Psalms 20, 21
The testimonies to the heart and eyes of man which God gave in His creation and in the Word of God, occupy the 19th, and is followed in the 20th Psalm by the testimony of their Messiah seen by the believing Jews in His human sufferings.
Those who did not believe, saw no beauty that they should desire Him; despised and left alone of men, like one from whom men hide their faces, despised—such is the testimony of Isaiah 53.
Puzzling to the Jew as the rejected and suffering Messiah was (as the four evangelists record), His course is explained in Psalms 20 and 21, and this, those whose eyes are opened will read and believe.
In Psalm 20 we are shown the place which He took that they might have part in His sympathies, and to make their deliverance possible, though this last is more expressed in Psalm 22, the complement of Psalms 16 to 18 and 20, 21.
He placed Himself in the path of perfect obedience—and love, too—for the encouragement of the remnant of the Jews who should after believe on Him, who must pass through deep trial, great sorrow, according to the righteous ways of God on account of their waywardness and wickedness.
In the midst of sorrows then, we find Jesus (verse 1), the Messiah, the faithful witness. He is among an ungodly people, but there are those who in heart enter into His distress, and look to God to hear His Anointed. These are Jews, and it is to the God of Jacob they look, and for strength out of Zion, as though He dwelt among them.
Verse 6 shows how sure faith is, and more intelligence is shown too,—the answer to Messiah's call comes not from the forsaken sanctuary in Mount Zion at Jerusalem, but "from the heavens of Jehovah's holiness." Jesus is the king in verse 9, and in Psalm 21 where the suffering One is the crowned One, and will judge His enemies presently.
In Psalm 20, Christ is seen in Jewish sorrows.
In Psalm 21 He is on the other side of death and resurrection, and glorified. His heart's desire has been met with "the blessings of goodness" (verse 3).
In verses 8 to 13 the Messiah, Jesus is the Person addressed. In this Psalm is the Jewish Remnant's joy in the position of Christ with God: they had slighted Him when He was here, but now they understand His resurrection and ascension, and on Him their hopes are fixed.
The reader will note that there is no thought of the Christian hope here; not heaven, but earth is in view.
Messages of God’s Love 5/25/1930