The Strength Of The Lord

Psalm 21 is where we find our place.

Let's read it together.

To the choir master, a psalm of David.

!

You set a crown of fine gold upon his head.

He asked life of you, and you gave it to him.

Length of days, forever and ever.

His glory is great through your salvation.

Splendor and majesty you bestow on him.

For you make him most blessed forever.

You make him glad with the joy of your presence.

For the king trusts in the Lord.

And through the steadfast love of the Most High,

he shall not be moved.

Your hand will find out all your enemies.

Your right hand will find out those who hate you.

You will make them a blazing oven when you appear.

The Lord will swallow them up in his wrath.

Fire will consume them.

You will destroy their descendants from the earth

and their offspring from among the children of men.

Though they plan evil against you,

though they devise mischief,

they will not succeed.

For you will put them to flight.

You will aim at their faces with your bows.

Be exalted, O Lord, in your strength.

We will sing and praise your power.

Amen.

Well, if we pay attention,

and I think that you do that well,

if we pay attention,

the Psalms add an incredible richness and depth to our worship.

And that's useful for us because so many times in our lives,

our private prayers,

our public praises can remain somewhat generic in their content.

It's not necessarily that we're focused on the wrong things,

but that we often just focus on the same things,

saying the same things,

rehearsing the same things.

We tend to speak of,

generally,

of God's love and grace,

and we should do that.

The Psalms,

they compel us to do something more than that.

They compel us to dig deeper,

below the surface,

to meditate on specific aspects of God's character,

and how they're displayed in His saving work.

Psalm 21 is no exception to that.

A cursory reading might lead you to think,

well, this is just as basic and generic as any of the other Psalms,

but a careful reading,

a meditative reading will prove otherwise.

And that's what we want to do today.

As a companion to Psalm 20,

the Psalm calls for us to follow the king's lead

in rejoicing in and praising the Lord's strength and power.

We have, at the beginning, verses 1 and 2,

and then at the end, verse 13,

functioning like bookends that highlight the theme.

Just set your eyes on it.

I want you to see the correlation of terminology here.

In verse 1,

O Lord, in your strength,

the king rejoices,

and in your salvation,

how greatly he exalts.

Now set your eyes on verse 13 at the end.

Be exalted, O Lord, in your strength.

We will sing and praise your power, he says.

Bookends,

giving us something of a theme to the Psalm.

The beginning, we see God's king rejoicing in God's strength,

and in the end,

all of the king's people are called to join him in that praise.

And then sandwiched in between the two,

in the middle is the meat.

Two specific ways God's strength has been displayed to his people.

First, we see in verses 3 to 7,

it has been displayed in the establishment of the king's throne.

And then in verses 8 to 12,

we find that it is displayed in the destruction of the king's enemies.

Which brings us to an important question.

If the Psalm is so hyper-focused on God's work in a particular individual,

this king,

why is everyone called to join him in this praise at the end?

This is fundamentally about the king.

It's not about everybody else, right?

So why are we brought in at the end?

And of course, the answer is because our life is bound up in the king's life.

His blessings are our blessings.

The defeat of his enemies means the defeat of ours.

Therefore, with the king,

we are called to worship God for his strength in salvation.

And in this way,

a proper meditation on Psalm 21

will help to deepen our worship in a manner that brings honor to the Lord,

that exalts his king,

and that ultimately strengthens our faith.

Now, verses 1 and 2 are functioning as what we would call a bridge here.

It's a literary bridge

connecting the

Psalm, Psalm 21, to the one before it.

Now, we need to acknowledge every Psalm stands on its own, doesn't it?

They function on their own.

However, it's good to remember that they are intentionally arranged.

Context is king when it comes to good Bible study skills.

And in meditating on a specific song,

if we consider its placement in the entire collection of songs,

it will help us better understand and appreciate its meaning.

Think of the Psalms like a modern hymn book.

I know we don't...

Do you teenagers know what those are?

Hymn books?

When I was growing up,

when me and your parents were growing up,

we went to church buildings when we worshiped,

and we had these seats called pews.

And they called them pews because they were so uncomfortable

that when you got up at the end of the service,

you were like,

phew, glad that it's over, right?

It's a dad joke for Father's Day, right?

Come on, give me something.

Here we go.

Thank you.

On the back of those pews were these racks,

and there were these thick books.

Sometimes they were red.

Sometimes they were green.

They were called hymn books.

And what you did is you went into the service.

You sat in your pew.

