Psalm 21

To the Choirmaster, a Psalm of David

⁰¹          O Lord:

 in Your strength the king rejoices,

 in Your salvation how greatly he exults!

⁰²             You have:

granted him his heart’s desire

 not withheld the request of his lips.

Selah                                                                                 

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The King Rejoices

For the Lord’s Day:  the 29^th of August 2004

Introduction:  I have often thought that David’s personality was affected by a somewhat irregular cycle of depression and joy.  As evidence for this thought, I would give you the trio of Psalms numbered Twenty, Twenty-one and Twenty-Two.  In the first two David is on the upward mend, and then suddenly all of his confidence is dissipated in the prayerful despair of the grand and magnificent Psalm of the Cross:  the Twenty-second.  And we have yet to consider the two greater psalms that follow afterwards: the Twenty-third and Twenty-fourth.

 

If I be not far off the mark, Edgar Allen Poe too suffered from a similar emotional upheaval in his life and that cycle prompted him to write his soul out and given his life experience we can sense the worldly fears of what wicked men might accomplish if their heart’s desires were carried out.  But, then in “The Pit & the Pendulum” we sense an innate or underlying hope that lifted Poe to the heights of his craft.  In that classic tale laid in the bed of the Spanish Inquisition, the protagonist in his story is caught between the prison walls and a central pit leading through death to who knows where.  At the end of the story, the very walls of the prison are heated and maneuvered to herd the sorry prisoner to the very edge of the pit.  And just before the captive was pushed into that hopeless pit of hell – he was rescued by a foreign warrior and in that rescue, salvation implied was celebrated, not in so many words – but in an earnest hope of heaven that rose up out of a severely tortured heart that labored against manifold obstacles. Eventually even the myths of his enemies became the official biographical view - of one who probably died from being bitten by an infected rat, (met in the midst of poverty):  instead of the popular legend of drinking himself to perdition.

 

One of the counseling techniques I have learned over the years is to help people identify similar cycles of hope and despair in the eyes of ordinary people.  Sometimes, this cycle is noticeable and many times not.  But, for those whom the Lord has fine tuned for some utilitarian purpose, this is a real phenomenon.  And just learning of its ordinary presence takes the edge off of the depression cycle.

 

Now, I do not intend to psychologize the personality of David and thereby diminish the poetry of his craft.  But just like a race car engine is more finely tuned than that of an ordinary compact car, so too are the Lord’s magnificent nobility, called to a higher purpose than just living, loving and dying.  David is considerably gifted to serve as the Warrior Poet King of antiquity.

 

Development:  With that as an introductory thought, let us turn to the heights of the joy in David’s heart set before us here in this Psalm.  Delitzsch celebrates the relationship of this psalm with the former:  “In both Psalms the people come before God with matters that concern the welfare of their king; in the former, with their wishes and prayers, in the latter, their thanksgivings and hopes.”  Spurgeon agrees:  “Psalm Twenty anticipates what this regards as realized.”

 

Calvin chimes in as well:  “It therefore appears that this psalm, as well as the preceding, was composed for the purpose of assuring the faithful that the goodness of God in this respect towards David would be of long duration, and permanent; and it was necessary, in order to their being established in a well-grounded confidence to their safety; to hope well of their king, whose countenance was as it were a mirror of the merciful and reconciled countenance of God.”

 

Another point that must not be ignored, Delitzsch mentions that “the Targum and the Talmud, understand this 21^st Psalm of the King Messiah.  … This pair of Psalm treats of David; David’s cause, however, in its course towards a triumphant issue – a course leading through suffering – is certainly figuratively the cause of Christ.”

 

And if this thought puts the sublime suffering heart of the Twenty-second Psalm in a better position to be known as “The Psalm of the Cross,” Then David’s ongoing cycle of creative poetic energy is all the more appropriate to demonstrate not only the grand victory achieved by Christ, but also to give us a small window of observation into the suffering of His great heart to achieve our salvation.

 

Spurgeon in his commentary on this Psalm hardly considers David – but focuses all the more on the magnificent anticipation of the cause of Christ, David’s greater Son to come in the fullness of time.  The first verse demonstrates the height of ecstasy in David’s heart after returning home from a successful adventure.

 

“O Lord:

 in Your strength the king rejoices,

 in Your salvation how greatly he exults!”

