Psalm 21 Devotional.

1 David in the person of the people praiseth God for the victory, attributing it to God, and not to the strength of man. Wherein the holy Ghost directeth the faithful to Christ, who is the perfection of this kingdom.

To him that excelleth. A Psalm of David.

1 The king shall joy in thy strength, O Lord; yea how greatly shall he rejoice in thy salvation!

2 Thou hast given him his heart’s desire, and hast not denied him the request of his lips. Selah.

3 For thou preventest him with blessings of goodness: thou settest a crown of pure gold on his head.

4 He asked life of thee, and thou gavest it him, even length of days for ever and ever.

5 His glory is great in thy salvation: honour and majesty hast thou laid upon him.

6 For thou hast made him most blessed for ever: thou hast made him exceeding glad with thy countenance.

7 For the king trusteth in the Lord, and through the mercy of the most High he shall not be moved.

8 Thine hand shall find out all thine enemies: thy right hand shall find out those that hate thee.

9 Thou shalt make them as a fiery oven in the time of thine anger: the Lord shall destroy them in his wrath, and the fire shall devour them.

10 Their fruit shalt thou destroy from the earth, and their seed from among the children of men.

11 For they intended evil against thee: they imagined mischief, but they shall not prevail.

12 Therefore shalt thou make them turn their back, and the strings of thy bow shalt thou make ready against their faces.

13 Be thou exalted, Lord, in thy strength: so will we sing and praise thy power.

We saw previously the main import of this Psalm, even that it is the result of David’s victories and his worship of God in response. And as this is repeated again and again in scripture, so the conclusion is that we must praise God again and again for His wonderful works towards us. Has the fountain of God’s mercy been stopped? Has He not renewed His grace to us day after day by granting us free access into His presence, the blood of Christ to wash away our sins, and the gift of the Holy Spirit which teaches us how to apply the same to our lives? Yes, verily, and therefore, as His mercies are new every morning, so let our praise be. Let us praise Him with the rising of the sun, even as if we were risen from the dead and given but one day to do Him service. Let us praise Him throughout the day as He gives us strength and ability to fulfill our calling, and let us praise Him at night for keeping us in His love when the sun of this world has set on us, yet He has not forgotten His mercy towards us. Therefore let us learn from David to praise God for His wonderful acts of kindness, in providing us with our daily meat, and those things in this life we lawfully enjoy. We should also note that the proper composition of the soul for praise is joy. Therefore David says, “The king shall joy in thy strength, O Lord; yea how greatly shall he rejoice in thy salvation!” For praise is not the result of a dry and cold countenance of one who is either upset or apathetic towards God, but rather it is the issuing forth of words meet for God’s glory out of a joyful spirit which is well established in understanding. Therefore as we study the word, let us study so that we might joy in God’s presence, for this is the fruit of the Spirit. The Spirit of God does not dwell in a drooping, careless, indolent soul, but that which is lively and active in God’s service and praise. Even as God hath blessed us with infinite blessings of grace and knowledge and a sincere willingness to obey Him, so let us remember His wonderful works towards us, and give Him thanks for it, in joyful adoration, for God is well pleased with a joyful heart, and it is only right that a soul so blessed by the King, should rejoice in Him for the same. It is atheistical ungratefulness to deny this to Him as His rightful due.
So let us remember, let us praise, and let us evermore say with David, “thou hast made him most blessed for ever: thou hast made him exceeding glad with thy countenance.”

Henry,
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. 1. They here congratulate the king on his joys and concur with him in them (Psalms 21:1): “The king rejoices, he is accustomed to rejoice in thy strength, and so are we; what pleases the king pleases us,” 2 Samuel 3:36. Happy the people the character of whose king it is that he makes God’s strength his confidence and God’s salvation his joy, that is pleased with all the advancements of God’s kingdom and trusts God to bear him out in all he does for the service of it. Our Lord Jesus, in his great undertaking, relied upon help from heaven, and pleased himself with the prospect of that great salvation which he was thereby to work out. 2. They gave God all the praise of those things which were the matter of their king’s rejoicing.

