Psalms 21

The king is glad because of your strength, LORD. How great is his joy when you rescue him!

1The king shall joy in thy strength, O LORD; and in thy salvation how greatly shall he rejoice!

Note"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.

2You have given him what his heart wanted. You have not held back what he asked you for. Selah.

2Thou hast given him his heart’s desire, and hast not withholden the request of his lips. Selah.

Note"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.

3You came to meet him with rich and good gifts. You set a crown of pure gold on his head.

3For thou preventest him with the blessings of goodness: thou settest a crown of pure gold on his head.

NoteIn 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.

4He asked you to let him live, and you gave it to him: long life, going on and on forever.

4He asked life of thee, and thou gavest it him, even length of days for ever and ever.

Note"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.

5Because you rescued him, his fame is great. You have placed splendor and majesty on him.

5His glory is great in thy salvation: honour and majesty hast thou laid upon him.

Note"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.

6You have made him blessed forever. You have filled him with joy in your presence.

6For thou hast made him most blessed for ever: thou hast made him exceeding glad with thy countenance.

Note"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.

7The king trusts the LORD. Because the Most High loves him and stays faithful, the king will not be shaken.

7For the king trusteth in the LORD, and through the mercy of the most High he shall not be moved.

Note"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.

8Your hand will track down all your enemies. Your right hand will catch hold of those who hate you.

8Thine hand shall find out all thine enemies: thy right hand shall find out those that hate thee.

NoteFrom 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.

9When you appear in anger, you will make them like a blazing furnace. The LORD will swallow them up in his fury, and fire will burn them up.

9Thou shalt make them as a fiery oven in the time of thine anger: the LORD shall swallow them up in his wrath, and the fire shall devour them.

NoteThe 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.

10You will wipe their children off the earth, and their descendants from among all people.

10Their fruit shalt thou destroy from the earth, and their seed from among the children of men.

Note"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.

11They meant to do you harm. They made a wicked plan, but they cannot carry it out.

11For they intended evil against thee: they imagined a mischievous device, which they are not able to perform.

NoteBoth 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.

12So you will make them turn and run, when you aim your bow with the arrows pointed at their faces.

12Therefore shalt thou make them turn their back, when thou shalt make ready thine arrows upon thy strings against the face of them.

13Be lifted high, LORD, by your own strength. Then we will sing and praise your power.

13Be thou exalted, LORD, in thine own strength: so will we sing and praise thy power.