12 For you will make them turn their back, When you aim drawn bows at their face.
If a man doesn't relent, he will sharpen his sword; He has bent and strung his bow. He has also prepared for himself the instruments of death. He makes ready his flaming arrows.
You have also made my enemies turn their backs to me, That I might cut off those who hate me.
I was at ease, and he broke me apart. Yes, he has taken me by the neck, and dashed me to pieces. He has also set me up for his target. His archers surround me. He splits my kidneys apart, and does not spare. He pours out my gall on the ground.
When my enemies turn back, They stumble and perish in your presence.
You make us turn back from the adversary. Those who hate us take spoil for themselves.
Then my enemies shall turn back in the day that I call. I know this, that God is for me.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Psalms 21
Commentary on Psalms 21 Matthew Henry Commentary
Psalm 21
As the foregoing psalm was a prayer for the king that God would protect and prosper him, so this is a thanksgiving for the success God had blessed him with. Those whom we have prayed for we ought to give thanks for, and particularly for kings, in whose prosperity we share. They are here taught,
In this there is an eye to Messiah the Prince, and the glory of his kingdom; for to him divers passages in this psalm are more applicable than to David himself.
To the chief musician. A psalm of David.
Psa 21:1-6
David here speaks for himself in the first place, professing that his joy was in God's strength and in his salvation, and not in the strength or success of his armies. He also directs his subjects herein to rejoice with him, and to give God all the glory of the victories he had obtained; and all with an eye to Christ, of whose triumphs over the powers of darkness David's victories were but shadows.
In singing this we should rejoice in his joy and triumph in his exaltation.
Psa 21:7-13
The psalmist, having taught his people to look back with joy and praise on what God had done for him and them, here teaches them to look forward with faith, and hope, and prayer, upon what God would further do for them: The king rejoices in God (v. 1), and therefore we will be thankful; the king trusteth in God (v. 7), therefore will we be encouraged. The joy and confidence of Christ our King is the ground of all our joy and confidence.