Psalms 21: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

This psalm is a song about the king and the LORD. The first half thanks God for giving the king what he asked for: victory, a crown of gold, long life, honor, and lasting gladness, because the king trusts the LORD and will not be shaken. The second half turns to the king's and the LORD's enemies, saying God's hand will find them, fire will consume them, and their descendants will be wiped out, because they plotted harm they cannot carry out. It closes by asking God to be lifted high in his own strength, with a promise to sing and praise his power.

Claim by Claim

1. 21:1
   • The king rejoices in the LORD's strength.
   • The king rejoices greatly in the LORD's salvation.
   • The speaker addresses the LORD.
2. 21:2
   • The LORD has given the king what his heart desired.
   • The LORD has not withheld what the king's lips requested.
   • A pause marker (Selah) stands here.
3. 21:3
   • The LORD comes to meet the king with blessings of good things.
   • The LORD sets a crown of fine gold on the king's head.
4. 21:4
   • The king asked life from the LORD.
   • The LORD gave him life.
   • What was given is length of days forever and ever.
5. 21:5
   • The king's glory is great through the LORD's salvation.
   • The LORD lays splendor and majesty upon the king.
6. 21:6
   • The LORD makes the king a source of blessings forever.
   • The LORD makes the king glad with joy in his presence.
7. 21:7
   • The king trusts in the LORD.
   • Through the steadfast love of the Most High the king will not be shaken.
8. 21:8
   • The LORD's hand will find out all his enemies.
   • The LORD's right hand will find those who hate him.
9. 21:9
   • The LORD will make them like a blazing furnace at the time of his appearing, when his face is turned against them.
   • The LORD will swallow them up in his anger.
   • Fire will devour them.
10. 21:10
    • The LORD will destroy their offspring from the earth.
    • The LORD will destroy their descendants from among the sons of men.
11. 21:11
    • They stretched out evil against the LORD.
    • They devised a scheme.
    • They are not able to carry it out.
12. 21:12
    • The LORD will make them turn their backs and flee.
    • The LORD will aim his bowstrings at their faces.
13. 21:13
    • The speaker calls on the LORD to be exalted in his own strength.
    • The speakers will sing and praise the LORD's power.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

21:1

"The king" is Israel's reigning king; the psalm speaks about him while addressing God directly, and the "we" of verse 13 suggests the singers are the people, or someone singing on their behalf. LORD printed in small capitals stands for the personal name of Israel's God, written in Hebrew with four consonants (YHWH) that readers traditionally did not pronounce, saying "Lord" aloud instead. "Salvation" here means rescue, deliverance from enemies and danger in this life, the sense the word carries throughout this psalm.

21:2

"Selah" appears about seventy times in the Psalms and nobody now knows what it meant. It is most often taken as a direction to the musicians or the congregation (a pause, a lift in volume, or an instrumental break), rather than part of the sentence. Translators leave it untranslated because there is nothing certain to translate it into.

21:3

In 1611 "prevent" meant to go ahead of someone or come out to meet them, the opposite of its modern sense of stopping something. The picture is of God arriving first, bringing gifts, rather than being asked. A crown of gold was placed on a king's head at his accession; a defeated enemy's crown could also be transferred to the victor.

21:4

"May the king live forever" was ordinary court language addressed to a monarch across the ancient Near East, much as we would say "long live the king." What the extravagant phrase claims here is left open: readers have understood it as long life for the man himself, and as the unbroken continuation of his royal line after him.

21:5

"Glory" in older English means weight, standing, public reputation, not brightness. "Honour and majesty" is a fixed pair describing the visible splendor that marks out a ruler; the same two words are used elsewhere of God himself.

21:6

"Countenance" is an older word for face. In Hebrew, for someone's face to be turned toward you means their attention and favor are on you; God's face turned away means the reverse. So "glad with thy countenance" means gladness that comes from being in God's presence and looked on with favor.

21:7

"Mercy" translates the Hebrew word hesed, which has no single English equivalent: it means loyal, committed kindness, the steady faithfulness owed within a lasting relationship, not a pardon granted to an offender. "The most High" (Elyon) is an ancient title for God as the highest power. "He shall not be moved" means not shaken loose or toppled from his position, the image being a building or a man on firm footing.

21:8

From here to verse 12 the person addressed as "thou" is not specified in the Hebrew, and it can be read either as God, whose hand strikes the enemies, or as the king acting with God's backing. Translations differ, and the ambiguity is in the original. "Right hand" is standard Hebrew idiom for the hand of strength and decisive action.

21:9

The oven meant is a tannur, a beehive-shaped clay baking oven, heated from within until the walls glow. The Hebrew is compressed and can be read either as making the enemies into such a furnace or as putting them into one. "The time of thine anger" is literally "the time of your face," which is why some translations read "the time of your appearing." "Swallow them up" is a Hebrew idiom for total destruction, as the earth swallows what falls into it.

21:10

"Fruit" and "seed" are the ordinary Hebrew words for children and descendants, and "the children of men" means humankind in general. In a culture where a person's name and memory survived only through descendants, ending a family line was understood as the complete and final defeat of an enemy, beyond the death of the individual.

21:11

Both words have shifted since 1611. "Imagined" meant devised or plotted, not merely pictured; "mischievous" meant harmful and wicked, far stronger than its modern sense of playful naughtiness. "Device" is a scheme.

21:12

"Make them turn their back" describes an army breaking and running from the battlefield, which was the normal way to say a force had been routed. The second half pictures an archer with the arrow already fitted to the bowstring and drawn, aimed directly at their faces, so the enemy runs because the shot is about to come.

21:13

"Be thou exalted" is a standard closing call in the Psalms: it asks God to show himself high and act openly in his own power, rather than asking people to think highly of him. The "we" is the congregation, who have been singing about the king and now promise their own response.