Psalm 21 tonight. I want to read
Psalm 21 with you, and then we're just going to go through this
verse by verse. Psalm 21, verse 1. The king shall joy in thy
strength, O Lord, and in thy salvation how greatly shall he
rejoice. So he, the king, joys in the
strength of the Lord, and in his salvation he greatly rejoices. 2. Thou hast given him his heart's
desire, and hast not withholden the request of his lips, Selah. So God answers the prayer of
the king. 3. For thou preventest him with
the blessings of goodness, thou settest a crown of pure gold
on his head, to prevent In the King James Version, it means
to go before, and so God's goodness goes before the king. The goodness
of God goes before him with blessings, and God has set a crown of pure
gold on his head. Verse four, Psalm 21, verse four. He asked life of thee, and thou
gavest it him, even length of days forever and ever. So the
king asked life of God. God, the Lord God, Jehovah God. And God gave it to him, even
eternal life, days forever and ever. Verse five, his glory is
great in thy salvation. Honor and majesty hast thou laid
upon him. The king's glory is great in
God's salvation, and God has bestowed great honor and majesty
upon him because of that salvation. For thou hast made him most blessed
for ever, thou hast made him exceeding glad with thy countenance."
Countenance means the face, the appearance, the way that God
shows himself towards a person. And here in this case, it's the
smile of God upon the king. that has made him most blessed
forever and exceeding glad. Verse seven, for the king trusteth
in the Lord and through the mercy of the most high he shall not
be moved. The king will not be moved. He
won't be ashamed, he won't be disappointed, and he will be
upheld. Need to have someone added on
that. Let's turn the volume just a
little bit. So the king trusts in the Lord, and it's through
the Lord's mercy that he is kept and upheld. Okay. Verse 8. Thine hand shall find out all
thine enemies, thy right hand shall find out those that hate
thee. Now, in verse 8 and what follows and through verse 12,
we see that the psalm is taking a turn against God's enemies
and showing that God will not allow any of the enemies of the
king to go unpunished. He says, Thine hand shall find
out all thine enemies, thy right hand shall find out those that
hate thee. And verse 9, Thou shalt make
them as a fiery oven in the time of thine anger. The Lord shall
swallow them up in his wrath, and the fire shall devour them.
So God's wrath will be against these that are opposed to the
king. Their fruit, meaning their offspring, their fruit shalt
thou destroy from the earth and their seed from among the children
of men. For they intended evil against
thee. They imagined a mischievous device
which they are not able to perform. So they had intentions of doing
evil against the king, but they weren't able to do it because
God obviously prevented them, plus they were not strong enough.
Verse 12, therefore shalt thou make them turn their back when
thou shalt make them ready thine arrows upon thy strings against
the face of them. I'm sorry, it says when thou
shalt make ready thine arrows upon thy strings against the
face of them. So the picture painted by these
words is that God draws back his bow, he puts the arrows on
the strings of his bow, and he aims it at the intentions, the
face of them, the deliberate work and purpose of those who
oppose his son are going to be thwarted. they're gonna be destroyed.
Verse 13 sums up the whole psalm. Be thou exalted, Lord, in thine
own strength, so will we sing and praise thy power. Okay, so
you can see that this psalm is talking about a king and it's
talking about how the king is greatly, he's very glad, he's
joyful and rejoicing in God's strength and in his salvation
in verse one. Well, the Lord Jesus Christ is
the King. So this psalm is about the greatness
and the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ in the salvation of God's
elect. That's what the psalm is about.
Christ, the King, who is successful in the salvation of his elect.
This psalm reveals that Christ's work, saving his people, was
his heart's desire. In verse two it says, Thou hast
given him his heart's desire. Okay, that's the first thing.
He is great and glorious in the salvation of God's elect, and
God has given him his heart's desire, and he has great rejoicing
in God's strength, and in this salvation God has given to him
and with his people. And then it also says in this
Psalm that the work that Christ did and came to do, he trusted
God to help him, to enable him, and to give Him the success and
to reward Him for doing that work. That's what this psalm
is about. Because it was the desire of Christ's own heart,
the work of His life, the obedience of His unto death, all of this
out of his faithfulness in a stoop of great love and grace and humility
and mercy, which is what we read in verses three through five.
Okay, so again, the Lord Jesus Christ is the king and he has
great joy in the strength of his father by his spirit that
was given to him as a man to accomplish the salvation of his
people. His joy is great in God's salvation. That's what it says
in verse five. I'm sorry, it says in the very
beginning, he says, in thy salvation, how greatly shall he rejoice.
