Psalms 21:3

_FOR THOU PREVENTEST HIM WITH THE BLESSINGS OF GOODNESS: THOU SETTEST A CROWN OF PURE GOLD ON HIS HEAD._ Thou preventest - surprisest him with blessings even exceeding his request (cf. 2 Samuel 7:18). SETTEST A CROWN. God's promise of the everlasting continuance of the kingdom to David's seed was in David's eyes a crowning of him anew, with a crown of preciousness far exceeding all the glory which he already enjoyed. He was not only an "Abimelech," or King's father, as distinguished from an elective monarchy, but father of a royal and everlasting seed....

3._For thou wilt prevent him. _The change of the tense in the verbs does not break the connection of the discourse; and, therefore, I have, without hesitation, translated this sentence into the future tense, as we know that the changing of one tense into another is quite common in Hebrew. Those who limit this psalm to the last victory which David gained over foreign nations, and who suppose that the crown of which mention is here made was the crown of the king of the Ammonites, of which we have an account in sacred history, give, in my judgment, too low a view of what the Holy Spirit has here dictated concerning the perpetual prosperity of this kingdom. David, I have no doubt, comprehended his successors even to Christ, and intended to celebrate the continual course of the grace of God in maintaining his kingdom through successive ages. It was not of one man that it had been said, “I wil...

1-6 Happy the people whose king makes God's strength his confidence, and God's salvation his joy; who is pleased with all the advancements of God kingdom, and trusts God to support him in all he does for the service of it. All our blessings are blessings of goodness, and are owing, not to any merit of ours, but only to God's goodness. But when God's blessings come sooner, and prove richer than we imagine; when they are given before we prayed for them, before we were ready for them, nay, when we feared the contrary; then it may be truly said that he prevented, or went before us, with them. Nothing indeed prevented, or went before Christ, but to mankind never was any favour more preventing than our redemption by Christ. Thou hast made him to be a universal, everlasting blessing to the world, in whom the families of the earth are, and shall be blessed; and so thou hast made him exceeding g...

Verse Psalms 21:3. _THOU PREVENTEST HIM_] To _prevent_, from _praevenio_, literally signifies _to go before_. Hence that prayer in the _communion service_ of our public Liturgy, "_Prevent_ us, O Lord, in all our doings, with thy most gracious favour!" That is, "_Go_ _before us_ in thy mercy, make our way plain, and enable us to perform what is right in thy sight!" And this sense of _prevent_ is a literal version of the original word תקדמנו _tekademennu_. "For thou shalt go before him with the blessings of goodness." Our ancestors used _God before_ in this sense. So in Henry V.'s speech to the French herald previously to the battle of _Agincourt_: - "Go therefore; tell thy master, here I am. My ransom is this frail and worthless trunk

FOR THOU PREVENTEST HIM - Thou goest before him; thou dost anticipate him. See Psalms 17:13, margin. Our word “prevent” is now most commonly used in the sense of “hinder, stop, or intercept.” This is not the original meaning of the English word; and the word is never used in this sense in the Bible. The English word, when our translation was made, meant to “go before,” to “anticipate,” and this is the uniform meaning of it in our English version, as it is the meaning of the original. See the notes at Job 3:12. Compare Psalms 59:10; Psalms 79:8;...

EXPOSITION Psalms 21:1 is generally regarded as a companion composition to Psalms 20:1, being the thanksgiving after the victory for which the preceding psalm was the supplication. It consists of three parts: (1) a direct thanksgiving to God, offered by the people on behalf of the king (Psalms 20:1); (2) an address to the king, auguring for him future successes on the ground of his recent victory (Psa 20:8 -12); and (3) a brief return to direct praise of God in two short ejaculatory sentences. Part 1 is interrupted by a pause ("Selah" ) at the end of Psalms 20:2

FOR THOU PREVENTEST HIM WITH THE BLESSINGS OF GOODNESS,.... Not temporal, but spiritual blessings, which spring from the grace and goodness of God, and consist of it; and relate to the spiritual and eternal welfare of those for whose sake he receives them, and who are blessed with them in him: his being "prevented" with them denotes the freeness of the donation of them; that before he could well ask for them, or before he had done requesting them, they were given him; and also the earliness of the gift of them, they were put into his hands before his incarnation, before he was manifest in the flesh, even from the foundation of the world, and before the world began, Ephesians 1:3 2 Timothy 1:9, and likewise the order in which they were given; first to Christ, and then to his people in him, as the passages re

Psalms 21:1. _The king shall joy in thy strength, O LORD; and in thy salvation how greatly shall he rejoice! Thou hast given him his heart's desire, and hast not withholden the request of his lips. Selah._ God gave to Jesus the strength needed to accomplish the work which he came to do, and he is daily giving him to see of the travail of his soul that he may be satisfied. Psalms 21:3. _For thou preventest him with the blessings of goodness:_ They go before him, like scouts or forerunners. Wherever Jesus comes, the blessings of goodness fly before him to the sons of men. Psalms 21:3. _Thou settest a crown of pure gold on his head._ Let us crown him afresh ton

Psalms 21 The King's Glory Anticipated and Contemplated _ 1. The King's power, glory and salvation (Psalms 21:1)_ 2. His victory over the enemies (Psalms 21:7) Psalms 21:1. This is another Messianic Psalm in anticipation of the glory of the King. The prayers He offered up are all answered. (See Psalms 20:4) He shares the strength of Jehovah as the Risen and Exalted One. The desire of His heart is fulfilled, as it will be when the kingly crown of pure gold is set upon His head, the head which was once crowned with thorns. He had gone down

XXI. A THANKSGIVING FOR ROYAL VICTORY. The indications of date are the same as in Psalms 20, though the tone is less religious. PSALMS 21:4_ B_. For the hyperbole _cf._ 1 Kings 1:31; Psalms 61:7 f. Psalms 21:6. in thy presence: the king dwelt hard by the Temple. Psalms 21:9. Read, perhaps, Thou as a furnace shalt destroy them, like a fire at the time when thou appearest....