Victorious

DEVOTION

PSALMS

VICTORIOUS

Ps 21

O LORD, the king rejoices in your strength. How great is his joy in the victories you give! 2 You have granted him the desire of his heart and have not withheld the request of his lips. 3 You welcomed him with rich blessings and placed a crown of pure gold on his head. 4 He asked you for life, and you gave it to him — length of days, for ever and ever. 5 Through the victories you gave, his glory is great; you have bestowed on him splendor and majesty. 6 Surely you have granted him eternal blessings and made him glad with the joy of your presence. 7 For the king trusts in the LORD; through the unfailing love of the Most High he will not be shaken.

8 Your hand will lay hold on all your enemies; your right hand will seize your foes. 9 At the time of your appearing you will make them like a fiery furnace. In his wrath the LORD will swallow them up, and his fire will consume them. 10 You will destroy their descendants from the earth, their posterity from mankind. 11 Though they plot evil against you and devise wicked schemes, they cannot succeed; 12 for you will make them turn their backs when you aim at them with drawn bow.

13 Be exalted, O LORD, in your strength; we will sing and praise your might.

NIV

This looks like we could spend a day on each statement, each phrase, but it still would be best not to break this up. There is no question about the strength of the Lord and that he gives us the victories of our life. How we can rejoice when we see God’s strength working in our lives to overcome whatever we face. This idea about God granting the desires of our heart and not withholding the requests of our lips, again seems to be strange when looking at the original language. It does seem to indicate that God always answers in the affirmative, not withholding our requests. However it also indicates that God gives us the desires of our heart. In the context of both ideas it would make sense that the desire of our heart is given to us by God. Now is it our desire that he says yes to, or is it that he put that desire in our heart and therefor always gives a yes answer to the request that stems from the desire within our heart? Keeping in the context the next phrase speaks of being welcome with rich blessing and being given a fine golden crown, then a thankfulness because we asked for life and God gave us eternal life, length of days for ever and ever.

James 1:12

12 Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him.

NIV

Yes we will receive that crown of life, no matter what the trial, but again in the Greek it reads more like, Blessed the man who endures temptation properly or acceptably will be given the crown of life which has announced upon to them love him. We have victory over death, we are the glory of the Lord, and his majesty is displayed in us. We have been blessed eternally with his presence, and we will rejoice and trust in his unfailing love which will never be shaken. Nothing will shake his love for us, nothing will stop him from loving us. What a joy that is to our soul, to know God will never give up on us, he will never turn away from us, and he will never leave nor forsake us. Even when we fail him, he will not fail us, he will still love us. As a human parent and grandparent we understand our love for our family, our children and grandchildren will always be there, not matter what they do. We simply love them, which is what we do, and that how God is with us. We may not like some of their behavior, but we love them. He does not like some of our behavior, but he still will always love us. The next stanza is all about will happen to the wicked, those who have not accepted Jesus as Lord and Savior. That is Gods definition of wicked. Those people might well be nice people and do good things, but without Jesus, they are the enemies of God, for they are friends with the world. Their doom is all laid out for them, but he does not predetermine who will experience his burning wrath, the fire that will consume them. He wants all people to come to him, but the choice is ours, all mankind has the choice to be in our out. This also speaks about our enemy, Satan, who wars against us. God has already defeated him, the enemy has no power over us, and he will not succeed.

We exalt our Lord, we magnify his name, be exalted, Oh Lord above the heavens, let your glory be all over the earth.

In Christ we are victorious.