What a joy it is, dear friends, to be with all of you again on this Lord's Day to celebrate the grace and the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. I thank you again, the pastors, the session of the church, for this very gracious invitation to be with you all again on this Lord's Day. The word of the Lord for this evening comes from Psalm 21. It's a relatively short psalm of 13 verses. I'll be reading the entire psalm. Psalm 21. O Lord, in your strength the king rejoices, and in your salvation how greatly he exalts. You have given him his heart's desire, and have not withheld the request of his lips. For you meet him with great riches. You set a crown of fine gold upon his head. He asked life of you, you gave it to him, length of days forever and ever. His glory is great through your salvation, splendor and majesty you bestow on him. For you make him most blessed forever, you make him glad with the joy of your presence. For the king trusts in the Lord, and through the steadfast love of the Most High he shall not be moved. Your hand will find out all your enemies. Your right hand will find out those who hate you. You will make them as a blazing oven when you appear. The Lord will swallow them up in his wrath, and fire will consume them. You will destroy their descendants from the earth and their offspring from among the children of man. Though they plan evil against you, though they devise mischief, they will not succeed, for you will put them to flight. You will aim at their faces with your bows. Be exalted, O Lord, in your strength. We will sing and praise your power. That's the reading of the word of God. Let's turn to the Lord briefly in a word of prayer. Ask for him to bless us as we meditate upon his word this evening. Let's pray together. Our gracious God, we come before you and we thank you for Jesus Christ. We thank you, Lord, for our blessed savior, the great victorious king that this song celebrates, the triumph that he accomplished on his death, his resurrection that we share in as well. As we meditate upon these words, we pray, Father, that this will be a continual blessing to our hearts, nourishment to our souls, a life into our very spirits. Hear our prayers, dear God, and bless us through your word as we meditate upon these truths. Hear us, dear God, for we pray all these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Last week, dear friends, this is one of these rare opportunities I get to share the word of God back to back with you folks. Sorry, as my wife wanted me to say, too bad for you. Last week I shared a few thoughts from Psalm 20. As I suggested that Psalm 20 may have been sort of the rallying cry of the Israelite people, perhaps their armies, as they were preparing for war. Psalm 21 now is sort of the after effects. The war has been fought, the war has been won. The battle has been fought, the battle has been won. Now, this is sort of the victory chant on this great day of victory, of vindication. It is what they are uttering to the Lord now afterwards. I shared a little bit of how we saw similar things with the recent Olympics team sports as they kind of rallied together before their activities. I was watching some of these events with my wife. She really wanted to watch them live, which meant we're staying up past midnight watching these things on TV. I must confess, folks, I just can't stay up that late. So I'm assuming that whatever team won their victories, they had some of a team chant afterwards to kind of cheer themselves on for the victory and the triumph that they just accomplished. Psalm 21 is something like that. As we meditate on this psalm again, we can contemplate here a king who went out to battle, was victorious, and now the people of God, the king and perhaps his victorious army together are offering up this song, this victory chant, this song of praise for the victory that the Lord has now given to them. And that is what I'd like to share my thoughts here today with you on is this. So the main message of today's thoughts here on Psalm 21 is this. There is only victory for us in Christ, and that is in our own spiritual warfare. That's it, folks. Nice one simple message. There is victory for us only in Christ. The application that I hope that you'll gain from this is to rejoice in that victory that has been given to us so graciously by Jesus. The Psalm here, unlike Psalm 20, which is not quite a prayer as it is sort of a dialogue, a word of blessing that the people of God are giving to the king, that the king is responding to his own people. Psalm 21 actually is a prayer. It is a word that is lifted up completely to the Lord. And it's divided up into three sections. And those are the three points I'd like to share with you today. Verses one through seven is a blessing that the Lord bestows upon the king himself. That is the blessings of victory, of salvation to the king. As a result of the king's victory, and we may often forget this, means the defeat of his enemies. And you read about that in verses eight through 12. And then finally, just a simple word of blessing in verse 13. And those are the three things I'd like to share with you today. Blessing on the king, verses one through seven. Judgment and defeat of the enemies, in verses eight through 12. And then a final blessing here in verse 13. Now, The blessing on the king here in verses one through seven begins with this word of blessing