Psalm 21 1The king shall joy in thy strength, O LORD; and in thy salvation how greatly shall he rejoice! 2Thou hast given him his heart's desire, and hast not withholden the request of his lips. Selah. 3For thou preventest him with the blessings of goodness: thou settest a crown of pure gold on his head. 4He asked life of thee, and thou gavest it him, even length of days for ever and ever. 5His glory is great in thy salvation: honour and majesty hast thou laid upon him. 6For thou hast made him most blessed for ever: thou hast made him exceeding glad with thy countenance. 7For the king trusteth in the LORD, and through the mercy of the most High he shall not be moved. 8Thine hand shall find out all thine enemies: thy right hand shall find out those that hate thee. 9Thou shalt make them as a fiery oven in the time of thine anger: the LORD shall swallow them up in his wrath, and the fire shall devour them. 10Their fruit shalt thou destroy from the earth, and their seed from among the children of men. 11For they intended evil against thee: they imagined a mischievous device, which they are not able to perform. 12Therefore shalt thou make them turn their back, when thou shalt make ready thine arrows upon thy strings against the face of them. 13Be thou exalted, LORD, in thine own strength: so will we sing and praise thy power. Today's Scripture Meaning Thanksgiving for victory. (1-6) Confidence of further success. (7-13) Verses 1-6: Happy the people whose king makes God's strength his confidence, and God's salvation his joy; who is pleased with all the advancements of God kingdom, and trusts God to support him in all he does for the service of it. All our blessings are blessings of goodness, and are owing, not to any merit of ours, but only to God's goodness. But when God's blessings come sooner, and prove richer than we imagine; when they are given before we prayed for them, before we were ready for them, nay, when we feared the contrary; then it may be truly said that he prevented, or went before us, with them. Nothing indeed prevented, or went before Christ, but to mankind never was any favour more preventing than our redemption by Christ. Thou hast made him to be a universal, everlasting blessing to the world, in whom the families of the earth are, and shall be blessed; and so thou hast made him exceeding glad with the countenance thou hast given to his undertaking, and to him in the prosecution of it. The Spirit of prophecy rises from what related to the king, to that which is peculiar to Christ; none other is blessed for ever, much less a blessing for ever. Verses 7-13: The psalmist teaches to look forward with faith, and hope, and prayer upon what God would further do. The success with which God blessed David, was a type of the total overthrow of all Christ's enemies. Those who might have had Christ to rule and save them, but rejected him and fought against him, shall find the remembrance of it a worm that dies not. God makes sinners willing by his grace, receives them to his favour, and delivers them from the wrath to come. May he exalt himself, by his all-powerful grace, in our hearts, destroying all the strong-holds of sin and Satan. How great should be our joy and praise to behold our Brother and Friend upon the throne, and for all the blessings we may expect from him! yet he delights in his exalted state, as enabling him to confer happiness and glory on poor sinners, who are taught to love and trust in him. Today's Scripture Application Each day we walk through the Bible chapter by chapter making an application of our text to help us grow in the Lord. Many applications can be made from each day's text. Today we continue in the Book of Psalm with Chapter 21. In our text today we see a theme of Praising God after he gives us the victory. An open spoken Testimony of what God did and how he gave us the victory. In making application we see the need to praise the Lord. Praise Him with spoken words of the testimony of how God is working in our lives giving us the strength for victory as he holds our enemies. When we praise the Lord we humble ourselves and lift Him up. When He is lifted up it draws men to Him. How about you? Do you praise the Lord when he gives you victory? Let us learn from our Psalm and text today to follow the instruction of David by giving God the Praise He is worthy of receiving.
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