Psalm 21: “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. Your hand will find all Your enemies; Your right hand will find those who hate You. You shall make them as a fiery oven in the time of Your anger; the LORD shall swallow them up in His wrath, and the fire shall devour them. Their offspring You shall destroy from the earth, and their descendants from among the sons of men. For they intended evil against You; they devised a plot [which] they are not able [to perform]. Therefore You will make them turn their back; You will make ready [Your arrows] on Your string toward their faces. Be exalted, O LORD, in Your own strength! We will sing and praise Your power.”
The Bible teaches that God is willing to fulfill the desires of our hearts when our desires match His desires. This seems simple enough. Right? The truth is though, it’s complicated. There are two important things to consider here. First, we need to know God’s desires so our hearts can be aligned.
Secondly, we need to understand how GOD is the One that aligns our hearts to His. This is NOT work that we can do for ourselves. God is eternal and spiritual. We’re not. It’s impossible to know Him unless He supernaturally reveals Himself to us. When He does, He’s the One who does the necessary work to conform our fleshly nature to the image of His eternal and spiritual nature. Jesus referred to this process as “spiritual regeneration” when He said we needed to be “born again.” This is a SPIRITUAL process that Jesus provokes by the work of His Spirit, according to the will of the Father. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit working together to get this work done. This is the only way to align the desires of OUR hearts, with God’s; and when we’re in sync like that, we’re able to enjoy the benefits that the Bible talks about.
The testimony of Psalm 21:8-13 explains God’s desires by explaining the true inner desires of a triumphant king. Psalm 21 explains that God appoints the triumphant king to lead His people. But, this king trusts in and depends on the LORD to do that job. The LORD gives the king the desire of his heart, but only because the king desires the things God desires. The testimony of Psalm 21:8-13 explains what the king ultimately desired in his heart. That desire, in turn, reveals God’s true focus and desire. See how that works?
So first, it’s important to remember that the foundation of the king’s desire, was based on receiving eternal life from God. The king asked for life, and received eternal life from God, according to God’s unique, eternally self-existing and self-sustaining nature. The triumphant king that lives by faith in God, knows and acknowledges that God is transcendent, and is uniquely qualified, and gracious, to provide eternal life. The king relied on the transformative power of God, to change his naturally corrupted and weak soul, into a soul that God saw with honor and majesty. The scriptures told us that the presence of God caused this change. The circumstances described in Psalm 21:8-13, describe the way that God reveals His presence, to fulfill the transformation that we need. When He transforms the condition of our souls, we start to see our hearts aligned with God, and our desires fulfilled.
Here's the crazy thing though. Here, the Bible says that the king’s desire is fulfilled through the JUDGMENTS of God. Yep, you heard that right – judgment. Again, Verses 8-12 say:
“Your hand will find all Your enemies; Your right hand will find those who hate You. You shall make them as a fiery oven in the time of Your anger; the LORD shall swallow them up in His wrath, and the fire shall devour them. Their offspring You shall destroy from the earth, and their descendants from among the sons of men. For they intended evil against You; they devised a plot [which] they are not able [to perform]. Therefore You will make them turn their back; You will make ready [Your arrows] on Your string toward their faces.”
The triumphant victory of the king, CLEARLY comes because of God. God’s victory comes through His judgment of the wicked. The king is victorious because of God’s work to bring justice to the world. Earlier in Psalm 21, the Bible said that the victorious king gains blessing, honor, majesty, and exceeding gladness from God. Sounds good right? Well, the blessing, honor, majesty, and exceeding gladness that the king gets from trusting in the LORD ultimately comes through the conduit of God’s judgments. This is a HUGE point we should understand because it is a constant and consistent truth we see throughout the Bible. This is a fundamental pattern of God’s work with EVERYTHING He does.
Notice that God seeks out His own enemies, and He does so by His “right hand.” Think about this statement in the context of other verses describing the right hand of God.
“Your right hand, O LORD, has become glorious in power; Your right hand, O LORD, has dashed the enemy in pieces.”