to the Lord for the strength that he bestows upon the king. Notice what it says here. O Lord, in your strength, the king rejoices. In your salvation, how greatly he exalts. Notice the king is victorious. The battle has been fought, the battle has been won, and he is victorious. Now, how is he victorious? It's not because of more horses or armies or more advanced weapons of war or anything like this. He is victorious here because of the strength of the Lord. It is in the Lord's strength that he is victorious. It says it is in the Lord's salvation that he is victorious. It's an interesting use of the word salvation here. In the context of the psalm, salvation here must mean some type of a military victory. In fact, that's how oftentimes the word salvation is used in the Psalms and the Prophets and in the Old Testament to a great extent. And in fact, in many ways, our own salvation that we hold to can be looked at in a very similar way. We are saved, that is, we are victorious because the accomplished work of Christ on the cross. He gives us victory, you see. He gives us salvation, you see. And that is what is being mentioned here. The salvation of the king is his military victory, and it's because the Lord is the one who gave him the strength to be triumphant over his adversaries. His only success is because the Lord is the one who is victorious and strong, and because the Lord is victorious and strong, he can rejoice. He can rejoice, and then in his rejoicing, he exalts the Lord. internal experience of joy that is based on a theological reality of the Lord in his triumph for him. Verse 2 then goes on to describe how the Lord gave this king all of his desires. May the Lord send you help. Sorry, wrong song. You have given him his heart's desire and have not withheld the request of his lips. Notice how his heart's desire is not something that he kept internally to himself. It is something that he offered up to the Lord, the request of his lips. That is the prayers that he offered up to the Lord. He prayed, and God answered. Sometimes life really is just that simple. We pray, and the Lord will hear our prayers, and he will answer them. This is very similar to what we read about in Psalm 20 in verse 4. May he grant you your heart's desire and fulfill all of your plans. The desire of the king was victory. He offered that up to the Lord in prayer, and the Lord was pleased to grant that request to him. It goes on in verse three to describe this even further. For you meet him with great blessings. You set a crown of fine gold upon his head. Notice how it describes here how it is the Lord, it is God who is the one that goes out to meet the king. The picture that you have here really is the picture of a military processional as they are now victorious in war, They are returning back now to their own city, and they are marching in now in a victory parade, and they are walking in through the city to the triumphal triumph and the praise of the people as they are exalting this army and praising them for their military victory. We actually see very similar things like this in our modern day today within athletic competitions. When the Nationals won the World Series not too long ago, I must confess, I don't remember. Was there a parade through DC? Yes, there was, thank God, there was. Otherwise, this illiteracy is not gonna work. There was a parading of the team through D.C. where the people are gathering together to praise this team for their victory. This, folks, is based on a military model that you see built in here, that you have a military army that is victorious. They are entering back into their city, triumphant to the praise and the accolades of the people. What's interesting here in verse three is that The Lord, God, is not waiting for the king to return to the city. God is going out to meet the king as he is about to enter into the city. It's actually not too different than what we have in the image of the prodigal son in Luke chapter 15, that imagery of the father running out to meet the prodigal, not waiting for the prodigal to come to him. Here it is, the Lord. It is God who is pictured as the one who is going to this triumphal king, crowning him with this crown of victory, this gold emblem of his victory. It's a fantastic picture here of the Lord going out to greet the king. Verse four then goes on to continue. He asks, life of you, you gave it to him, length of days forever and ever. In verse two, it mentioned the prayer of the king. What did this king pray for? Well, he prayed for victory. He prayed for life, and that is exactly what the Lord gives to him. He asked life of you, and you gave it to him. But notice how this verse goes on to say something even greater. Not just life, but length of days. A long life. The Lord does not just grant him simple life, but he gives him a long life. Verse 5 goes on to describe this kind of life that the Lord blesses him with. His glory is great through your salvation. Splendor and majesty you bestow on him. This is a life filled with glory, a life filled with majesty, a life that is filled with splendor, with salvation. Notice all of this parading of litany of majestic thoughts here. Splendor, glory, majesty, salvation, praise, all of this is given to this king because of the work of the Lord in blessing him with this victory. Verse six then goes on to say even more. For you make him most blessed forever. You make