You grabbed your hymn book and your Bible,

and someone would stand up at the front,

and they would say,

stand with me, please,

and turn to hymn number, whatever.

And they would give the number,

and you'd flip there in your hymn book,

and you would sing the song.

Now, if you dig into those hymn books,

and a lot of people would take them home,

how many of you have a hymn book at your house somewhere?

You ever just flip through it and read through the hymns?

It's such a wonderful devotional practice.

If you're having a bad day,

open up a hymn book, a good one,

a good hymn book,

and just start reading through some of those hymns.

It'll do a lot for you.

You have that.

What do you find when you open up that hymn book?

Each song stands on its own, doesn't it?

Each song, you don't have to sing other songs

in order to understand basically what it's trying to say,

but yet all of those songs are arranged in a particular way.

They are intentionally placed thematically with other songs

so that when we take all of them together,

we can get a fuller understanding of what the theology is

of the songs that we're singing.

The Psalms are functioning the same way.

In the hymn book, David, most likely for a lot of them,

has come through and has arranged them for us.

He's placed them in specific places in a liturgical order

so that when we take Psalm 21,

the first thing that we want to do

is we want to start looking around it to see,

okay, what else is happening here in these other Psalms?

Will that help me understand this one?

And when we get to Psalm 21,

it's essential that we do that

because as we find in verses one and two,

there's this bridge that connects us

directly to Psalm 20.

They are meant to be together

because together they present a continuous story

of God's messianic king.

It covers his suffering and then his salvation.

Then it covers the establishment of his throne

and then the final judgment of his enemies.

Here, David underscores the king's response

to God's salvation,

which was focused on in Psalm 20.

Having been delivered from his suffering,

the king rejoices in the Lord's strength.

He exalts in God's salvation.

This word exalt is such a helpful one.

It refers to a feeling or an expression of elation.

It's joyful triumph.

It sets the tone for the psalm.

It sets the tone for what God's people are to do

when they sing it.

We are to observe God's strength

and how he has worked in our salvation

and then exalt in his great power to save.

Expression of elation, joy, triumph.

That's the tone of the psalm.

And then we're reminded in verse two

that this was the heart's desire

and earnest prayer of the king.

Now this connects us back to Psalm 20 as well.

Just look back at Psalm 20 in verse four.

Part of the prayer,

the blessing that the people were praying

about this king,

may he grant you your heart's desire

and fulfill all your plans.

Verse five,

may the Lord fulfill all your petitions.

That's the prayer that the people are praying for the king.

And now we get to Psalm 21

and immediately David says,

the king now responds to God's salvation.

And he responds by saying,

you have given me my heart's desire.

You fulfilled my petitions.

Now what was it that the king petitioned God to do?

His petitions weren't about material wealth

or earthly power.

Instead, he sought the salvation of his people

through his own suffering and deliverance.

God the Father heard his prayer

and gave him his heart's desire.

And then we get to the end of verse two

and we have that common liturgical term,

that Selah.

What does the Selah cause us to do?

It wants us,

it's instructing us to stop for a second.

It's instructing us to pause

and just consider what's been said.

What is it that David wants us to meditate upon?

Who is this king who rejoices in God's strength

and exalts in God's salvation?

And we must, in our meditation,

realize that this psalm is not about David.

He doesn't sing of himself here.

No, this psalm is about the future Davidic king

and Messiah promised in God's covenant.

The king through whom God would defeat all his enemies

and bring an eternal kingdom that will have no end.

This psalm is about Jesus.

Jesus, the one who leads us in worship of God's strength.

The one who suffered and was raised for our salvation.

Now David and the Israelites,

they can only sing this in anticipation

of what God would do.

That's not the case for us.

We sing and pray the psalm in reflection

on what God has already done.

But I want you to notice the way the language

is given to us here.

So confident is David

and the people who join him in this praise.

So confident are they in God's promise

that they sing of this future Messiah

in the past tense.

Do you see that?

Verse 1.

Oh Lord, in your strength the king rejoices

and in your salvation how greatly he exalts.

You've given him his heart's desire.

You've not withheld the request of his lips.

You've already done it, God.

Except, historically, he had not already done it.

What is this telling us?

Well, at the end of Psalm 20,

David was reminding the people to trust the Lord's promise.

And here he's giving them a song to indicate that trust.

They sing of God's promise as if it's already been fulfilled.

Why then do we so often,

who are more blessed than they,

to know how all the pieces fit together

in a way that they did not know?

