Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 21:5
His glory [is] great in thy salvation: honor and majesty hast thou laid upon him.
5. Glory, honour, majesty, are Divine attributes (Psa 8:1; Psa 8:5; Psa 104:1); and the victorious king shines with a reflection of them.
hast thou laid ] Rather as R.V., dost thou lay. Cp. Psa 89:19 for the same word used of Divine endowment.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
His glory is great in thy salvation – Not in himself; not in anything that he has done, but in what thou hast done. The fact that thou hast saved him, and the manner in which it has been done, has put upon him great honor. He felt indeed that his condition as king, and as to the prospects before him, was one of great glory or honor; but he felt at the same time that it was not in himself, or for anything that he had done: it was only in the salvation which God had conferred upon him. Every child of God, in like manner, has great glory conferred upon him, and his glory will be great forever; but it is not in himself, or in virtue of anything that he has done. It is great in the salvation of God:
(a) in the fact that God has interposed to save him; and
(b) in the manner in which it has been done.
The highest honor that can be put upon man is in the fact that God will save him.
Honour and majesty hast thou laid upon him –
(a) In making him a king;
(b) in the victories and triumphs which thou hast now given him, placing on his head, as it were, a brighter crown;
(c) in the promised perpetuity of his reign.
So we may say of the ransomed sinner – the child of God – now. Honour and majesty have been laid on him:
(a) in the fact that God has redeemed him;
(b) in the manner in which this has been accomplished;
(c) in his adoption into the family of God;
(d) in the rank and dignity which he occupies as a child of God;
(e) in the hope of immortal blessedness beyond the grave.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Psa 21:5
His glory is great in Thy salvation.
The glory of God
In this Psalm the poet is giving thanks for victory. The soldiers are returning from war, and are met by a chorus of maidens shouting praise to the delivering God. The poetry is not equal to the moral enthusiasm of the occasion. We are called upon to contemplate Gods glory as being great in human salvation. We thus enjoy the basis and the application of the thought. It would seem to be beneath Almighty God to care for a world so small and foolish as ours. It is not for us to estimate even our own worth. It does not become us to say that the world is insignificant, mean, or worthless; it is the work of God. What God has thought it worth His while to make, He may well think it worth His while to redeem. We do not see the whole world, nor do we comprehend all the issues of its discipline and nurture. When Jesus sees the travail of His soul He shall be satisfied. To save one soul is glory enough for any mortal man. What must it be to save the souls of all men, the souls of the ages and centuries incomputable? It is the delight of God to save, to redeem, to construct; the function of the enemy is to overthrow, to weaken, to debase, and to bring all life into dishonour. The course which the enemy has taken is the easier, since it is always easier to destroy than to construct. We glorify God by our goodness. God does not exist to be glorified in any sense of being merely hailed and saluted by songs and rapturous applause. When we are most quiet we are most really glorifying God. By meekness, by pureness, by gentleness, by quiet spiritual wisdom, by accepting the lot of life in a spirit of self-sacrifice, we may be bringing true glory to God. Do not think of the glory of God in any merely magnificent sense. We must change our definition of magnificence. In the sight of heaven it may be magnificent to be poor in spirit, gentle, and meek; and it may be mean and contemptible to own estates and crowns and sceptres. It is upon moral emotion, aspiration, and service that God sets His seal of blessing. (Joseph Parker, D. D.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 5. His glory is great] But great as his glory was, it had its greatness from God’s salvation. There is no true nobility but of the soul, and the soul has none but what it receives from the grace and salvation of God.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
His glory; his fame or renown in the world. In thy salvation; by reason of those great and glorious deliverances which thou hast wrought both for him and by him.
Hast thou laid upon him; or, fitted to him, or upon him, as the Hebrew verb signifies; or, made it adequate to him. Thou hast given him a large and noble soul, very capable of and fit for that high and honourable estate to which thou hast advanced him, and thou hast given him honour and power suitable to so excellent a person, and to such rich endowments.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
His glory [is] great in thy salvation,…. That is, the glory of the King Messiah is great in the Lord’s salvation of him; delivering him from all his troubles and sorrows, and out of the hands of all his enemies, when he was raised from the dead, and was set at the right hand of God, and crowned with glory and honour: or the sense is, that his glory is great in the salvation of his people by him; it was his glory as Mediator to be appointed to be the Lord’s salvation to them; and it being effected by him declares the glory and greatness of his person; and the nature of it is such as cannot fast of bringing glory to him; and such is the sense his people have of it, that it obliges them to ascribe the glory of it alone to him;
honour and majesty hast thou laid upon him; which is to be understood not of the honour and majesty of his divine nature, which are essential to him, and not laid upon him by any; nor of the glory which the saints attribute to him on account of their salvation by him; but of that which his Father has put upon him, and lies in the introduction of him into his glory after his sufferings and death, and resurrection from the dead; in exalting him at his right hand above all creatures and things; in giving him all power in heaven and in earth; in putting all the gifts of the Spirit into his hands, which he receiving gave to men, and in ordaining him Judge of quick and dead.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(Heb.: 21:6-7) The help of God turns to his honour, and paves the way for him to honour, it enables him-this is the meaning of. Psa 21:6 – to maintain and strengthen his kingship with fame and glory. used, as in Psa 89:20, of divine investiture and endowment. To make blessings, or a fulness of blessing, is a stronger form of expressing God’s words to Abram, Gen 12:2: thou shalt be a blessing i.e., a possessor of blessing thyself, and a medium of blessing to others. Joy in connection with ( as in Psa 16:11) the countenance of God, is joy in delightful and most intimate fellowship with Him. , from , which occurs once in Exo 18:9, has in Arabic, with reference to nomad life, the meaning “to cheer the beasts of burden with a song and urge them on to a quicker pace,” and in Hebrew, as in Aramaic, the general signification “to cheer, enliven.”