The accomplishment of the work of salvation and the favor of
his father. that his father showed to him,
and the people that were given to him by his father, which the
Lord Jesus Christ saved by his precious blood, all of these
things make the Lord Jesus Christ, the King, exceedingly glad. Now think about that. The King
is glad. If you were a subject in the
King's kingdom, and the king was glad, then everything would
be great in the kingdom. And so here the king is exceedingly
glad because he has his heart's desire, which is the salvation
of his people, and that was his great work for which God has
given him great glory. So his joy is great because his
God, who is God over all, his father, gave him a people. And
his joy is also great because God has given him this work to
do, to give himself, this is the work, to give himself, Christ
to give himself, to save his people, that he might have them
as his own inheritance to save them from their sins and to wash
them from their sins. In 1 Corinthians 3, verse 23,
it says, you are Christ's. You belong to the Lord Jesus
Christ. And this is part of the promise
of God in the New Covenant. In Hebrews chapter 8 it says,
I will be to them a God and they shall be to me a people. So God
had promised in covenant that he would have his people as his
own and they are Christ's inheritance. It says in Deuteronomy chapter
32 verse 9, for the Lord's portion is his people. The Lord's portion
is his part, his allotment. God has chosen his people as
his own inheritance. And that's phenomenal to think
about. The same verse, Deuteronomy 32 verse nine says, Jacob is
the lot of his inheritance. And you know that Jacob refers
not only to Jacob who was born to Isaac, but to all those who
are the children of promise. In Romans chapter nine, God uses
Jacob to represent all those who are the children of promise.
They're called the elect of God. They are the ones God loved without
any contribution from them. but from an everlasting, he chose
and loved them. Okay, so the point here is that
the joy that Christ has is great because God gave him this work
to do and we are his inheritance. He takes joy in his inheritance. Now, think about this in scripture. In scripture, at the very beginning
in Genesis chapter two, God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam. And he did that so he could form
the woman. He caused the sleep to fall on
Adam and he took a rib from Adam's side while he was in that sleep. And think about how God made
Eve from that rib that he took from Adam and he brought the
woman that he made from Adam's rib and brought her to Adam to
be his wife." Now, you can imagine what Adam felt and thought when
God brought Eve to him after he awoke from his sleep. He had
no one. There was no one else on the
earth except Adam. He had the animals, he named
them. He had the birds, he had the fish, he had the plants,
and he had the trees, but there was no other person. And when
God made a woman, it wasn't just another person, it was his bone
of his bone, flesh of his flesh. And he prophesied and said, therefore
shall a man leave his father and mother and be joined to his
wife and they too shall be one flesh. Now, all of that was,
according to Ephesians chapter five, that was to portray the
truth of Christ's relationship to his people. As God the Father
caused Adam to fall asleep, and as God the Father created the
woman from Adam's rib, even so God the Father, before the foundation
of the world, set down in his eternal decree and in a covenant
that the Lord Jesus Christ should die to redeem his wife. That was set down. He's the Lamb
slain from the foundation of the world, Revelation 13, 8.
And in 1 Peter 1, verse 20, the precious blood of Christ, Christ's
precious blood, which was Himself given in sacrifice for our sins,
that was ordained before the foundation of the world. In Ephesians
5.25, he says Christ loved the church, which is his wife, his
bride, his people, his own body. He loved them and gave himself
for them. So why did the Lord Jesus Christ
die? in order to have a bride. It
was his inheritance, his people were his inheritance. So think
how the Lord Jesus Christ loved the church and gave himself for
her that he might present her, all of God's people, to himself
as a glorious congregation, a church. that each one of them would be
without spot or wrinkle or any such thing. And think how God
gave those people to his son, the Lord Jesus Christ, as his
own bride, as it says in John 3, when John the Baptist said
that he heard, he stands by as a friend of the bridegroom and
hears the bridegroom's voice and he rejoices. Now, think how
the Lord Jesus Christ loved them and gave himself for them, as
he says in Galatians 2.20, the Apostle Paul said, the Son of
God who loved me and gave himself for me. And considering these
revelations from Scripture, carefully consider now these words and
see the priceless cost that the Lord Jesus Christ gave to have
this people and to redeem them for himself. and see in these
words from the Song of Solomon that this union, remember that's
what Adam said, that the man and the woman would be one flesh,
bone of his bones, his own body. He says the union between Christ
and his people is a union that is formed by this bond of his
everlasting love for them And so in Song of Solomon, chapter
2, verse 16, it expresses all of this in these simple words,
my beloved is mine, this is the church speaking of Christ, my
beloved, the church calls Christ her beloved, my beloved is mine
and I am his. So this is expressing this relationship
of an inheritance It's more than just an inheritance. It's actually
the wife, the people of God, given to the Lord Jesus Christ.
