Psalms 21

¹To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David. The king shall joy in thy strength, O LORD; and in thy salvation how greatly shall he rejoice!

Psa 21:1-13. The pious are led by the Psalmist to celebrate God’s favor to the king in the already conferred and in prospective victories. The doxology added may relate to both Psalms; the preceding of petition, chiefly this of thanksgiving, ascribing honor to God for His display of grace and power to His Church in all ages, not only under David, but also under his last greatest successor, “the King of the Jews.” 1. thy strength ... thy salvation--as supplied by Thee.

²Thou hast given him his heart's desire, and hast not withholden the request of his lips. Selah.

2. The sentiment affirmed in the first clause is reaffirmed by the negation of its opposite in the second.

³For thou preventest him with the blessings of goodness: thou settest a crown of pure gold on his head.

3. preventest--literally, “to meet here in good sense,” or “friendship” (Psa 59:10; compare opposite, Psa 17:13). blessings of goodness--which confer happiness. crown of pure gold--a figure for the highest royal prosperity.

⁴He asked life of thee, and thou gavest it him, even length of days for ever and ever.

⁵His glory is great in thy salvation: honour and majesty hast thou laid upon him.

⁶For thou hast made him most blessed for ever: thou hast made him exceeding glad with thy countenance.

4-6. (Compare 2Sa 7:13-16). The glory and blessedness of the king as head of his line, including Christ, as well as in being God’s specially selected servant, exceeded that of all others.

⁷For the king trusteth in the LORD, and through the mercy of the most High he shall not be moved.

7. The mediate cause is the king’s faith, the efficient, God’s mercy.

⁸Thine hand shall find out all thine enemies: thy right hand shall find out those that hate thee.

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.

⁹Thou shalt make them as a fiery oven in the time of thine anger: the LORD shall swallow them up in his wrath, and the fire shall devour them.

9. The king is only God’s agent. anger--literally, “face,” as appearing against them. as a fiery oven--as in it.

¹⁰Their fruit shalt thou destroy from the earth, and their seed from among the children of men.

10. fruit--children (Psa 37:25; Ho 9:16).

¹¹For they intended evil against thee: they imagined a mischievous device, which they are not able to perform.

11. This terrible overthrow, reaching to posterity, is due to their crimes (Ex 20:5, 6).

¹²Therefore shalt thou make them turn their back, when thou shalt make ready thine arrows upon thy strings against the face of them.

12. turn their back--literally, “place them [as to the] shoulder.” against the face of them--The shooting against their faces would cause them to turn their backs in flight.

¹³Be thou exalted, LORD, in thine own strength: so will we sing and praise thy power.

13. The glory of all is ascribable to God alone.