Psalm XXI
To the chief Musician, a Psalm of David.
1 The king shall joy in thy strength, O Lord;
And in thy salvation how greatly shall he rejoice!
2 Thou hast given him his heart’s desire,
And hast not withholden the request of his lips. Selah.
3 For thou preventest him with the blessings of goodness: Thou settest a crown of pure gold on his head.
4 He asked life of thee, and thou gavest it him, even length of days for
ever and ever.
5 His glory is great in thy salvation: honour and majesty hast thou laid
upon him.
6 For thou hast made him most blessed for ever:
Thou hast made him exceeding glad with thy countenance.
7 For the king trusteth in the Lord,
And through the mercy of the Most High he shall not be moved.
8 Thine hand shall find out all thine enemies:
Thy right hand shall find out those that hate thee.
9 Thou 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.
10 Their fruit shalt thou destroy from the earth,
And their seed from among the children of men.
11 For they intended evil against thee:
They imagined a mischievous device, which they are not able to perform.
12 Therefore shalt thou make them turn their back:
When thou shalt make ready thine arrows upon thy strings against the face of them.
13 Be thou exalted, Lord, in thine own strength; so will we sing and praise
thy power.
We have entered on a series of Psalms that more directly fix the eye on Messiah alone as their theme. This is the se- 1^^“^^”^^, cond of the series. It takes up the theme of the former Psalm. We are at once shewn the King Messiah, already triumphant at the Father’s right hand; and yet, as King, to triumph more ere all be done.
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72 PSALM XXI. — MESSIAH’S PRESENT JOY
David, now on the throne at Hebron, and soon to be on a loftier throne at Jerusalem, might be the original of the typical scene; but certainly he was not more than this. It is of our King that the Holy Spirit speaks.
The plan is very simple. From ver. 1-7, we have Messiah’s exaltation after his suffering: then ver. 8-12, His future acts when He rises up to sweep away his foes; and ver. 1 3, the cry of His own for that day, as their day of realised bliss: —
“Be exalted, Lord, in thy strength!
So loill we sing and praise thy power. ^’^
He who was the “man of sorrows,” and “whose flesh was weak,” now (ver. 1), “joys in thy strength, greatly rejoices.” And how sweet to us to hear verse 2, “Thou hast given Hi’m His heart’s desire,’’ remembering, in connection with it, John xi. 42,” I know that thou hearest me always;” for it assures us that He did not mistake the depth of the Father’s love, or err in His faith in the Father’s kindness of purpose towards Him. He knew what was in man, but he knew what was in God also, and declares it to us, sealing it with the “SelaJt ‘-ipnuse of solemn thought. The Father “came before Him with,” or rather, anticipated, outran, His desires; for that is the meaning of “For thou preventest Him with the blessings of thy goodness.”
And in the “crown of pure gold,” already set on His head, we see this verified, inasmuch as it is not the crown which he is to get at his appearing. The Father has at present given Him the crown, mentioned in Heb. ii. 9, “Glory and honour,” but it is as an assurance and pledge of something more and better, the “many crowns,” (Rev. xix. 12).
Let us often stay to rejoice that the man of sorrows is happy now — “most blessed for ever!’” He feeds among the lilies. Shall we not rejoice in the refreshment of our Head — in the ointment poured on him — in the glory resting on his brow —
* One who paraphrases the Psalms (Barclay) has given this as the essence of the one before us: —
“The battle fought, the victory won, — The Church rejoicing in the spoil,
Gives glory to her Lord alone,
And hails Him home from all His toil.”
in the smile of the Father which his eye ever seeth! Shall the members not be glad when their Head is thus gladdened and lifted up? Shall such verses as ver. 5, 6, not form our frequent themes of praise?
In ver. 4, his prayers are referred to — those prayers that He offered during the lonely nights, when He made the desert places of Galilee echo to his moans and the voice of His cry — such prayers as Heb, v, 7 tells of, and such as Psalm lxxxviii. 10, 11, gives a sample of He asked deliverance from death and the grave — and, lo! He has now “Endless life” (Heb. vii. 16) in all its power. Verse 6 resembles in construction verse 9, and so presents the contrast of meaning more forcibly. The one is, “Thou hast set him blessings;” the other is, “Thou hast set them like a furnace.’’
And here we see that “He is the author and finisher of faith;” for if his prayers and cries prove him to have had truly our very humanity in sinless weakness, no less does ver. 7 shew that his holy human soul fixed itself for support, like ivy twining round the tower, on the Father hj faith. In this He was our pattern.
“The King trusted in the Lord.’’’ (Ver. 7.) He is the true example of faith, surpassing all the “elders who have obtained a good report;” he is “captain and perfecter of faith;” he leads the van and he brings up the rear, in the examples of faith given on this world’s theatre. (Heb. xii. 3.) And the Father’s love rests on Him for ever; that love (“tender mercy,” ver. 7) of which he prayed in John xvii. 26, that the same might ever be on us.
And now the scene changes; for, lo! he has risen up!
“Thy hand finds out all thine enemies;
“Yea, thy hand finds out all that hate thee!
“T/iouputtest them in a furnace of fire,” &c. (Ver. 8, 9.)
It is his rising up to judgment! His foes hide in the caves and rocks of earth, but he finds them out. It is the day which burns as an oven (Malachi iv. 1) that has come at length. It is the ^OSiny; the time of his livesencQ; the day of his appearing; “the day of his lace” — that face before which heaven and earth flee. His enemies flee, and they perish in their impotence, his arrows striking them through, (Ver. 1 2).” Theij formed a design loliicli they could not effect,’’’’
is truly the history of man’s attempts to thwart God, from the day of Babel tower down to the day when Babylon and Antichrist perish together. And who would not have it so? Who will not join the Church in her song, “Rise high, O Lord, in thy strength?” — the song of
Messiah’s present joy and future victory.