Psalms 21:12

t must be owned that there are several expressions in it which apply better to our Lord than to David, or to any other person; and to him the Targum applies it, as does likewise my old Anglo-Scottish Psalter in paraphrasing the text. Verse 1 The king shall joy - מלך משיחא melech Meshicha, "the King Messiah." - Targum. What a difference between ancient and modern heroes! The former acknowledged all to be of God, because they took care to have their quarrel rightly founded; the latter sing a Te Deum, pro forma, because they well know that their battle is not of the Lord. Their own vicious conduct sufficiently proves that they looked no higher than the arm of human strength. God suffers such for a time, but in the end he confounds and brings them to naught. Verse 2 Thou hast given him his heart's desire - This seems to refer to the prayers offered in the preceding Psalm; see especially Psa 21:1-4. Verse 3 Thou preventest him - To prevent, from prcevenio, literally signifies to go before. Hence that prayer in the communion service of our public Liturgy, "Prevent us, O Lord, in all our doings, with thy most gracious favor!" That is, "Go before us in thy mercy, make our way plain, and enable us to perform what is right in thy sight!" And this sense of prevent is a literal version of the original word תקדמנו tekademennu. "For thou shalt go before him with the blessings of goodness." Our ancestors used God before in this sense. So in Henry V.'s speech to the French herald previously to the battle of Agincourt: - "Go therefore; tell thy master, here I am. My ransom is this frail and worthless trunk; My army, but a weak and sickly guard: Yet, God before, tell him we will come on, Though France himself, and such another neighbor, Stand in our way." A crown of pure gold - Probably alluding to the crown of the king of Rabbah, which, on the taking of the city, David took and put on his own head. See the history, 2Sam 12:26-30 (note). Verse 4 He asked life of thee - This verse has caused some interpreters to understand the Psalm of Hezekiah's sickness, recovery, and the promised addition to his life of fifteen years; but it may be more literally understood of the Messiah, of whom David was the type, and in several respects the representative. Verse 5 His glory is great - But great as his glory was, it had its greatness from God's salvation. There is no true nobility but of the soul, and the soul has none but what it receives from the grace and salvation of God. Verse 6 Thou hast made him most blessed for ever - Literally, "Thou hast set him for blessings for ever." Thou hast made the Messiah the Source whence all blessings for time and for eternity shall be derived. He is the Mediator between God and man. Thou hast made him exceeding glad - Jesus, as Messiah, for the joy that was set before him, of redeeming a lost world by his death, endured the cross, and despised the shame, and is for ever set down on the right hand of God. Verse 7 The king trusteth in the Lord - It was not by my skill or valor that I have gained this victory, but by faith in the strong protecting, and conquering arm of Jehovah. He shall not be moved - Perhaps this may be best understood of him who was David's prototype. His throne, kingdom, and government, shall remain for ever. Verse 8 Thine hand shall find out - Thy uncontrollable power shall find out all thine enemies, wheresoever hidden or howsoever secret. God knows the secret sinner, and where the workers of iniquity hide themselves. Verse 9 Thou shalt make them as a fiery oven - By thy wrath they shall be burnt up, and they shall be the means of consuming others. One class of sinners shall, in God's judgments, be the means of destroying another class; and at last themselves shall be destroyed. Verse 10 Their fruit shalt thou destroy - Even their posterity shall be cut off, and thus their memorial shall perish. Verse 11 For they intended evil - Sinners shall not be permitted to do all that is in their power against the godly; much less shall they be able to perform all that they wish. Verse 12 Therefore shalt thou make them turn their back - God can in a moment strike the most powerful and numerous army, even in the moment of victory, with panic; and then even the lame, the army which they had nearly routed, shall take the prey, and divide the spoil. Against the face of them - Thou shalt cause them to turn their backs and fly, as if a volley of arrows had been discharged in their faces. This seems to be the sense of this difficult verse. Verse 13 Be thou exalted - Exalt thyself. O Lord - thy creatures cannot exalt thee. Lift thyself up, and discomfit thy foes by thine own strength! Thou canst give a victory to thy people over the most formidable enemies, though they strike not one blow in their own defense. God's right hand has often given the victory to his followers, while they stood still to see the salvation of God. How little can the strength of man avail when the Lord raiseth up himself to the battle! His children, therefore, may safely trust in him, for the name of the Lord is a strong tower; the righteous flee into it, and are safe. Praise thy power - God is to receive praise in reference to that attribute which he has exhibited most in the defense or salvation of his followers. Sometimes he manifests his power, his mercy, his wisdom, his longsuffering, his fatherly care, his good providence, his holiness, his justice, his truth, etc. Whatever attribute or perfection he exhibits most, that should be the chief subject of his children's praise. One wants teaching, prays for it, and is deeply instructed: he will naturally celebrate the wisdom of God. Another feels himself beset with the most powerful adversaries, with the weakest of whom he is not able to cope: he cries to the Almighty God for strength; he is heard, and strengthened with strength in his soul. He therefore will naturally magnify the all-conquering power of the Lord. Another feels himself lost, condemned, on the brink of hell; he calls for mercy, is heard and saved: mercy, therefore, will be the chief subject of his praise, and the burden of his song. The old Anglo-Scottish