him glad with the joy of your presence. Like in verse three, here is another exclamation of exaltation. God made the king blessed forever. He blessed him with splendor. He blessed him with majesty. He blessed him with victory. He blessed him with honor. All of this great parading of terms that we read about previously, but notice the greatest blessing that he gives to him here is mentioned in verse six. You make him glad with the joy of your presence. You see, what good is victory? What good is splendor? What good is glory if it is not enjoyed and relished in the divine presence of God? You see, the real blessing that this king experiences, the real joy that is given to him, is to be able to be in communion with God. And that is what makes him joyous. That is what makes him happy here in verse 6. This is part of the reason why, folks, I love the method of biblical theology, this idea that we are seeing the history of salvation progressing from the Old Testament, from the very beginnings of the book of Genesis, until we see its accomplishment in the work of salvation, in the coming of the full consummated kingdom of God in the book of Revelation. There is a great narrative in Scripture that the Scriptures defines and describes This is a constant reminder here for us always that the greatest goal that we have as well is very similar to what we have here in verse 6. It is ultimately our communion with God. It is that bond, that perfect fellowship of bond that we have with the Lord and how we will be in pure fellowship with him here at the coming of his kingdom. This is the reason why I'm so admirable and so appreciate the work of biblical theologians like Gerhardus Voss. I'm sure you've come across that name in this congregation. that is constantly pushing us towards that end, to constantly see the goal of our salvation, the goal of the history of salvation, where we can be in communion with God, in pure fellowship and bond with the Lord. You see, that is our joy. That is the glory here that the king is rejoicing in, not just in his military victory, not just in his prowess, but the fact that he is glad with the joy of salvation, the joy of victory in the divine presence of God. Verse 7 goes on to say even further, The king trusts in the Lord, and through the steadfast love of the Most High, he shall not be moved. The king trusts in the Lord, and because he trusts in the Lord, notice the stability that is given to him. He is not shaken. He is not weak. There is foundation here. There is stability to his life. His stability here is not due to anything within his own powers, anything within his own might, anything that has to deal with him at all. His stability is due to the covenant faithfulness of God. The Lord then, for that reason, is both the object of the king's trust and the foundation of the king's trust as well. And because he trusts in the Lord, he is able to rejoice in his salvation. He is able to rejoice in the divine presence of God with absolute foundation and stability. Just a great seven verses here that describes the joy, the blessing that is given to this triumphal king, all because of the blessings of the Lord. Verses 8 through 12, though, gives a very different picture. It doesn't give the picture of this Israelite king's triumph and victory. It describes the defeat of his enemies. Since the Lord is the one who is fighting for this king, here what you find is now is the opposite, you could say, of the king. It is now destruction. It is now judgment of his enemies. Notice what it says there, starting at verse 8. Your hand will find out all your enemies. Your right hand will find out those who hate you. The hand of God here will come down upon the enemies, upon those who hate him. Notice how it says that the hand of God will find his enemies. It's as if the enemies of the king, knowing that they've been defeated, having to now suffer through that devastation of loss, and now are scattering, and they are trying to now hide from the Lord. But they can't, because the hand of God will find them. Here it refers to the hand of God that will seek them out no matter where they go to try to hide, to seek out, and to exact vengeance and justice that is of God against them. This might be similar to what we read in Psalm 20 in verse 6 that mentions how God will save the king with the might of his right hand, here the hand of God that will find his enemies, perhaps a reference here to the right hand of Psalm 20 in verse 6. Therefore, a reference to the authority of God, the power of God that would be exercised against his enemies. Verse 9 goes on to describe further this wrath of God that will be poured out against his enemies. He will make them, verse 9 says, as a blazing oven when you appear. The Lord will swallow them up in his wrath and fire will consume them. Notice all of this fire imagery and furnace imagery that you have here representing the wrath of God, the anger of God that will burn against the enemies of God who dare to challenge His authority, who have enough audacity to stand before His sovereign authority and sovereign power. This is a very common theme that you will find in the Old Testament and even in the New. that makes references to fire imagery here that will consume the enemies of God for their challenging and rebellion against the Lord. And you find that here in verse nine as well. Verse 10 goes on to say even further, you