The Psalms

Psalm 21

A thanksgiving for victory, 1-6; with confidence of further success, 7-13.

1 [To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David.]

The king shall rejoice in your strength, O LORD./
And in your salvation how greatly he shall rejoice!

2  You have given him his heart's desire/
and have not withheld the request of his lips./
[Selah.]

3  For you have met him with the blessings of goodness./
You have set a crown of pure gold on his head.

4  He asked life of you, and you gave it to him,/
even length of days forever and ever.

5  His glory is great in your salvation./
Honor and majesty you have laid upon him.

6  For you have made him most blessed forever./
You have made him exceedingly glad with your countenance.

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

8  Your hand shall find out all your enemies./
Your right hand shall find out those who hate you.

9  You shall make them as a fiery oven in the time of your anger./
The LORD shall swallow them up in his wrath,/
and the fire shall devour them.

10 You shall destroy their fruit from the earth/
and their offspring from among the children of men.

11 For they intended evil against you./
They conceived a mischievous device which they are not able to perform.

12 Therefore, you shall make them turn their back/
when you make ready your arrows upon your strings against their face.

13 Be exalted, LORD, in your own strength,/
and we will sing and praise your power.

Commentary

Matthew Henry Commentary - Psalms, Chapter 21[➚]

Notes

John Calvin's Chapter Summary:

This psalm contains a public and solemn thanksgiving for the prosperous and happy condition of the king. Its subject is almost the same with that of the preceding. In the former there was set forth a common form of prayer, which was designed to excite in the whole people earnest concern for the preservation of their head. In this it is shown that the safety and prosperity of the king ought to produce public and general rejoicing through the whole realm, inasmuch as God by this means intended to preserve the whole body in safety. But, above all, it was the design of the Holy Spirit here to direct the minds of the faithful to Christ, who was the end and perfection of this kingdom, and to teach them that they could not be saved except under the head which God himself had appointed over them.

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