Psalm 21

Praise God for a beautiful morning. So good to see all of you here worshipping the Lord. Especially so good to see some familiar faces as guests here this morning as well. We introduced them at the end of our service and we are so grateful that you have chosen to worship the Lord with us. We finished our series on the life of Jacob last week. We thank You, we are so grateful to the Lord that He gave us that opportunity to go through the life of Jacob. For the next 4 weeks, Lord willing, we will be doing a mini-series entitled Lowly Shepherd, Mighty King. Lowly Shepherd, Mighty King. What we will be doing will be going through 4 Psalms that are mentioned in order in God’s Word. Psalm 21, Psalm 22, Psalm 23, and Psalm 24. And from each one of these Psalms, we will read and understand what God wants to teach to us. We will also see the bigger picture that is contained in each one of them. As we reflect upon our Lord, who is the Lowly Shepherd and Mighty King of our lives. So when you turn your Bibles, we go to Psalm 21:1. The introduction itself tells us the Psalm of David, even though that is not universally accepted as written by David. Some say that it was written about David by someone else, whatever the case might be. We find it in God’s Word. Psalm 21:1 reads like this. The king rejoices in Your strength, Lord. How great is his joy in the victories that You give.

So the king is not identified, but it mentions the fact that the king is rejoicing in the strength that is given to him by the Lord. How great is the joy that is in his life in the victories that You give. As you read this Psalm and as we go through these verses, you have to pay very close attention to the fact that there is a lot of victory that is given to the king and there is a lot of joy that is given to the king. But none of these victories and none of this joy belongs to the king itself. He attributes it entirely to the Lord that he is speaking to. The king is rejoicing, not in his strength, but in the strength of the Lord. And he is also rejoicing in the greatness of the joy that is in his heart that is not his own giving that is given to him by the Lord. Look at verse 2, you have granted him his heart’s desire. He has received certain desires of his heart to himself. And not because he has gained it himself, but because You have given it to him and You have not withheld the request of his lips.

Psalm 20 and Psalm 21 has to be read together to understand the immediate context of it. Psalm 21 is an answer to the prayers of Psalm 20. Psalm 20 is a group of people coming together and praying to God for God to give victory to the king. For God to watch over the king and Psalm 21 is an answer to the prayers that are mentioned in Psalm 20. For example, look at Psalm 20:1. May the Lord answer you when you are in distress. May the name of the God of Jacob protect you. And Psalm 21 is saying, God, thank You for Your protection. Thank You for watching over the king. Thank You for saving him. Look at Psalm 20:4. May He give you the desire of your heart and make all your plans succeed. What did we just read in Psalm 21:2? He has given me the desires of his heart. So you see how Psalm 20 and Psalm 21 are intertwined with each other. In Psalm 20 is the prayer of God’s people. God give the desires of the heart of the king to him. And the desires of the king are not his own desires. It is the desires for victory of God’s people over the enemies of God. To see God’s name being glorified in the midst of pagan nations. And they are praying, God, give them the desires. In Psalm 21 we read how God was faithful to grant him the desires of his heart.

And then they continue to pray for the king and it says, verse 5. May we shout for joy over your victory and lift up our banners in the name of our God. May the Lord grant all your requests. They say, God, we are praying to You that You will give victory to our king. A resounding victory, a joyous victory so that at the end of that victory, we will come back together again to worship Your holy name and sing Your praises and give You the honor and glory that is due unto You for giving the victory to the king. And guess what they’re doing in Psalm 21? They’re coming back together and honoring God and saying, God, You have given the victory and now we have come to praise Your holy name for the victory that You have given. The last verse of Psalm 20 is exactly what they asked for. Lord, give victory to the king. Answer us when we call. Guess what they’re doing in Psalm 21? God, thank You for the victory that You’ve given to the king. His victory is not his victory. His victory is the one that the Lord Himself has given. The joy that is in his life is the Lord’s joy. The victory that is in his life is the victory of the Lord. Everything that he has desires of his heart, he didn’t get it on his own. The Lord granted him the desires of his heart.

