John Calvin Commentary Psalms 21

The king will rejoice in thy strength, O Jehovah! David could have given thanks to God in private for the victories and other significant favors which he had received from Him; but his intention was to testify not only that it was God who elevated him to the throne, but also that whatever blessings God had conferred upon him benefited the public good and the advantage of all the faithful.

In the beginning of the psalm, the believing Israelites express their firm conviction that God, who had appointed David to be king, had undertaken to defend and maintain him. It therefore appears that this psalm, like the preceding one, was composed to assure the faithful that God's goodness toward David in this respect would be enduring. It was also necessary, for them to be established in a well-grounded confidence of their safety, to have good hope for their king, whose countenance was, as it were, a mirror of the merciful and reconciled countenance of God.

The meaning of the words is: Lord, in putting forth your power to sustain and protect the king, you will keep him safe; and, ascribing his safety to your power, he will greatly rejoice in you. The Psalmist has undoubtedly used strength and salvation to mean strong and powerful help; intimating that God's power in defending the king would be such that it would preserve and protect him against all dangers.

In the second verse, the cause of this joy is pointed out. The cause was this: God had heard the prayers of the king and had liberally granted him whatever he desired. It was important for this to be known, and for the faithful to have it deeply impressed on their minds, that all David’s successes were indeed benefits conferred upon him by God and, at the same time, testimonies of his lawful calling.

And David, no doubt, in speaking this way, testifies that he did not give free rein to the desires of the flesh and follow the mere impulse of his appetites. He was not like worldly men, who set their minds on one thing after another without any consideration, just as they are led by their sensual lusts. Instead, David had so bridled his affections as to desire nothing except what was good and lawful.

In accordance with the weakness natural to humankind, he was, it is true, chargeable with some vices, and even fell shamefully on two occasions. However, the general administration of his kingdom was such that it was easy to see that the Holy Spirit presided over it.

But since, by the Spirit of prophecy, the Psalmist was looking principally to Christ (who does not reign for His own advantage, but for ours, and whose desire is directed only to our salvation), we may gather from this the very profitable doctrine that we need have no fear that God will reject our prayers on behalf of the Church. For our heavenly King has gone before us in making intercession for her, so that in praying for her, we are only endeavoring to follow His example.

For you will anticipate him. The change of tense in the verbs does not break the connection of the discourse. Therefore, I have, without hesitation, translated this sentence into the future tense, as we know that changing one tense into another is quite common in Hebrew.

Those who limit this psalm to the last victory David gained over foreign nations, and who suppose that the crown mentioned here was the crown of the king of the Ammonites (an account of which is in sacred history), give, in my judgment, too low a view of what the Holy Spirit has dictated here concerning the perpetual prosperity of this kingdom.

David, I have no doubt, included his successors all the way to Christ, and intended to celebrate the continual course of God's grace in maintaining his kingdom through successive ages. It was not said of one man only:

I will be his father, and he shall be my son (2 Samuel 7:14).

But this was a prophecy that ought to be extended from Solomon to Christ. This is fully established by the testimony of Isaiah (Isaiah 9:6), who informs us that it was fulfilled when the Son was given or manifested.

When it is said, You will anticipate him, the meaning is that God's liberality and promptitude in spontaneously bestowing blessings will be such that he will not only grant what is asked from him, but, anticipating the king's requests, he will load him with every kind of good thing far beyond what he had ever expected.

By blessings we are to understand abundance or plenteousness. Some translate the Hebrew word טוב, tob, as goodness; but I cannot agree with this. It is to be taken rather as the beneficence or the free gifts of God.

Thus the meaning will be: The king will lack nothing that is requisite to make his life happy in every respect, since God, of his own good pleasure, will anticipate his wishes and enrich him with an abundance of all good things.

The Psalmist makes express mention of the crown because it was the emblem and symbol of royalty; and by this he intimates that God would be the guardian of the king, whom he himself had created.

But as the prophet testifies that the royal diadem, after lying long dishonored in the dust, will again be put upon the head of Christ, we conclude that by this song the minds of the godly were elevated to the hope of the eternal kingdom, of which only a shadow or an obscure image was set forth in the person of David's successors.

Therefore, the doctrine of the everlasting duration of Christ's kingdom is established here, seeing he was not placed upon the throne by the favor or votes of men, but by God, who, from heaven, set the royal crown upon his head with his own hand.

