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Psalms 21
The answer to Psalm 20's prayer. Where the people once asked, here they rejoice: the king "rejoices in your strength" because God gave him his heart's desire, set a crown of fine gold on his head, and granted the life he asked for — "length of days forever and ever." The psalm turns sharply at verse 8. After celebrating gifts to the king, it pivots to the enemies God will find out, making them "a fiery furnace" and destroying their descendants. Watch how the king's security rests not on his own arm but on trust: "the king trusts in the LORD" and so "shall not be moved."
- 1
The king rejoices in your strength, LORD! How greatly he rejoices in your salvation!
- 2
You have given him his heart’s desire, and have not withheld the request of his lips. Selah.
- 3
For you meet him with the blessings of goodness. You set a crown of fine 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. You lay honor and majesty on him.
- 6
For you make him most blessed forever. You make him glad with joy in your presence.
- 7
For the king trusts in the LORD. Through the loving kindness of the Most High, he shall not be moved.
- 8
Your hand will find out all of your enemies. Your right hand will find out those who hate you.
- 9
You will make them as a fiery furnace in the time of your anger. The LORD will swallow them up in his wrath. The fire shall devour them.
- 10
You will destroy their descendants from the earth, their posterity from among the children of men.
- 11
For they intended evil against you. They plotted evil against you which cannot succeed.
- 12
For you will make them turn their back, when you aim drawn bows at their face.
- 13
Be exalted, LORD, in your strength, so we will sing and praise your power.
Why the gifts are so extravagant
The blessings here — eternal life, a gold crown, joy in God's presence — stretch beyond what any single Israelite king received, which is why this psalm was read messianically: the language outgrows its first occasion.
Note the symmetry with Psalm 20: both open and close addressing the LORD's strength, and verse 13's "Be exalted, LORD, in your strength" closes the pair by handing all the glory back to God, not the king who received it.
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