So first thing that we see in Psalm 21 is this, an acknowledgement of the Almighty God who is the real reason behind our victories. This is something God expects all of us to do in our lives as well. Behind every victory, we acknowledge the hand of an Almighty God who is the reason for the victories of our life. Our victories are not our own. Our joy is not our own. Our satisfaction in life is not our own. Our well-being is not our own. Our comfort is not our own. The things that we have in our life do not belong to us. It is all the gracious gifts of a gracious God who lavishly has given those things in our life. Truly the heart of a worshiper is a heart that acknowledges that behind every victory in our life is an Almighty God who has granted those victories to us. He continues in Psalm 21 and He says to us in verse 3, You came to greet him with rich blessings and You placed a crown of pure gold on his head. The psalmist says when our king came for this victory and this battle, God, You came and You greeted him with rich blessing. The word that is used over there for greet is very, very interesting. It is the same word that is used in Hebrew in Psalm 17:13 as well. There it reads, rise up O Lord, confront them and bring them down. Now in English translation, the Hebrew word greet over there is translated as confronting. You know why? Because when you go to wage war against the enemy, nobody says you went to greet your enemy. You say you confronted your enemy. That’s why that word is translated like that. With Your sword, rescue me from the wicked. The same Hebrew word again in Psalm 18:5. The cords of the grave coiled around me. The snares of death greeted me. Nobody would say the snares of death greeted me. So the English says the snares of death confronted me because death coming to us is confrontation. The enemy coming against us is confrontation. So the same Hebrew word is translated differently in God’s Word in English. Two places says confrontation. But when you come to Psalm 20, because the context is blessings, you know what God’s Word says? God, You come to confront me or greet me with Your blessings.

What I want to point out to you is the intentionality of the blessings with which God comes to us. You never confront somebody by accident. You never go down the hallway and meet somebody and say, oh, hello, wait a minute, I have a grievance against you. You know how you air a grievance against somebody? You actually confront them. You look at the time, you look at the opportunity, you make sure nobody is around. You make sure that nobody is around that wants to really hear what you have to say. And you look for the right opportunity and right time to go and confront somebody. Because there’s some intentionality behind your confrontation. You know what God’s Word is saying? Even in the way God comes to greet us with His blessings, there is intentionality in it. There’s a purpose behind it. God is not just randomly throwing blessings at you. Every blessing that God gives to you has an intentional purpose behind it. He comes to you with His blessings with purpose. Because there is something greater than the blessing itself that God wants to gain in your life through the blessings that He gives to you. So if you are the recipient of the blessing that God has given to you in your life, don’t just take the blessing for what it is. Ask the probing question, God, what is it that You want me to gain through this blessing that You have intentionally given to me in my life? You have greeted me with blessings. You have come intentionally into my life with Your blessing.

Look at verse 4. He asked You for life. The king asked for life. Exactly what we ask for as well. We ask that God, when our king goes for battle, that he will have life. Look what God did. You gave it to him. You protected his life. But not only that, You also gave him length of days forever and ever. All that we prayed for is God save our king, give him victory in the battles that he is in. But not only did You save him in the midst of the battle, You gave him length of days, not only for now, but forever and ever. Verse 5, through the victories You gave, his glory is great. The people are crying out and saying, God, the glory of our king is so great. But it’s not great because he is glorious. It is because of the victories that You have given to him that his glory is great. You have bestowed on him splendor and majesty. The splendor and majesty that the king has is a gift from the Lord. It’s not something that he gained on his own. Verse 6, surely You have granted him unending blessings and made him glad with the joy of Your presence. Splendor, majesty, length of days, all kinds of glory, unending blessings, all bracketed with the greatest blessing of all, the presence of God in the life of our king, which is the greatest blessing in his life.

What is God doing here? God is showing to us through this psalm that we have a God who delights to give lavishly and satisfy our deepest longings even beyond our request. What did the people ask for? Grant and just save the life of our king. What did God do? Gave him not only that life, gave him splendor, majesty, unending blessings, length of days forever and ever. Our God goes above and beyond even the request that we have made in our life. You know what our requests before God are a reflection of? Our faith. The reflections of our prayer request before God is a reflection of our faith. If I were to listen to your prayer live, I’d be able to tell how strong your faith is. And that is okay because we are all limited by the limited faith that we have in our life. But you know what God does? God doesn’t limit the way He answers our prayer by our request. He goes above and beyond and lavishly give us blessings that we did not even ask for because He is such a gracious God and such a wonderful and loving God. How many of you can sit here this morning and even say this? I have received blessings in my life that I did not even ask for. I didn’t even pray for those things. My God gave it to me. I didn’t think my life could be this well in this area of my life. My God gave it to me. I asked for one thing. God gave me three, four different things that I didn’t even ask for. That is how lavishly and beautifully God blesses His children in their life because our God is a gracious God who goes above and beyond what we can ask or imagine in our own lives. That is truly the testimony of our life.

