Series: Psalm
Title: The Joy of our King
Text: Psalm 21: 1-
Date: April 2, 2015
Psalm 21: 1: The king shall joy in thy strength, O LORD; and in thy salvation how greatly shall he rejoice!
In Psalm 20, we saw the church’s prayer for Christ our King. In Psalm 22, we saw the cry of Christ our King as he was separated from God on the cross. Now, in Psalm 21, we have the “The Joy our King.”
CHRIST THE KING
Christ our Savior is “The King!” Christ Jesus is King of kings and Lord of lords. David wrote Psalm 21. Historically, it applies to David. But David was a type of Christ: David’s kingdom pictured Christ’s kingdom; David’s victories typified Christ’s victories for his people; David’s glory typified Christ’s glory. But the King in Psalm 21 is Christ or King. When God raised Christ to his glory in heaven he said, “Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion.” (Ps 2: 6)
GOD’S SALVATION
In Psalm 21: 1—Christ our King joys in, “thy strength, O LORD; and in thy salvation how greatly shall he rejoice!” He rejoices in God’s strength, in God’s salvation. Make no mistake the Lord Jesus is God: Christ worked miracles only God could perform; Christ calmed the sea; Christ raised the dead; Christ is Almighty God! In his Divinity it is his own strength he speaks of! But when God the Son assumed our nature, as the GodMan, he took the form of a servant, the servant of Jehovah. He served God as the one holy and righteous Man, serving in the place of his people.
So he accomplished the salvation of his people by the strength of Jehovah. God’s salvation is Christ’s salvation because Christ is God. Also, the salvation he accomplished is God’s salvation because God purposed it, God entrusted it to him, and Christ accomplished it for God. In addition, his salvation is the salvation of all those the Father gave unto him; it is our salvation. Having entered in once into the holy place with his own blood, he obtained eternal redemption for us. (Heb 9: 12)
What joy it was for Christ to accomplish the Father’s will for his people! At God’s right hand, right now, there is rejoicing in Christ’s heart as he sits upon his throne. His work is finished. His Father is glorified. His people are redeemed. His work cannot be undone.
Brethren, how does this apply to us? Christ has made each of us who believe kings unto God, as well as priest.
Revelation 1: 5:…Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, 6: And hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.
Revelation 5: 9: And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation; 10: And hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth.
We are a royal priesthood. In Christ, every believer has the power of king-priests over sin, Satan, the world, and all our enemies. These shall never triumph over us, but we over them. We have the full provisions of kings and priests. Our habitation is in the throne of God in Christ. We feast at the kings table with Christ, feasting on heavenly Manna! We wear kings clothing, the richest apparel—the righteousness of Christ. We are constantly attended by God’s angels—“Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?” (Heb 1: 14)
Now let us learn from Christ who saved us. He served God rejoicing in God’s strength and in God’s salvation. The salvation revealed and spoken of in Holy Scripture is God’s salvation by God’s strength. It is of God, by God, and belongs to God: in its conception, in its execution, in its application, in its preservation, in its completion.
Nothing in salvation is of man or by man’s strength. Man’s will is only as free as his nature, and then, our nature is only as free as God’s will. Man left in his sin-nature will only choose evil. Have you ever seen water run up hill? Water naturally runs downhill. The will of man does not run contrary to its nature. It is natural for man to run downhill to hell away from God.
Believers are God’s workmanship beginning to end, alpha to omega, salvation is God’s salvation, by God’s strength. So now, all these blessings believers have freely given us of God in Christ through his finished work. So who do we joy in? We do not joy in our strength but only in Christ’s strength. We do not joy in any aspect of salvation as being accomplished by us but how greatly we rejoice in Christ’s salvation for us. “But I will sacrifice unto thee with the voice of thanksgiving; I will pay that that I have vowed. Salvation is of the LORD.” (Jonah 2: 9) “He that is our God is the God of salvation; and unto GOD the Lord belong the issues from death.” (Ps 68: 20)
THE DESIRE OF CHRIST’S HEART
In our text, Christ rejoicing in God the Father declaring, “Thou hast given him his heart’s desire, and hast not withholden the request of his lips. Selah.” (Ps 21: 2)
What was the desire of Christ’s heart? What was the request of his lips? It was those the four requests we saw in John 17: “glorify thou me”; “Holy Father, keep through Thine own name those whom Thou hast given Me, that they may be one, as We are.”; “Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word.”; “Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world.’ He summed up those requests in another place, by saying, “Lo, I come to do thy will, O God!” “Father, glorify thy name.” “Thy will be done.” (Jn 17; Ps 40: 8; Heb 10: 7, 9; Jn 12: 28; Mt 26: 42)
Now get this. Christ our King declares that God—has—already—past tense—eternal tense—given Christ his hearts’ desire. God has not withheld the request of Christ’s lips. Christ came to save his people from our sins because his chief desire was the glory of God and the salvation of his people. His desire was to give us: redemption by his blood, regeneration by his Spirit, comfort in trouble, preservation in trial, holiness before his Father and happiness forever in his presence! He says of God answering his request, “Thou hast given him his heart’s desire, and hast not witholden the request of his lips.”