And the point I'm trying to drive home here is that even though
in our experience in this world, men seek after property and they
seek after wealth, wealth and they seek after goods in order
to provide for themselves a nice retirement and an inheritance
for their children. The Lord Jesus Christ, he didn't
view the possession of things, property and wealth and goods
as anything. Instead, he had one desire, which
was his people. That was it. One desire was his
people. In order to save them, he was
happy to redeem them at the cost of his own precious blood, in
order that he might present them to himself as a glorious church
without spot or wrinkle or any such thing. And this was this
great joy that he had. And so it says, Throughout scripture
it talks about the people of God being his inheritance, as
I mentioned from Deuteronomy 32, and the people that are given
to Christ, their inheritance is God and his salvation too
in the Lord Jesus Christ. You are Christ's 1 Corinthians
3.23, you are Christ. You belong to him by purchase
of his blood. And not only do you belong to
him, but he is yours because he has given himself for you. He has given his precious blood
for you. That's a very, very, there's
no stronger relationship between God and people than that. And
that is what the new covenant is all about. Okay, so I say
all that in order to underscore that this gives Christ joy. The
people of God, those that God has given him. It says in verse
one, the king shall joy in thy strength, O Lord, and in thy
salvation, how greatly shall he rejoice. He joys and his rejoicing
is great because God gave him this to do. Give yourself for
your people to save them, to purify them, and to have them
for your own." And there was nothing that delighted him more.
He wanted to glorify his father, to make known his father to his
people, because it was He loved his father. He was his delight
from eternity. He was his delight as man. And he wanted to make his father
known, to declare his father's perfections, his glory to his
people. And so he loved to do that. That was his desire, his
delight. It cost him his life, but he gained them, and he gained
them for himself. And so he greatly rejoices. Now,
in all of this, The Lord Jesus Christ, as a man, required utter
dependence upon God for his strength. He depended upon God in order
to do this great work. And so that's why he says, the
king shall joy in thy strength and in thy salvation, how greatly
shall he rejoice. Salvation was something that
Christ accomplished through trusting God. through submission to his
will, in humility. He humbled himself, being equal
with God, the Son of God, and took on the form of a servant.
He took on the nature of his people. They were partakers of
flesh and blood. He also took part of the same.
And he did this in order that he might taste death for every
one of them and bring them to himself as the captain of their
salvation. Okay? So now he's expressing
this. The king shall join thy strength,
O Lord, and in thy salvation, how greatly shall he rejoice. Verse two. Thou hast given him
his heart's desire, and hast not withholden the request of
his lips. So, what lay in the heart of the Lord Jesus Christ
from eternity? Well, obviously it was the will
of God that God gave him to do. Wasn't it? Thou shalt call his
name Jesus for he shall save his people from their sins. What
was it in God's heart that he designed from eternity? It was
a reconciliation of his people. They were estranged, they had
offended God's justice, and he would give his son in death in
order to make peace with them and his justice, to remove their
offense, their sins from them, to wash them from their sins,
and to make propitiation or satisfaction to his own justice for them.
He obligated himself to do everything he required of them, for them,
and did that by the Lord Jesus Christ. This was the desire that
lay in Christ's heart. Remember in Luke 2 49, Joseph
and Mary asked Jesus when he was 12 years old, where were
you? And Jesus said, when he was at the temple at 12 years
old, don't you know I must be about my father's business? That's
why he came, to save his people from their sins. Christ Jesus
came into the world to save sinners, and that was what his name said,
Jesus, who shall save his people from their sins. He was about
his father's business. Hebrews chapter 10 is a chapter
that says this. He says, I come to do thy will,
O God. That was the work God gave him
to do, to give himself as an offering and a sacrifice to God
for the sins of his people, to offer himself to God in order
to please God. God required him. He was delivered
for our offenses, but he was raised again for our justification.
When God received from him all that Christ did in his life and
death, then he raised him from the dead, exalted him in his
own right hand, and this was the desire that lay in his heart
from eternity. And so, That was why he came
into the world. That's what he accomplished by
his death. He obtained that eternal redemption. He gave his blood to buy for
his people. The ransom price was himself
given in sacrifice. And what a stoop this was of
humility and love and grace of the Lord Jesus Christ for his
people. That is the desire that lay in his heart. Now, if that
was the desire that lay in Christ's heart, Two things. First, that's what he prayed
for and that's what God gave him. He didn't fall short of
obtaining all the desire that was in his heart. And so it says
here, thou has given him his heart's desire and has not withholding
the request of his lips. Jesus said, I know, he spoke
to his father at the resurrection of Lazarus. He says, I know that
you hear me always. And in John chapter eight, verse
29, he says, I always do those things that please my father.
And so, God gave him everything. He will not withhold anything
that he asks, and he sits at the right hand of God asking.
And he sits there at the right hand of God asking, having shed
his precious blood in order to do the will God gave him to do
that was his own heart's desire. It was a voluntary act of love
that he gave himself for those who were the enemies of God.
