Psalm 21:1
1 To the chief Musician, [natsach] A Psalm [mizmowr] of David.
[David]
The king [melek] shall joy [samach] in thy strength, [`oz] O
LORD; [Yahovah] and in thy salvation [yashuw`ah] how greatly [ma`od] shall
he rejoice [giyl]! KJV-Interlinear
For the
choir director. A Psalm of David.
1 O
Lord, in Thy strength the king will be glad, And in Thy salvation how greatly
he will rejoice! NASB
Music comes from
musicians, and generally refers to the grace of God which plays throughout
history regardless of what circumstances exist at any point in time in
history. God is the author and provider
of grace. Grace is His divine policy. Grace is Gods divine favor toward man.
As in many psalms, this
psalm begins with the recognition of God and grace, the chief Musician, one who
is eminent, or chief over all that provides the song of life for all.
The previous psalm, which
we just finished studying, was the petition for victory, and now we have here
the thanks within this psalm, for that victory.
Strength, ‘oz,’ means
force, security, might, power.
Salvation, ‘yashuwah,’ is
a passive term meaning something saved, delivered, rescued as in health or
welfare. Salvation is not the one time
saving from sin and the instance of eternal life by means of faith, but here it
is the ongoing and repetitive rescue from the many battles that occur during
any given war or wars.
David fought in many wars
and was delivered and saved in all of them.
As for you and me, we all
face the battles of the angelic conflict and we face many wars of attitude and
temptation and so forth, daily, throughout our individual lives.
And while we probably
take most of the daily activities for granted, we are in fact delivered
continually from problems that we both know about, and especially from problems
that we will never know about.
In an active battle,
there are arrows and bullets flying all over the place and you would never know
or even see the bullet that has you name on it.
It is the same in life.
This is the devils world,
and your bullet could come with a slip in the bath tub, or on the highway in
traffic, or by way of bad food. Your bullet
could come at the hand of gossips, or those who would malign you. Your bullet could come from seemingly
reasonable philosophies that would carry you away from truth. And there is no shortage of temptations and
enticements and rationales out there.
If you were able to step
outside of yourself and look at your entire life from a higher vantage point,
and see the many saves that have been made in your behalf, then you would most
likely think a bit deeper and be more grateful for all that God has done for
you.
And that is where this
verse begins.
David has been on the battle
field. He has seen the graphic and
brutal fighting up close and personal that occurs on a battle field. He has experienced the adrenalin and fear of not
knowing if or when he might fall himself, and when it is over, he now expresses
his joy for his own personal deliverance and for his army and for his nation
and so forth.
Sometimes we all have to
face the grim reaper, or some really tough situation, before we can really
understand the closeness of some major disaster that would really ruin our day,
if not more.
And here David gives
thanks to God, for Gods strength, not Davids, for Gods deliverance, not Davids
ability to elude disaster, for Gods role in perpetuating Davids life for
another day, not Davids effort of self-preservation.
No matter who or what you
are, you are not self-made, not self-preserving, not self-perpetuating. Your entire life depends on Gods grace and
nothing else.
This does not excuse you
from being prepared and responsible, where being unprepared and being
irresponsible can certainly hurry many more disasters upon you. Never tempt fate.
