Psalm 21

1 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.

Key Verse:
4 He asked life of thee, and thou gavest it him, even length of days for ever and ever.

Key Outline:
1. v.1-7 The attributes of Christ
2. v. 8-13 The enemies of Christ

Key Observation:
This is a psalm of Christ and a psalm of coming judgment.

Memory Verse:
13 Be thou exalted, LORD, in thine own strength: so will we sing and praise thy power.


Devotion:

In this psalm I am reminded of my Savior praying to the Father in John 17, the real Lord’s Prayer. “Thou hast given him his heart's desire, and hast not withholden the request of his lips. Selah.” Christ knew, I know from John 17, knew that he had to go to the cross.

He prayed ardently and effectively for us, and many times in many ages the answers of the Father are seen in His children. He asked specifically that his Father would “protect them by the power of his name” and we Christians are sealed with the Holy Spirit and marked with His very name upon us. Though we may lose in this life to persecution or trials or death, yet we look forward to life renewed with Christ, a resurrection in which we shall never lose. It is guaranteed by his death on the cross. The grace of God paid all of our debt, forever. “He asked life of thee, and thou gavest it him, even length of days for ever and ever.”

Three times our Lord and Savior took this prayer to the Father: “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.” What was He asking here? I do not believe He was asking to escape the cross. Rather I think there was something more painful than I can imagine which He was trying to escape. From eternity past the Son had been with the Father, but now, because of the awful dreadful killing power of sin, the Son was to be separated from the Father. I think it was that separation that Jesus was praying to be delivered from, yet even in His prayer He carefully said “not as I will, but as you will”. Oh, that should teach me how to pray!

Notice the psalm and the answer of God. “His glory is great in thy salvation: honour and majesty hast thou laid upon him. For thou hast made him most blessed for ever”. Christ prayed what may be termed a submissive prayer, and came into the glory which had been prepared beforehand for Him. Oh, that I might learn to submit to my Father! E.M. Bounds reminds us of submissive prayer: “The prayer of submission is without a definite word of promise, so to speak, but takes hold of God with a lowly and contrite spirit, and asks and pleads with Him, for that which the soul desires. . . . Elijah showed himself to Ahab; but the answer to his prayer did not come, until he had pressed his fiery prayer upon the Lord seven times.” There are times when we need to present our request over and over to God, wrestling until we find the answer from God. When we find that answer, we need to submit to the will of our Father, whatever it may be.

In 1972 I became a believer. Shortly after that God began to show me a whole spiritual side to life of which I had been woefully ignorant. I became aware of the plight of my own family; most of them were without Christ, without redemption. I started to bring to prayer the salvation of my father and brothers. Several times I brought this need of mine to God; I watched expectantly to see His answer. Once when praying such an assurance fell upon me that I began thanking God for the salvation of each member of my family. I remember feeling some doubt about my own earthly father, well-known for his hard headedness, and I expressed that to God freely. Receiving assurance of His answers, from that time on I began thanking Him for the salvation of each member of my family. My doubts fled for I knew God had heard my prayer. I believed God from that time!

For some of my brothers, their coming was but a few years off. But for my father, the answer was long in coming, and it was not until 2007, thirty five years after God answered my prayer, that I was able to see him receive Christ. Sometimes by faith, we just see the little cloud of our answer like Elijah, and like Elijah we have to go back and wait for the Master, waiting by faith, knowing that our God is an awesome God!

The psalm finishes in judgment, fitting in light of our Savior’s payment for sin. God did not allow Him to stay dead, raising Him to a station that is above every name. Walvoord, in his commentary on Revelation, says: “It is in anticipation of this ultimate triumph that God the Father holds the nations of the world in derision in their rebellion against the Lord’s Annointed (Ps. 2:1-4).” This one remedy for sin is given to men. Should they refuse this remedy they will face the derision and just judgment of our God. My fellow believers remember this coming judgment, for it is coming soon now. Do not let a day pass where you do not strive in prayer for those around you who are lost. D.L Moody, evangelist, has this story told about him. Every day he wanted to talk to at least one person about Christ. Finding himself caught in an extraordinarily busy schedule one day, he came to his room late at night and prepared for bed. Lying down he realized that he had not fulfilled his aim, that the entire day had passed and he had not found one person to talk to about Jesus. Putting his clothes back on, he went back into the street, found a poor soul, and led him to the Lord. Fellow Christians, I know you are not the evangelist that Moody was, but you are created anew in your Master’s image. Let not the sun go down today without at least praying through for someone you know, and perhaps sharing how you yourself were changed by finding Christ.