A Road Map for Life | Beginning With GodSample

HOW TO FIND STRENGTH IN YOUR BATTLE (Psalm 21)

Psalm 21 picks up where Psalm 20 left off - the king was marching into battle under the banner of the name of his God. This psalm picks up with the king on the other side of the battle.

The same God who leads you into something will lead you through it. He may bring you into a fight, but I promise He will bring you out on the other side stronger than you were. The Holy Spirit led the Lord Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil, but He came out in the power of the Holy Spirit just as He went in.

We begin Psalm 21 with a note of victory in verses 1-2. “The king shall joy in thy strength, O Lord; and in thy salvation how greatly shall he rejoice! Thou hast given him his heart's desire, and hast not withholden the request of his lips. Selah.”

In other words, “God answered my prayer.”

We should all pause for a moment today and acknowledge how very good God has been to us; He has answered our prayers. Perhaps every problem is not yet gone and every enemy is not yet put down, but the Lord has never failed, forsaken, or forgotten us — He will not start today.

My prayer for you is that, as you meditate on this psalm, you will walk in victory. You may be in the midst of your battle, but even there you can have victory because the Lord is with you.

This psalm is essentially divided into two parts.

• Psalm 21:1-7 - David is just praising God and rejoicing in the victory he has experienced.
• Psalm 21:8-12 - God deals with the enemy.

I love the divine order here. David got his eyes on the Lord first. It was not about the enemies who were coming against him or the circumstances he found himself in. It was the Lord first. Once that was established, he could see that God would always take care of his enemies.

The first part of verse 1 reminds me of Nehemiah 8:10 and that well-known phrase, “the joy of the Lord is your strength.” If you feel faint and weary, wondering if you are going to make it, what you need is a fresh understanding of the goodness of God. If you can learn to rejoice in the Lord and His mercy and faithfulness, it will put fresh courage in you to keep moving forward and fighting the good fight of faith.

I love how verse 1 ends with an exclamation point. Are you still excited about knowing Jesus? Is there still excitement in knowing that if God be for us, no one can be against us or separate us from His love? Do you still get stirred by the fact that Jesus is not only the Author but also the Finisher of your faith? The Lord who is working in your life today will continue to work.

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

Think about the way God “preventest” us. He actually hedges us in with His goodness. In my own walk with God, I have been reminded of His goodness to me.

You know, the first lie the devil ever told was that God is not good, or that He withholds good things from us. He continues to tell that same lie, and the silly thing is that we continue to believe it.

Perhaps you are wondering today about the goodness of God. My friend, He is always good. It is His very nature. Think of all the things He has kept from you because of His goodness, then think of everything He has given you for the same reason.

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

Just pause today and praise God that you are alive. Take a breath. Isn’t it nice that you can do that? Now take another one. That is the gift of God. He is the One who gave you life, but He also sustains your life. There are people who did not live to see this day, but you did. The very breath in your body is a reminder that God is good to us.

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

The greatest blessings are not in physical life, but in spiritual life. It is eternal for every one who believes. If you don’t have eternal life today, you can. It is offered to all of us. Those who have it should go back and rejoice in it again and again. Never lose the joy of your salvation.

Jesus said in John 10:10, “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.” It is not just the eternal life that is to come; you can have an abundant life here and now.

Verses 6-7: “For thou hast made him most blessed for ever: thou hast made him exceeding glad with thy countenance. For the king trusteth in the Lord, and through the mercy of the Most High he shall not be moved.”

As we read in Psalm 20, some people will trust in other things or resources. David said that he would just trust in God. As verse 7 indicates, he continued to trust Him.

If you trusted God in your darkest days, you can keep trusting Him today. He helped you in previous battles and brought you through great valleys in the past; and He will keep doing that. The Lord will take care of you.

In verses 8-12, David described in a bit more detail how God took care of him and dealt with his enemies. You may have an enemy right now that seems pretty big to you. Get your eyes on the greatness of God and I promise that your enemy will get smaller.

Goliath was small in David’s sight because God was big. When Saul chased him through the mountainside, he seemed small because God was big. Every army he faced seemed small because God was big. It can be the same for you.

Verse 13: “Be thou exalted, Lord, in thine own strength: so will we sing and praise thy power.”

In the end, it is all to the glory of God. Psalm 21 begins and ends in strength. We see it in the first verse and the last verse.

Today, God’s strength will give you everything you need, and it will work in such a way that He will get the glory. Whether you are going into a battle, in the middle of one or coming out of one, know that you can trust your Captain to be enough. His strength is at your disposal. Rejoice in the goodness of God.