This week’s Song To Live By is Psalm 21

Lesley writes:

This week I hurt my back quite badly at the gym but my small group laid hands on and prayed for me and this morning I was walking around without pain. I want to “shout with joy” because of my gratitude to the Lord like David in this Psalm. I am grateful to God for answering my prayer. What are you grateful for?

Here is something else I’m grateful for: I work as a pastor for Croydon Vineyard and I have a 17 year old intern working for me. One of her tasks this week was to look through Psalm 21 for me and pick out the themes and share her thoughts. What was intended as a learning experience for her has become a learning experience for me through the things this awesome young lady has uncovered about this Psalm. I am grateful for her and to be able to see the depth of her spiritual undertanding.

Let me read some of what she said:

Verse 1: How the king rejoices in your strength, O Lord! He shouts with joy because you give him victory. I found it interesting that generally in the Psalms 'joy' is often associated with 'shouting' It's like the gratitude and joy he feels is overflowing, and shouting is an expression of that overflow.
Verse 6: You have endowed him with eternal blessings and given him the joy of your presence. I love that it's described as the 'joy of God's presence'. This is a reminder that joy is not the same as happiness. Happiness is dependent on what is happening and so it comes and goes; happiness can be given and taken away. The joy the Bible talks about is a natural response to an awareness of the promises, and faithfulness of God - as described in Psalm 21- a 'joy of God's presence'.
I also found it interesting that the structure of the psalm shifts from this idea of "God did this..." (past), " so God will do this..." (future) and ends with "so I will do this..." (a response). This reminds me of something I'm learning in psychology: "reciprocity" the idea that infant-caregiver attachments or in this case relationships (with God) form based on a mutual interaction. If we are not receptive and responsive to the move of God in our lives we cannot deepen that relationship with him because God is always reaching out to us, but we have to reach back through gratitude, spending time with him, praise ect. to deepen that relationship.

A prayer:

Rise up, O Lord, in all your power. With music and singing we celebrate your mighty acts. And teach us O Lord to shout with joy!!