“The
king shall have joy in Your strength, O LORD; And in Your salvation how greatly
shall he rejoice! You have given him his heart's desire, And have not withheld
the request of his lips. Selah
For
You meet him with the blessings of goodness; You set a crown of pure gold upon
his head. He asked life from You, and You gave it to him-- Length of days
forever and ever. His glory is great in Your salvation; Honor and majesty You
have placed upon him. For You have made him most blessed forever; You have made
him exceedingly glad with Your presence. For the king trusts in the LORD, And
through the mercy of the Most High he shall not be moved.”
I
am so thankful for all my friends and everyone who takes the time to be a part
of these Pastor Chats each day. I do trust that the Lord is using them to
encourage you, and helping you to begin your day with seeking Him, and to enjoy
a “quiet time” of devotion from the Word.
I know I’ve said it before, but as I prepare and do these chats, I am
learning so much more myself from the Bible that my heart is blessed and strengthened.
So
again, thank you so much from the depths of my heart!
The
Book of Psalms is the largest book in the Bible with 150 chapters. The longest
chapters in the Bible are found in this book. We know that David wrote at least
75 of the Psalms. We will find that
there is a tremendous amount of repetition of prayers, praises and petitions in
the Psalms. You will soon feel like you are reading the same thing over and
over again, and you are! There must be a
reason the Holy Spirit inspired the writers to repeat the same prayers and
praise so often. The obvious reason is
that we need to be reminded to both pray for help, and praise the Lord as He
responds to our prayers and gives us victory and deliverance!
I
read at least 5 Psalms every day. I have
read through the Psalms numerous times out loud with my staff at all three
churches I have pastored. I have read
through the Psalm numerous times in my every Saturday morning men’s prayer
meetings over the past 35 years. I
remember that when I taught the Bible classes in our Christian schools, in both
Winchester Virginia and Holland Michigan, that I had the students read 5 Psalms
out loud with me. The Psalms never grow old and seem to be as fresh and
encouraging as if I’ve never read them before!
What an amazing Book!!!!
I
said all that because I’m afraid you might start thinking, “Goodness, Pastor
Mike has already said that before!” And
no doubt, I’m sure I did. But I think we
will both be blessed as we hear it again and again over these next several months,
as it is my intention to read the entire book aloud with you on these chats
before we are through with this study on Psalms.
Psalm
21 is a sequel to Psalm 20. These two
Psalms go together. Both were written by
David as we learn from the inscription and title. Psalm 20 is a prayer before the battle. Psalm
21 is a praise after the battle. David
and his people had prayed for specific blessings and God had granted them. The
hymn opens and closes with praise for God's strength granted to His king and
the army (vv. 1, 13). Answered prayer should always be acknowledged by fervent
praise.
In
this wonderful praise hymn we will see:
In
verses 1-7, David and the people look back over past victories and deliverance
and celebrate with praise.
In
verses 8-12, David and his people look ahead and anticipate future victories.
And
In verse 13, they look up and exalt the Lord for His strength and power!
May
God give us the grace to always acknowledge Him for His daily blessings in our
lives!
God
bless!