Why is it that we so often would sing a song like this

or pray through a psalm like this

with a sense of anxiety

or doubt

or even apathy?

It's instructing us, isn't it?

Now, at the end,

all of God's people are called to join in the king's praise here.

But there's two motivations for worship that are expressed.

First, why should we worship God for his strength?

Let's see what the psalm has to say about it.

First, in the Lord's strength,

the king is established.

In the Lord's strength,

the king is established.

Look at verses 3-7.

For you meet him with rich blessings.

You set a crown of fine gold upon his head.

He asked life of you.

You gave it to him.

Length of days, forever and ever.

His glory is great through your salvation.

Splendor and majesty you bestow on him.

For you make him most blessed forever.

You make him glad

with the joy of your presence.

For the king trusts in the Lord.

And through the steadfast love of the Most High,

he shall not be moved.

Now, again, let's hold Psalm 20 and Psalm 21 together.

How are they functioning together?

When Psalm 20, it's given to the choir master

so that the people would remember and trust God's promises.

Psalm 21 is given to the choir master

to acknowledge that God is mighty to fulfill those promises.

And as we've seen repeatedly throughout the Psalms,

God's covenants with Israel,

particularly his covenant with David,

is the foundation of the song.

And what was the Davidic covenant all about?

It was fundamentally about an eternal king

through whom God would bless his people forever and ever.

2 Samuel 7, verses 12 and 13.

2 Samuel 7:12

This is part of the covenant God makes.

This is God saying this to David.

When your days are fulfilled

and you lie down with your fathers,

that's important.

We can't forget that.

David died.

He did not live forever.

When you lie down with your fathers,

I will raise up your offspring after you

who shall come from your body

and I will establish his kingdom.

He shall build a house for my name

and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.

God's covenant faithfulness

is what anchors this Psalm.

And the allusion to the covenant

is unmistakable in verse 7.

Just set your eyes on it again.

It is through the steadfast love of the Most High.

An oft-repeated reference to God's covenant faithfulness.

It's through that

that the king will be established.

Now, just put it all together in your mind.

What's the covenant?

David, after you,

I'm going to raise up your offspring

and he will be a king unlike any other king.

I'm going to give him a kingdom that lasts forever.

Now, David, in Psalm 20,

tells Israel and leads them to trust that promise.

And now, in Psalm 21,

he says God will fulfill it.

He's powerful to fulfill it.

He will do what?

He will establish his king.

That's what this is about.

The joy of the king and his people,

it rests entirely on their faith in God's character,

his steadfast love,

and in his power to do what he promised he would do.

The king trusts in the Lord,

therefore we should too.

And here again,

faith in God is fundamental to our worship.

Those who trust in his steadfast love

will, with the king,

exult in God's great salvation.

Now, how is God's blessings of the king displayed?

How is it that the establishment of this king

is described in the text?

Let's just walk through it.

He meets him with rich blessings.

Now, that's going to stand in stark contrast

to what will come next in the next section

in God's enemies.

They are not met with rich blessings.

They are met with destruction.

But the king and his people,

oh, they're met with rich blessings.

God places a crown of fine gold upon his head.

That's an image we're meant to see

of kingship, royalty.

In answer to the king's prayer,

God gives him life forever and ever.

Remember the covenant.

It's fulfilled.

He clothes the king in glory,

splendor, and majesty.

He is called the most blessed forever.

And as we understand that term in the scriptures,

we understand that the blessing of the king

overflows into blessing for his people

so that the king and its people

are welcomed into the presence of God,

not for judgment,

but with joy and gladness, peace.

All of this blessing, according to verse 5,

comes through what?

God's salvation.

How was God's salvation described in Psalm 20?

It was described through suffering and resurrection.

The king is exalted to a glorious throne

through his suffering and subsequent glory.

In God's power, the king is thus established.

David, looking ahead in anticipation

to what God will do in the person of Christ,

leads all of God's people to praise and worship

the strength of God to establish his king

and bring his people great salvation.

Now, we know this psalm isn't about David

because David did not receive the blessings

enumerated in the psalm.

These are too great for David.

There is a sense in which his life

foreshadowed his future son,

but the king whose throne is established

in this song is not David.

It is the future Messiah.

It's Jesus.

The one who, after wearing a crown of thorns,

is crowned with glory and eternal life.

The one on whom God has bestowed splendor

and majesty with a name that is above every name.

The one who, according to the writer of Hebrews,

after making purifications for sins,

sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high,

having become as much superior to angels

as the name he has inherited,

is more excellent than theirs.