What love this is, what grace. how worthy he is to receive what
God gives to him. And like I was trying to explain
to my granddaughter this last week, when I was a manager, I
had to give, manage the the wages that the people that
worked for me received, and at one point I had to give a raise,
and I had to give a justification for the raise, the increase that
was given to this person, and the justification that my manager
recommended I write was just simply, It's an appropriate amount. It's appropriate to give him
this raise. And so that was a simple explanation without any substance
to it, but it was just my claim. Yes, this is appropriate. I'm
not making this wage increase suggestion without due consideration. This is appropriate for this
person. And so when God the Father looks upon the sacrifice of His
Son, and He sees what He has done, and He gives to His people
eternal life and eternal glory and everything that He gave to
His Son as our Savior in reward for His obedience when God the
Father gives it to Him. It's an appropriate amount. God
gives it to him with the full vindication of not only his grace
and his love, but also that it was consistent with his justice
and righteousness and truth. This is appropriate. And so that's
the desire Christ had, to give to his people everything that
God had for them because of what he did, and it was appropriate.
and he desired it and God gave him everything he asked for.
Verse 3, Psalm 21, verse 3. For thou preventest him with
the blessings of goodness. Thou settest a crown of pure
gold on his head." Now, the blessings of God were lavished upon the
Lord Jesus Christ. The blessings of his great goodness,
God's great goodness. Think about that. God's goodness
was lavished upon the Lord Jesus Christ. You can see why, can't
you? Because he was worthy. Now these
are, they say, his goodness prevented him. The blessings of his goodness
prevented him. God's goodness to him was committed
to him. It went before because it was
committed to him before he came into the world. He made this
covenant and he committed to give him all the reward of his
sacrifice before he entered into the world. Galatians 3, verse
16 and 19 says that all the promises were made to the seed, to Abraham's
seed. He's the one in whom all the
promises of God are sure, and amen. Now the promises that were
given to him were not given to him by himself, but were given
to him with his people. Remember, the two are one flesh. Christ has a people. They are
one body with him. He is the head. They are the
members of his body. There's no separation here. The
spirit of God dwells in them. They're joined to Christ in electing
love And that's the bond of that union. God's love, from which
nothing can separate us, is the bond of our union to Himself
in His Son, in Christ. And not only are we joined to
God, to Christ, by the bond of that eternal love of God, but
we're also joined to God in the experience of our life by the
Spirit of God when He births us, when He creates us new. when
he raises us from spiritual death and gives us spiritual life with
the Spirit of Christ given to us to come and live in us. Okay? Joined to him, eternally election
by the Spirit of God in time. And then he says that all these
things were done in, he prevented him of this goodness. And so
he says, Here, when I talk about this as being things given to
him beforehand, that these promises were given to Christ, they were
not just given to him by himself, but as Christ with his people. The Lord Jesus Christ joined
to his people in this union of marriage. We call it marriage
because that's the best illustration God has given to us of this union
with Christ. But still, the point here is
that whatever God blessed him with was God's goodness lavished
upon him for him, the king, and for all those in his kingdom. He was the shepherd of them.
The Lord is my shepherd, therefore I shall not want. Everything
God has is given to us in Christ and is given to us without limit. There's no limit to what God
has given to the Lord Jesus Christ. He says he has made him the heir
of all things and we are joint heirs with Jesus Christ as the
sons of God. What more could you want? You're
the sons of God. You've been given everything
that's God's. And so he talks about this being
given to us. The blessings of goodness prevented
him, went before him. It is good that God would crown
his son, isn't it? It's good because he's worthy
and it's good because it seemed good to God to do so. Even before
he came into the world, he looked upon his son, you are worthy.
And when he made himself the redeemer of his people, when
God anointed him for that, appointed him to it, anointed him for it,
and Christ accepted it and engaged his heart to do that, then there
was nothing more pleasing to God than that. He says, thou
art my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. So, it was good
because it seemed good to God, it was good because Christ was
worthy of it, and we are saved by this goodness of God to the
praise of the glory of his grace, of his goodness in our salvation. So it seemed good to God to save
sinners by the sacrifice of His dearly beloved Son when He gave
Himself for our sins, and it seemed good to God, and therefore
it is good, it is glorious, and God only does wonderful things. What an amazing thing this is.
Whatever God does, He determined to do before the world began. And that is the object of his
great will, his great work, is to exalt his son in our salvation. Don't you know it? Let me read
that verse again. Thou preventest him with the
blessings of goodness, and thou settest a crown of pure gold
on his head. If God has set a crown of pure
gold on the head of Christ, now we know it's not a physical crown,
it just means that he has been exalted to the very highest place
given the glory, given glory with the Father, as he says in
John 17, verse 5, as he had before the world was now, not only as
the Son of God, equal with God, but as the Son of Man who has
done the Father's will, made known the Father's glory. God
is glorified in Christ as a man. And it says that all have sinned
and fallen short of the glory of God, not in Christ. He actually
upheld and made known God's glory. But the point here is that God's
purpose was, if God set the crown of pure gold on His head, then
what was God's purpose? It was to set the crown of pure
gold on His head. It was to exalt His Son. That
was His eternal purpose. from the beginning of the world.
