Psalm 21--Middle Psalm of a Messianic Trio

Submitted by Christina Wilson on Fri, 09/21/2012 - 22:19

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An important key to understanding and appreciating most of the psalms of scripture is to embrace them as prophesy of the Lord Jesus Christ, Messiah, in all His comings and goings of humiliation, entreaty to the Father, battle with His enemies, His being pursued, His suffering, His faith, His passion, His death, burial, resurrection, ascension, and finally, His kingly victory and glory.

Psalm 21--Middle Psalm of a Messianic Trio

By Christina Wilson

September 21, 2012

LXE¹ Psalm 21:1 <For the end, a Psalm of David.>

O Lord, the king shall rejoice in thy strength; and in thy salvation he shall greatly exult.

2 Thou hast granted him the desire of his soul, and hast not withheld from him the request of his lips. Pause.

3 For thou hast prevented him with blessings of goodness: thou has set upon his head a crown of precious stone.

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

5 His glory is great in thy salvation: thou wilt crown him with glory and majesty.

6 For thou wilt give him a blessing for ever and ever: thou wilt gladden him with joy with thy countenance.

7 For the king trusts in the Lord, and through the mercy of the Highest he shall not be moved.

8 Let thy hand be found by all thine enemies: let thy right hand find all that hate thee.

9 Thou shalt make them as a fiery oven at the time of thy presence: the Lord shall trouble them in his anger, and fire shall devour them.

10 Thou shalt destroy their fruit from the earth, and their seed from among the sons of men.

11 For they intended evils against thee; they imagined a device which they shall by no means be able to perform.

12 For thou shalt make them turn their back in thy latter end, thou wilt prepare their face.

13 Be thou exalted, O Lord, in thy strength: we will sing and praise thy mighty acts.

Is it biblically correct to understand the Psalms this way?

Reading the notes of many study Bibles, one might wonder if the Psalms are indeed in their entirety mostly about Christ. Biblical writers of bygone days, however, reported clearly on the prophetically messianic nature of the Psalms.

Andrew Bonar identifies Psalms 20-22 as "a series of Psalms that more directly fix the eye on Messiah alone as their theme."² Charles Spurgeon writes in his opening paragraph concerning Psalm 21, "Probably written by David, sung by David, relating to David, and intended by David to refer in its fullest reach of meaning to David's Lord. It is evidently the fit companion of Psalm Twenty, and is in its proper position next to it."³The ensuing exposition written by Spurgeon himself and the several authors he quotes⁴ is then entirely about Jesus Christ.

I happen to have three fairly modern study Bibles at home, purchased, as it were, at random. The first⁵ gives no mention of prophecy or of Christ in any of the notes for Psalm 21. The second⁶ uses what I call "euphemisms", which led me into a lack of clarity and state of confusion as to whom the editors intended these euphemisms to refer. The third study Bible⁷ made no mention of Christ at all. If I did not have the Holy Spirit guiding my awareness, and if these were the only notes on Psalms available to me, I might miss the greatest blessing of reading Psalm 21, that blessing being the contemplation of the glories and riches of Messiah Jesus Christ, as He relates to His God, the Father.

If those reading this happened to look through the list of bygone authors mentioned in footnote four, one might reasonably object that the quotations by those authors had been most likely taken from full length sermons. While that may be true, space constraints in the footnotes of study Bibles is not the determining factor in whether or not Christ is pointed out as being in view. I recently was very blessed to purchase a modern study Bible based upon "the ancient faith of the Eastern Orthodox Church".⁸ The introduction claims that the teaching of "the Orthodox Church" represented in this study Bible is faithful to the teaching received by the early Church.

The Orthodox Study Bible makes the following brief entry for Psalm 20:⁹ [The numbering of the Psalms in this Bible follows the numbering of the Septuagint. Hence Psalm 20 is Psalm 21 in our standard Bible translations.]

"20 Ps 20 is also a royal psalm, because it is a prophecy of the King's triumphal Ascension, in which He is also the End.

The Father is identified as the Lord (vv. 2, 8 [1,7]⁹) and as the Most High (v. 8 [7]); and the King is also called the Lord (v. 10 [9]), who is exalted (v. 14 [13]) in His Ascension, as well as the Father's hand and right hand (v 9 [8]). In being called by these names, Jesus is shown to be one in essence and coequal with the Father.