He asked life from thee. This verse confirms what I have previously said, that this psalm is not to be limited to the person of any one man. David’s life, it is true, was prolonged to an advanced period, so that, when he departed from this world, he was an old man, and full of days; but the course of his life was too short to be compared to this length of days, which is said to consist of many ages.

Even if we consider the time from the beginning of David’s reign to the captivity of Babylon, this length of days will not be made up and completed in all David’s successors. David, therefore, without doubt, comprehends the Eternal King. There is here a tacit comparison between the beginnings of this kingdom, which were obscure and contemptible, or rather which were filled with the most severe dangers, and which bordered on despair; and the incredible glory which followed, when God, setting it apart from the common fate of other kingdoms, elevated it almost above the heavens.

For it is no ordinary praise of this kingdom when it is said that it shall endure as long as the sun and moon shall shine in the heavens (Psalms 72:1).

David, therefore, in saying that he asked life, tacitly points to the distressed circumstances to which he had often been reduced. The meaning is: Lord, since the time you have called your servant to the hope of the kingdom by your holy anointing, his condition has been such that he has considered it a unique blessing to be rescued from the jaws of death.

But now, he has not only, by your grace, escaped in safety the dangers which threatened his life; you have also promised that his kingdom will be continued for many ages in his successors.

And it greatly serves to magnify the grace of God that He graciously granted to a poor and miserable man, who was almost at the point of death, not only his life—when, amidst the dangers that threatened it, he tremblingly asked merely for its preservation—but also the inestimable honor of elevating him to royal dignity and of transmitting the kingdom to his posterity forever.

Some interpret the verse thus:— You have given him the life which he asked, even to the prolonging of his days forever and ever. But this seems to me a cold and strained interpretation.

We must keep in view the contrast which, as I have said, is made here between the weak and contemptible beginnings of the kingdom and the unexpected honor which God conferred upon his servant, in calling the moon to witness that his seed should never fail.

The same has been exemplified in Christ, who, from contempt, shame, death, the grave, and despair, was raised up by his Father to the sovereignty of heaven, to sit at the Father’s right hand forever, and at length to be the judge of the world.

His glory is great. By these words, the people indicate that their king would become more renowned through the protection God provided him and the deliverances God accomplished for him, than if he had reigned in peace with universal applause, been defended by human wealth and human strength, or, finally, remained invincible by his own power and strategy. For by this, it appeared more clearly that he had attained the royal dignity only by the favor, guidance, and command of God.

Therefore, the believing Israelites leave it to pagan kings to exalt themselves by their own achievements and to acquire fame by their own valor. They set more value on God graciously showing favor to their king than on all the triumphs of the world.

At the same time, they expect such assistance from God as will be sufficient to adorn the king with majesty and honor.

For thou hast set him to be blessings for ever. Some explain these words simply this way: that God had chosen David to be king in order to pour His blessings upon him in rich abundance. But it is evident that something more is intended by this way of speaking.

It implies that the king had such an exuberant abundance of all good things that he might justly be regarded as a pattern of the greatness of divine beneficence; or that, in praying, his name would generally be used as an example of how the supplicant wished to be treated.

The Jews were accustomed to speak of those being set to be a curse, who were rendered so detestable, and on whom the dreadful vengeance of God had been inflicted with such severity, that their very names served for cursing and dire imprecations. On the other hand, they were accustomed to speak of those being set to be a blessing, whose names we propose in our prayers as an example of how we desire to be blessed; as if a person, for instance, should say, 'May God graciously bestow upon you the same favor which He granted to His servant David!'

I do not reject this interpretation, but I am satisfied with the other, which views the words as implying that the king, abounding in all kinds of good things, was an illustrious pattern of God's liberality.

We must carefully note what is said immediately after concerning joy: Thou hast gladdened him with joy before thy countenance. The people not only mean that God did good to the king, seeing that He looked upon him with a kind and fatherly eye, but they also point out the proper cause of this joy, telling us that it proceeded from the king's knowledge of being the object of divine favor.

It would not be enough for God to take care of us and provide for our necessities unless, on the other hand, He also shone upon us with the light of His gracious and reconciled countenance and made us taste His goodness, as we have seen in Psalm 4: There be many that say, Who will show us any good? Lord, lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us, and we shall be saved. And undoubtedly, it is true and solid happiness to experience God being so favorable to us that we dwell, as it were, in His presence.