And so I love this hymn that John Kent, a man who lived in
the 1700s, he wrote this hymn, it says, Jehovah in counsel resolved
to fulfill the scheme from eternity laid in his will, a scheme too
profound for seraph to pry, and all for the lifting of Jesus
on high. "'Twas not from the creature
salvation took place, the whole was of God. "'To the praise of
His grace and all to His glory shall tend by and by "'to accomplish
the lifting of Jesus on high.' "'His wisdom contrived the adorable
plan, "'grace, mercy and peace and goodwill towards man. "'The
great three in one did the same ratify in covenant all for the
lifting of Jesus on high. Hear all the perfections of deity
shine, love, wisdom, and power, and goodness divine, His justice
and grace received honor thereby, it was all for the lifting of
Jesus on high. When first the great project
to angels was known, they hailed him in songs as the lamb on his
throne. The concave of heaven resounds
with their cry, God, man, mediator. They lift him on high. Creation
proclaims the great work of Thy hand, all beings and things in
the order they stand. Productions of chance they are
led to deny. It was all for the lifting of
Jesus on high. All things for His sake did Jehovah
prepare, for of Him and to Him and through Him they are. All
systems and worlds that revolve in the sky were made for the
lifting of Jesus on high. set up the head of his mystical
frame, he honored the records of fate with his name, and nothing
was wanting which God could supply to aid the lifting, the uplifting
of Jesus on high. Do you hear that? Nothing of
all that is God's power and strength and riches was withheld because
God's purpose was to lift up Jesus on high. When man was created,
what wisdom we see! The whole possessed was the image
of thee, but, oh, in his fall we are led to espy that it was
all for the lifting of Jesus on high. So man's fall was also
for Christ's exaltation. When Adam to eat of the fruit
was inclined, it answered the inn which Jehovah designed. No
purpose or wisdom was altered thereby. It was all for the lifting
of Jesus on high. Here, Satan was nonplussed. In other words, he was embarrassed
and thrown into disorder by the defeat of Christ. He was nonplussed. Here, Satan was nonplussed in
what he had done. The fall wrought the channel
where mercy should run. You see that? Adam's fall cut
the groove into which God's mercy would flow. In streams of salvation
which never run dry, and all for the lifting of Jesus on high. From hence it appears he made
nothing in vain, for Adam thus formed was a link in the chain. In him it was decreed that his
members should die, but all for the lifting of Jesus on high.
The man that betrayed him, which we know is Judas, prediction
foretold the pieces of silver for which he was sold to prove
his salvation. The world we defy, he fell for
the lifting of Jesus on high. We defy this world. that even
the betrayal of Christ was according to God's own purpose to exalt
His Son. Verse 14, verse of this hymn,
the law that was given on Sinai of old was still the great mercy
and love to unfold, which did in the womb of eternity lie,
and all for the lifting of Jesus on high. Even the law, everything
God's law required for righteousness, everything God's law required
for sacrifice, was fulfilled in Christ. He's the end of the
law for righteousness. In fullness of time, He came
under the law. Its jots and its tittles, He
answered, we know. And stretching His arms, did
on Calvary die to accomplish His lifting to glory on high. He slept in the tomb till the
morning arose that signed his release and confounded his foes. Then, bursting its bars, he ascended
the sky to reign in his glory eternal on high. Now, I read
that I realize it's a long hymn, but it's one of my favorites.
I love this hymn because it keeps repeating this phrase, it's all
for the lifting of Jesus on high, and that's what the next verse
in Psalm 21 in verse five says. His glory is great in thy salvation,
honor and glory. and majesty hast thou laid upon
him." Actually, I skipped over verse four. I'll go back to that
in a second here. Not only did God put a crown of pure gold
on his head, but it emphasizes it here again that God has laid
on him honor and majesty because of his glory in this salvation. Isn't that what Hebrews 1.3 says?
