Psalms 21:1

PSALM 21

A COMPANION PSALM TO PSALM 20; A SONG OF THANKSGIVING; A MESSIANIC IMPLICATION IN PS. 21:4.

Before commenting on this psalm, this writer believes the following comment from Arno C. Gaebelein is an appropriate consideration.

"This Psalm is Messianic. The Targum (The Chaldean paraphrase of the Old Testament) and the Talmud teach that the king mentioned in this Psalm is the Messiah. The great Talmudic scholar, Rabbi Solomon Isaaci, known by the name of Rashi (born in 1040 A.D.), while endorsing this interpretation, suggested that it should be given up on account of Christians making use of this Psalm as an evidence that Jesus of Nazareth is the Messiah.

"If Rashi were living today, he would not need to make such a suggestion as far as modernistic Christendom is concerned. The Destructive Criticism has, by its rationalistic inventions, disposed of the many Messianic prophecies in the Psalms and has made, in this respect, common cause with infidel Judaism, known as reformed Judaism."[1]

That God's promised Messiah was identified for a thousand years as "The Son of David," thus automatically establishing David, the king of Israel, as a legitimate type of the Messiah cannot intelligently be denied. Many of the things in David's life were prophetic of the life of the Messiah; and that fact alone underlies the tireless efforts of unbelievers to deny the Davidic authorship of many of the Psalms. In this commentary, we shall treat such efforts with the contempt which they deserve.

"The Davidic kingship was consciously acknowledged from early times as a figure of the true ... and the Messianic expectation is rightly found here."[2]

Furthermore, there is a great deal of the language in this Psalm which cannot in the wildest employment of the imagination be ascribed to anyone else except the Messiah.

Structurally, there are three divisions of the Psalm: (1) Psalms 21:1-7; (2) Psalms 21:8-12; and (3) a concluding prayer (Psalms 21:13).

Regarding the occasion when the Psalm was written, Leupold concluded that it should be identified with the event narrated in 2 Samuel 7, "Where David is apprised of the fact that God will bless him in such a measure that his kingdom shall be an everlasting kingdom, to be ruled by One of the line of David who shall reign eternally ... Psalms 21:4,6 emphasize in particular the eternal character of the blessings God had just bestowed on David."[3]

Rawlinson also agreed that there is a reflection here of the promise God made to David through Nathan in 2 Samuel 7, adding that, "In the full sense, the promise was, of course, Messianic, being fulfilled only in Christ, the God-man, who alone of David's posterity `liveth forever.'"[4]

Any ascription of such eternal continuity to any mortal whomsoever would be extremely foolish. "This Psalm in a true sense is Messianic, for it ascribes to the ideal king attributes which no king of Judah exhibited."[5]

Psalms 21:1-2

"The king shall joy in thy strength, O Jehovah; And in thy salvation how greatly shall he rejoice! Thou has given him his heart's desire, And thou hast not witholden the request of his lips, (Selah)"

The king spoken of here cannot be identified with any earthly monarch. The "king" here is the Messiah.

He is not merely a king, but The King; king over minds and hearts, reigning with a dominion of love before which all other rule is merely brute force. He was proclaimed King even upon the Cross, for there indeed in the eyes of faith, He reigned as on a throne, blessing with far more than imperial munificence the needy sons of earth.[6]