John Calvin Commentary Psalms 21:4

"He asked life of thee, thou gavest it him, Even length of days for ever and ever." — Psalms 21:4 (ASV)

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.