It says, when he had by himself purged our sins, he sat down
on the right hand of the majesty on high. There you have it. It's
all for the lifting of Jesus on high. Now, let's go back to
verse four here, Psalm 21, verse four. It says, He asked life
of thee, and thou gavest it him, even length of days forevermore. So, God the Father has given
to his son the gift of eternal life that he, Christ, might give
eternal life to his people. Let me read this to you from
John, the book of John, the gospel of John, John 17, verse 2. It
says, Jesus in his prayer there says, thou hast given him power
over all flesh, God the Father has given to the Son power over
all flesh for this purpose, that He should give eternal life to
as many as thou hast given Him. So here in Psalm 21, verse 4,
He asked life of thee, and thou gavest it Him even length of
days forever and ever. God has given eternal life to
his Son that he might give eternal life to his people. That's what
this verse in John 17, 2 is saying. Now, Christ, when we use the
word or the title Christ, this is the office to which the Son
of God was chosen. He was chosen to be the Christ,
the anointed of God. He is the son of God, but the
office of Christ required him to become the son of man in order
to fulfill that office. He's the prophet, he's the priest,
and he's the king over his people. And so Christ is the office of
the one who is both son of God and son of man. And you can read
this throughout scripture. I'm not going to go to the references.
If you want them, they're in the notes. As son of man, the
Lord Jesus Christ asked life from his father. Okay, looking
at Psalm 21 verse four, he asked life of thee, as the son of man,
Jesus Christ asked life from his father. Remember what he
said in John 11, 25 and 26, when he spoke to Martha, he said,
I am, what? The resurrection and the life,
remember? And he said this, In John chapter
10, when he was talking about himself as the great shepherd,
he says, the thief cometh not but for to steal and to kill
and to destroy. I am come, this is why I am come,
that they might have life and that they might have it more
abundantly. I am the good shepherd, the good
shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. So he's the resurrection
and the life, and he came to give life more abundantly. He's
the good shepherd, the good shepherd gives his life for the sheep.
And then in John chapter 10, verse 17, he says, therefore
doth my father love me, notice these words, because I lay down
my life that I might take it again. Well, taking life again
is to raise himself from the dead, isn't it? He raised his
body from the dead. Jesus Christ, the one who is
the life and resurrection, raised himself from the dead. But in
order for him to raise his people from the dead, he himself had
to lay his life down. He had to die. And he gave them
life, and life more abundantly, because he laid his life down.
He gave his life for the sheep and took it again. Now he gives
that life, that's the life that he asked his father for, he gives
that life to his people. So Christ had to become man. As man, he had to lay his life
down. As the son of God, he raised
himself. up again. No man takes my life
from me. I lay it down of myself and I
take it again." He says, I have power to lay it down and I have
power to take it again. This commandment have I received
of my Father. God the Father gave him this
will to do, to lay his life down, that he might raise himself and
raise his people with him. That's how he is the resurrection
and the life for his people. He couldn't be the resurrection
for his people unless he laid his life down as the good shepherd
for them. And so, again, back to Psalm 21.4, he says, he asked
life of thee. Keep all these things in your
thinking here. So God raised him from the dead,
but it was he himself also. So the resurrection of Christ
is attributed not only to Christ, but to God the Father and the
Spirit of God. It says in Romans 8.11, the Spirit
of him that raised up Jesus from the dead. Therefore, as man,
Christ asked life of his God and Father, And he asked life
both for himself as man, when he was about to die, that he
might be raised to life again, as it says in John chapter 10,
we just read that. And his father granted him that
life again from the dead, and he asked that life for his people. In John 17, verse 24, it says,
Father, I will that they also whom thou hast given me be with
me where I am. Where is he? He's raised from
the dead, ascended, and sat down on the right hand of God, and
now he asks his Father, I want them to be with me, which requires
them also to be raised, and them also to be seated with him. And
he says, I want this, that they might be with me where I am and
that they might behold my glory which thou has given me because
you loved me before the foundation of the world. So he asked life
from his father for his people that they might live both spiritually
and live eternally. And I'll let you think on that,
the word spiritually there, because that's what it means when in
Ephesians 2 it says that we were dead in trespasses and sins,
but God who is rich in mercy for his great love wherewith
he loved us has quickened us together with Christ. We were
raised with him. So his prayer for his own life
and the life of his people was in accord with the eternal will
of his father. Remember in John chapter six,
He said this, let me turn to that, I don't have it written
down, so let me turn to that. He said, John chapter 6, And verse 37,
all that the Father giveth me shall come to me, and him that
cometh to me I will in no wise cast out, for I am come down
from heaven not to do my own will, but the will of him that
sent me. There's a humility and obedience
and submission and delight of the Lord Jesus Christ. And this
is the will, this is the Father's will, which hath sent me that
of all which he hath given me i should lose nothing but notice
i should raise it up again at the last day and this is the
will of him that sent me that everyone which seeth the sun
and believeth on him may have everlasting life and i will raise
him up at the last day he asked life of thee for himself because
he had come under the obligation to God's law for our sins. He was cursed, which says in
Galatians 3.13, Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law
being made a curse for us. He died the just for the unjust
to bring us to God. Christ died for our sins according
to the scriptures. He was delivered for our offenses
and was raised again for our justification. So he asked life
of thee because the will of God the Father was that he should
raise his people from the dead and the way he could do that
is that he would first lay down his life and then raising himself
they would be raised with him and they would be brought according
to his prayer in John 17 24 to be with him where he is to see
his glory because he wanted them there and that's that was the
purpose that God had for him that was his desire and God has
given him that life that he asked what a blessing this is that
if Christ As man asked life, then he asked for this life for
his people. Not only for himself, but for
his people. For those who come to him, as
he says in John 6, 37, none of which he casts out, all those
given to him by the Father, all of them shall be raised up at
the last day. And if Christ asked life for
himself, then he can sympathize with us, when we are made hungry
and thirsty for the very life we need from Him. Remember what
Jesus told the woman at the well? If you knew the gift of God and
who it is that says to you, give me to drink, you would have asked
Him And He would have given you living water. That's the same
thing. As Christ asked life for Himself
and for His people, so His people come to Christ and ask Him to
give them the water of life. He's the gift of God. He gives
the gift of His own life, Christ, in you, the hope of glory that
we might live. Okay? So now we see all these
things in Psalm 21 and verse six. For thou has made him most
blessed forever. Thou has made him exceeding glad
with thy countenance. God the Father has smiled on
his son for all that he did and has blessed him. Read Revelation
chapter five. You'll see the blessing and honor
and glory and wisdom and power, everything given to the Lamb.
