1 To the chief musician; a Psalm of David.
2 O Jehovah, in thy strength the king rejoiceth, and in thy salvation how exceedingly doth he exult!
3 Thou hast given unto him the desire of his heart, and the request of his lips thou hast not withholden. Selah.
4 For thou meetest him [with] blessings of goodness, thou settest upon his head a crown of pure gold.
5 He asked life from thee; thou gavest [it] him—length of days for ever and ever.
6 Great [is] his glory in thy salvation; majesty and honor thou puttest upon him.
7 For thou givest him blessings for ever; thou makest him glad with joy by thy countenance.
8 For the king trusteth in Jehovah, and through the mercy of the Most High he is not moved.
9 Thy hand shall find out all thine enemies, thy right hand shall find out those that hate thee.
10 Thou wilt make them as a furnace of fire at the time of thy presence; Jehovah in his anger will consume them, and fire shall devour them.
11 Thou wilt destroy their fruit from the earth and their seed from among the sons of men.
12 For they stretched out evil over thee, they have devised a wicked device; they are not able.
13 For thou makest them to turn their back, when thou preparest thy strings against their face.
14 Lift thyself up, O Jehovah, in thy might; we will sing and praise thy power.
Notes on Psalm 21
Here we have the answer to their desires, perhaps we may add to His also, as far as they could enter in. It too is “To the chief musician, a psalm of David.”
As it was into their trouble the remnant saw the Messiah enter, and therefore prayed that He might be heard of Jehovah, so now in the Spirit of prophecy they behold in His deliverance and exaltation the answer to their petitions as to His. Indeed they see more—that Jehovah had not only heard and given, but gone beyond, and of Himself anticipated with the blessings of goodness, and, if He with death before Him asked life, gave length of days for ever and ever. We may observe how completely Messianic all is, and bounded by Jewish hopes: not at all the far deeper truth of His eternal glory that dawned through the clouds of His rejection on those who so feebly followed to the cross and learnt all better in the light of His heavenly place and of His person. This is our portion, and therefore should we be the last to slight and the first to understand the very distinct relations of the godly remnant of Jews, who are to succeed us and take up His testimony for the earth when we shall have passed to heaven. It is the confusion of the earthly and the heavenly, of Jewish expectation in the Christian, that hinders our intelligence of either. Thus the enemy wrought from the beginning, first to hinder, then to darken and corrupt, the church; as all recovery, for such as by grace discern God’s mind to do His will, is by seeing in Christ the key to all; for He is the Head of the church in the heavenly places, as surely as He is Messiah of Israel and Son of man to rule all nations. Distinguishing things that differ (and the difference is immense) is the secret of learning by the word and Spirit of God.
So we see that the second part of the psalm anticipates Messiah’s proper action on His earthly foes.
Thus the opposition and enmity of those who would not have Him to reign over them are met by their overthrow and destruction before all; and Jehovah and His Anointed are identified, not more in public exaltation, than in the fire that devours their enemies. Messiah’s sufferings at the hands of men bring sure and unsparing judgments on them, as surely as His glories follow His sufferings, though none of Israel understood but the godly, who merged in the church and rose to higher hopes and better blessings by the power of the Holy Spirit sent down from heaven. So there will be godly ones to understand in the latter day after those who now compose the church are translated to meet the Lord. For when the heavenly counsels are fulfilled, at least virtually, the question of a godly people for the earth has to be solved; and these are the souls who will take up and make good the Jewish aspirations in that day, that the Lord may have not only His blessed associates on high, but hearts to welcome Him on earth for long eclipsed Zion.