“You will show me the path of life; in Your presence [is] fullness of joy; at Your right hand [are] pleasures forevermore.”
“According to Your name, O God, so [is] Your praise to the ends of the earth; Your right hand is full of righteousness.”
“The LORD said to my Lord, ‘Sit at My right hand, till I make Your enemies Your footstool.’”
“The Lord [is] at Your right hand; He shall execute kings in the day of His wrath.”
“So then, after the Lord had spoken to them, He was received up into heaven, and sat down at the right hand of God.”
“For David did not ascend into the heavens, but he says himself: 'The LORD said to my Lord, "Sit at My right hand, till I make Your enemies Your footstool." ' Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.”
The Bible teaches that the power and glory of the Father is administrated into the world by His “right hand,” to judge the people who oppose and rebel against His purposes and promises. The Bible teaches that the fulfillment of God’s promises, to bring pleasure and joy in eternal life, rests in “His right hand.” The very hand that destroys, is the SAME HAND that produces life, pleasure, and joy. Only God can determine, who will be destroyed or saved from destruction, based on how He decides to use His right hand in the lives of each individual. Either way, whatever the LORD wants to do by “His right hand,” it is perfect since His perfect and holy righteousness is shown to us, through His right hand. Whether someone is judged and condemned or is rewarded with eternal pleasure in salvation, God is right on both accounts!
Think about how the Bible personifies God’s right hand. In Psalm 110, David witnessed a conversation between the Father and His “right hand.” The LORD is first called YAHWEH, referring to the Father. Psalm 110:1 then refers to someone David calls, “my Lord,” whom the Father was speaking to. The Hebrew word used to describe David’s Lord is Adonai. YAHWEH was speaking to Adonai. This describes David’s Master – the One that David submitted to as a KING greater than himself. The Bible describes David as a man after God’s own heart, showing that his Adonai, or Master, was God Himself. God spoke to Himself, making certain declarations about His purposes and desires. According to this conversation in Psalm 110, the Father told David’s “Master” to sit at His own “right hand,” until the appointed time of His judgments. The Father spoke to another version of Himself, and described that version of Himself, as His “right hand,” all in the context of judgment.
This is why the right hand of God, is the source of God’s power, wisdom, grace, and judgments. The “right hand of God” refers to God Himself - the specific part of God that physically carries out the purposes of the Father. The testimony of Mark 16:19 explains that the disciples, among others, were eyewitnesses to Jesus’ ascension, and saw Him ascend into heaven, in broad daylight, and then sat at “the right hand” of the Father. This eyewitness account proves that Jesus is the physical manifestation of God, appointed to carry out the Father’s purposes concerning judgment.
How did Jesus’ first coming, deal with judgment? When Jesus came into the world the first time, He judged SIN, by His atoning sacrifice. When Peter preached on the Day of Pentecost in Acts Chapter 2, he explained that Jesus was the fulfillment of Psalm 110. This means that, while Jesus came the first time to judge the Father’s enemy, “sin,” He is CURRENTLY seated at the right hand of the Father, until the appointed time, when He comes back, to judge SINNERS, thereby purging the world of corruption of ALL kinds. That judgment will facilitate the distribution of “pleasures forevermore.” It will last forever, because the world will be without corruption of all kinds, forever!
The things that King David wrote about in Psalm 21 weren’t much different from the things he wrote in Psalm 110. The “right hand” of God searches out the enemies of God, to purge and destroy the things that corrupt His eternal purposes and promises. Jesus is the One that does this work as the Son of God (God in flesh), and as the Messiah of Israel - the Anointed One appointed to fulfill all of the Father’s eternally unconditional promises. This all means that the language of Psalm 21:8-13 speaks about the work that Jesus will do in the future.
Look at the tone of David’s writings, as they relate to the 2nd Coming of Jesus Christ. God will seek out individuals who deny Him, hate Him, and oppose His people. Psalm 21:8-12 sounds a lot like Revelation 19:1-2 where it says…
“After these things I heard a loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, saying, ‘Alleluia! Salvation and glory and honor and power [belong] to the Lord our God! For true and righteous [are] His judgments, because He has judged the great harlot who corrupted the earth with her fornication; and He has avenged on her the blood of His servants [shed] by her.”
