Joy in Salvation

Psalms 21:1-13
To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David.

1 The king shall have joy in Your strength, O LORD;
And in Your salvation how greatly shall he rejoice!
2 You have given him his heart's desire,
And have not withheld the request of his lips.

Selah

3 For You meet him with the blessings of goodness;
You set a crown of pure gold upon his head.
4 He asked life from You, and You gave it to him—
Length of days forever and ever.

5 His glory is great in Your salvation;
Honor and majesty You have placed upon him.
6 For You have made him most blessed forever;
You have made him exceedingly glad with Your presence.
7 For the king trusts in the LORD,
And through the mercy of the Most High he shall not be moved.

8 Your hand will find all Your enemies;
Your right hand will find those who hate You.
9 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.
10 Their offspring You shall destroy from the earth,
And their descendants from among the sons of men.

11 For they intended evil against You;
They devised a plot which they are not able to perform.
12 Therefore You will make them turn their back;
You will make ready Your arrows on Your string toward their faces.

13 Be exalted, O LORD, in Your own strength!
We will sing and praise Your power.

How the psalmist expressed the joy he found in the salvation of the LORD, His deliverance from the enemies surrounding the king!  He was weak and leaned on God’s strength for his joy, knowing that strength in his own weakness was deliverance by His mighty hand of goodness towards him.  What God gave to satisfy his heart was not the material gifts of whatever he wanted to possess, not even his health, bit the wealth of his salvation of life in the LORD.  The requests of his lips were given as the goodness of God which crowned him in honor and love, a life lengthened to enable David to serve his Lord for many more days, not just to live for this life alone.  That is something to stop and consider.  Selah.  Like the psalmist, we should have our exceedingly great joy in our deliverance from the power of sin and the eternal consequences of suffering as in a fiery oven with all God’s enemies who do not give Him glory or submit to His mercy and grace demonstrated in Christ Jesus our Lord.  He gives us honor and majesty as His children, most undeserved and which is an eternal blessing by His undeserved favor!  This is what made the king most glad in God’s sight, being in His presence.  Therefore, he trusted in God alone and was founded securely on His mercy to remain unmovable; his house was founded on the Rock.  As is ours.  Those opposed to the LORD, who hate Christ, unfortunately will be brought under the hand of eternal judgment (Hebrews 10:27, 31) and burn forever in His indignation and wrath (Romans 2:4-9) in the lake of fire (Revelation 20:14-15).  This should cause us to rejoice on one hand for their rebellion, but also give us sorrow and pity that they hated our Lord and did not repent to believe God’s work to deliver them from such a horrendous end.  If not for the grace of God to open the eyes of our hearts and ears to hear the gospel, we would meet the same end.  We all once lived in such rebellion, but as Romans 11:30 reveals, we have received mercy in such great grace.  Those continuing to disbelieve and disobey as His enemies (and therefore ours as well) will plot vainly against Him as they did with Jesus His Son, the Anointed of the sovereign Lord over all.  David knew this plotting was vain and led only to their defeat, just as we know the end of such more clearly with the continued unfolding of scripture since then.  We can agree to rejoice in our deliverance and exalt our God for His strength and power in our own salvation with thankful humility as we bear witness of the gospel that others might believe and receive God’s work in Christ (John 1:12, 6:29) to have the same joy in not meeting the terrible consequences we all deserve.  May we share our joy of salvation that others may also!