Psalms 21
Big idea: The companion to Psalm 20, sung after the battle. Everything the congregation asked for there is reported granted here — you have given him his heart's desire, and have not withheld the request of his lips. But the psalm is careful about the crown: the king rejoices in your strength, not his own, and the reason he is not moved is the loving kindness of the Most High. The second half turns to the enemies, and it is not the king who finds them out. It is God's own hand.
Psalm 21 celebrates a king answered. Psalm 22 is the king unanswered — my God, why have you forsaken me?
21:1–7 — You set a crown of fine gold on his head
A report of prayers answered, and the accounting is careful about who did what: every good thing in the list is a verb with God as its subject. You gave, you meet him, you set, you lay, you make. The king does almost nothing in his own psalm. Verse 7 then supplies the reason behind the whole inventory, and it is not achievement — it is trust, which is the one thing the king contributed.
1 For the Chief Musician. A Psalm by David. The king rejoices in your strength, Yahweh! 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 Yahweh. Through the loving kindness of the Most High, he shall not be moved.
21:8–13 — Your hand will find out all of your enemies
The second movement turns to the enemies, and the subject changes without announcement. 'Your hand will find out all of your enemies' — grammatically it is still God being addressed, so the hand searching them out is his and not the king's. That matters, because it moves the violence in these verses out of a monarch's discretion. The stated ground is in verse 11: they aimed at God, and the psalm says plainly that it could not have worked.
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. Yahweh 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, Yahweh, in your strength, so we will sing and praise your power.
Scripture text: World English Bible (public domain).