Bible Commentaries

Thanksgiving for the King in Time of War

“Jahve fulfil all thy desires” cried the people in the preceding Psalm, asthey interceded on behalf of their king; and in this Psalm they are ablethankfully to say to God “the desire of his heart hast Thou granted.” Inboth Psalms the people come before God with matters that concern thewelfare of their king; in the former, with their wishes and prayers, in thelatter, their thanksgivings and hopes in the latter as in the former when inthe midst of war, but in the latter after the recovery of the king, in thecertainty of a victorious termination of the war.

The Targum and the Talmud, B. Succa 52a, understand this Psalm 21:1 ofthe king Messiah. Rashi remarks that this Messianic interpretation oughtrather to be given up for the sake of the Christians. But even the Christianexposition cannot surely mean to hold fast this interpretation so directlyand rigidly as formerly. This pair of Psalm treats of David; David's cause,however, in its course towards a triumphant issue - a course leading through suffering - is certainly figuratively the cause of Christ.

(Heb.: 21:2-3)The Psalm begins with thanksgiving for the bodily and spiritual blessingswhich Jahve has bestowed and still continues to bestow upon the king, inanswer to his prayer. This occupies the three opening tetrastichs, of whichthese verses form the first. עז (whence עזּך, as in Psalm 74:13, together with עזּך, Psalm 63:3, and frequently) is the powerthat has been made manifest in the king, which has turned away hisaffliction; ישׁוּעה is the help from above which has freed himout of his distress. The יגיל, which follows the מה of theexclamation, is naturally shortened by the Kerîinto יגל (withthe retreat of the tone); cf. on the contrary Proverbs 20:24, where מה isinterrogative and, according to the sense, negative). The áëåã.ארשׁת has the signification eager desire, according to the connection, thelxx äåand the perhaps also cognate רוּשׁ, to bepoor; the Arabic Arab. (wrš), avidum esse, must be left out of considerationaccording to the laws of the interchange of consonants, whereas ירשׁ, Arab. (wrṯ), capere, captare (cf. Arab. (irṯ) = (wirṯ) an inheritance), butnot רוּשׁ (vid., Psalm 34:11), belongs apparently to the same root. Observe the strong negation בּל: no, thou hast not denied, but donethe very opposite. The fact of the music having to strike up here favoursthe supposition, that the occasion of the Psalm is the fulfilment of somepublic, well-known prayer.

(Heb.: 21:4-5)“Blessings of good” (Proverbs 24:25) are those which consist of good, i.e., truegood fortune. The verb קדּם, because used of the favour which meetsand presents one with some blessing, is construed with a doubleaccusative, after the manner of verbs of putting on and bestowing (Ges. §139). Since Psalm 21:4 cannot be intended to refer to David's first coronation,but to the preservation and increase of the honour of his kingship, this particularisation of Psalm 21:4 sounds like a prediction of what is recorded in 2 Samuel 22:30: after the conquest of the Ammonitish royal city Rabbah David set the Ammonitish crown (עטרת), which is renowned for the weight of its gold and its ornamentation with precious stones, upon his head. David was then advanced in years, and in consequence of heavy guilt, which, however, he had overcome by penitence and laying hold on the mercy of God, was come to the brink of the grave. He, worthy of death, still lived; and the victory over the Syro-Ammonitish power was a pledge to him of God's faithfulness in fulfilling his promises. It is contrary to the tenour of the words to say that Psalm 21:5 does not refer to length of life, but to hereditary succession to the throne. To wish any one that he may live לעולם, and especially a king, is a usual thing, 1 Kings 1:31, and frequently. The meaning is, may the life of the king be prolonged to an indefinitely distant day. What the people have desired elsewhere, they here acknowledge as bestowed upon the king.

(Heb.: 21:6-7)The help of God turns to his honour, and paves the way for him to honour, it enables him-this is the meaning of. Psalm 21:6 - to maintain and strengthen his kingship with fame and glory. שׁוּה על used, as in Psalm 89:20, of divine investiture and endowment. To make blessings, or a fulness of blessing, is a stronger form of expressing God's words to Abram, Genesis 12:2: thou shalt be a blessing i.e., a possessor of blessing thyself, and a medium of blessing to others. Joy in connection with (את as in Psalm 16:11) the countenance of God, is joy in delightful and most intimate fellowship with Him. חדּה, from חדה, which occurs once in Exodus 18:9, has in Arabic, with reference to nomad life, the meaning “to cheer the beasts of burden with a song and urge them on to a quicker pace,” and in Hebrew, as in Aramaic, the general signification “to cheer, enliven.”

