O Lord, in your strength the king rejoices,
and in your salvation how greatly he exults!
You have given him his heart's desire
and have not withheld the request of his lips.
...............
We saw in Psalm 20 the prayer of David for God to shed his special favor on the king of Israel. Here in Psalm 21 we see what could be described as a parallel passage that praises God point by point for answering the prayers in the previous chapter.
1. God has granted the king's desire. Psalm 20:4 is fulfilled in 21:2:
"You have given him his heart's desire and have not withheld the request of his lips."
The psalmist then proceeds to briefly describe the many blessings for which he is grateful, including his longevity, his place of honor as king, and most importantly the privilege of experiencing the joy of God's presence (see Psalm 103 for a similar list). I've heard it said that the etymology of the words "grace" and "gratitude" are one and the same. The lesson for us here is that the proper response to receiving God's many blessings is to live in daily gratitude. Paraphrasing Ben Patterson, the voice of God's grace calls out into the deep canyon of our sinful hearts, and the corresponding echo in return must be "thank you, thank you, thank you!" This demands that we be mindful of these undeserved blessings and meditate on them daily.
2. God has proven trustworthy. The prayer of 20:7 is fulfilled in the description of the king in verse 21:7:
"For the king trusts in the Lord, and through the steadfast love of the Most High he shall not be moved."
What was previously an abstract hope is now a proven reality - God is more trustworthy than the inventions of warfare, the chariots and horses. As the Old Testament describes in several narrative passages, the outcome of Israel's battle was always in the hands of Yahweh, not their small human strength. Today, we do not battle flesh and blood, but our war against injustice and the forces of evil are just as real and just as dependent on our level of trust in Almighty God. I'd like to emphasize that connection between the king's gratitude and his trust in God - the more that we are looking back on God's many blessings the more our trust in Him will grow stronger and stronger.
3. God will save his people. The final plea for salvation in 20:9 has now become a detailed song of assurance that God will crush every enemy and ultimately save the king and his people:
"For you will put them to flight; you will aim at their faces with your bows. Be exalted, O Lord, in your strength! We will sing and praise your power."
What is the result of gratitude and trust? A song. A song of God's salvation in the heart of every weak and weary son and daughter, trudging through the trenches of a war-torn life with confidence that God will prevail, that the battle is His, and it is not just enough to believe it, but he must sing about it. The enemy will go down in flames, and we will walk in that victory even today - though the victory may be no where in sight, it is nonetheless true and it is ours:
When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written:
"Death is swallowed up in victory."
"O death, where is your victory?
O death, where is your sting?"
The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. (1 Corinthians 15:54-57)
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