 

How well do I appreciate the memories of my own return from a foreign adventure with the American military in the Sixties.  “Home Sweet Home” was all the sweeter after having lived, however briefly in a land where the very door knobs and power outlets reminded us all that we were in a strange place.  Home again to the land of the round door knobs and the larger and better stocked PX!  For very many of us, that small celebration was all the more minimal compared to those who fought desperate odds in the jungle, and the many who still carry fragments of metal or those who are minus a limb or even lacking in mental stability from their more dangerous tour of duty in Southeast Asia.

 

Any and all veterans, whatever their experience can agree with David’s report in this first verse.  The common theme of war time experience believes that there are few atheists in fox holes.  However, it is only the Lord’s warriors who give the Almighty the credit for their survival.

 

“In Your strength the king rejoices,” David prayerfully observes, because he has realized that the Lord God has directed the course of every arrow and the thrust of every sword.  We know today that in the making of war movies, the choreography of battle to be filmed must be carefully planned to minimize the possibility of real injuries.  But it is only the Hollywood epic where every wounded or dead soldier gets up from the ground, wipes off the ketchup and collects his pay check.

 

The much more serious choreography of every real battle is managed from above – and it is for that reason that David rejoices.  Scars, cuts and wounds there may be aplenty – but returning home in one piece and alive is always a just cause for celebration.

 

But there is more to this verse, “in Your salvation how greatly he exults!”  Here is where the cause of Christ intrudes.  The word “salvation” is the much preferred translation here.  Very few translators will soften the thought implicit in the context of these verses because the context of this verse points towards the giving of thanks, as Delitzsch describes it: for “the bodily and spiritual blessings which Jahve has bestowed and still continues to bestow upon the king, in answer to his prayer.”  A person of David’s long experience of the Father’s love would not separate the two spheres of God’s providential interest.  And so, “in Your salvation,” David celebrates what God has written in the Spirit upon his heart.

 

Application:  In the second verse, as Calvin notes: “there is pointed out the cause of this joy” in David’s heart.

 

“You have:

granted him his heart’s desire

 not withheld the request of his lips.

                                                                   Selah”

 

Not only has the warrior king returned home, but because of the victories won, the homeland is ever the more secure.  All of a sudden in the last three years – our country has had to organize a homeland security detail which the Old World states have always had to improvise and regulate.  Border police and troops have been all too common in Europe and the Middle East.  When I was in Paris, France in the Sixties – I noted their police in the bus loads.  These were deployed around the city to contain any upheaval that might have spilled out of the colleges in the hot summer of 1968.

 

Peace and security the king had won the hard way, by taking the battle into the enemy’s provinces instead of allowing them to run riot through the villages and farms of Israel.  We have all been appalled at the destructive riot caused over the years by tornado and hurricane in this country.  And so when we see the equally troubling destruction of war in its raw wrath collected from images around the world – do we pause and give thanks to the Lord that we do not have to rebuild our houses and local infrastructure because some close foreign neighbor sent planes and tanks to sow destruction in our midst?

 

Even though we know that the Lord God of heaven and earth micro-manages the destructive impulse of wicked humanity – still hearing the buzzing of bullets, the crash and bustle of explosives and incendiaries is daunting in and of itself.  Like the Hobbits of Tolkien – it is ever so much more pleasant to know God’s blessings apart from any direct experience in a scourging of the Shire.

 

Do we regularly give thanks for the peace and security that we enjoy here in this country?  Are we thankful that Christians are still allowed to compete for professional careers in our land?  I still shudder at a professional educational video from almost fifteen years ago, where a strident feminist announced that every school place must be spiritually cleansed from any Christian influence!  Ethnic cleansing is a fact of life around the world today, spiritual cleansing in this country is still in its infant state – yet almost sixty million dollars has been thrown at a presidential candidate because he dares to articulate a Christian heart and mind now and again!

 

Christians around the world, in Iraq, Sudan and everywhere behind the Devil’s curtain know better the survival mode in which David lived all too often.  Yes, spiritual survival is a great and awesome thing to have received.  But material safety is an excellent blessing whereby we may have time and resources to reflect upon the great gifts that we have received.

 

Oh how well we know David’s constant joy at being able to worship and testify in the midst of God’s people, there in Zion – the City of God.  How much are we thankful today for the fact that there is little worry that an enemy might drive a car through the side of our building or fire a bullet or grenade through a window?  We thankfully in this country have known the incredible blessings of peace and prosperity.  And while there may not be the tense edge of just being thankful for survival day to day – let us at least remember the brethren around the world who have not our experience.  Amen.

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PREACHING RESOURCES

Calvin, John:  Commentary on Book of Psalms.

Delitzsch, F:  Commentary on the Old Testament – Psalms.

Spurgeon, C.H:  Treasury of David.

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