Psalm 21:1-7 - Praise After the Battle

“The king shall have joy in Your strength, O LORD; And in Your salvation how greatly shall he rejoice! You have given him his heart's desire, And have not withheld the request of his lips. Selah For You meet him with the blessings of goodness; You set a crown of pure gold upon his head. He asked life from You, and You gave it to him-- Length of days forever and ever. His glory is great in Your salvation; Honor and majesty You have placed upon him. For You have made him most blessed forever; You have made him exceedingly glad with Your presence. For the king trusts in the LORD, And through the mercy of the Most High he shall not be moved.”   I am so thankful for all my friends and everyone who takes the time to be a part of these Pastor Chats each day. I do trust that the Lord is using them to encourage you, and helping you to begin your day with seeking Him, and to enjoy a “quiet time” of devotion from the Word.  I know I’ve said it before, but as I prepare and do these chats, I am learning so much more myself from the Bible that my heart is blessed and strengthened.  So again, thank you so much from the depths of my heart!   The Book of Psalms is the largest book in the Bible with 150 chapters. The longest chapters in the Bible are found in this book. We know that David wrote at least 75 of the Psalms.  We will find that there is a tremendous amount of repetition of prayers, praises and petitions in the Psalms. You will soon feel like you are reading the same thing over and over again, and you are!  There must be a reason the Holy Spirit inspired the writers to repeat the same prayers and praise so often.  The obvious reason is that we need to be reminded to both pray for help, and praise the Lord as He responds to our prayers and gives us victory and deliverance!   I read at least 5 Psalms every day.  I have read through the Psalms numerous times out loud with my staff at all three churches I have pastored.  I have read through the Psalm numerous times in my every Saturday morning men’s prayer meetings over the past 35 years.  I remember that when I taught the Bible classes in our Christian schools, in both Winchester Virginia and Holland Michigan, that I had the students read 5 Psalms out loud with me. The Psalms never grow old and seem to be as fresh and encouraging as if I’ve never read them before!  What an amazing Book!!!!   I said all that because I’m afraid you might start thinking, “Goodness, Pastor Mike has already said that before!”  And no doubt, I’m sure I did.  But I think we will both be blessed as we hear it again and again over these next several months, as it is my intention to read the entire book aloud with you on these chats before we are through with this study on Psalms.   Psalm 21 is a sequel to Psalm 20.  These two Psalms go together.  Both were written by David as we learn from the inscription and title.  Psalm 20 is a prayer before the battle. Psalm 21 is a praise after the battle. David and his people had prayed for specific blessings and God had granted them. The hymn opens and closes with praise for God's strength granted to His king and the army (vv. 1, 13). Answered prayer should always be acknowledged by fervent praise.   In this wonderful praise hymn we will see: In verses 1-7, David and the people look back over past victories and deliverance and celebrate with praise. In verses 8-12, David and his people look ahead and anticipate future victories. And In verse 13, they look up and exalt the Lord for His strength and power!   May God give us the grace to always acknowledge Him for His daily blessings in our lives!   God bless!