Watson,|
Let us prove our godliness by gratefulness: “Give unto the Lord the glory due unto his name” (Psalm 29:2). 1. It is a good thing to be thankful. “It is good to sing praises unto our God” (Psalm 147:1). It is bad when the tongue (that organ of praise) is out of tune and jars by murmuring and discontent. But it is a good thing to be thankful. It is good, because this is all the creature can do to lift up God’s name; and it is good because it tends to make us good. The more thankful we are, the more holy. While we pay this tribute of praise, our stock of grace increases. In other debts, the more we pay, the less we have; but the more we pay this debt of thankfulness, the more grace we have. 2. Thankfulness is the rent we owe to God. “Kings of the earth, and all people; let them praise the name of the Lord” (Psalm 148:11,13), Praise is the tribute or custom to be paid into the King of heaven’s treasury. Surely while God renews our lease, we must renew our rent. 3. The great cause we have to be thankful. It is a principle grafted in nature—to be thankful for mercies received. Even the heathen praised Jupiter for their victories. What full clusters of mercies hang on us when we go to enumerate God’s mercies! We must, with David, confess ourselves to be bewildered: “Many, O Lord my God, are your wonderful works which you have done, they cannot be reckoned up in order” (Psalm 40:5). And as God’s mercies are past numbering, so they are past measuring. David takes the longest measuring line he could get. He measures from earth to the clouds, no, above the clouds—yet this measure would not reach the heights of God’s mercies: “Your mercy is great above the heavens” (Psalm 108:4). Oh, how God has enriched us with his silver showers! A whole constellation of mercies has shone in our hemisphere. (1) What temporal favors we have received! Every day we see a new tide of mercy coming in. The wings of mercy have covered us; the breast of mercy has fed us: “the God who fed me all my life long unto this day” (Gen. 48:15). What snares laid for us have been broken! What fears have blown over! The Lord has made our bed, while he has made others’ graves. He has taken such care of us, as if he had no one else to take care of. Never was the cloud of providence so black—but we might see a rainbow of love in the cloud. We have been made to swim in a sea of mercy! Does not all this call for thankfulness?

Answer 3: We are rightly thankful—when the favors which we receive, endear our love to God the more. David’s miraculous preservation from death drew forth his love to God: “I love the Lord” (Psalm 116:1). It is one thing to love our mercies; it is another thing to love the Lord. Many love their deliverance, but not their deliverer. God is to be loved more than his mercies. Answer 4: We are rightly thankful when, in giving our praise to God, we see no worthiness from ourselves: “I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies you have showed unto your servant” (Gen. 32:10). As if Jacob had said, “Lord, the worst bit you carve for me, is better than I deserve.” Mephibosheth bowed himself and said, “What is your servant, that you should look upon such a dead dog as I am?” (2 Sam. 9:8). So when a thankful Christian makes a survey of his blessings and sees how much he enjoys, that others better than he lack, he says, “Lord, what am I, a dead dog, that free grace should look upon me, and that you should crown me with such loving kindness!” Answer 5: We are rightly thankful—when we put God’s mercy to good use. We repay God’s blessings—with service. The Lord gives us health—and we spend and are spent for Christ (2 Cor. 12:15). He gives us an estate—and we honor the Lord with our substance (Proverbs 3:9). He gives us children—and we dedicate them to God and educate them for God. We do not bury our talents—but use them for God’s glory. This is to put our mercies to good use. A gracious heart is like a piece of good ground that, having received the seed of mercy, produces a crop of obedience. Answer 6: We are rightly thankful—when we can have our hearts more enlarged for spiritual mercies—than for temporal mercies: “Blessed be God, who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings” (Eph. 1:3). A godly man blesses God more for a fruitful heart—than a full crop. He is more thankful for Christ—than for a kingdom. Socrates was accustomed to say that he loved the king’s smile—more than his gold. A pious heart is more thankful for a smile of God’s face—than he would be for all the gold of the Indies.”

Therefore let us as many as are spiritually minded, go forth in Thanksgiving to God knowing that it is not merely the fleeting movement of the lips but the continual pious breathings of the soul, even a living principle within us. Does not the Spirit of God dwell in us and unite us to Christ our head? Then may we ever bless God and give thanks to Him with a pure heart, keeping ourselves from defilement. Let us therefore pray and give God thanks.

Opening Prayer.

Lesson 27. The Necessity of Understanding the Historical and Religious atmosphere in which we live. Part 7. An introduction to Foxe’s Acts and Monuments. [2]

Intro.
The Westminster Confession of Faith is a covenantal document. Deut. 4:10,40
The Westminster Confession of Faith is a document sealed with the blood of faithful witnesses.
The book of Job, the reluctance of suffering and Pentecost. The disciples of Christ before and after. Peter denied Christ before Pentecost. Immediately after, he was ready to preach boldly unto death.
The free grace of the Holy Spirit makes us willing martyrs. Yet the Spirit does not make us leave our callings to die for the faith. The ancient Christians were taken from their homes and hunted.
The meaning of the word persecution. Are we pursuing controversy, hostility, sympathy?
Is every Christian an evangelist? Eph. 4.
Christians are a meek and mild people, not looking for attention, but desire to worship God and raise families in peace.
Covenantal > sealed in blood.

(Foxe’s Utility)

1. The superfluous degree of books, not a reason to dissuade him from writing.
(though impudence and pride was the cause for most)

2. His own perception of lack of skill on his part was not a reason to dissuade him from writing.
(though his knowledge and skill is certainly not lacking)
3. The heroic deeds of the martyrs inspired him to write of these acts of heroism.
4. Inaction on his part might have resulted in the burying of these deeds in darkness.
5. Their lives were testaments of the grace of God, and inspire us also, two chief reasons why they should be recorded.
6. Christian history is the history of suffering affliction without seeing present victory, than political uprisings and wars and great conquests.
(the doctrine of providence)

Conclusion.

Closing prayer.

YouTube Audio: https://youtu.be/aY0snMqlCLs?si=Qj9kBbmWrZgjQEtU