And then he says here in verse seven, for the king trusteth
in the Lord, and through the mercy of the Most High, he shall
not be moved. Now this is an amazing thing.
The Lord Jesus Christ trusted in the Lord. the Lord. He's the
king and yet he trusted. A king has power, but the Lord
Jesus Christ as king is not presumptuous. He's not proud. He, as a man,
trusted God. Now, this is seen throughout
this psalm and it's seen throughout all the psalms. One of the things that we find
in the Psalms as we've been reading through the Psalms, like even
last week when we read Psalm 20 and this Psalm now and the
Psalms that preceded this one, is that the Lord Jesus Christ
came under such a position as a man to his father and to his
God that he needed God to save him. He needed God to show him
mercy. And remember last week I mentioned
that in Hebrews chapter 5. It says, in the days of his flesh
when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong
crying and tears unto him who was able to save him from death. There's salvation, there's the
prayer, and there's what he prayed for is to be saved from death.
And so the Lord Jesus Christ as a man came under, he committed
himself to the will of God and he placed himself in the hand
and at the mercy of God because he acted as our champion. How did he overcome death? By submitting himself to do God's
will. How did he defeat his enemies?
By answering what God required from us as men, as women. as
people. He fulfilled what God required
from us. He did everything to God and
God as God in vengeance upon his enemies and in justification
of his people, he directed his justice and his judgment and
his power against our enemies, which are sin, Satan, death,
hell, the grave, this present evil world, all of our enemies.
that hold us and keep us and make a barrier between us and
God. Christ defeated them all by fulfilling God's will in obedience
of love and humility and self-sacrifice for the people who made themselves
the enemies of God. Now, that great obedience of
His is mentioned here in verse seven, for the king trusteth
in the Lord, and through the mercy of the Most High, he shall
not be moved. Remember Jesus said, if someone
hears my words and does them, he'll be like a house built on
a rock. When the storm comes, it won't be shaken. His house
shall stand. But if a man hears my words and
does not do them, he's like the man who built his house on sand.
When the storm comes, it's gonna wash it away. And to do the words
of Christ is to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. When Christ
is the foundation of our life, our salvation, then we cannot
be disappointed. We shall not be put to shame.
And so the Lord Jesus Christ here, as a man, he himself trusted
in the Lord, and through the mercy of the Most High, he was
not moved. God would not let him be shaken
nor any of those for whom he died. He gave him all that he
desired. He rewarded him with blessings
and with life and with honor. All these things were given to
him because of what he did for God. And he did this according
to the will of God. It was God's will. He didn't,
well, let me just stop right there. Let me go on to verse
eight. Oh, before I leave verse 7, through the mercy of the Most
High. Notice here, in, remember Lamentations chapter 3, it says,
it is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, because
His compassions fail not. They are new every morning, great
is thy faithfulness." Here we see that the mercies of God towards
us are because the king trusted in the Lord, okay? And he placed
himself in the hand at the mercy of God so that when God gave
him mercy, he would give mercy to him with his people. And it's
because of God's faithfulness. It's because His mercies do not
fail that we are given the salvation Christ earned for us. It's both
a reward of justice and righteousness and truth, but it's also the
mercy of God lavished upon us that He would give His Son and
He would give us everything through Him. Okay. Verse 8, Thine hand
shall find out all thine enemies, thy right hand shall find out
those that hate thee. Thou shalt make them as a fiery
oven in the time of thine anger. The Lord shall swallow them up
in his wrath, and the fire shall devour them. Their fruit thou
shalt destroy from the earth, and their seed from among the
children of men. For they intended evil against
thee, they imagined a mischievous device. which they are not able
to perform. Therefore shalt thou make them
turn their back, when thou shalt make ready thine arrows upon
thy strings against the face of them." So here, all those
who oppose Christ, and all those who follow those who oppose Christ,
are made the object of God's wrath. Do you see that? When
it says here in verse 10, their fruit thou shalt destroy from
the earth, he's not talking about their physical offspring. He's
talking about their spiritual children, those who follow them.