Psalter says, We sal make knowen thi wordes in gude wil and gude werk, for he synges well that wirkes well. For thi, sais he twise, we sal syng; ane tyme for the luf of hert; another, for the schewyng of ryghtwisness, til ensampil. Introduction Under great affliction and distress, the psalmist prays unto God, Psa 22:1-3; appeals to God's wonted kinkiness in behalf of his people, Psa 22:4, Psa 22:5; relates the insults that he received, Psa 22:6-8; mentions the goodness of God to him in his youth, as a reason why he should expect help now, Psa 22:9-11; details his sufferings, and the indignities offered to him, Psa 22:12-18, prays with the confidence of being heard and delivered, Psa 22:19-24; praises God. and foretells the conversion of the nations to the true religion, Psa 22:25-31. The title of this Psalm, To the chief Musician upon Aijeleth Shahar, A Psalm of David, has given rise to many conjectures. The words אילת השחר aiyeleth hashshachar are translated in the margin, "the hind of the morning;" but what was this? Was it the name of a musical instrument? or of a tune? or of a band of music? Calmet argues for the last, and translates "A Psalm of David, addressed to the Musicmaster who presides over the Band called the Morning Hind." This

The Subject's Hope. 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. The psalmist, having taught his people to look back with joy and praise on what God had done for him and them, here teaches them to look forward with faith, and hope, and prayer, upon what God would further do for them: The king rejoices in God ( v. 1 ), and therefore we will be thankful; the king trusteth in God ( v. 7 ), therefore will we be encouraged. The joy and confidence of Christ our King is the ground of all our joy and confidence. I. They are confident of the stability of David's kingdom. Through the mercy of the Most High, and not through his own merit or strength, he shall not be moved. His prosperous state shall not be disturbed; his faith and hope in God, which are the stay of his spirit, shall not be shaken. The mercy of the Most High (the divine goodness, power, and dominion) is enough to secure our happiness, and therefore our trust in that mercy should be enough to silence all our fears. God being at Christ's right hand in his sufferings ( Ps. xvi. 8 ) and he being at God's right hand in his glory, we may be sure he shall not, he cannot, be moved, but continues ever. II. They are confident of the destruction of all the impenitent implacable enemies of David's kingdom. The success with which God had blessed David's arms hitherto was an earnest of the rest which God would give him from all his enemies round about, and a type of the total overthrow of all Christ's enemies who would not have him to reign over them. Observe, 1. The description of his enemies. They are such as hate him, v. 8 . They hated David because God had set him apart for himself, hated Christ because they hated the light; but both were hated without any just cause, and in both God was hated, John xv. 23 , 25 . 2. The designs of his enemies ( v. 11 ): They intended evil against thee, and imagined a mischievous device; they pretended to fight against David only, but their enmity was against God himself. Those that aimed to un-king David aimed, in effect, to un-God Jehovah. What is devised and designed against religion, and against the instruments God raises up to support and advance it, is very evil and mischievous, and God takes it as devised and designed against himself and will so reckon for it. (3.) The disappointment of them: "They devise what they are not able to perform, " v. 11 . Their malice is impotent, and they imagine a vain thing, Ps. ii. 1 . (4.) The discovery of them ( v. 8 ): " Thy hand shall find them out. Though ever so artfully disguised by the pretences and professions of friendship, though mingled with the faithful subjects of this kingdom and hardly to be distinguished from them, though flying from justice and absconding in their close places, yet thy hand shall find them out wherever they are." There is no escaping God's avenging eye, no going out of the reach of his hand; rocks and mountains will be no better shelter at last than fig-leaves were at first. (5.) The destruction of them; it will be an utter destruction ( Luke xix. 27 ); they shall be swallowed up and devoured, v. 9 . Hell, the portion of all Christ's enemies, is the complete misery both of body and soul. Their fruit and their seed shall be destroyed, v. 10 . The enemies of God's kingdom, in every age, shall fall under the same doom, and the whole generation of them will at last be rooted out, and all opposing rule, principality, and power, shall be put down. The arrows of God's wrath shall confound them and put them to flight, being levelled at the face of them, v. 12 . That will be the lot of daring enemies that face God. The fire of God's wrath will consume them ( v. 9 ); they shall not only be cast into a furnace of fire ( Matt. xiii. 42 ), but he shall make them themselves as a fiery oven or furnace; they shall be their own tormentors; the reflections and terrors of their own consciences will be their hell. Those that might have had Christ to rule and save them, but rejected him and fought against him, shall find that even the remembrance of that will be enough to make them, to eternity, a fiery oven to themselves: it is the worm that dies not. III. In this confidence they beg of God that he would still appear for his anointed ( v. 13 ), that he would act for him in his own strength, by the immediate operations of his power as Lord of hosts and Father of spirits, making little use of means and instruments. And, 1. Hereby he would exalt himself and glorify his own name. "We have but little strength, and are not so active for thee as we should be, which is our shame; Lord, take the work into thy own hands, do it, without us, and it will be thy glory." 2. Hereupon they would exalt him: " So will we sing, and praise thy power, the more triumphantly." The less God has of our service when a deliverance is in the working the more he must have of our praises when it is wrought without us.