Notes on the Book of Psalms, Psalm 21
The xxi. PSALM.
David in the name of Israel foretels much happiness to him and to themselves▪ in him their King answerable to the Churches happiness in her head Christ, the onelyonly Saviour of his people, and they ground it upon experience of Gods former extraordinarie favours to him, which makes them in him confidently boast themselves on the Lord, for that he still trusts in God, who therefore will preserve him, and with fierce wrath destroy his enemies as rebels and traitors against God himself, for so are all the enemies of Christ whom David typifies. Having thus declared their faith, they end with prayer and promise praise.
To him that is the first and principal of all the Quire, Psalm xxi. To the chief musician A Psalm of David.do I David that made this Psalm recommend it, for the care and ordering of it to be sung.
1 DAvid whom thou hast made head and King over us thy people,1THe King shall joy in thy strength, O Lord: and in thy salvation how greatly shall he rejoyce! as Christ is over his Church: shall (we are confident) find thee a never failing God unto him, and that thou wilt give him continual cause of rejoycing in that gracious assistance thou wilt ever afford him against his enemies. Yea, its not to be expressed how great things thou hast done for him, and what further favours thou wilt shew him in the preservation of him and his people, to his and their unspeakable joy.
2Thou hast given him his hearts desire, and hast not withholden the request of his lips. Sel…h.2 Thou hast brought all things to pass after a mervellous manner which long since thou promisedst him, and which accordingly he hath long expected, nor hast thou disappointed his faithful waiting and fervent praying, but hast fulfilled them to the uttermost, as thou shalt the Messiahs. To thy praise be it spoken.
3For thou preventest him with the blessings of goodness: thou settest a crown of pure gold on his head.3 Thou hast done more for him and shown more bounteous goodnes to him, than ever he could have asked for himself, for of thine own good pleasure unthought of, and undesired hast thou advanced him from a mean estate, and brought him out of a turbulent condition to be the King of thy people Israel in much glorie and rest.
4He asked life thee, and thou gavest it him, even length of dayes for ever and ever.4 He did but beg deliverance of thee out of his troubles, that he might not be destroyed in them, and so frustrate thy promise of the Kingdom to him, and thou gavest him his desire, and more, for thou hast entailed the crown upon him and his heirs for ever, nay, and moreover hast advanced him to be a type and progenitor of Christ, whose Kingdom shall last for ever and ever.
5His glorie is great in thy salvation, honour and majesty hast thou laid upon him.5 His faith and ours, emboldens both him, and us in him, to glorie and boast our selves on thee, in assurance of preservation and deliverance, which we ground upon that, that thou hast done already for him, in fulfilling the promise of the Kingdom to him.
6For thou hast made him most blessed for ever: thou hast made him exceeding glad with thy countenance.6 For thou hast wonderfully blessed him, both realy in his own person, and promissorily in his seed, which shall also inherit the Kingdom after him. And that which yields him and us most content in all his worldly felicitie, is, that it is the gift of thy grace, and a token of thy love and favour to him, which is more worth than all besides.
7 And as thou hast done,7For the King trusteth in the Lord, and through the merciemercy of the most high, he shall not be moved. so he and we make sure account thou wilt do, for though thou hast advanced him to great authority, and furnished him with strength and power. Yet as heretofore, so still now he is King, his trust is never the less in thee, and in nothing else, and therefore he and we are confident, that as thou hast raised him to this condition, so of thy good grace thou wilt establish him in it, and us under him in happiness.
8 We verily believe,8Thine hand shall find out all thine enemies, thy right hand shall find out those that hate thee. that as thou hast already done by thine and his enemies, so still thou wilt continue to hunt them down, and by thy power to root them out, that in him, make opposition to thee and thy Christ.
9 Thou wilt bitterly enrage thy self against them,9Thou shalt make them as a fierie oven in the time of thine anger: the Lord shall swallow them up in his wrath, and the fire shall devour them. and execute fierce destruction upon them, even as thou wilt upon the enemies of Christ at the day of judgement, whom everlasting burnings shall devour.
10 Root and branch of them shalt thou cut off,10Their fruit shalt thou destroy from the earth, and their seed from among the children of men. that refuse to come under thy scepter, and seek to destroy thy Kingdom, as not worthie to live upon the earth.
11 For they are rebels and traitors,11For they intended evil against thee: they imagined a mischievous device, which they are not able to perform. not so much against him as thee, whose annointed he is, to typifie Christ; notwithstanding they have attempted to unthrone him, and to take Israel out of his hands, and so out of thine: which though they have strongly endeavored, yet all in vain, for they cannot bring it to pass, no more than the world shall Christs people out of his.
12Therefore shalt thou make them turn their back, when thou shalt make ready thine arrows upon thy strings, against the face of them.12 Therefore though thou mayest suffer much, and be loth to do execution upon them, yet when they put thee to it, that thou must shew thy self on thy King and peoples behalf, thou wilt make them know to their conviction whom they fight against, by the woful destruction thou wilt bring upon them.
13Be thou exalted, Lord, in thine own strength: so will we sing, and praise thy power.13 Lord do thou answer our faith and confidence in thee, for our King and us, by putting forth thy glorious strength in his and our behalves against our enemies, that we may exalt thee. To whose power and goodness we promise with all self-denying thankfulnes to sing the praises of all our happines and succes.