Psalms 21:3–6

"To go before," to anticipate (from the Latin praevenio), "to come before."

In Psalm 21 we get the full answer to Psalm 20 and its desires: the exaltation of Christ. That exaltation throws its light back on the true character of that psalm... More than that — Jehovah met Him with free and willing love, with the blessing of goodness, and crowned Him in glory.

You cannot measure the "goodness of God" in human terms. It holds all that is generous, joyful and loving. It expresses what He Himself is — for God is good... In the same way, our portion is centred in One who is always the Object of God's pleasure and delight — the One the Psalmist spoke of in advance in this verse.

His crown is one of "pure gold" (v. 3); that is, of unsullied righteousness; and therefore His kingdom such as will last (Heb. 1:8-9); "length of days for ever and ever" (v. 4).

God meets Him with blessings that are truly blessings: He sets a crown of pure gold on His head. What is this but the glory of God, which He, now enthroned, is to bring about? For this was the desire of His heart... This is the very meaning of His reign. Sin entered by man, to God's dishonour; so by man also the evil shall be undone, to His eternal praise.

The desire of His heart is fulfilled, as it will be when God sets the royal crown of pure gold on His head — the head that was once crowned with thorns. He had gone down into the jaws of death, and then received life — yes, eternal life. He received it as the head of the new creation, which shares this life He has received.

In resurrection He is granted His heart's desire. He is sitting at God's right hand with "a crown of pure gold on His head." He has received what He asked of God, "even length of days for ever and ever."... Men took His life from the earth. But God has answered men by raising Him from the dead, and there He lives in the power of an endless life (Heb. 7:16).

The blessings of goodness come out to meet, with perfect favour, the acceptable Man who rests on the Father's throne. Grief once filled the heart of the Man of sorrows until it broke, and His suffering was for our sakes. That grief is now forgotten in the overwhelming gladness of Jehovah's face. To know these things is the believer's chief delight. For the One he sees crowned is his Saviour and forerunner.

If we compare Hebrews 5:7 and Gethsemane's cry, I think the force of the Psalm will be clear. The answer in the Psalm is not that He was kept from dying. It is life as risen in glory above, made most blessed for ever. God did not spare His life for a time here. Instead He laid honour and great majesty on Him as man, in a higher and more glorious condition. Christ as a man, though mighty to do all things, asked everything of His Father. Dependence was His perfection. At Lazarus' tomb He asked, and knew His Father heard Him always; He asked in John 12; He asked that the cup might pass. The certainty of an event does not stop the asking. Everything in God's purpose will certainly be done; but He leads people's hearts to ask, as the moral filling up of their relationship with Him. In Christ, as man, this was perfect.

God heard Jesus first by an inward deliverance. God enabled Him to take the cup from His Father's hand, and not from the hand of Satan… But He was heard more fully in His resurrection. "He asked life of you; you gave it to him, length of days forever and ever," Psalm 21:4.

Death, which ends the days of fallen man, becomes the means of prolonging the days of this perfect Man. What a seeming paradox this is! As someone has said, "He is 'cut off from the land of the living'; He is buried, and yet He will live and His days will go on." The resurrection is the glorious answer to this paradox. It is no part of God's pleasure that man should lie under the sentence of death, any more than that he should come under judgment for his sins… So we see the pleasure of the LORD not only displayed in Christ, but secured by Christ.

Length of days for ever and ever is basic to the truth of eternal life wherever we meet it. The words "eternal" and "everlasting" carry that meaning in themselves. It sets the short span of human life in this world against the eternal relations of those whom God blesses in the resurrection world.

His crown is one of "pure gold" (v. 3); that is, of spotless righteousness. So His kingdom is one that will last (Heb. 1:8-9): "length of days for ever and ever" (v. 4).

Verse 3 looks back to the very time He was facing death. At that time He asked life from God (Heb. 5:7), and God gave it to Him in resurrection — "length of days forever and ever" (v. 4). In one respect this is true of David too, and of all believers, who are blessed with eternal life in Christ. But the language here has only One in view — One who is King.

