Psalm 21 Continued…
Is Psalm 21 a coronation Psalm?
While it cannot be proved beyond question that some of the psalms were written to be sung at the coronation of Israel’s kings, some even for the occasion when the king was recrowned on the anniversary of his coronation, we shall assume that that is possible in the case of this psalm. With that in view, let’s note the following issues arising from the psalm:
The king himself is not worshipped, as he was, say, in Egypt. The king rejoices in the strength of the Lord, not in his own strength. God has been gracious to the king throughout the past year and has answered his prayers. This is what Solomon discovered. (See 1 Kiings 3:11).
God had responded to his deepest needs, and fulfilled his inner most longings, and brought good even out of his stained behavior in the past. God had gone ahead of him with goodly blessings. The king, as a human being, is traveling down the road of life in the one direction all of us must go, from birth to death. But now God has reached down out of eternity and has met him coming from the other direction, so to speak.
The king does not crown himself. It is the Lord who is King, not he. On the other hand, the king is head of all Israel. He sums up all the people in himself. In this way, then, ordinary people learned that the Lord God is also King of Israel, and even more so! He asked for life, as we all do, and got love as well! He asked for human life and received immortal life (See 2 Samuel 7:15).
God had now illuminated his life with something of His own glory, just as He had done before to Moses (Exodus 34:29, 35). Actually the splendor of the royal buildings and of the temple was a gift from God in all His splendor.
But above all, his great reward was God’s personal presence in his life (v. 6). There are those today who suppose that one has to go out and search for faith—even go off to India and set at the feet of a guru in order to find salvation for one’s soul. David would have been puzzled at such unbelief. God, he knew had chosen and called this king, and had promised to make him most blessed forever. So all that the king had to do was simply accept the miracle with joy: “For the king trusts in the Lord.”
From all this and the fact that the king was the king and head of Israel, all Israel was thus being reminded that they two had been chosen, and that God was making them most blessed forever; for they two “trusted in the Lord.” To answer the original question. It may very well be the case that this was a coronation psalm.
PRAY
Father, there is no other God but You. You who made the earth and created man upon it. You are the God who created the heavens and stretched them out. Nothing is too difficult for You. You are the Almighty One and my heart takes courage. I proclaim your Lordship over my life and my family.