PAST AND FUTURE VICTORY
February 1, 2022

A. Starting point: Rev. 7:12

“Saying, Amen: Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honour, and power, and might, be unto our God for ever and ever. Amen.”

B. Praying from: PSALM 21

“The king shall joy in thy strength, O LORD; and in thy salvation how greatly shall he rejoice!
2 Thou hast given him his heart’s desire, and hast not withholden the request of his lips. Selah.
3 For thou preventest him with the blessings of goodness: thou settest a crown of pure gold on his head.
4 He asked life of thee, and thou gavest it him, even length of days for ever and ever.
5 His glory is great in thy salvation: honour and majesty hast thou laid upon him.
6 For thou hast made him most blessed for ever: thou hast made him exceeding glad with thy countenance.
7 For the king trusteth in the LORD, and through the mercy of the most High he shall not be moved.
8 Thine hand shall find out all thine enemies: thy right hand shall find out those that hate thee.
9 Thou 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.
10 Their fruit shalt thou destroy from the earth, and their seed from among the children of men.
11 For they intended evil against thee: they imagined a mischievous device, which they are not able to perform.
12 Therefore shalt thou make them turn their back, when thou shalt make ready thine arrows upon thy strings against the face of them.
13 Be thou exalted, LORD, in thine own strength: so will we sing and praise thy power.”

C. Praying Time:
Context
The composer, probably a priest representing the people, speaks about the king. This royal psalm is connected to warfare and begins with joyful thanks concerning a victory. While the psalm was likely composed in the aftermath of a particular battle, the psalm is historically non-specific (see Introduction), so it could be used time and time again. Psalm 21 seems to be a pair with Psalm 20, since Psalm 20 ends with an appeal for help in battle, while Psalm 21 begins by thanking God for victory (vv. 1–7). However, the latter ends with a confident statement about a future, more definitive victory (vv. 8–13).

The title names David as the author, but then the psalm itself speaks about the king in the third person. The king as song composer could certainly write about his office in the third person, but it is also possible that the psalmist is some second party who speaks about the king. See Introduction: Titles, p. 30, for director of music.
Comment
21:1. The king rejoices
The psalmist speaks to God and describes the king’s glee in God’s strength. The second colon speaks of victories given by God, and thus the first part of this psalm (vv. 2–7) celebrates a military victory. God’s strength manifests itself through victory. The king’s army has won a battle, but the king knows that victory has been won only because God the Warrior has provided it.
21:2–7. God has answered the king’s prayer
This stanza thanks God for answering earlier prayers of the king, specified in the next few verses, and demonstrates that more than one prayer is in view here. As a general principle, God has given the king his heart’s desire (v. 2a), which is also described as the request of his lips (v. 2b). What began as the king’s inward desire issued forth in the material form of a prayer request, and God has granted his requests. The impression is that the king asked, and everything he requested was provided. If that is the case, it would indicate that the king’s desires are consonant with the desires and will of God himself.

The parallelism in verse 3 is a fine example of how a B line sharpens an A line (see Introduction: Poetic style, pp. 42–47). The psalmist begins with a broad statement, stating that God has given the king rich blessings, while in verse 3b he highlights one of those rich blessings, namely the kingship, here represented by way of metonymy by a crown of pure gold. The king owes his kingship to God. If David is intended, the account in 1 Samuel of his rise to kingship does indeed show how God provided the kingship to the young shepherd boy. Of course, all of David’s descendants, deserving or not, who ascended to the throne also did so because of God’s provision through the Davidic covenant (2 Sam. 7).
The king also requested life from God, and God gave it to him (v. 4a). The second colon (v. 4b) says that God gave him length of days, indicating a long life, but then it goes on to say life for ever and ever. Exactly how we are to understand the reference to ‘for ever’ is not clear. Presumably, when the psalm was written, the king was still alive. Could this be a reference to the afterlife? Or simply a wish that the king would live to a ripe old age? In any case, in this instance the language may suggest a reference beyond the human king (see Meaning).