Jesus asked the Father to raise Him from the dead and to enthrone Him at His right hand for the sake of our salvation (vv. 1-8 [7]; see also Heb 5:7-9). And in His death, Resurrection and Ascension, He destroyed all the enemies, namely, the devil and his angels (vv. 9-13 [8-13]). So, in response to all the Lord's mighty deeds, the Church sings and praises Him (v. 14 [13]).

Verses 1-6, 14 are used in the Divine Liturgy on Pentecost Sunday, on which the ascended and exalted Lord sent the Church His Holy Spirit."

That is the entry for Psalm 21 in its entirety.⁹

Am I saying that we all need to run out and purchase this Orthodox study Bible? No, not at all. I am, however, pointing out that what was formerly the usual interpretation of this and most Psalms--i.e., direct prophecies of the life, mind, emotions, and prayers of our precious Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, while a man like unto ourselves on earth, has been largely lost in our modern pulpits and in our modern study Bibles.

Jesus unlocked to the disciples who walked with Him on the Emmaus Road "everything written about me in the...psalms" (Luke 24:44). Knowing this, the Holy Spirit has given us the same key. Once we are prepared to accept Jesus' own word that the Psalms were written about Himself, then we can find Him for ourselves. The blessings of reading the Psalms this way are enormous! Christ is present, I'm sure, in all the translations of the Psalms, if we are able to receive His presence there and look for Him ourselves. Authors such as Spurgeon and Bonar can at a later time be consulted for confirmation.

For my own part, I do find that the Septuagint, which is the translation used at the beginning of this article, is more direct in bringing out Christ in the Psalms than some of our other translations, although I have been very blessed in using the older NIV, as well.

As I read through Psalm 20 (21) from the English translation of the Septuagint during my quiet time, I blocked it out for myself like this:

Verses 1-7 would be the King Himself, Jesus Christ, speaking to God His Father. He refers to Himself in third person, while referring to His Father in second person, "thou", "thee", and "thy". Alternatively, these verses could be the voice of the King's people speaking to God as though they were a narrator, or, they could actually be spoken by an invisible narrator (possibly King David) who knows the heart of the King intimately.

Verses 8-12 are spoken directly to the King about Himself, either by His people or by the unseen biblical narrator of the previous section. Alternatively, these words could be the Father's reply to the King, Christ.

Verse 13 cannot be spoken by God, because the Father does not praise the Son quite like this. And, since the Psalm is about the Son, it seems that the "Lord" in this verse would be the King Jesus Christ. This verse seems to be spoken by the King's people in celebration of His great and mighty victory, a view also held by The Orthodox Study Bible (see above), Andrew Bonar, and Charles Spurgeon.

Who speaks in the first two sections is not as important as the relationship brought out between the Father and His kingly Son. This relationship remains intact no matter who is speaking these sections.

The blessings of seeing Christ in Psalm 21 are manifold. I pray that the Lord Himself might be pleased to bless to others what I have written here. Thank-You, Father. In Jesus' name.

____________________

1 LXE The English Translation of The Septuagint Version of the Old Testament by Sir Lancelot C. L. Brenton, 1844, 1851, published by Samuel Bagster and Sons, London, original ASCII edition Copyright © 1988 by FABS International (c/o Bob Lewis, DeFuniak Springs FL 32433). All rights reserved.

3 Charles H. Spurgeon, The Treasury of David, Volume One, Hendrickson Publishers, Peabody, MA, page 312

4 Ibid., pages 317-323. Authors whom Spurgeon quotes and who refer to Christ as the subject of Psalm 21 are R. H. Ryland, Isaac Williams, Hamilton Verschoyle, Samuel Martin, Augustine, George Horne, James Durham, John Gill, Ralph Wardlaw, Isaac Ambrose, Henry Airay, John Hurrion, Samuel Rutherford, Richard Mant, James Nouet, Matthew Henry, and Charles Bradbury.

6 John MacArthur, The MacArthur Study Bible, Copyright © 2006 by Thomas Nelson, Inc., pages 747-748. The "euphemisms" are the names "Commander-in-Chief", "Israel's king-general", "king-general", "king", and "King", plus God and Lord. Since the possibilites include God the Father, Christ, and David, it is difficult, even with the distinction provided by the use of capitals here and non-capitals there, to distinguish among whom the editor/writer has in his mind, whether it might be God the Father, the Son, or David in each specific instance.

9 Ibid., page 694. The numbers in brackets [ ] have been added by myself. The English Septuagint text I used above is Brenton's (see footnote 1 above). Brenton includes "O Lord, the king..." in verse 1, while The Orthodox Study Bible numbers the same phrase as verse 2.

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Psalm 21--Middle Psalm of a Messianic Trio

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