Psalm 21 - The King Rejoices in the Lord's Strength

To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David.

1 O Lord, in your strength the king rejoices, and in your salvation how greatly he exults!
2 You have given him his heart's desire and have not withheld the request of his lips. Selah
3 For you meet him with rich blessings; you set a crown of fine gold upon his head.
4 He asked life of you; you gave it to him, length of days forever and ever.
5 His glory is great through your salvation; splendor and majesty you bestow on him.
6 For you make him most blessed forever; you make him glad with the joy of your presence.
7 For the king trusts in the Lord, and through the steadfast love of the Most High he shall not be moved.

8 Your hand will find out all your enemies; your right hand will find out those who hate you.
9 You will make them as a blazing oven when you appear. The Lord will swallow them up in his wrath, and fire will consume them.
10 You will destroy their descendants from the earth, and their offspring from among the children of man.
11 Though they plan evil against you, though they devise mischief, they will not succeed.
12 For you will put them to flight; you will aim at their faces with your bows.

13 Be exalted, O Lord, in your strength! We will sing and praise your power.

    As we said regarding Psalm 20 also applies to Psalm 21 – This is a Psalm designed to be sung by the people for their king and nation. Whereas Psalm 20 is the people’s prayer and Psalm 21 is the thanksgiving ad acknowledgement of God answering their prayer. In other words, Psalm 21 is the answer and proof of the hope the people had in their kind who was himself trusting in Jehovah. These Psalms certainly demonstrated that we have the right to pray for our nation and her leaders as we have gathered together.

    Notice also that the people praise God for granting their request. Look at all God did:

ü  Granted the desire of the king’s heart,

ü  Placed the crown on the king,

ü  Given him long life,

ü  Given the nation great victories,

ü  Granted beautiful blessings,

   Why? Why did God DO all these great things? I think verse 7 gives us the answer, “For the king trusts in the Lord, and through the steadfast love of the Most High he shall not be moved.” Doesn’t that just jump off the page at us? How important is it that a nation’s leadership put its trust and faith in God? It’s the reason (verse 7) that God gave all those wonderful blessings to the king and the nation in our Psalm. Again, we need to put our faith and trust in God as well. Even when we go into the voting booth, we need to choose our leadership (and our laws for that matter) on God’s standards and not based on our own selfish reasons. That means we choose on the basis of morality and NOT solely based on taxes, or Health care, or employment, etc… Something we all need to be thinking about.

   Let me say as well, that this concept of praying for our leadership is not just an Old Testament idea…it is a NEW Testament one too! In 1 Timothy 2, Paul tells us of the importance of making these kinds of requests and pleas before God: “First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, 2 for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. 3 This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, 4 who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” (1 Timothy 2:1-4)

   Let us always strive for godly leadership, but also, let us always keep our nation and our leaders in our prayers daily.