Psalm 21

Praise for Help.

To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David.

1  O Lord the king will delight in Your strength,

And in Your salvation how greatly will he rejoice!

2  You have given him his heart’s desire,

And You have not withheld the request of his lips.

Selah.

3  For You meet him with blessings of good things;

You set a crown of pure gold on his head.

4  He asked life of You,

And You gave it to him,

Long life forever and evermore.

5  His glory is great because of Your victory;

Splendor and majesty You bestow upon him.

6  For You make him most blessed [and a blessing] forever;

You make him joyful with the joy of Your presence. [Gen 12:2]

7  ¶For the king [confidently] trusts in the Lord,

And through the lovingkindness (faithfulness, goodness) of the Most High he will never be shaken.

8  Your hand will reach out and defeat all your enemies;

Your right hand will reach those who hate you.

9  You will make them as [if in] a blazing oven in the time of your anger;

The Lord will swallow them up in His wrath,

And the fire will devour them.

10  Their offspring You will destroy from the earth,

And their descendants from the sons of men.

11  For they planned evil against You;

They devised a [malevolent] plot

And they will not succeed.

12  For You will make them turn their backs [in defeat];

You will aim Your bowstring [of divine justice] at their faces.

13  Be exalted, Lord, in Your strength;

We will sing and praise Your power.

11  And if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead lives in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit, who lives in you. 

18  And [I pray] that the eyes of your heart [the very center and core of your being] may be enlightened [flooded with light by the Holy Spirit], so that you will know and cherish the hope [the divine guarantee, the confident expectation] to which He has called you, the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints (God’s people),  19  and [so that you will begin to know] what the immeasurable and unlimited and surpassing greatness of His [active, spiritual] power is in us who believe. These are in accordance with the working of His mighty strength   20  which He produced in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His own right hand in the heavenly places,  21  far above all rule and authority and power and dominion [whether angelic or human], and [far above] every name that is named [above every title that can be conferred], not only in this age and world but also in the one to come. 

10  Am I now trying to win the favor and approval of men, or of God? Or am I seeking to please someone? If I were still trying to be popular with men, I would not be a bond-servant of Christ. 

26  Then God said, “Let Us (Father, Son, Holy Spirit) make man in Our image, according to Our likeness [not physical, but a spiritual personality and moral likeness]; and let them have complete authority over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, the cattle, and over the entire earth, and over everything that creeps and crawls on the earth.” [Ps 104:30; Heb 1:2; 11:3]   27  So God created man in His own image, in the image and likeness of God He created him; male and female He created them. [Col 3:9, 10; James 3:8, 9]       28   And God blessed them [granting them certain authority] and said to them, “Be fruitful, multiply, and fill the earth, and subjugate it [putting it under your power]; and rule over (dominate) the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, and every living thing that moves upon the earth.”  29  So God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the surface of the entire earth, and every tree which has fruit yielding seed; it shall be food for you; 30  and to all the animals on the earth and to every bird of the air and to everything that moves on the ground—to everything in which there is the breath of life—I have given every green plant for food”; and it was so [because He commanded it].  

God Uses Cyrus

1  This is what the Lord says to His anointed, to Cyrus [king of Persia],

Whose right hand I have held

To subdue nations before him,

And I will ungird the loins of kings [disarming them];

To open doors before him so that gates will not be shut:

2  “I will go before you and level the mountains;

I will shatter the doors of bronze and cut through the bars of iron.

3  “I will give you the treasures of darkness [the hoarded treasures]

And the hidden riches of secret places,

So that you may know that it is I,

The Lord, the God of Israel, who calls you (Cyrus the Great) by your name.

4  “For the sake of Jacob My servant,

And of Israel My chosen,

I have also called you by your name;

I have given you an honorable name

Though you have not known Me.

5  “I am the Lord, and there is no one else;

There is no God except Me.

I will embrace and arm you, though you have not known Me,

6  That people may know from the rising to the setting of the sun [the world over]

That there is no one except Me.

I am the Lord, and there is no other,

7  The One forming light and creating darkness,

Causing peace and creating disaster;

I am the Lord who does all these things.

