

Psalms 21:2

"Thou hast given him his heart's desire." That desire he ardently pursued when he was on earth, both by his prayer, his actions, and his suffering; he manifested that his heart longed to redeem his people, and now in heaven he has his desire granted him, for he sees his beloved coming to be with him where he is. The desires of the Lord Jesus were from his heart, and the Lord heard them; if our hearts are right with God, he will in our case also "fulfil the desires of them that fear him."

Psalms 21:3

The crown of the Lord is the church gathered from the various nations, about which Paul in the person of the believers says, "My joy and my crown."

Psalms 21:3

"For thou preventest him with the blessings of goodness." The word prevent formerly signified to precede or go before, and assuredly Jehovah preceded his Son with blessings. Before he died saints were saved by the anticipated merit of his death, before he came believers saw his day and were glad, and he himself had his delights with the sons of men. The Father is so willing to give blessings through his Son, that instead of his being constrained to bestow his grace, he outstrips the Mediatorial march of mercy.

Psalms 21:3

“OUR text is one of many instances of the way in which words change their meanings. The word, "prevent," as we now use it, has a very different meaning from that which it had when our translators used it. It now signifies to get before one, to stop up his path, to prevent his going a certain way, just as the angel "prevented" Balaam, standing with his sword drawn in his hand that he might not pass that way.”

Psalms 21:4

"He asked life of Thee, and Thou gavest him length of days for ever and ever;" indicating that it is the Father of all who imparts continuance for ever and ever on those who are saved. For life does not arise from us, nor from our own nature; but it is bestowed according to the grace of God.

Psalms 21:4

"He asked life of thee, and thou gavest it him, even length of days for ever and ever." The first words may suit King David, but the length of days for ever and ever can only refer to the King Messiah. Jesus, as man, prayed for resurrection and he received it, and now possesses it in immortality. He died once, but being raised from the dead he dieth no more. "Because I live, ye shall live also, " is the delightful intimation which the Saviour gives us, that we are partakers of his eternal life.

Psalms 21:4

“But this was more eminently fulfilled in Christ, who asked of his father, life, or to be saved from death, Heb. v, 7, though with submission to his will: but his father, though he saw it necessary to take away his temporal life, yet instantly gave him another, far more noble, even the perfect possession of an everlasting life both in his soul and body, at his right hand.”

Psalms 21:4

“He was dead, indeed, that we might live through him; but he is alive, and lives for evermore, and of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end; and because he thus lives we shall thus live also.”

Psalms 21:5

"His glory is great in thy salvation." Immanuel bears the palm; he once bore the cross. The Father has glorified the Son, so that there is no glory like unto that which surroundeth him. See his person as it is described by John in the Revelation; see his dominion as it stretches from sea to sea; see his splendour as he is revealed in flaming fire. Lord, who is like unto thee? Solomon in all his glory could not be compared with thee, thou once despised Man of Nazareth!

Psalms 21:5

“I FEEL quite sure that David here sings first concerning himself and then concerning the far greater King, "great David's greater Son," the Lord Jesus Christ. But I shall apply the text entirely to our blessed Redeemer and, surely, the Psalmist's language is most appropriate to Him. Some of us are going to meet, presently, around the Table of our Lord to commemorate His death for us and, of course, there must be some sorrowful processes connected with that ordinance. How can we remember His death without sorrowing over the sin which made that death necessary?”

Psalms 21:6

"For thou hast made him most blessed for ever." He is most blessed in himself, for he is God over all, blessed for ever; but this relates to him as our Mediator, in which capacity blessedness is given to him as a reward. The margin has it, thou hast set him to be blessings; he is an overflowing wellspring of blessings to others, a sun filling the universe with light. According as the Lord sware unto Abraham, the promised seed is an everlasting source of blessings to all the nations of the earth.

Psalms 21:7

"For the king trusteth in the Lord." Our Lord, like a true King and leader, was a master in the use of the weapons, and could handle well the shield of faith, for he has set us a brilliant example of unwavering confidence in God. He felt himself safe in his Father's care until his hour was come, he knew that he was always heard in heaven; he committed his cause to him that judgeth right, and in his last moments he committed his spirit into the same hands.

Psalms 21:8

"Thine hand shall find out all thine enemies: thy right hand shall find out those that hate thee." The destruction of the wicked is a fitting subject for joy to the friends of righteousness; hence here, and in most scriptural songs, it is noted with calm thanksgiving. "Thou hast put down the mighty from their seats, " is a note of the same song which sings, "and hast exalted them of low degree." We pity the lost for they are men, but we cannot pity them as enemies of Christ.