These verses from Revelation document the heavenly response to Jesus’ work. The work He does to destroy and judge the spirit of all false religions. According to the Bible, it’s been that issue that has caused so much grief, pain, suffering, and death, for so many of God’s people. These evils have opposed God’s purposes and righteousness for a long time, and Jesus has an appointment to settle this issue.
In Psalm 21, David wrote that God will judge using a “fiery oven” at the appointed time, to swallow up evil in His fiery wrath, so that evil will not have the opportunity and ability to reproduce among His people, ever again. In Revelation 19:17-21 it says…
“Then I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the birds that fly in the midst of heaven, ‘Come and gather together for the supper of the great God, that you may eat the flesh of kings, the flesh of captains, the flesh of mighty men, the flesh of horses and of those who sit on them, and the flesh of all [people], free and slave, both small and great.’ And I saw the beast, the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against Him who sat on the horse and against His army. Then the beast was captured, and with him the false prophet who worked signs in his presence, by which he deceived those who received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped his image. These two were cast alive into the lake of fire burning with brimstone. And the rest were killed with the sword which proceeded from the mouth of Him who sat on the horse. And all the birds were filled with their flesh.”
The testimony of Revelation 19:17-21 describes the events that come directly after the 2nd Coming of Jesus Christ. Jesus will come with the wrath of the LORD God Almighty, to judge EVERYONE that opposes Him, His people, and His purposes. Jesus will utterly destroy them, and cast them into the lake of fire, as the physical manifestation of God’s wrath! The language of Psalm 21:8-13 clearly points to the events surrounding the return of Jesus Christ, at which point the Father will fulfill His promise to purge sin, corruption, and opposition from the midst of His people, by the power of His “right hand.”
Knowing this, we need to carefully think about the final statement David made in Psalm 21, representing the proclamation of the triumphant king:
“Be exalted, O LORD, in Your own strength! We will sing and praise Your power.”
What is the desire of the triumphant king that trusts in the LORD? What is the desire of those who have received the blessing of God? What is the desire of the heart that God fulfills? What is God’s OWN desire?
The scriptures show that the desire of the king’s heart, is the revelation of Jesus Christ, in glory, to administrate the righteousness and justice of God here on Earth. The king desires for the Messiah of Israel, to come into the world, to do the work that God promised to do, to purge sin, death, and evil from this place. The king desires this because God desires this. The Bible makes a compelling case that, God’s chief focus, is the revelation of Jesus Christ as the Son of God and Messiah, in GLORY. Why? Jesus will come again to fulfill perfect righteousness by destroying ALL evil in the world. THIS is how the king triumphs. THIS is how God’s people gain victory. THIS is why the Apostle Paul wrote this to Timothy, in 2 Timothy 4:8:
“Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to me on that Day, and not to me only but also to all who have loved His appearing.”
Psalm 21:3 mentions a crown given to the victorious king, by God. Paul also referred to a crown being given by God. God is the administrator of both these crowns. The crowns are the same. We can look at the words of Paul, to understand the words of David in Psalm 21. Paul wrote that those who “love His appearing,” will receive the crown God wants to give. Remember, that’s the same desire of the victorious king. In 2 Timothy, Paul referred to the 2nd Coming of Jesus Christ. Those who love, and long for the return of Jesus, will receive the crown that’s referred to there. The people who supremely desire to see the Father’s eternally unconditional promises fulfilled through Jesus Christ’s righteous judgments, will share in Jesus’ victory, and receive His rewards. This is the desire of God. This SHOULD BE the desire of God’s people. The more God reveals His righteousness and power to us by the Word, the more our flesh is conformed to His image. Then, we start to want HIS purposes more than our own!
And, THAT’S what the Bible teaches about the One, WE know, as God.
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