Albert Barnes Commentary Psalms 21:5

"His glory is great in thy salvation: Honor and majesty dost thou lay upon him." — Psalms 21:5 (ASV)

His glory is great in thy salvation - Not in himself; not in anything that he has done, but in what you have done.

The fact that you have saved him, and the manner in which it has been done, has placed great honor upon him.

He felt indeed that his condition as king, and the prospects before him, were one of great glory or honor; but he felt at the same time that it was not in himself, or for anything that he had done: it was only in the salvation which God had conferred upon him.

Every child of God, in like manner, has great glory conferred upon him, and his glory will be great forever; but it is not in himself, or by virtue of anything that he has done.

It is great in the salvation of God:

• In the fact that God has interposed to save him; and
• In the manner in which it has been done.

The highest honor that can be placed upon man is in the fact that God will save him.

Honour and majesty hast thou laid upon him -

• In making him a king;
• In the victories and triumphs which you have now given him, placing on his head, as it were, a brighter crown;
• In the promised perpetuity of his reign.

So we may say of the ransomed sinner—the child of God—now. Honour and majesty have been laid on him:

• In the fact that God has redeemed him;
• In the manner in which this has been accomplished;
• In his adoption into the family of God;
• In the rank and dignity which he occupies as a child of God;
• In the hope of immortal blessedness beyond the grave.