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Psalm 21

Thanksgiving for Victory

To the leader. A Psalm of David.

In your strength the king rejoices, O L ord,

and in your help how greatly he exults!

You have given him his heart’s desire,

and have not withheld the request of his lips. Selah

For you meet him with rich blessings;

you set a crown of fine gold on his head.

He asked you for life; you gave it to him—

length of days forever and ever.

His glory is great through your help;

splendor and majesty you bestow on him.

You bestow on him blessings forever;

you make him glad with the joy of your presence.

For the king trusts in the L ord,

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 like a fiery furnace

when you appear.

The L ord will swallow them up in his wrath,

and fire will consume them.

You will destroy their offspring from the earth,

and their children from among humankind.

If they plan evil against you,

if 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 L ord, in your strength!

We will sing and praise your power.

New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

10. Thou shalt destroy their fruit from the earth. David amplifies the greatness of God’s wrath, from the circumstance that it shall extend even to the children of the wicked. It is a doctrine common enough in Scripture, that God not only inflicts punishment upon the first originators of wickedness, but makes it even to overflow into the bosom of their children. ⁴⁸⁸⁴⁸⁸ “Mais qu’il le fait mesme regorger au sein des enfans d’iceux.” — Fr. See Isaiah 65:6, 7. And yet when he thus pursues his vengeance to the third and fourth generation, he cannot be said indiscriminately to involve the innocent with the guilty. As the seed of the ungodly, whom he has deprived of his grace, are accursed, and as all are by nature children of wrath, devoted to everlasting destruction, he is no less just in exercising his severity towards the children than towards the fathers. Who can lay any thing to his charge, if he withhold from those who are unworthy of it the grace which he communicates to his own children? In both ways he shows how dear and precious to him is the kingdom of Christ; first, in extending his mercy to the children of the righteous even to a thousand generations; and, secondly, in causing his wrath to rest upon the reprobate, even to the third and fourth generation.

⁴⁸⁸ “Mais qu’il le fait mesme regorger au sein des enfans d’iceux.” — Fr. See Isaiah 65:6, 7.