Psalms 21:5

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] A growing weight of glory, a load of it, even before man. The saints, when they come to heaven, shall have an exceeding, excessive, eternal weight of glory, 2Co 4:17, such as if the body were not upheld by the mighty power of God it were impossible it should ever bear it.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

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.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

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 תשׁוה, 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. John’s 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.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

6. (Psa 21:5). Great shall be his majesty in thy salvation; glory and honour thou wilt put upon him. His personal experience of God's saving grace, and his connection with the great scheme of salvation for mankind, would raise him to a dignity far beyond that of any other monarch, and completely justifying even the most exalted terms used in Scripture, from the charge of adulation or extravagance.

Joseph Addison Alexander, The Psalms Translated and Explained (1850) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

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.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

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, “Que la grace de Dieu se monstre favorable envers leur Roy.” — Fr.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

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.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

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.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

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.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

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.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Ver. 5. His glory is great in thy salvation. Immanuel bears the palm; he once bore the cross. The Father has glorified the Son, so that there is no glory like unto that which surrounds him. See his person as it is described by John in the Revelation; see his dominion as it stretches from sea to sea; see his splendour as he is revealed in flaming fire. Lord, who is like unto thee? Solomon in all his glory could not be compared with thee, thou once despised Man of Nazareth! Mark, reader: salvation is ascribed to God; and thus the Son, as our Saviour, magnifies his Father; but the Son's glory is also greatly seen, for the Father glorifies his Son.

Honour and majesty hast thou laid upon him. Parkhurst reads, "splendour and beauty." These are put upon Jesus as chains of gold, and stars and tokens of honour are placed upon princes and great men. As the wood of the tabernacle was overlaid with pure gold, so is Jesus covered with glory and honour. If there be a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory for his humble followers, what must there be for our Lord himself? The whole weight of sin was laid upon him; it is but meet that the full measure of the glory of bearing it away should be laid upon the same beloved person. A glory commensurate with his shame he must and will receive, for well has he earned it. It is not possible for us to honour Jesus too much; what our God delights to do, we may certainly do to our utmost. Oh for new crowns for the lofty brow which once was marred with thorns!

"Let him be crowned with majesty

Who bowed his head to death, And be his honours sounded high

By all things that have breath."

Ver. 5. His glory is great in thy salvation. I remember one dying, and hearing some discourse of Jesus Christ; "Oh, "said she, "speak more of thislet me hear more of thisbe not weary of telling his praise; I long to see him, how should I but long to hear of him?" Surely I cannot say too much of Jesus Christ. On this blessed subject no man can possibly hyperbolise. Had I the tongues of men and angels, I could never fully set forth Christ. It involves an eternal contradiction, that the creature can see to the bottom of the Creator. Suppose all the sands on the seashore, all the flowers, herbs, leaves, twigs of trees in woods and forests, all the stars of heaven, were all rational creatures; and had they that wisdom and tongues of angels to speak of the loveliness, beauty, glory, and excellency of Christ, as gone to heaven, and sitting at the right hand of his Father, they would, in all their expressions, stay millions of miles on this side Jesus Christ. Oh, the loveliness, beauty, and glory of his countenance! Can I speak, or you hear of such a Christ? And are we not all in a burning love, in a seraphical love, or at least in a conjugal love? O my heart, how is it thou art not love sick? How is it thou dost not charge the daughters of Jerusalem as the spouse did: "I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem, if ye find my beloved, that ye shall tell him, that I am sick of love." So 5:8. Isaac Ambrose.

Ver. 5. Honour and majesty hast thou laid upon him. If it be demanded whether Christ were exalted unto his glory and dignity, according to both his natures, both his Godhead and his manhood, I answer, according to both. According to his Godhead, not as it is considered in itself, but inasmuch as his Godhead, which from his birth unto his death did little show itself, after his resurrection was made manifest in his manhood; for, as the apostle saith (Ro 1:4), "He was declared mightily to be the Son of God by the resurrection from the dead, "even by the resurrection and after his resurrection from the dead, he which was thought only to be man, was most plainly manifested likewise to be God. Now, as touching his manhood, he was therein exalted unto highest majesty in the heavenly places, not only shaking off all infirmities of man's nature, but also being beautified and adorned with all qualities of glory, both in his soul and in his body, yet so that he still retaineth the properties of a true body, for even as he was man, he was set at the right hand of the Father, to rule and reign over all, till all his enemies be destroyed, and put under his feet. To knit up all in a word, Christ, God and man, after his resurrection, was crowned with glory and honour, even such as plainly showed him to be God, and was set on the throne of God, there to rule and reign as sovereign Lord and King, till he come in the clouds to judge both quick and dead. Here, then, is both matter of comfort and consolation unto the godly, and likewise for fear and astonishment unto the wicked and ungodly.

Henry Airway, 1560-1616.

Ver. 5. (last clause). Christ was "a man of sorrows" on earth, but he is full of joy in heaven. He that "wipes away all tears from the eyes of his people, "surely has none in his own. There was a joy set before him before he suffered, and doubtless it was given him, when he sat down at God's right hand. We may take the latter to be an actual donation of the former; the joy he had in prospect when he suffered he had in possession when he came to his throne. This is the time of his receiving the Father's public approbation, and the tokens of his love, before the whole heavenly assembly, which must be matter of great joy to him who so much valued and delighted in his Father's love. John Hurrion, 1675-1731.

Ver. 5. Happy he who hath a bone, or an arm, to put the crown upon the head of our highest King, whose chariot is paved with love. Were there ten thousand millions of heavens created above these highest heavens, and again as many above them, and as many above them, till angels were wearied with counting, it were but too low a seat to fix the princely throne of that Lord Jesus (whose ye are) above them all. Samuel Rutherford.

Ver. 5. The glory of the Mediator.

Psalms 21:6*

Charles H. Spurgeon's The Treasury of David (1869–1885) — public domain. Psalms only. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

His glory is great in thy salvation. David"s glory exceeds that of all other living men, through the "salvation" which God vouchsafes him. That salvation is partly temporal, consisting in deliverance from his foes; partly of an unearthly and spiritual character, arising out of his relationship to the coming Messiah. It is from the latter point of view, rather than the former, that it is said, Honour and majesty hast thou laid upon him.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Glory - His fame or renown. Salvation - By reason of those great and glorious deliverances which thou hast wrought both for him, and by him.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

(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. שׁוּה על 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 (את as in Psa 16:11) the countenance of God, is joy in delightful and most intimate fellowship with Him. חדּה, from חדה, 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."

Keil & Delitzsch — Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament (1861–1891) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API. (Old Testament only.)

His glory

"The king's honor" or "The king's fame"

you have bestowed on him splendor and majesty

"you have placed on him splendor and majesty." Causing the king to be wealthy and powerful is spoken of as if splendor and majesty are objects that are placed on him. AT: "you have made him wealthy and powerful" (See: Metaphor)

you grant him

"you allow him to have" or "you agree to give him"

lasting blessings

"a blessings that will last" or "a blessings that will stay"

the joy of your presence

"the joy of being in your presence" or "the joy that comes from you being near to you"

translationWords

glory

splendor

majesty

bless

joy

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

He asked You for life As I fled outside the Holy Land from before Saul, I would pray, “May I walk before the Lord in the lands of the living” (below 116:9).

You gave it to him For You restored me to the land of Israel.

length of days to his kingdom, for You said, “and I will establish the throne of your (sic) kingdom forever” (II Sam. 7:13).

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.