God’s Supreme Power

8  “Rain down, O heavens, from above,

Let the clouds pour down righteousness [all the blessings of God];

Let the earth open up, let salvation bear fruit,

And righteousness spring up with it;

I, the Lord, have created it.

9  “Woe (judgment is coming) to him who quarrels with his Maker—

A [worthless] piece of broken pottery among other broken pieces [equally worthless]!

Shall the clay say to the potter, ‘What are you doing?’

Or does the thing say, ‘He has no hands’? [Rom 9:20]

10  “Woe (judgment is coming) to him who says to a father, ‘What are you fathering?’

Or to a woman, ‘With what are you in labor?’ ”

11  For the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, and its Maker says this,

“Ask Me about the things to come concerning My sons,

And give Me orders concerning the work of My hands.

12  “I made the earth and created man upon it.

My hands, stretched out the heavens,

And I commanded all their host.

13  “I have stirred up Cyrus and put him into action in righteousness [to accomplish My purpose]

And I will make all his ways smooth;

He will build My city and let My exiles go,

Without any payment or reward,” says the Lord of hosts.

14  For this is what the Lord says,

“The products of Egypt and the merchandise of Cush (ancient Ethiopia)

And the Sabeans, men of stature,

Will come over to you and they will be yours;

They will walk behind you, in chains [of subjection to you] they will come over,

And they will bow down before you;

They will make supplication to you, [humbly and earnestly] saying,

‘Most certainly God is with you, and there is no other,

No other God [besides Him].’ ” [1 Cor 14:25]

15  Truly, You are a God who hides Himself,

O God of Israel, Savior!

16  They will be put to shame and also humiliated, all of them;

They who make idols will go away together in humiliation.

17  Israel has been saved by the Lord

With an everlasting salvation;

You will not be put to shame or humiliated

for all eternity. [Heb 5:9]

18  For the Lord, who created the heavens (He is God, who formed the earth and made it; He established it and did not create it to be a wasteland, but formed it to be inhabited) says this,

“I am the Lord, and there is no one else.

19  “I have not spoken in secret,

In a corner of a land of darkness;

I did not say to the descendants of Jacob,

‘Seek Me in vain [with no benefit for yourselves].’

I, the Lord, speak righteousness [the truth—trustworthy, a straightforward correlation between deeds and words],

Declaring things that are upright. [John 18:20]

20  “Assemble yourselves and come;

Come together, you survivors of the nations!

They are ignorant,

Who carry around their wooden idols [in religious processions or into battle]

And keep on praying to a god that cannot save them.

21  “Declare and present your defense of idols;

Indeed, let them consult together.

Who announced this [rise of Cyrus and his conquests] long before it happened?

Who declared it long ago?

Was it not I, the Lord?

And there is no other God besides Me,

A [consistently and uncompromisingly] just and righteous God and a Savior;

There is none except Me.

22  “Turn to Me and be saved, all the ends of the earth;

For I am God, and there is no other.

23  “I have sworn [an oath] by Myself,

The word is gone out of My mouth in righteousness

And shall not return,

That to Me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear [allegiance]. [Rom 14:11; Phil 2:10, 11; Heb 6:13]

24  “It shall be said of Me, ‘Only in the Lord are righteousness and strength.’

To Him people will come,

And all who were angry at Him will be put to shame. [1 Cor 1:30, 31]

25  “In the Lord all the offspring of Israel

Will be justified (declared free of guilt) and will glory [in God].”

19  Listen carefully: I have given you authority [that you now possess] to tread on serpents and scorpions, and [the ability to exercise authority] over all the power of the enemy (Satan); and nothing will [in any way] harm you.  

11  For I know the plans and thoughts that I have for you,’ says the Lord, ‘plans for peace and well-being and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.  

26  But the Helper (Comforter, Advocate, Intercessor—Counselor, Strengthener, Standby), the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name [in My place, to represent Me and act on My behalf], He will teach you all things. And He will help you remember everything that I have told you. [Matt 5:7, 13, 24, 25; Luke 24:49; John 14:16; Acts 1:4]