From Glory to Glory: The Story of Christ in Psalms 15–24 (Part 12): Psalm 21 And The Victorious King

by on February 21, 2026 | Comment

One thing I have realized about home repair projects is that the whole job is not done just because you finish the job you set out to do. You may complete the main task, but cleanup is still a feature of a job totally done and might be the biggest part of getting it all the way to the finish line even though you have put the main task to bed.

Psalm 21 is about the victorious king who still has some cleanup work to do. He has triumphed over his enemies but looks ahead toward wiping out further enemy forces.

As we have been exploring Psalms 15–24, we have seen that they recount Christ’s incarnate ministry, first in reverse order and then forward again. This section starts and ends with the question about who can ascend God’s mountain to dwell in his presence for blessing, which drives the main concern for each of these psalms, as they reflect on Christ’s ascension, resurrection, time in the grave, death, life, and then back again, ending in the resurrection and ascension.

In this wider section about Christ’s incarnate ministry, Psalms 19–21 form the middle core, which focuses on Christ’s perfectly righteous life. Psalm 19 linked creation and law to show the need for the perfectly righteous king who can obtain entry into God’s blessed presence on his holy mountain. Psalm 20 was about the king going out to battle, which put our attention on God the Son coming forth from heaven to earth in his incarnation. Psalm 21 is the sequel, inasmuch as “Psalm 20 is a prayer for the king as he goes out to battle, and Psalm 21 celebrates his victory upon his return.”1 Psalm 21 is, then, another royal psalm that celebrates the king.2

Psalm 21 is about why refuge is available in this king (Ps 2:12). It is about his victorious life and his triumphing mission. It is about the success of his incarnate ministry, yet it notes that he still has enemies to be conquered. He has completed the main task even though some cleanup remains. The main point is that because Christ is victorious, he will remain victorious.

Triumph

As the sequel to Psalm 20, which was about Christ going forth to battle by coming to earth in the incarnation, Psalm 21 is about how Christ’s life proved victorious. It is about the joy of victory experienced as a way to have assurance of future victory as well.3 Psalm 21 begins and ends with statements of God’s strength.4

O Lord, in your strength the king rejoices,

and in your salvation how greatly he exults! (Ps 21:1)

 

Be exalted, O Lord, in your strength!

We will sing and praise your power. (Ps 21:13)

God’s victory is clearly in view. At the same time, the king is the one who rolls out God’s victory. As James Hamilton put it, “Yahweh will achieve his conquest by empowering the faithful king he promised to raise up from David’s line.”5 This psalm is all about victory—God’s victory through his king—and confidence because of our God’s victory.

The first half of this psalm in verses 1–7 focuses on rejoicing in how God has loved this king and provided him with victory. These verses contain thanks for answered prayer offered in Psalm 20. David tells how God has given the king his heart’s desires and answered all his requests. Blessings and a majestic crown are his.6

We have no idea what situation caused David to write this psalm. All the more, we must reckon with how David, Israel’s king, wrote this psalm about a different king. Yet this tension shows us that David wrote about a future king. But the only king who measures up to this description is Jesus Christ.

In verses 4–5, David puts the fine point on this:

He asked life of you; you gave it to him,

length of days forever and ever.

His glory is great through your salvation;

splendor and majesty you bestow on him.

In light of Christ’s victorious, perfect life, God has exalted him above all things in his resurrection. Life came to Christ because he earned it. He earned it not for himself but for his people, as John 5:21 says: “As the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will.” Psalm 21, then, looks at Christ’s life as a whole, depicting it as a triumph.

Trust

The first half of the psalm ends in verse 7 with a statement of how God’s ultimate king trusts in God. The king’s trust is why God has upheld him and sets him immovably in victory. Then, the second half of this psalm in verses 8–13 is about the king’s full and final defeat of his foes.7 It includes the anticipation of a future battle.8

The sort of victory that comes through Christ’s life instills confidence that Christ will stand always in victory as he continues as our king. Psalm 21 glorifies the king while affirming that God gives all the victory. It reminds us that we trust in God for every success.9

Psalm 21 prompts us to ask where we think victory truly resides. Do we think that real victory is in cultural power? Or do we realize that Christ is truly reigning over all things?