will destroy their descendants from the earth and their offspring from among the children of men. It is not enough to just simply destroy the enemies alone. That legacy of rebellion, that legacy of ungodliness must also come to an end. And that is what you read about here in verse 10. It goes on to say even further in verse 11, though they plan evil against you, though they devise mischief, they will not succeed. The enemies of God had planned, schemed, devised wickedness and demise. and destruction against this king of the Lord, against the Lord himself. But they fail. How do they fail? You read that later in verse 12. For you will put them to flight. You will aim at their faces with your bows. It's a little tricky what verse 12 is trying to say here, but it seems to suggest that what is happening is that the enemies of God are firing bows at the king. And what the Lord is taking is taking those bows, those arrows, and turning that against them, firing it back at them, at their death, their presence, and using their own weapons to defeat them. And thus you have here the judgment, the defeat, the destruction of the wicked who dare to challenge the Lord, who dare to challenge the anointed servant of God. As we read about here, the blessing of the Lord to the earthly king in verses one through seven, the defeat of his enemies in verses eight through 12, you have this final blessing here in verse 13. Be exalted, O Lord, in your strength. We will sing and praise your power. Notice the God-centeredness of this praise. The king is the one who received the blessing, the glory, the honors, the splendor, the majesty, all of that. The king is the one who receives all these blessings because the Lord is the one who is working. And because the king is the one who receives these blessings of the Lord, so do the people who receive this blessing because of the triumph and the victory of the king. Therefore, the Lord is the one who vindicates the king, and the people. Therefore, the Lord is the one who is the object of praise here in verse 13. Be exalted, O Lord, in your strength. We will sing and praise about your power. And thus we have the ending of Psalm 13. What a great psalm, really, as you read this and meditate on this, and as I've had a chance to meditate on it, just filled with great images, as these psalms are, great images of blessing, of triumph, all because of the divine blessing of God. In fact, it's such a fantastic psalm This psalm here, Psalm 21, has been commonly used at the Feast of the Ascension of Christ that is very commonly celebrated in the Catholic and Anglican Church traditions. And perhaps you could see why a psalm like this could be used in these festival ritual gatherings that celebrates the triumph, the victory of Christ, his death, his resurrection, his ascension, his ascension at the Father. This is a great psalm to really celebrate that victory of Christ. and how the church shares in that victory as well. It is interesting how universal the psalm is, not just this psalm, but really all of the psalms. Notice how there is no specified enemy, there is no particular situation, there is no specific battle in mind here. It is sort of a broad universal application that allows for the psalm to be used in almost in a number of multiple different situations and scenarios. For that reason, this is a psalm that can be very properly and very beautifully applied as almost prophetic, as being anticipatory of the triumph of Christ. He is that great King. He is the one that receives blessing and honor and majesty and and victory and triumph over his enemies. And for that reason, although it's uncertain whether Psalm 21 here is actually cited in the New Testament, you could see how it properly can be applied to Jesus Christ, a great psalm. but a very sobering one as well. There is joy here, there is victory, there is triumph in verses one through seven, but there is also destruction, and something we ought not to ignore and forget. There is wrath, and you read about that in a large portion here in verses eight through 12. In fact, half of the psalm almost, you could say, is dedicated to the theme of the vindication of God, that is his wrath, his judgment that is to be served against the wicked. For that reason, verses 8 to 12 might be a little intimidating, a bit frightening, as it describes the wrath and judgment that is going to be poured against the enemies of God who dare to challenge God. This fire imagery of the judgment of God, we even read about a little bit this evening in our New Testament reading in 2 Thessalonians 1, that described the wrath of God in these fiery type of terms. In fact, this imagery of fiery images of condemnation, of wrath, is not isolated just to 2 Thessalonians 1, but it is also found in other places in the New Testament as well. This is a constant reminder, folks, as we meditate on these truths, that when we discuss the wrath of God, the judgment of God, some truths that we need to be reminded of. First, we must remember, no one gets away with anything. It may look like it, but the divine justice of God is always going to be satisfied. My daughter recently was out in California because a dear friend of hers was tragically killed in an auto accident, not because of any mistake of her part, but because of a drunk driver. And she was telling me how in the court, the family of this drunk driver was mocking the family for the