In Psalm 21 we get the inspired answer to this godly desire, already anticipated in Psalm 20:3, 6. So here they celebrate, in prophecy, the triumph of the Christ. He has been heard. But now we have His desires explained, His earthly sorrows opened out. Death was before Him. He asked life of Jehovah, and God heard Him. But how, after all? In length of days (as man) for ever and ever. They say to Jehovah, "His glory is great in Your salvation. Honour and majesty You have laid upon Him." In a word, the right hand of God has exalted the rejected Messiah, and set Him in glory and majesty above.

The prayer of Jesus to the Father, when His hour had arrived, was "Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you" (John 17:1). This passage sets out the results of His gracious suffering: "His glory is great in Your salvation." The spiritual man can already see this by faith. "We see Jesus crowned with glory and honour" (Heb. 2:9). Great glory is His, whom God has made higher than the heavens.

It is not the intrinsic glory of the Son of God — Himself the Life, the true God and eternal Life (1 John 5:20) — that is here presented. Instead, it displays the Messianic honour that God has laid on the guiltless Sufferer of death as the appointed Heir of all things (Heb. 1:2). Here in particular, this glory appears under the limited, earthly side of Jewish promise. We do well to note the true prophetic character of this Psalm. Yet its subject is Christ glorified, so the eye of Christian faith finds in these verses a rich and full pasture of immediate grace.

The exaltation of Christ also shows God's infinite delight and satisfaction in the One whom men rejected. Men cut His days short; God gives Him length of days for ever and ever. They heaped shame and dishonour on Him; God has given Him glory, honour and majesty. Men filled His path with trial and sorrow. God has blessed Him for ever, and filled Him with gladness by divine favour.

He has gone down into death, and He receives even life itself as the gift of God. That eternal life becomes the portion of the new creation, and He is its Head. In the same way "His salvation" becomes a true salvation of countless people. That is what makes it great indeed, and great His glory. In all these things He is the Representative of others. To be this — the Saviour of multitudes who will adore Him forever — is without question what "His glory is great in Your salvation" means.

The same blessed Person went down the whole way to the deepest depths because of sin. He is now in the centre of the glory, and supreme in the administration of all the bounty of God. "His glory is great in Your salvation."

To know these things is the believer's chief delight. For it is his Saviour and forerunner whom he sees crowned in this way.

In Psalm 21 we get the full answer to Psalm 20 and its desires, in the exaltation of Christ... He had asked life of Jehovah (compare Heb. 5). He gave it to Him, but it was length of days for ever and ever, the abiding eternal life of the risen glorified man. That was the answer to the cry of the suffering Messiah when death was before Him... The glory of the Father raised Him from the dead. Jehovah has laid honour and majesty upon Him. He has made Him most blessed for ever and glad with Jehovah's countenance.

Jesus has now His heart's desire. For the joy set before Him He endured the cross, despising the shame, and now He sits at the right hand of the throne of God. The world rejected Him. His reward and comfort now are the joy of the Father's presence and the brightness of the glory He has received from Him. God has made Him most blessed for ever.

Christ is made blessings; not only is He the Blesser, but He is made Blessings for evermore (see Ps. 21:6, margin) and all that is on God's account towards mankind.

As gone on high, our Lord Jesus Christ is made "blessings for ever" (Psalm 21:6. See New Trans.). As Son over God's House, He is the Administrator of all blessing.

"You make Him glad with the joy of Your presence." This reminds us of Psalm 16:11, "In Your presence there is fullness of joy." His close fellowship with the Father is a vital reason for His joy.

The "throne" suggests distance, the "face" suggests knowledge and intimacy. Character is declared in the face. For ever God will be showing His perfections to His redeemed people. We will always be learning what kind of God we are dealing with. Psalm 21:6 says: "You have made him exceedingly glad with Your countenance."

What follows is one of the few passages in scripture that tells us the Lord's present experience. In worship the Holy Spirit fills the believer's soul with that same experience, because we have "part with Him." (John 13.) ... He is full of gladness. Once a "Man of sorrows," He is now the "Man of joy." We talk of the happiness of heaven. My delight is that there is One there whose joy is, and always will be, beyond that of everyone else.