(Heb.: 21:8-9)With this strophe the second half of the Psalm commences. The address to God is now changed into an address to the king; not, however, expressive of the wishes, but of the confident expectation, of the speakers. Hengstenberg rightly regards Psalm 21:8 as the transition to the second half; for by its objective utterance concerning the king and God, it separates the language hitherto addressed to God, from the address to the king, which follows. We do not render Psalm 21:8 : and trusting in the favour of the Most High - he shall not be moved; the mercy is the response of the trust, which (trust) does not suffer him to be moved; on the expression, cf. Proverbs 10:30. This inference is now expanded in respect to the enemies who desire to cause him to totter and fall. So far from any tottering, he, on the contrary, makes a victorious assault upon his foes. If the words had been addressed to Jahve, it ought, in order to keep up the connection between Psalm 21:9 and Psalm 21:8, at least to have been איביו and שׁנאיו (his, i.e., the king's, enemies). What the people now hope on behalf of their king, they here express beforehand in the form of a prophecy. מצא ל (as in Isaiah 10:10) and מצא seq. acc. (as in 1 Samuel 23:17) are distinguished as: to reach towards, or up to anything, and to reach anything, attain it. Supposing ל to represent the accusative, as e.g., in Psalm 69:6, Psalm 21:9 would be a useless repetition.

(Heb.: 21:10-11)Hitherto the Psalm has moved uniformly in synonymous dipodia, now it becomes agitated; and one feels from its excitement that the foes of the king are also the people's foes. True as it is, as Hupfeld takes it, that לעת פּניך sounds like a direct address to Jahve, Psalm 21:10 nevertheless as truly teaches us quite another rendering. The destructive effect, which in other passages is said to proceed from the face of Jahve, Psalm 34:17; Leviticus 20:6; Lamentations 4:16 (cf. ἔχει θεὸς ἔκδικον ὄμμα ), is here ascribed to the face, i.e., the personal appearing (2 Samuel 17:11) of the king. David's arrival did actually decide the fall of Rabbath Ammon, of whose inhabitants some died under instruments of torture and others were cast into brick-kilns, 2 Samuel 12:26. The prospect here moulds itself according to this fate of the Ammonites. כּתנּוּר אשׁ is a second accusative to תּשׁיתנו, thou wilt make them like a furnace of fire, i.e., a burning furnace, so that like its contents they shall entirely consume by fire (synecdoche continentis pro contento). The figure is only hinted at, and is differently applied to what it is in Lamentations 5:10, Malachi 4:1. Psalm 21:10 and Psalm 21:10 are intentionally two long rising and falling wave-like lines, to which succeed, in Psalm 21:11, two short lines; the latter describe the peaceful gleaning after the fiery judgment of God that has been executed by the hand of David. פּרימו, as in Lamentations 2:20; Hosea 9:16, is to be understood after the analogy of the expression פּרי הבּטן. It is the fate of the Amalekites (cf. Psalm 9:6.), which is here predicted of the enemies of the king.

(Heb.: 21:12-13)And this fate is the merited frustration of their evil project. The construction of the sentences in Psalm 21:12 is like Psalm 27:10; Psalm 119:83; Ew. §362, b. נטה רעה is not to be understood according to the phrase נטה רשׁת (= פּרשׁ), for this phrase is not actually found; we have rather, with Hitzig, to compare Psalm 55:4, 2 Samuel 15:14: to incline evil down upon any one is equivalent to: to put it over him, so that it may fall in upon him. נטה signifies “to extend lengthwise,” to unfold, but also to bend by drawing tight. שׁית שׁכם to make into a back, i.e., to make them into such as turn the back to you, is a more choice expression than נתן ערף, Psalm 18:41, cf. 1 Samuel 10:9; the half segolate form שׁכם, (= שׁכם) becomes here, in pause, the full segolate form שׁכם.חצּים must be supplied as the object to תּכונן, as it is in other instances after הורה, השׁליך, ידה; כּונן חץ, Psalm 11:2, cf. Psalm 7:14, signifies to set the swift arrow upon the bow-string (מיתר = יתר) = to aim. The arrows hit the front of the enemy, as the pursuer overtakes them.

(Heb.: 21:14)After the song has spread abroad its wings in twice three tetrastichs, it closes by, as it were, soaring aloft and thus losing itself in a distich. It is a cry to God for victory in battle, on behalf of the king. “Be Thou exalted,” i.e., manifest Thyself in Thy supernal (Psalm 57:6, 12) and judicial (Psalm 7:7.) sovereignty. What these closing words long to see realised is that Jahve should reveal for world-wide conquest this גּבוּרה, to which everything that opposes Him must yield, and it is for this they promise beforehand a joyous gratitude.