loss of their child. I guess the drunk driver came from a fairly wealthy background. hired lawyers to be able to get him out of this scenario. Honestly, I'm not a lawyer, folks. I have no idea how in the world that they're gonna pull this off. But this idea that she and her community of friends out there struggled with, this idea that someone so malicious and wicked could actually get away with something like this, bothered her to no end. I just reminded her with the simple truth. No one gets away with anything. divine wrath of God will be satisfied. For that reason, it perhaps should lead us to another reminder here, to pray. for our loved ones and friends that may not know the Lord. Because we know the faith that is going to, whether they acknowledge it or not, doesn't matter. We know the ultimate truth that may await them if they stand in continual unbelief, in divine challenge to the sovereignty and the authority of God in their lives. Perhaps a constant reminder for us to pray for them. I have one non-believing sister, folks. I pray for her all the time. I have non-believing friends and family members. Perhaps this is a constant reminder, if you have not done so in a while, to remember them. Some of our children may have friends in our neighborhoods who are not Christians. To pray for them and ask for the Lord's divine blessing, perhaps to use us as a tool of the gospel to share the hope that we have that they don't. and to share that good news with them. And perhaps a third and final reminder, folks, verses eight through 12, you will never experience. You will never know. I won't know it, and you won't know it as well. We'll never know the, you know, we read about it in the scripture, but we'll never experience it. You'll never have to experience the wrath of God and the judgment of God upon you. The reason why is because of our Lord Jesus Christ. not because we earned it, not because we merited it, not because we were triumphant or victorious on our own merits, all because of Christ, who took upon himself the wrath of God in our stead, so that we may experience and accept and share in his victory. The reason why we can never have to repeat verses 8 through 12 and always rejoice and sing in verses 1 through 7 is not because of us, it is because of Christ. And we give thanks to the Lord, you could say, that he granted us the gift of faith to be able to say that we can triumph it, not because of our merits, but because of Christ. In fact, what we can say is that 8 through 12 on our own should have been our experience. We should know justly the divine wrath of God. You see, it always confuses me in our day how we live in a day where people are in constant demand of justice. whether it is racial or judicial. We live in a day where people are demanding justice at all costs. And I think we forget, or perhaps people forget, the Lord demands it as well. complete and utter and total justice. And on our own, we all fail, without a doubt. But praise be to God, in the very words of J. Gresham Machen, the founder of our denomination, praise be to God for the active obedience of Jesus Christ. for it is in his obedience that he gives to us, so that when the Lord looks upon us, he doesn't see our failings, our condemnation, our sins, our depravity. What he sees is the righteousness of Christ, and on that basis, on that grounds, he declares us just, you see. In the language here of Psalm 21, what we should have received is utter victory. We, on our own, outside of Christ, we were the enemies of God. And we are the ones who should have experienced divine wrath, verses 8 through 12. But in Christ, we don't. Christ, who took upon himself the wrath of God, gave to us now his victory, so that all we sing in verses one through seven. Victory, triumph, splendor, majesty. Those blessings, folks, those are ours. not because of us, but because of the blessing and the richness and the blessings and the grace of our Savior, Jesus Christ. Praise God for Christ, the true man of Psalm 21. Praise be to God for Jesus Christ who gives us that victory as well. Let's pray together, folks, and thank the Lord for that. Our gracious God and heavenly Father, we come before you this morning We thank you, dear Lord, for this psalm. That is a constant reminder of the blessings that we receive in Jesus. Lord, on our own, outside of Christ, Lord, we were objects of wrath. But because of your grace, because of your mercy, we are in Christ. And in Christ, we have been transformed from being objects of wrath to objects of your divine favor, objects to be loved, your children. And in Christ, Lord, we are also triumphant and victorious. Thank you, dear God, for Jesus. Thank you for the victory and the joy of salvation that you give to us in Jesus Christ. I pray, Father, that this truth will be a good reminder for all of us as we begin this coming week. to rejoice in the salvation, the victory that you have given to us in Jesus Christ, that we may be bold to share this word of triumph and victory, Lord, to all those that are around us, to encourage fellow believers if they are discouraged, to share this good word of hope to those who don't know you, that they may come to rejoice and share in that goodness with all of us, dear God, in Jesus Christ. Hear our prayers, dear Lord. Bless us that we may continually rejoice together. Hear us, dear Lord, for we pray all these things in Jesus' name. Amen.