453_Rejoicing in His strength
Psalm 21 O Lord, in your strength the king rejoices,
and in your salvation how greatly he exults!
2 You have given him his heart’s desire
and have not withheld the request of his lips. Selah
3 For you meet him with rich blessings;
you set a crown of fine gold upon his head.
4 He asked life of you; you gave it to him,
length of days forever and ever.
5 His glory is great through your salvation;
splendor and majesty you bestow on him.
6 For you make him most blessed forever;
you make him glad with the joy of your presence.
7 For the king trusts in the Lord,
and through the steadfast love of the Most High he shall not be moved.
8 Your hand will find out all your enemies;
your right hand will find out those who hate you.
9 You will make them as a blazing oven
when you appear.
The Lord will swallow them up in his wrath,
and fire will consume them.
10 You will destroy their descendants from the earth,
and their offspring from among the children of man.
11 Though they plan evil against you,
though they devise mischief, they will not succeed.
12 For you will put them to flight;
you will aim at their faces with your bows.
13 Be exalted, O Lord, in your strength!
We will sing and praise your power.
Charles Spurgeon once told a story about a humble village blacksmith. Every day, the man labored with fire and hammer, pounding metal into shape. His arms were strong, his back muscled with years of service. One evening, someone asked him, “How do you continue to work so tirelessly every day?” The blacksmith, pausing and wiping the sweat off his brow, pointed upward and said, “All my strength is borrowed. It is He who lends it daily.”
That response humbles and empowers. Instead of celebrating his own strength, independence, and willpower, the blacksmith was assured of the truth – strength comes from God. Psalm 21 celebrates victory—not as a monument to human effort, but as a testimony to divine power.
Psalm 21 is a continuation of Psalm 20. In Psalm 20, the people cry out to God, interceding on behalf of their king—asking God to grant him victory and fulfill his heart’s desire. It’s a picture of dependence and expectation. But in Psalm 21, that cry turns into praise. The prayers have been answered. The battle is over. Victory has been granted. The people are rejoicing. The king exults in the Lord’s strength.
David, though a seasoned and mighty warrior, never credited himself for his triumphs. “O Lord, in your strength the king rejoices, and in your salvation how greatly he exults!” (v. 1). This is not the voice of a man boasting in his accomplishments but the voice of a heart surrendered to divine help. David knew he was fighting the Lord’s battles, and because of that, the Lord would provide strength and victory.
This psalm lays bare the relationship between David and his God. In Psalm 20, the people prayed that God would grant the king’s heart’s desire. That prayer was answered: “You have given him his heart’s desire and have not withheld the request of his lips.” God delights to answer prayers rooted in his will rather than in selfish ambition or personal agendas. David walked close to the Lord, and wanted God to be glorified. His prayer was to fulfil the desires of God’s heart.
In verses 3 through 7, David celebrates God: “You make him glad with the joy of your presence” (v. 6). The king’s joy is not in his victory or blessings but in the nearness of God. This echoes Psalm 16:11: “In your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.”
At the heart of all this is trust. Verse 7 says, “For the king trusts in the Lord, and through the steadfast love of the Most High he shall not be moved.” Trust in God is not passive fatalism but both dynamic and stabilizing. David stood firm on the solid ground of God’s steadfast love. Trust in God’s character keeps us stable even in the midst of raging battles.
Verses 8 to 12 describe God’s judgment on His enemies. For David, through all his physical battles, the real foe was spiritual and the battle belonged to God. And God was not finished with those who opposed Him. “You will make them as a blazing oven when you appear. The Lord will swallow them up in His wrath, and fire will consume them.” (v. 9). These are strong words, and rightly so. The enemies of God are not the poor and ignorant, but those who persist in deliberate rebellion. Their judgment is just. “Though they plan evil against you…they will not succeed.” (v. 11).
David’s confidence was not in his sword but in God’s justice. God’s power would not only protect him but also defeat all forces of evil—whether visible or invisible. This is our comfort, in a world often overrun with injustice. God’s power is still active, still righteous, and still victorious.
The psalm closes the way it began—with praise: “Be exalted, O Lord, in your strength! We will sing and praise your power.” (v. 13). David does not bask in glory; he sees only the glory of God. His heart beats with worship, not pride.
God’s strength over man’s strength is a theme that runs all through Scripture. Man’s power is limited; God’s is unlimited. As Jeremiah 32:17 reminds us, “Ah, Lord God! It is you who made the heavens and the earth by your great power and outstretched arm. Nothing is too hard for you.”
Our strength is borrowed; His is self-sufficient and eternal. The Lord declared the truth, in John 15:5, “Apart from me you can do nothing.” In Acts 17:25, Paul tells us that God “is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else.”
Man’s power is often misused; God’s power is always righteous. King Nebuchadnezzar sought to burn God’s faithful children for refusing to bow down to him, but his own servants were consumed while the prisoners walked free in the fire. In contrast to man’s unrighteous use of power, Psalm 145:17 says, “The Lord is righteous in all his ways and faithful in all he does.”
Man’s strength fails in crisis but God’s strength prevails. Peter sank when he saw the stormy sea. But in Exodus 14, when Israel stood trapped at the Red Sea, God declared, “The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.”
Man takes pride in his power, but God displayed His greatest strength through weakness. When Peter slashed with his sword to defend his Master, the Lord reminded him that He could summon legions of angels. Instead, he chose the path of the cross. 1 Corinthians 1:18 describes it thus, “The word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” In the weakness of complete surrender to the sovereign will of God, the Lord Jesus overcame sin and death once for all, and led captivity captive.
Knowing this, we don’t have to carry the weight of the world on our shoulders. We don’t have to win battles in our own strength. We can rejoice in His strength, for he fights for us, not against us. God demonstrated his greatest power, not by destroying his enemies, but by sending his Son to hang on a cross for us, dying in weakness to save sinners. That’s the power we rejoice in. That’s the strength we depend on.
In every battle we face—whether it’s a struggle with sin, a storm of suffering, or a season of uncertainty—let us remember that His strength is ours, if we just trust him. As David rejoiced in God’s strength, so can we. Let us look at the end of our own strength and stretch out our hands to His. Let us rejoice in his victorious presence with those whose only desire is to do his will.
In His strength, we find peace, and hope, and victory—not just for today, but for eternity.
Be exalted, O Lord, in Your strength. We will sing and praise Your power. God bless.