psalm 21

1 The king rejoices in your strength, Lord.

How great is his joy in the victories you give!

2 You have granted him his heart’s desire

and have not withheld the request of his lips.

3 You came to greet him with rich blessings

and placed a crown of pure gold on his head.

4 He asked you for life, and you gave it to him—

length of days, for ever and ever.

5 Through the victories you gave, his glory is great;

you have bestowed on him splendor and majesty.

6 Surely you have granted him unending blessings

and made him glad with the joy of your presence.

7 For the king trusts in the Lord;

through the unfailing love of the Most High

he will not be shaken.

 

8 Your hand will lay hold on all your enemies;

your right hand will seize your foes.

9 When you appear for battle,

you will burn them up as in a blazing furnace.

The Lord will swallow them up in his wrath,

and his fire will consume them.

10 You will destroy their descendants from the earth,

their posterity from mankind.

11 Though they plot evil against you

and devise wicked schemes, they cannot succeed.

12 You will make them turn their backs

when you aim at them with drawn bow.

 

13 Be exalted in your strength, Lord;

we will sing and praise your might.

Psalm 21 is a Royal psalm. In the first instance it is a celebration of King David’s victory over his enemies. David is God’s chosen Warrior King. He represents the throne of God on earth.  He fights on God’s behalf, overthrowing God’s enemies, however, in truth, David knows it is not he who wins battles but God himself who fights and triumphs. If there is victory it is God who has achieved it (Cf. Ps 18). David recognises this and so the psalm is one of acknowledged dependence on the Lord (vv 2-7) and of thanksgiving for victory granted.  It is this trust is the basis of the king’s success (v7).

In the previous psalm (Ps 20), battle is pending and the people pray for the King’s victory. Psalm 21 is a prayer of thanksgiving for victory achieved, indeed for all victories where the Lord has delivered the King, saving him from defeat and death. David could have been killed in battle but God preserved him repeatedly (v4) and has preserved him yet again.  As a result his life is a tale of privilege.  It is one of God-given glory and majesty, of a glad heart experiencing the joys of God’s presence, indeed of unnumbered blessings (4-7).

The Psalm goes on to express (vv8-12) confidence that all his enemies will be overthrown. However, is difficult to be sure who is addressed. If it is the Lord then the speaker is expressing the certainty that the Lord, the divine Warrior, will always triumph over his enemies. If it is David, then this was clearly not the case (vv8-12).

And it is just here that another layer of meaning emerges from the Psalm. The Psalm celebrates the victory of God’s anointed king. The Davidic King was God’s ‘son’ (Ps 2) the human who reigned on God’s behalf. And so the Psalm anticipates the ultimate Davidic King. It reaches forward to Jesus, Messiah, the final king of the Davidic dynasty and his victory over his enemies.

The Psalm has been traditionally understood in terms of Jesus exaltation. The cross is over (Ps 20) and the battle has been won. The enemies are defeated. Victory celebration and thanksgiving is now dominant. In the heat of battle and in the jaws of death the ultimate Davidic King and Warrior asked for life. Hebs 5:7 says,

‘During the days of Jesus’ life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with fervent cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission.’

Unlike David, he wasn’t saved from death, but out of death. Hebs 2:9 says,

But we see Jesus, who was made lower than the angels for a little while, now crowned with glory and honour because he suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.

Jesus was the fully dependent man, the trusting Davidic Warrior-King who called on God to give him victory and save him from death.  He asked for life and God gave it to him, length of days for ever and ever (Ps 21:7). The resurrected Davidic Priest-King, lives in the power of an ‘indestructible life’ (Hebs 7:16). He has been crowned with glory, splendour and majesty and seated, as the Royal Son, the Davidic King, at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven (Ps 2, Hebs 1; 12:2; Phil 2).

When we see the psalm from this perspective we see that the question of who is addressed in the final section is not so important. For it is true not only of God but of Christ (his anointed human King); the now reigning glorified king will conquer (through the promised power of God) all remaining enemies. He must reign until God has made (through Christ) all his enemies the footstool of his feet. (Ps 110:1; Hebs10:12; 1 Cor 15:25; Rev 19:11-21).

And what of us?

We who belong to the same olive tree as David also triumph by faith. We may look for inspiration to David in this psalm, or the other heroes of faith in Hebs 11; and we certainly look, as Hebrews instructs us (12:2), to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of faith (who took faith to places never before charted). We do so assured in faith that their victory will be ours for the battle is the Lord’s. We too, in faith, have asked for life, for ‘length of days for ever and ever’ and we too anticipate ‘glory and splendour and majesty’, ‘unending blessings’, the ‘joys of God’s presence’ all eternally gladdening our hearts for we share in the King’s triumph.  And again, it will be certainly ours; we who persevere in faith, who refuse to be shaken, who trust in the Lord’s strength for our triumph, and who are continually confident of his ‘unfailing love’.

Romans 8 says,

31 What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? 33Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. 34 Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36 As it is written:

“For your sake we face death all day long;

we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”

37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Let’s, with the celebrants of Psalm 21, sing and praise his might.