Charles Ellicott Commentary Psalms 21:9

"Thou wilt make them as a fiery furnace in the time of thine anger: Jehovah will swallow them up in his wrath, And the fire shall devour them." — Psalms 21:9 (ASV)

You shall make ... — As it stands, the figure is very obscure. Lamentations 5:10 is not analogous. Here the fire, and not the blackness of the smoky oven, is the object of comparison. A very slight literal change gives the sense obviously required: You shall put them into a fiery oven. The figure is not drawn from Sodom and Gomorrah, but from a smelter’s furnace. (Malachi 3:3. For the custom in its literal horror, see Jeremiah 48:45; Jeremiah 49:2; Amos 2:1, where the reference is to the Transjordanic tribes.) The Philistines subjected their enemies to a similar treatment (Judges 15:6).

In the time of your anger. — Literally, of your face, i.e., by your very appearance. The dread majesty of God’s face is often spoken of in this way (Psalms 34:16; Leviticus 20:6). Here the same awful power of withering the wicked with a glance is ascribed to the representative of Jehovah. (Proverbs 19:12.) But, as if startled by the boldness of his own figure, the poet instantly refers to Jehovah.

In his wrath. — Literally, in his nostril, in direct parallelism with “face” in the last clause.