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
5. His glory is great. By these words the people intimate that their king, through the protection which God afforded him, and the deliverances which he wrought for him, would become more renowned than if he had reigned in peace with the applause of all men, or had been defended by human wealth and human strength, or, finally, had continued invincible by his own power and policy; for thereby it appeared the more clearly that he had only attained to the royal dignity by the favor, conduct, and commandment of God. The believing Israelites, therefore, leave it to heathen kings to ennoble themselves by their own achievements, and to acquire fame by their own valor; and they set more value upon this, that God graciously showed himself favorable towards their king, (483) than upon all the triumphs of the world. At the same time, they promise themselves such assistance from God as will suffice for adorning the king with majesty and honor.
(483) “ Que la grace de Dieu se monstre favorable envers leur Roy.” — Fr.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
Language is incompetent to describe all the precious things contained in these verses. How great the Mediator’s glory, in the salvation thus planned and executed by Jehovah! How great his own blessedness! How inconceivable the mutual enjoyment of the glorious persons of the Godhead in each other! We must be first qualified to apprehend what kind of joy that is, which the infinite mind of Jehovah is capable of receiving, before we can describe it. And as in the highest perfection of our nature, even in glory, we never can arrive at this, because it belongs only to the incommunicable perfections of the Godhead, it is evident that we never can conceive in time, in what it consists, much less speak of it. So that all attempts to enlarge upon these verses are fruitless. And indeed in their own pure unaltered language, they convey more than when the least addition is made to them. The margin of some of our old Bibles makes a little variety in the phrase, Thou hast made him to be blessed forever; and reads it, Thou hast set him to be blessings forever; intimating, in a sweet manner, that what Jesus, as Mediator, is in himself, he is for his people. None but Jesus can be said to be blessed in himself: but, as the Head of his people, and from their union with him, he is what he is, a blessing, and an eternal one, to all them.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
“Handfuls of Purpose”
For All Gleaners
“His glory is great in thy salvation.” Psa 21:5
In this psalm the poet is giving thanks for victory. The twentieth and twenty-first Psalms may refer to the same event. Both these compositions are part-songs. They are also choral. The soldiers are returning from war, and are met by a chorus of maidens shouting praise to the delivering God. The poetry is not equal to the moral enthusiasm of the occasion. We are called upon to contemplate God’s glory as being great in human salvation. We thus enjoy the basis and the application of the thought. It would seem to be beneath Almighty God to care for a world so small and foolish as ours. It is not for us to estimate even our own worth. It does not become us to say that the world is insignificant, mean, or worthless; it is the work of God; what God has thought it worth his while to make, he may well think it worth his while to redeem. We do not see the whole world, nor do we comprehend all the issues of its discipline and nurture. When Jesus sees the travail of his soul he shall be satisfied. To save one soul is glory enough for any mortal man. What must it be to save the souls of all men, the souls of the ages and centuries incomputable? It is the delight of God to save, to redeem, to construct; the function of the enemy is to overthrow, to weaken, to debase, and to bring all life into dishonour. The course which the enemy has taken is the easier, since it is always easier to destroy than to construct. There is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance. What joy shall there be when the whole world is brought to Christ as his prey taken in the fight, taken at the spear-point! We glorify God by our goodness. God does not exist to be glorified in any sense of being merely hailed and saluted by songs and rapturous applause. When we are most quiet we may be most really glorifying God. By meekness, by pureness, by gentleness, by quiet spiritual wisdom, by accepting the lot of life in a spirit of self-sacrifice, we may be bringing true glory to God. Do not think of the glory of God in any merely magnificent sense. We must change our definition of magnificence. In the sight of heaven it may be magnificent to be poor in spirit, gentle, and meek; and it may be mean and contemptible to own estates and crowns and sceptres. It is upon moral emotion, aspiration and service that God sets the seal of his blessing.
Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker
Psa 21:5 His glory [is] great in thy salvation: honour and majesty hast thou laid upon him.
Ver. 5. His glory is great in thy salvation ] He was at first slighted, even by his own, as a petty prince; and the Philistines came up to seek him, that they might suppress him before he grew too strong for them; insomuch as he, for fear of them, went down to the hold, 2Sa 5:17 , but soon after he became formidable to them and the rest of the neigbbouring nations, whom he subdued and reigned over. The like hereunto befell our Queen Elizabeth, who, how low soever at first, became at length, as her enemies confessed, the most glorious woman that ever swayed sceptre, because posuit Deum adiutorem suum.
Honour and majesty hast thou laid upon him
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Honour, &c. Compare Rev 5:13.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Psa 21:5-6
Psa 21:5-6
“His glory is great in thy salvation;
Honor and majesty dost thou lay upon him.
For thou makest him most blessed forever:
Thou makest him glad with joy in thy presence.”
These verses abundantly confirm the interpretation of “eternal life” which we understand to be the meaning of Psa 21:4, above.
“Honor and majesty dost thou lay upon him” (Psa 21:5). What is indicated here according to Dahood (in The Anchor Bible) is, “A characteristic attribute of the (pagan) gods, consisting of a dazzling aureole or nimbus which surrounds divinity.”
This connotation of the terminology here fully confirms the view that the person spoken of here must be identified with divinity.
“It is from the salvation arising out of David’s relationship to the coming Messiah that it is said here that, `Honor and majesty dost thou lay upon him.'”
“For thou makest him most blessed forever” (Psa 21:6). The literal meaning of the Hebrew text here is, “For thou settest him to be blessings forever.” This means exactly what God meant when he promised Abraham that in him and in his seed all the families of men would be blessed (Gen 12:3; Gen 18:18; Gen 22:18). “Just as all mankind were blessed in Abraham, so were they all blessed in David’s seed.” This thought is fully confirmed in Mat 1:1. Note especially that “forever” here has no reference whatever to “long live the king,” but means perpetually and eternally. This reiteration of the thought in Psa 21:4 makes it mandatory to view “forever” in that passage as also having the meaning of “eternal life.”
“Thou makest him glad with joy in thy presence” (Psa 21:5). The weakest comment we have encountered on this is that of Addis who thought that the king mentioned here was enjoying the presence of God in the sense that, “The king lived hard by the temple,” where God’s presence was manifested. Such a notion is impossible of acceptance, because God’s presence was not “hard by the temple” at some location separated from the temple, but within the very “Holy of Holies” inside the temple. If this passage meant no more than living near the Jerusalem temple, it would have been equally applicable to every person living in Jerusalem.
Kidner has a much more discerning comment, indicating that, “The true meaning of `in thy presence’ is explained by Heb 12:2.” That passage states that, “Jesus, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” There indeed is the real presence of God, which in fact is not actually anywhere else.
E.M. Zerr:
Psa 21:5. His glory means the glory of their king. It was great because it was accomplished through the salvation from the Lord. Honor means splendor and majesty means dignity and power.
Psa 21:6. Blessed for ever was and is still true of David. Although he is dead his name is still honored throughout the earth. The countenance or face of God was favorable toward David, therefore he was made exceeding glad.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
glory: Psa 3:3, Psa 62:7, 2Sa 7:8, 2Sa 7:9, 2Sa 7:19, Isa 49:5-7, Isa 63:1, Joh 13:31, Joh 13:32, Joh 17:1, Joh 17:5, Joh 17:22, Phi 2:9-11, Heb 8:1, Rev 5:8-13
honour: Psa 110:1, 1Ch 17:11-15, 1Ch 17:27, Mat 28:18, Eph 1:20-22, 1Pe 3:22
Reciprocal: Est 1:4 – excellent Job 40:10 – majesty Psa 16:11 – in thy Psa 24:7 – King Psa 45:3 – glory Psa 138:5 – for great Zec 6:13 – bear
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Psa 21:5. His glory His fame or renown, is great in thy salvation By reason of those great and glorious deliverances which thou hast wrought both for him and by him. Honour and majesty hast thou laid upon him Or, fitted to him, or upon him, or made adequate to him, as the word , teshav-veh, signifies. Thou hast given him honour and power suitable to his glorious person and high endowments. What tongue, says Dr. Horne, can express the glory, honour, and majesty, with which the King of righteousness and peace was invested upon his ascension, when he took possession of the throne prepared for him, and received the homage of heaven and earth! The sacred imagery in St. Johns Revelation sets them before our eyes in such a manner, that no one can read the description whose heart will not burn within him, through impatient desire to behold them. See Revelation, chapters 4., 7., 19., 21., 22.