God has also granted the king fame and dignity through the victories he has won for him (v. 4). Indeed, the king has received glory (kābôd), splendour (hôd) and majesty (hādār) because God has won victories on his behalf. These qualities are most often associated with God himself, but he allows his anointed king to reflect them (Longman 2010).

The rich blessings (v. 3a) are unending (v. 6a), giving the impression that the previous verses are only the tip of the iceberg. What truly makes the king glad is the blessing of God’s presence. God is with him and that is why the blessings flow. Joseph illustrates the connection between divine presence and blessing. In Genesis 39, the prosperity of Potiphar’s household is clearly connected to God being ‘with him’ (vv. 2–3), as is Joseph’s well-being when he was incarcerated in the prison (vv. 21, 23).

The final verse of the stanza (v. 7) gives the reason why (for) the king has enjoyed success. The king trusts God, and thus God’s unfailing love or covenant loyalty will keep his path steady.
21:8–12. God will destroy the king’s enemies
In the first stanza, the psalmist thanked God for past blessings; in the present stanza, he now looks forward confidently to future blessings. After all, God’s rich blessings (v. 3a) are unending (v. 6a). The second-person reference (you) continues to refer to God, and the target of God’s future victory is God’s enemies (v. 8a), who are also enemies of the godly king who is the subject of the psalm.

God’s encounter and triumph over these enemies is pictured in verse 8 by the anthropomorphism of God grabbing them with his hand. The A colon uses the general term for hand (yād), while the B colon refers to his right hand (yāmîn), the hand of power. Both God’s hand and his right hand are often used to indicate God’s overwhelming power in the context of a military confrontation (Exod. 15:6; Pss 17:7; 44:3; 60:5; 98:1; 108:6; 138:7; 139:10).

God’s destructive power is described as fire that burns up the enemy (v. 9). God will burn them as in a blazing furnace. Isaiah pictures the Lord’s furnace of judgment set up in Jerusalem in order to consume the Assyrians (Isa. 31:9). Malachi looks forward to the coming day (of the Lord) which will ‘burn like a furnace’ (Mal. 4:1). Verse 9c uses another common verb (swallow) for the destruction (bāla‘; see Job 2:3; 8:18; Isa. 25:7–8).
God’s anger towards these foes arises from their own attacks against him. They plot evil against God. Perhaps these plots are actually against God’s people, but that would be like attacking God himself. Their plots are ‘in vain’ (Ps. 2:1), because God is not threatened by mere humans. Verse 12 pictures these evil plotters in rapid retreat as they flee from God the Warrior, who has pointed his bow at them. As Psalm 7 pointed out, if evil people ‘do not relent, he will sharpen his sword; he will bend and string his bow. He has prepared his deadly weapons; he makes ready his flaming arrows’ (vv. 12–13).
21:13. Be exalted
As in the first verse, so in the last, the focus is on God’s strength. God has won and will win victories on behalf of his anointed king and his people, and thus deserves their praise.
Meaning
This prayer on behalf of the king thanks God for past blessings, including victory, and looks forward confidently to a future, more definitive defeat of those who plot against God. This is a royal psalm in that it is a prayer for the king, and it appeals to God as a Warrior who takes care of the king and his people. Thus, like the other Divine-Warrior hymns of the Psalter, Christians now read this prayer in the context of spiritual warfare, knowing that Jesus has defeated Satan on the cross (Col. 2:13–15), although the battle continues to rage until the end, when he will return again and completely destroy his enemies (Rev. 19:11–21). Indeed, as Goldingay and others have pointed out, the second stanza of Psalm 21 likely stands behind Paul’s words of encouragement to those who were being persecuted in the church in Thessalonica:
He will pay back trouble to those who trouble you and give relief to you who are troubled, and to us as well. This will happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels. He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might on the day he comes to be glorified in his holy people and to be marveled at among all those who have believed.

D. THE A-MEN OF ROMANS 16:20, 24, 27
16:20 “And the God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. A-men.”