And then He says, because of all of these unending blessings and the beautiful things that God gives to him, look what happens to the heart of the king. Verse 7, for the king trusts in the Lord. You know what’s interesting about this Psalm? Until you come to verse 7, the king has not done anything. Who has been doing all the work? The Lord has been doing all the work. The Lord has been fighting. The Lord has been getting victory. The Lord has been giving. The Lord has been doing that. The first thing the king does is in verse 7. And that’s exactly what God wants us to do as well. The king comes and says, you know what? I have nothing else to give to You other than my praise and to put my trust back in You, O God. The king trusts in the Lord because he realizes that through the unfailing love of the Most High, he will not be shaken. Why is the king putting his trust in the Lord? Because he realizes that his past victories are a result of the faithfulness of his Lord. He recognizes that all of the things that he has in his life is only there because of a gracious God who has given him more than he deserves. And so, you know what he does? I’m going to put my trust in the Lord because he realizes that it is only because of the unfailing love of the Most High God that he is not shaken in his life. And even in the future, he is not going to be shaken because of the unfailing love of God. In fact, the rest of this psalm is a recording of what God is about to do. Victories, defeating of the enemies, and all of this is able to say because he trusts fully in the unfailing love of God. If this psalm is about David, we know that David falls short. David did not always fully trust the Lord. Hezekiah, a godly king, did not always trust the Lord. Josiah, a godly king, did not always trust the Lord. Every king in the world who was anointed by God falls short of what Psalm 21 is asking them to do. In spite of the victories God gave to them, their life was not always filled with trust in the Lord.

So where do we find this king that is mentioned in Psalm 21? Remember the title of our series, Lowly Shepherd, Mighty King. See, it is only in looking unto our Lord that we find this perfect king that Psalm 21 is talking about. That’s my main thrust that I want you to get out of Psalm 21. Psalm 21 is not just about David and the victories God gave to him or any other king. The Psalm 21 and the king and the Lord that is talking about working in perfect harmony finds this perfect fulfillment only in the relationship between the Son and the Father. In Psalm 21, when the king goes to battle, guess who’s going to battle? The Lord is going to battle. When the king is rejoicing, where is he getting that joy from? The Lord has given it to him. And there is a complete trust that the king has in the Lord. The problem is that all earthly kings fall short of this requirement of complete trust and dependability upon the Lord. There’s only one king who has ever fulfilled this perfectly and that is the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is in the relationship between the Son and the Father that we find the perfect fulfillment of Psalm 21. Because while all the anointed ones of Israel fell short, the one anointed one, the anointed one that we’ve been waiting for came and perfectly fulfilled Psalm 21 to a T and that is the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. In fact, it’s amazing how God has revealed His Word to His own people and they forget to completely ignore it. The Talmud, which is like a Chaldean paraphrase of the Old Testament and the Talmud, which is a Jewish writing, all make the claim that Psalm 21 is not about David but is about the Messiah. Early church fathers talked very briefly, very in length about the fact that Psalm 21’s king is none other than the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. We can see this perfect harmony between the Lord and the king when we come to the life of our Lord. Look at John 5:19. Jesus gave them this answer. Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by Himself. Really? Who is the Son? Who is the Son? The Son is the creator of the ends of the earth. The Son, even at that point, is holding the world together by the power of His Word. But look what the Son is saying. If there’s anybody who could do something by Himself in the world, it is the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. But then He is the one that is saying the Son can do nothing by Himself. Such humility the world has never seen. Such trust the world has never seen. See, we all have trust in the Lord, but that’s very, very limited. It is limited because we are all fallen human beings redeemed by the Lord. But our trust is limited. The greatest example of trust and dependence that we see in the universe is the trust and dependence of the Son to the will of the Father. The Son can do nothing by Himself. He can only do what He sees His Father doing. I want you to think about that for a second. It’s like a little kid. What do little kids do? What do little kids do? There are a lot of parents here. They imitate what you do. The way you walk, the way you talk, your mannerisms. Sometimes they start smiling and laughing just like you. They start watching the things that you watch. They start doing all the things that you do because as a child, he’s consistently dependent upon his parents. Look at what our Lord is saying. He can only do what He sees His Father doing. It’s as if He does not have any will of His own. He does not have any agenda of His own. Every single day He’s waiting to see what the Father is doing and He’s only doing what the Father is doing. But I don’t want you to forget who is saying this thing. The one who by His very Word made the stars and the heavens and hold everything together is saying He’s only doing what the Father is doing. Such abandonment of His own will. Such surrender. Such trust. Such giving up of His self. Nowhere in the universe has it ever been seen.