What's the writer of Hebrews referencing?

The exaltation of the king.

All through the New Testament,

the scriptures speak of the exalted king

who, after suffering for our sins,

is blessed forever by the Father.

Of course, one of our favorites is Philippians 2.

Being found in human form,

Jesus humbled himself

by becoming obedient to the point of death,

even death on a cross.

Therefore, God has highly exalted him

and bestowed on him the name

that is above every name,

so that at the name of Jesus,

every knee should bow in heaven

and on earth and under the earth,

and every tongue confess

that Jesus Christ is Lord

to the glory of God the Father.

What is it that Paul and the writer of Hebrews

is picking up on?

The king.

It's king language.

Through his suffering and resurrection,

God exalts his king.

He places Jesus and bestows on him

a glory that is above the glory

of all other people.

He's our king.

Why are we to praise God's power?

Because in the Lord's strength

and through his saving work,

the throne of King Jesus is established,

and the blessings of King Jesus

will overflow to all who trust in him.

That's why we should join the king

in his praise.

But there's a second part to this.

In the Lord's strength,

the king's enemies are defeated.

In the Lord's strength,

the king's enemies are defeated.

Look at verses 8 to 12.

Your hand will find out all your enemies.

Your right hand will find out those who hate you.

You will make them a blazing oven when you appear.

The Lord will swallow them up in his wrath.

Fire will consume them.

You will destroy their descendants from the earth

and their offspring from among the children of men,

though they plan evil against you.

Though they devise mischief,

they will not succeed,

for you will put them to flight.

You will aim at their faces

with your bows.

In the Lord's strength,

the king's enemies are defeated.

Now there's a noticeable shift in audience

at this point in the psalm.

Notice in verses 3 to 7,

the attention is directed to the Lord himself,

the Lord who establishes his king.

But in verses 8 to 12,

it's directed toward the king.

Now that God has established his king,

he empowers him to rule his kingdom,

defeating all of his enemies.

We're reminded here of the unity that exists

between the Lord and his anointed king,

a oneness of judgment

that we saw first in Psalm 2.

Just flip over a couple of pages to Psalm 2.

I want you to see and remember what it says.

Psalm 2, look at verse 2.

The kings of the earth set themselves,

the rulers take counsel together

against the Lord

and against his anointed,

his anointed king.

Verse 4,

he who sits in the heavens laughs at them.

The Lord holds them in derision.

Then he will speak to them in his wrath

and terrify them in his fury,

saying this,

as for me,

I have set my king on Zion,

my holy hill.

What does he mean?

He looks at his enemies and he says,

my king will take care of you.

Verse 9,

speaking to the king,

the Lord says,

you shall break them with a rod of iron

and dash them in pieces

like a potter's vessel.

Verse 12,

kiss the son,

he says to the enemies,

lest he be angry

and you perish in the way

for his wrath is quickly kindled.

Blessed are all who take refuge in him instead.

And we get to Psalm 21

and what is it that we find?

David's drawing on that same idea.

Now that the Lord has established his king,

he will empower his king

to judge the earth.

Christopher Ashe said,

just as opposition to the Messiah

is opposition to God,

so judgment by the Messiah

is the judgment of God.

There is a oneness

showing forth here

between the Lord

and his anointed.

What is it speaking of?

This final,

decisive day of judgment

is the focus here.

It's not judgment in general.

It's the final judgment

that's in view.

Just as those who trust the Lord

receive eternal life

through his king,

those who set themselves

against the Lord

receive eternal punishment

through the king.

There's an allusion here

to the second coming of Christ.

It's in verse 9.

When he appears,

David says,

the king will consume

all of God's enemies

in the fullness

of God's wrath.

We have this language echoed

in 2 Thessalonians.

2 Thessalonians 1:7

Chapter 1, verses 7 and 10.

Paul says,

the Lord Jesus

will be revealed from heaven.

In other words,

when he appears,

he will be revealed from heaven.

with his mighty angels

in a flaming fire

inflicting vengeance

on those who do not know God

and on those who do not obey

the gospel of our Lord Jesus.

They will suffer the punishment

of eternal destruction

away from the presence of the Lord

and from the glory of his might

when he comes on that day.

The parallels there are striking,

aren't they?

Psalm 21,

2 Thessalonians 1,

what are they speaking of?

That final day of judgment.

The king will return.

And when he returns,

he will return

in a consuming fire,

pouring forth vengeance

and the wrath of God

on all who are against God

and do not obey the gospel of Jesus.

