Psalm 21

When in doubt, do a psalm!

vs 1

It might be Saul that David's talking about, but then really it's more likely that David is the king that rejoices in victories given by God.

Even a king recognises the strength of God, and relies on it and rejoices because of it. If a king does it, surely lowly typists like myself should too!

vs 2

Of course, David's desires were (mostly) godly, so that's all well and good.

vs 3

I don't think it was God who placed a crown on the king's head literally. This actually may be more like "Because of your strength, the king has been blessed richly and has been able to afford a crown made of gold." Of course, that's not very poetic.

vs 4

Woah. David is still alive? No, of course not. But that is most obviously a messianic reference. Not that David necessarily thought of it like that, but come on! David might be referring to the line of sons he has.

Jesus will live forever and ever. And with that in mind, he probably did get crowned and blessed literally by God too.

vs 5

When you read Samuel, it is obvious that it's because of all his victories that David is so acclaimed. And this applies to Jesus too - if he didn't have a victory over sin, death, demons, and all badness generally, then I don't know that we'd respect him as much.

vs 6

David obviously feels blessed. Good for him, because he was blessed. The third person thing is of course interesting - but if he was writing it for other people to sing, then obviously they'd need to sing it in the third person. Good thinking!

And then it also becomes more obvious that there's a link to the messiah too, but that's just God being awesome.

vs 7

So now the trust in God moves on - from strength, it moves to love. Strength alone is a fine quality, and certainly one to be respected and even feared. But we do not come to relationship with God because of his strength and power only. We come because he loves us. Perhaps we come because of his strength, but we will stay because of love.

vs 8

Not the enemies of the king - the king is at war with the enemies of God. But he has no need to fear, because since the are enemies of God, God will take care of them.

vs 9

Now it's true that crazy cool things like this did happen in the history of Israel and its wars against various bad nations. And to have faith that God will act for you in battle must get you pretty pumped up.

But cast your mind also to the future, where God will do this to his enemies on the last day. That'll be one hell of a fireworks show.

vs 10

This did happen to nations from time to time - they just sort of stop on the timeline and are never seen again. But the destruction of God's enemies will be even more final at the last days, when there will be an eternity in which they don't figure. Total wipe out.

vs 11

We might say "Duh", but if you're dumb enough to plot against God (replace dumb with ignorant, unbelieving, willfully bloody-minded, selfish - whatever) then you probably think you've got an edge on him somehow. All those people out there who think "I am combatting ignorance and this outdated belief in spirituality and Christianity and religion by teaching people atheism" (or science or writing books that are full of God-hate etc) - some of them really think they can win. Ha. I'd laugh more, but it's sad really.

vs 12

Some of the less cultured among us know exactly where that arrow's going.

The thing is, you can actually strike or snatch arrows out of the air if you're fast enough. You can bat them out of the sky with a weapon or a shield. But if you turn your back, you're toast. It's as if you don't even think there's a threat.

vs 13

It might seem cruel, but we praise God for this judgment. People do deserve judgment, and God is a holy and just God. He's also compassionate though, and if he decides to relent against someone, we should cheer twice as hard. "Maximus the Merciful!"