I think we preachers do a very poor job of communicating this to you. You know why? Because it is beyond our own understanding how the God of the universe can give up so much of Himself and say I will only do what the Father wants me to do. That’s surrender. That is complete giving up of His own self. Look what He says. Because whatever the Father does the Son also does. He’s a copycat. He’s doing whatever the Father is saying. That’s why early church fathers would look at Psalm 21 and they would say this phrase. This is David in figure, but it is Christ in truth. This is David in figure, but it is Christ in truth. Because there’s only Christ that was fully dependent upon for His victories for the Lord, the Father who gave Him the strength. So what is the Son doing? The Son is giving us the perfect example of what it means to show the Father through our words and actions. You know what we are called to do? To reflect the glory of our Heavenly Father in a fallen world. You know what the Son has done? Give us the perfect example on how to do it. Look at John 5:36. The works that the Father has given Me to finish, the very works that I’m doing testify that the Father has sent Me. Jesus is saying the works that I’m doing is not for My own good. It is actually to let the world know that I’ve been sent by the Father. Every work that I do proclaims to the world that there is a Father in heaven. Let me ask you that question of you and me. What about your works and my works? What about your words and my words? Do they testify to a fallen world that there is a Father in heaven? There’s a God in heaven? There’s a God who has redeemed us? That there is a redemption that has happened in our life by the words and actions? Do the world look at us and say who is that Jesus that is living inside of you? That’s exactly what Jesus did. He made sure that His words and actions testified of the Father. Look at John 6:38. I have come down from heaven not to do My will but to do the will of Him who sent Me. Here is a God of the universe left the glories of heaven came down into this lowly world set apart all of His divinity. If anyone could ever have a claim and say you know what? I should not be on earth. I belong to heaven. I’m going to do whatever I want to do. It is Him. But look at what He says. I have come to this earth not to do My will but to do the will of Him who sent Me. This is exactly what God is asking each one of us to do in our life as well. To not to do our will but the will of the One who is sending us every single day of our life. To obey Him. To reflect Him. To show to the world that our victories are not our victories but the Lord and so that the world is able to look at our victories and say oh the Lord has won the victory because we are completely surrendering ourselves to Him and letting Him shine through us. Look at John 8:19. Then they asked Him where is Your Father? You do not know Me or My Father. Jesus replied if you knew Me you would know My Father also. He says you don’t know Me because of that you don’t know the Father. If you know Me you will know the Father as well. At least today a one millionth of what Jesus did. Are we able to say this with our life? If you knew me you would know my Father also. If you knew me you would know who my God is. If you knew me you would know who I serve. If you knew me you would know who gives me the victories. If you knew me you would know who is really in control of my life. I pray that is true in our life.

Max Lucado in one of his books just like Jesus says when he was in Brazil he had to translate for an English speaker to Brazilian language. He said he stood before the audience complete with the message. I stood by his side equipped with the language. My job was to convey his story to the listeners. I did my best he says to allow his words to come through me. I was not at liberty to embellish or subtract what he was saying. Anybody who has translated know exactly what this is all about. When the speaker gestured I gestured. As his volume increased so did mine. When he got quiet I did too. When he walked earth Jesus was translating God all the time. When God got louder Jesus got louder. When God gestured Jesus gestured. He was so in sync with the Father that He could declare I am in the Father and the Father is in Me. Such unity. Such trust. Such dependence the world has never seen. And the Son completely trusted the Father. Remember the verse in Peter. When our Lord suffered what did He do? He did not revile the Bible says. But He entrusted His life into the hands of the Father. How did He know that the sacrifice on the cross would be enough? Trusting the Father. How did He know that three days later He would rise again? Trusting the Father. How do we know that the penalty of sins could be completely purged by His death on the cross? Trusting the Father. How did He know that His righteousness would be enough? Trusting the Father. How did He know what words to say? Trusting the Father. How do you know what actions to speak? Trusting the Father. Many places Jesus did not do miracles. Why? Because it was not the will of the Father to do the miracles in His life. Because everything that He did, everything that He said was only dependent upon trusting in the Father. Everything was about trusting in the Father and looking unto Him for help.