Psalms 21:8

“The address is now made to the king. hand--denotes power, and right hand--a more active and efficient degree of its exercise. find out--reach, lay hold of, indicating success in pursuit of his enemies.”

Psalms 21:8

“They hated David because God had set him apart for himself, hated Christ because they hated the light; but both were hated without any just cause, and in both God was hated, John xv.”

Psalms 21:9

“An oven is a round structure made of bronze for baking bread.… Sinners are rightly compared with it, since at the coming judgment they will be tormented both with mental grief and with punitive pain, because with a stubborn mind they have lived in opposition …”

Psalms 21:9

"Thou shalt make them as a fiery oven in the time of thine anger." They themselves shall be an oven to themselves, and so their own tormentors. Those who burned with anger against thee shall be burned by thine anger. The fire of sin will be followed by the fire of wrath. Even as the smoke of Sodom and Gomorrah went up to heaven, so shall the enemies of the Lord Jesus be utterly and terribly consumed. Some read it, "thou shalt put them as it were into a furnace of fire."

Psalms 21:9

“Those that might have had Christ to rule and save them, but rejected him and fought against him, shall find that even the remembrance of that will be enough to make them, to eternity, a fiery oven to themselves: it is the worm that dies not.”

Psalms 21:10

“But the seed of the godless and the fruit of the wicked are their words, teachings and unrighteous writings, which they have disseminated through people after they are forgotten. God, being good, scatters each one and destroys them from the midst so that neither the fruit nor the seed of the wicked remains.”

Psalms 21:10

"Their fruit shalt thou destroy from the earth." Their life's work shall be a failure, and the result of their toil shall be disappointment. That in which they prided themselves shall be forgotten; their very names shall be wiped out as abominable, "and their seed from among the children of men." Their posterity following in their footsteps shall meet with a similar overthrow, till at last the race shall come to an end.

Psalms 21:10

“The enemies of God's kingdom, in every age, shall fall under the same doom, and the whole generation of them will at last be rooted out, and all opposing rule, principality, and power, shall be put down.”

Psalms 21:11

"For they intended evil against thee." God takes notice of intentions. He who would but could not is as guilty as he who did. Christ's church and cause are not only attacked by those who do not understand it, but there are many who have the light and yet hate it. Intentional evil has a virus in it which is not found in sins of ignorance; now as ungodly men with malice aforethought attack the gospel of Christ, their crime is great, and their punishment will be proportionate.

Psalms 21:11

What is devised and designed against religion, and against the instruments God raises up to support and advance it, is very evil and mischievous, and God takes it as devised and designed against himself and will so reckon for it. (3.) The disappointment of them: "They devise what they are not able to perform, "

Psalms 21:12

"Turned away" [is] an expression properly applied to the sinner, for "Cain went out from the face of the Lord," and the psalmist says, "You will make them turn their back." One who is righteous does not turn away from the Lord but runs to meet him and says, "My eyes are ever toward the Lord." And when the Lord said, "Whom shall I send?" Isaiah offered himself of his own accord and said, "Behold, here I am."

Psalms 21:12

“Therefore shall thou make them turn their back,.... Or flee and run away to private places, to hide themselves from the wrath of God and of the Lamb, though to no purpose; or "make them turn behind thy back": God will turn his back upon them, and be negligent and careless of them, and not regard them when they cry in their misery and destruction.”

Psalms 21:12

"Therefore shalt thou make them turn their back, when thou shalt make ready thine arrows upon thy strings against the face of them." For a time the foes of God may make bold advances, and threaten to overthrow everything, but a few ticks of the clock will alter the face of their affairs. At first they advance impudently enough, but Jehovah meets them to their teeth, and a taste of the sharp judgment of God speedily makes them flee in dismay.

Psalms 21:13

“Not for being lowly is God exalted, nor does he receive what he does not possess; instead, what he possesses he reveals … your exaltation is revealed in your ineffable power, which we shall continue to celebrate and sing, recounting your marvelous works.”

Psalms 21:13

"Be thou exalted, Lord, in thine own strength." A sweet concluding verse. Our hearts shall join in it. It is always right to praise the Lord when we call to remembrance his goodness to his Son, and the overthrow of his foes. The exaltation of the name of God should be the business of every Christian; but since such poor things as we fail to honour him as he deserves, we may invoke his own power to aid us.