"To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David.
1 O Lord, in your strength the king rejoices,
and in your salvation how greatly he exults!
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 rich blessings;
you set a crown of fine gold upon his head.
4 He asked life of you; you gave it to him,
length of days forever and ever.
5 His glory is great through your salvation;
splendour and majesty you bestow on him.
6 For you make him most blessed forever;
you make him glad with the joy of your presence.
7 For the king trusts in the Lord,
and through the steadfast love of the Most High he shall not be moved.
8 Your hand will find out all your enemies;
your right hand will find out those who hate you.
9 You will make them as a blazing oven
when you appear.
The Lord will swallow them up in his wrath,
and fire will consume them.
10 You will destroy their descendants from the earth,
and their offspring from among the children of man.
11 Though they plan evil against you,
though they devise mischief, they will not succeed.
12 For you will put them to flight;
you will aim at their faces with your bows.
13 Be exalted, O Lord, in your strength!
We will sing and praise your power."
Psalm 21
This Psalm belongs to the thought of Psalm 20 and needs to be studied along with it. There, it was the picture of the Israelite army ready for battle, pouring out its heart in united prayer for victory and the prospering of their king (see previous Notes). Here, the lessons are complementary, and similar. Thus, the prayer in 20:4 finds its answer in 21:2 and 20:2. There are three obvious and simple, yet important and significant, lessons for us. The first is that God is a prayerhearing God. He is a God Who can be approached with confidence in the name that is above every name and by pleading the covenant and the promises. He is easy to be entreated, and waiting to be gracious to those that call upon Him. This is something that needs to be emphasised today, in a time when God has seemed to be very remote and unreal even in the life and experience of the Church - so much so, indeed, that when men speak of real experience of His power in their lives in answer to prayer, others are embarrassed by their testimony, and tend to think of them as 'earnest' and even 'extremist'. The second lesson relates to the joy of answered prayer. This is one of the most notable and characteristic qualities of biblical religion. Whenever and wherever God is known as a prayer-hearing and prayer-answer- ing God, there is a great ringing thrill and exuberance of rejoicing in His mighty works. This is seen not only here, but throughout the Psalms (cf for example, Psalm 126:2, 'Then was our mouth filled with laughter, and our tongues with singing'). And the same thrill of rejoicing is very evident in the New Testament, as we may see from passages such as Acts 4:24ff or Acts 12:12ff. Ah, have we not much in which to rejoice and for which to praise His great and glorious Name!