Do we find our hope? What do we find our trust in? Do we look unto the Lord for the trust in our life? When He was president, Thomas Jefferson and a group of his companions were traveling across the country on horseback and they came upon a flooded river which had washed the bridge away. Each rider was forced to ford the river on horseback, fighting against deadly currents on the river. One traveler who was not part of the group was watching from a distance. After seeing several people cross the river safely, the stranger wandered up to the president, tapped his boot and said, can I have a ride across the river? President Jefferson agreed with hesitation and the man climbed onto Jefferson’s horse and the two of them made it safely onto the other side. As the stranger kind of slid off the back onto the horse, onto the dry ground, a man in the group looked at him and in kind of astonishment, he asked him, why on earth would you ask the president of the United States for a ride across the river? Why didn’t you ask one of us? It doesn’t make any sense that you, a stranger, out of all the people would ask the president for a ride across the river. The man was shocked and he said, I had no idea he was the president of the United States. All I knew is that written upon some of your faces, was the word no. But written upon his face was the word yes. And I needed a yes face today. He says, I looked around and all of you had a big no written on your face. I looked at the president and he had a yes face. And guess what? I asked the one with the yes face. In your life today, there’s only one face that is truly the yes face. That is the face of the Heavenly Father that you can completely put your trust in. All the other faces in the world are either a no or maybe at best, a maybe. There is only one face that is a yes face that is saying, My child, your life is in My hands. Put your trust in Me. I will take care of you. You can put your life, depend upon Me, surrender upon Me. I will make sure that you will make it safely across the river. There is a yes face that is willing to help us. Even though He is the King of all kings, even though He’s the God of the universe, that is the yes face that we can trust in. We Christians are bold people. You know why? Because we have access to the very throne room of God. People are amazed when someone would ask the president for help. How much more people should be amazed that we ask the God of heaven for help in our lives. But we don’t come to Him in hesitation because we are children of the living God because of what Jesus did on the cross for us. So we come with boldness. We come with access. We come with confidence because we know that out of all the faces in the world, His is a yes face that says, you can put your trust in Me. I will make sure that you make it safely across to the other side of the river.

Psalm 21:8 says this, Your hand will lay hold on all Your enemies. Your right hand will seize Your force. As you read through the rest of the chapter, it talks about the great judgment that is going to come upon the force of God. It talks about the judgment that is going to come upon the face of the earth because Jesus Christ has won the victory with the help of the Father. And this Psalm ends rightly by giving praise unto God. Be exalted in Your strength, O Lord. We will sing and praise Your might. Be exalted, O God, in Your strength. And you know what we are going to do? We are going to sing and praise the mighty name of our God. Why are we singing? Because our Father won the victory for us. Our Lord Jesus trusted in the Father to give Him the victory. And that is why we are able to say, we will sing and praise the mighty name of our God because of a God who fought for us, because of a God who delivered our older Brother Jesus in the midst of the victories of His life. And He has given that victory to us. And because of that, we will sing and praise His glorious name. This morning we praise our Heavenly Father because He is ultimately the Lord of Psalm 21 who fought and won the victory for us. We praise our Lord Jesus this morning from Psalm 21. You know why? Because He is the lowly servant who came and trusted in His Heavenly Father and He won the victory for us by His death on the cross. Today, all judgments in the world belong to Him. All kingdoms belong to Him because He trusted in the Father and He allowed the Father to work through Him and so much so that He can say the victory that He won on the cross is the victory of the Triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit working together in bringing victory to His people. Let’s stand in the presence of God. We’re gonna sing unto the Lord and worship Him. The song that sings of the goodness of God, about the mercy of God. We talk about this quite a bit, but it’s worth repeating. The English word new, new mercy that we read about in God’s Word is the Hebrew word hadas, which you heard us talk about it quite a bit. It’s not just talking about new as in quantity. It’s new in quality. A different kind of mercy every single day God gives to us because the mercy of yesterday is not enough for the trials, tribulations, and temptations of today. A new mercy is needed. So look at how many years you’ve lived on the face of the earth. Not years, days. That’s how many mercies you receive from the Lord. If you are 21 years old, you have experienced 7,665 unique mercies from the Lord. When you hit midlife, 14,600 mercies from the Lord. What about retirement? 23,725 mercies from the Lord. So numerous are the giftings of the Lord. So numerous are the blessings of the Lord. His goodness is never-ending. He always fights for His people. He wins victories for them. He gives unending blessings to them above and beyond what they deserve in their lives. Thousands and thousands of mercies. New and new ones every morning. God has given to us. So we sing, O God, all my life You have been faithful. Goodness of God running after me. Running after me. All I can do is what the psalmist did. We will extol the Lord in all of His strength. We will worship the Lord and sing about His might even today as well. Praise God.