A KING AND THE LORD
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Opening Prayer
Lord God, I am amazed that you love me, humbled that you call me to serve you. Thank you for your grace and mercy that brought me into a relationship with you and sustain me each day.
Read PSALM 21
For additional translations of the passage, use this link to Bible Gateway.
Psalm
Psalm 21
1 O LORD, the king rejoices in your strength. How great is his joy in the victories you give!
2 You have granted him the desire of his heart and have not withheld the request of his lips. Selah
3 You welcomed him with rich blessings and placed a crown of pure gold on his head.
4 He asked you for life, and you gave it to him- length of days, for ever and ever.
5 Through the victories you gave, his glory is great; you have bestowed on him splendor and majesty.
6 Surely you have granted him eternal blessings and made him glad with the joy of your presence.
7 For the king trusts in the LORD; through the unfailing love of the Most High he will not be shaken.
8 Your hand will lay hold on all your enemies; your right hand will seize your foes.
9 At the time of your appearing you will make them like a fiery furnace. In his wrath the LORD will swallow them up, and his fire will consume them.
10 You will destroy their descendants from the earth, their posterity from mankind.
11 Though they plot evil against you and devise wicked schemes, they cannot succeed;
12 for you will make them turn their backs when you aim at them with drawn bow.
13 Be exalted, O LORD, in your strength; we will sing and praise your might.
Reflect
When you next pray, consciously use some words of majesty and splendor to express worship of the King of Kings.
At first sight, this psalm looks like a follow-up to last Sunday’s psalm, as victory is celebrated. Indeed, some liturgies bracket the two as a kind of before/after, and you can see why. The king leads praise for answered prayer, with great joy. Plenty of banner-waving here. Wider dimensions are expressed about his kingship, for he knows it’s the Lord’s strength that gave victories (v. 1). He belongs within the far-reaching covenant promise made to David and his descendants, when he speaks of rich blessings lasting forever and ever. He knows that he owes everything to God’s unshakable love.
It is vital to see how this hymn, with its high investment in the king as God’s representative among his people as well as the unifier of the nation, cannot help but set words in the greater context of the reign of the King of Kings. The promises given to David’s dynasty will issue in the birth of Jesus—the Messiah—who will reign forever and ever. His victory over sin and death has cosmic relevance, for there is a mighty battle to be won at Calvary ‘against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.’1 The last verse speaks to the Lord directly, that he be exalted as we sing of his might.
For Christians, especially those who have been reflecting on the Sermon on the Mount, the picture of our Lord’s reigning over his spiritual kingdom involves a whole new way of living. Just look at his teaching about loving enemies! Yet, this psalm emphasizes that Jesus’ kingship had to overcome and win through unimaginable spiritual battles for us. When he tells us, ‘But take heart! I have overcome the world,’2 he means it!
Apply
Reflect on John 16:33 as Jesus asserts that his victory on the cross enables us, in the world of trouble, to have peace in him.
Closing prayer
Lord Jesus, thank you for the joy that is mine because of you. Thank you for always being present with me, for offering me the peace that only you can give.
1 Eph 6:12 2 John 16:33.
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