Remember, Jesus had disciples and they were called his children.
But the Pharisees also had disciples, and Jesus referred to their disciples
as their children. When the Pharisees accused Jesus
of casting out devils by Beelzebub, the prince of the devils, Jesus
said, If I cast out devils by the prince of the devils, then
by whom do your sons cast them out? therefore they shall be
your judges. So, he's speaking here of those
who, as the followers of the Pharisees, prove themselves to
be the sons or the children of the Pharisees. Just like those
who follow Christ prove themselves to be the disciples of Christ,
the children of Christ, the children God gave him to save. And so
now, we see here that those who hold to the false gospels, the
false religions of this world, are those who God is going to
destroy, because they oppose the King. They oppose His salvation. They refuse to submit themselves
to the righteousness of God, which Christ is. He's the end
of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. But
the Jews, and all who follow them in self-righteous unbelief,
oppose their own salvation, and they oppose the salvation of
those Christ came to save. In 1 Thessalonians chapter 2,
he talks about this, how that the Jews, they not only crucified
Christ, but they also tried to, let me just read it to you in
1 Thessalonians chapter 2, real quick here. He says, in chapter
two, he says, who both killed the Lord Jesus and their own
prophets and have persecuted us, and they please not God,
and they are contrary to all men, forbidding us to speak to
the Gentiles that they might be saved, to fill up their sins
always, for the wrath is come upon them to the uttermost. That's what this is talking about
here in Psalm 21. The wrath of God is poured out on those who
oppose Christ and his salvation of his sheep because they oppose
the will of God, they oppose all justice and righteousness
and truth, all grace and mercy, they hate mercy, they hate God's
justice, they promote their own righteousness above God's own
righteousness, which is the death and the obedience of Christ in
his death. Amazing, isn't it? God directs
His arrows at them. He pulls back the string of His
bow, and aims their arrow, and lets the arrow fly, and He will
be to them a consuming fire, as it says in Hebrews 12. Our God is a consuming fire.
But notice in verse 13 of Psalm 21, Be thou exalted, Lord, in
thine own strength, so will we sing and praise thy power. Here
we have the conclusion of the whole matter. God is going to
be exalted. His strength will utterly defeat
our enemies, and His strength He will enable and make successful
all of the work of Christ to save to the uttermost all the
people God gave Him to save, all those He came to save, and
for whom he now intercedes at the right hand of God. God is
going to be exalted. Christ is going to be exalted
at his right hand. And this will be the demonstration
of God's own strength. Nothing can oppose his will.
Nothing can separate us from the love of God, which is in
Christ Jesus our Lord. And nothing is more certain than
that God will be exalted in all things. and the will and the
desire and the prayer of the Lord Jesus Christ, our King,
who first descended in humiliation, but then, bearing the curse and
taking away our sins, was exalted according to the will of God.
He himself is saying, be thou exalted, Lord, in thine own strength,
so will we sing and praise thy power. Not only did we praise
our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, as man and God, but we praise
God, our Father, because it was His will and His work, His power,
that accomplished His word in our salvation. What a Savior.
What a salvation. Truly, as it says in verse five
of Psalm 21, His glory is great in thy salvation. Let's pray.
Lord, thank you for your word. We know it's true from the beginning.
Every one of your judgments will endure forever. Nothing that
you have said will fall, will fail. Everyone for whom you sent
your son to die, you gave him to save, you will save. It will
be by your strength and by your power, according to your holy
will, and you will make known your glory in the exaltation
of your son. When we see him, we will see
you. When we see Him, we will see all of God in all of His
perfections, in His glory, of His wisdom and grace and mercy
and power and justice and righteousness and truth and His faithfulness.
His mercies fail not. Lord, we pray that we might join
in this psalm and see the exaltation of our Savior as a worthy exaltation. He received what was appropriate. And because He gave Himself for
us, then we receive what's appropriate, because it was for His sake,
it's all given to us, and we are saved. We pray, Lord, that
You would exalt Your Son according to Your eternal will, because
He's worthy, and save us from our sins, bring us to Yourself,
make us to know Yourself in Christ, and bring us to the Lord Jesus
Christ, where He is according to His prayer, and according
to the delight of His heart, and Your eternal will. For His
sake we pray, amen.