And what will their suffering be?

Eternal destruction.

Whereas in the first part of the psalm,

the king and his people

are glad and rejoice

in the presence of God.

In the second part of the psalm,

those who do not belong

to the king by faith

are facing the wrath of God.

They are expelled

from the presence of God,

according to Paul.

Three truths are then expressed

in this section

about Christ's judgment

of his enemies.

First,

we see that the enemies of Christ

will not escape.

They will not escape.

Look at verse 8.

Speaking to the king now,

your hand will find out

all your enemies.

Your right hand will find out

those who hate you.

No matter how hard they try,

the unbelieving will not be able

to hide on the day of God's wrath.

And that's not just a matter

of physical location.

Hiding from the physical presence

of the king

as if they could run into the caves

and cry for the rocks

to fall over them

and hide them from the king,

as the New Testament tells us

they will do.

It won't work.

He'll find them out.

But that's not all this means.

This is also a matter

of the heart.

God's enemies will not be able

to fool him

in the day of judgment.

In the strength of the Lord,

nothing is hidden from his sight,

including the true nature

of your heart.

He will find it out.

No one else may find it out

on the day of judgment.

He will find it out.

That's why the warning

is so striking by Jesus

in the Gospel of Luke.

Many will say to me on that day,

on that final day,

Lord, Lord,

have we not done many wonderful things

in your name?

And I will say to them,

depart from me,

you workers of iniquity.

I never knew you.

They will not escape,

neither physically

nor spiritually.

He knows your heart.

Don't think you can fool him.

You can't.

Second,

they will not survive.

They will not survive.

Verse 10,

you will destroy

their descendants

from the earth

and their offspring

from among the children of men.

This is not so much

a reference to physical children,

but to those

who share their spiritual identity

as enemies of the king,

the unbelieving,

the nations and the kings

of Psalm 2

that set themselves

in rebellion against God

and his anointed

and against his gospel.

No one will slip through the cracks,

in other words.

No one will be forgotten

in the judgment,

in the strength of the Lord.

Third,

all unbelievers

will be destroyed.

Third,

they will not succeed.

They will not succeed.

Verses 11 and 12,

though they plan evil against you,

though they devise mischief,

they will not succeed.

Instead,

you will put them to flight.

You will aim at their faces

with your bows.

Here we're reminded

that God's enemies

are truly guilty.

They plan evil.

They devise mischief.

What does that look like?

Sometimes it's blatant

and obvious.

Other times,

it really just boils down

to a rejection of God

and his gospel.

They are set against God

and his king,

caught in their own

foolish rebellion.

And even as this deception

is exposed to them

and they understand

the reality of the judgment

and their guilt before God,

we know what they will do

is harden their hearts

even further

and they will rage

against the king.

But they will not succeed

in the strength of the Lord.

Jesus will win victory

over every enemy.

Now this section,

it's sobering,

serves as a warning

for everyone to examine

their hearts

to see if they are

on the Lord's side.

And it would be unfaithful

for us not to take a moment

and just pause

and consider that question.

Are you on the Lord's side?

Do you belong to the king

or are you set against him?

But then we must remember

that these statements

are made in the context

of celebration.

What is the tone

that was set for us

in verse 1?

Joy,

exaltation,

the expression of elation.

And that includes

this section.

What is it calling us to do?

With King Jesus,

all of his people

are being called

to rejoice in the fact

that God will be victorious

over every enemy.

Which on one hand

is difficult for us to do

because we recognize

that some of those enemies

are people we love.

We're reminded even then

is the heart of God.

He does not delight

in the destruction

of the wicked

even though it is right.

And yet,

we can still rejoice

that God is victorious.

That none of our enemies

or Jesus' enemies

will remain.

His kingdom

will be a perfect kingdom.

No rebellion.

No sin.

No hardness of heart.

all joy

and joy

in the strength

of the Lord

who through his king

defeats all his enemies.

Then we get to the final verse.

It wraps all up for us

in 13.

Be exalted,

O Lord,

in your strength.

We now are included.

First person plural.

We will sing

and praise

your power.

Isn't that what the psalm

is teaching us to do?

All who follow Jesus

are called to join him

in his praise.

With our king,

we rejoice

in God's strength

to fulfill his promises

and we exult

in the salvation

of Christ

which he has won

for his people.

for all

who will trust

in him

and therefore

by faith

let us sing

and praise

the glorious power

of our mighty God

for the Lord

himself

is our salvation.