Let me remind us of the setting of Psalm 21.  It is probably a Psalm sung when the King returned from the battle.  It is a Psalm that looks forward to Christ our Messiah and King.  We see him exalted prior to the battle as the Suffering Savior of Psalm 22.  It seems from the order of the text that He had won and been exalted before the humiliation of the suffering.  Such is the work of our God.  He did everything before He did anything.

We desire to look at verses 3-6 this week which say, “For thou preventest him with the blessings of goodness: thou settest a crown of pure gold on his head.  He asked life of thee and thou gavest it him, even length of days for ever and ever.  His glory is great in thy salvation: honour and majesty hast thou laid upon him.  For thou hast made him most blessed for ever: thou hast made him exceeding glad with thy countenance.”

These verses drip with the Father’s affection for His Son.  These affections are magnified in verse 3 when it says, “For thou preventest…and …thou settest…”  In verse 4 we see this affection in the phrase “…thou gavest it him,” In verse five this affection is shown in the phrase “...hast thou laid…”  In verse 6 we see the phrase “For thou hast made…” on two occasions.  Now we see on six different occasions the Father is seen showing affection for the Messiah, Christ Jesus our Lord.

He has returned from the battle of suffering to be met by His Father with a glorious immeasurable bounty.  In verse 3 we are told, “For thou preventest…”  The word ‘preventest’ does not mean as our word to hinder but here it means to go before.  The phrase “…with the blessings of goodness:” means a liberal benediction of prosperity and cheerful pleasures.  The Father has gone before the Son and lined His way with all that would bring Him the greatest pleasure.  He even went to the point of setting a ‘crown of pure gold’ upon His head.  I can only imagine the weight of heaven’s pure gold and what such authority upon the head of one would carry.  Surely it is a position at the right hand of the Father when all bow in obedience to Him.  Let us be reminded that the Father through the Son goes before us and gives us so much and all before we ask or think.  Paul said in Romans, “He that spared not His own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?”

In verse 4 we are confronted with an affectionate answer to a request.  The first part of verse 4 could certainly apply to David, but the last part would certainly apply to Christ the King.  He asked for ‘life’.  We know with confidence that Christ is looking to resurrected life after death.  Our Lord is the great I AM, the one who was, who is, and who is to come.  He asked in John 17 ‘that the Father would glorify Him and that they would be one as they were before the world began.’

In verse 5 we are told that ‘glory, honour, and majesty’ were laid upon Him.  As He was the Suffering Savior, He is now the Sovereign Son.  As He was made sin for us, He is now declared the golden deity of glory, honour, and majesty.  The word ‘glory’ means to be exalted above and have the weighty presence of God upon you.  The word ‘honour’ means to lift up as an ornament of beauty and splendor.  The word ‘majesty’ means an imposing apparel of grandeur and beauty.  He is surely the all-together lovely one. 

In the first part of verse 6 we find that the Father has made Him to be the fountainhead of all blessings.  He is truly the source of all our blessings.  To have Him, to be in Him and Him in you is to be blessed with all spiritual blessings.

In the last part of verse 6 we find because He is the blessed one His countenance is one of being ‘glad’.  The word means to rejoice with joy unspeakable.  What a Savior thou art.  I exclaim with the songwriter of over 400 years ago: 

Fairest Lord Jesus, Ruler of all nature, O Thou God and man the Son,
Thee will I cherish, Thee will I honor, Thou my soul’s glory, joy, and crown.
Fair is the sunshine, Fairer still the moonlight, And all the twinkling starry host,
Jesus shines brighter, Jesus shines purer, Than all the angels heaven can boast.