Then Christ says, “Selah.” You ponder and mediate upon that for a long time. Anytime you and I are troubled, believer, we ought to read this word and ponder and mediate upon this for a long time: “Thou hast given him his heart’s desire, and hast not withholden the request of his lips.” We are seated there with him now and all these blessings are ours because Christ desired it and God gave it. What a blessing to us that God gave Christ the desire of his heart according to Christ’s finished work of redemption for us!
PREVENTED WITH THE BLESSINGS OF GOODNESS
Then Christ says, “For thou preventest him with the blessings of goodness: thou settest a crown of pure gold on his head.” (Ps 21: 3)
The word “prevent” means to “precede” or “go before.” God gave Christ his desire beforehand by giving him the blessings of goodness beforehand. God gave Christ blessings of goodness in eternity long before he came in human flesh. He set a crown of pure gold on Christ’s head in eternity long before he came in human flesh. When Christ prayed in John 17, he said, “Now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was.” (Joh 17:4-5) When the Son of God entered covenant and became Surety for his people, “the works were finished from the foundation of the world.” (Heb 4:3)
How does that apply to Christ’s people? When God blessed Christ before the foundation of the world, God our Father, “blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: according as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love.” (Eph 1:3-4)
Also, this applies to the workings of God’s providence in calling us to faith in Christ. God’s goodness toward Christ goes beforehand to Christ long before Christ comes to us in regeneration. God blessed Christ beforehand by keeping us who believe all the days of our rebellion, by working all things to cross our path with the gospel, by preparing our hearts to hear it. Christ desired it; God gave it to him beforehand. This is called prevenient grace. It is grace that goes before grace.
You who do not believe my gospel, will you believe the gospel of my Prophet, Priest and King? He is the one declaring this. He says, “Thou God went before me with the blessings of goodness: thou settest a crown of pure gold on my head, from eternity.” And doing so he blessed all his people in him. Will you believe Christ?
LENGTH OF DAYS FOREVER AND EVER
Next, in our text, Christ says of himself and God, “He asked life of thee, and thou gavest it him, even length of days for ever and ever.” (Ps 21: 4)
From eternity, God also gave this beforehand. He gave to Christ the promise of eternal life, “length of days for ever and ever”, when Christ finished the work of redemption for his people. When the Father promised it to the Son it was done because Christ shall not fail!
The wages of sin is death. But when Christ walked this earth, he knew no sin. So Christ was fit, the spotless Lamb of God, to take the sins of his people and die the death we deserved. So Christ put away our sin by the sacrifice of himself. He fulfilled the prophecy God spoke through Daniel who said, “Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy.” (Dan 9: 24) Having finished the work God gave Christ that which God promised beforehand, “Whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death: because it was not possible that he should be holden of it.” (Ac 2:24)
Does this apply to us as well, believer? Oh, most certainly! God says to all who believe on Christ, “Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Ro 6:11)
There was a little boy who got stung by a bee. His mother doctored his wound then told him to go back outside and play. The little boy said, “But I am afraid the bee will sting me again.” His mother said, “My son, the bee cannot sting you again. The bee stung you once, now his stinger is gone!”
So it is for the believer because Christ, by his death on the cross, died our death. Therefore, Christ took the sting out of death for his people. Scripture says, “O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (1Co 15:55-57) Believer, hear the record and rejoice in Christ, “And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.” (1Jo 5:11-12)
Amen!