We should not forget that the focus on Christ’s saving work in this section of Psalms 15–24 fits within the wider story unfolding in the Psalms because Psalms 3–14 were about the nations raging against God’s king. Those psalms painted a portrait of the experience endured in a world that despises God’s king. In the trenches of daily life, where God’s enemies rage tumultuously against him, we can feel the full force of that rage, perceiving that it might be successful or claim victory.

But God has promised in Psalm 2:6 that “I have set my King on Zion, my holy hill.” But is not presence on God’s mountain the quest of Psalms 15–24? God has promised his king would achieve that victory. He would reign over the nations and even laugh at those who oppose him. Psalms 15–24 tell us how the king achieves that victory. Jesus Christ reigns by living a perfectly righteous life, dying to forgive sin, and triumphing over death in his resurrection and ascension.

Why, then, do we have, in verses 8–13, a description about a future battle? Because Christ’s life has achieved the greatest victory. But cleanup work remains throughout this age. He has decisively won the final victory but has enemies to continue defeating.

What does 1 Corinthians 15:25–26 say? “For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death.” If Jesus must reign until all his enemies are defeated, then the presence of his enemies—including death—indicates that Jesus is presently reigning as he continues to defeat death. He overturns death case by case as he brings sinners to spiritual life by the power of the Spirit through the gospel.

Full victory will come. Jesus is rolling out this victory now as he reigns from heaven. He will find all his enemies, those who hate him, and he will swallow and consume them. Jesus reigns as God’s truly righteous king, but we must trust him for it. We can easily get discouraged by the world’s affairs. Hence, we trust what Christ is doing.

Tied

Jesus explained that his kingdom is secure and now is the period when he is rolling out his victory. In Matthew 12:28–29, he explains his kingdom at work now: “But if it is by the Spirit of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you. Or how can someone enter a strong man’s house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man? Then indeed he may plunder his house.” God the Son, Jesus Christ, entered history for his incarnate ministry. His victory was won by his righteous life, and the faithful king had the effect to bind the strong man. He has Satan bound, the devil tied. Now he plunders the devil’s house by the power of the gospel.

We need to think about this way of having Satan tied. Ephesians 2:1–2 says, “You were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience.” This prince of the power of the air is also the devil.[10] What did this devilish prince govern? Disobedience and our pattern of life in trespasses and sins. So what does Christ plunder from the devil’s house now that he has bound him?

He is reclaiming sinners for himself in salvation. Westminster Shorter Catechism 26 asks, “How does Christ execute the office of a king? Christ executes the office of a king, in subduing us to himself, in ruling and defending us, and in restraining and conquering all his and our enemies.”[11] Too many believers think that the way to see the kingdom of God spread—to see the devil tied—is for Christians to gain some sort of cultural power. We all are inclined to want the power of coercion to get our way. We want to trust in the power of chariots and horses.

We need to realize that the primary way Christ conquers all his and our enemies takes us back to how he exercises his kingship toward us—namely, he subdues us to himself. He subdues us to himself by making us citizens of his kingdom by salvation. He conquers his and our enemies by subduing them to himself by the power of the gospel.

Jesus Christ’s victory in his righteous life was to furnish the record that we need to enter his heavenly kingdom. He died in our place in order to wipe away all our treasonous activity that is our sins and transgressions. He has paid our debts so that we are not only forgiven before God, but we are accepted as having fulfilled all things necessary to ascend God’s mountain to receive blessing.

God sees us in this way when we believe in Christ as our Savior. This is because, by faith, we are tied to Christ. We are united to him as our king, but the king who provides refuge for his people. His citizens are no longer among those who will become as a blazing oven or be destroyed from the earth. His citizens will exalt him and sing his praise because he is our source of blessing.

That final victory is secure because of the victory that Christ has already won. His life, death, and resurrection are sufficient for all our needs in redemption. So as we will exalt him in everlasting life, we praise him now because we are certain that his victory is won, and he will bring it fully to bear to bless us.

Notes

  1. Bruce K. Waltke and Fred G. Zaspel, How to Read and Understand the Psalms (Crossway, 2023), 101, 168, 384, 432n13; Carissa Quinn, The Arrival of the King: The Shape and Story of Psalms 15–24, Studies in Scripture and Biblical Theology (Lexham Academic, 2023), 138; and James M. Hamilton Jr., Psalms, 2 vols., Evangelical Biblical Theology Commentary (Lexham Academic, 2021), 1:273.
  2. Allen P. Ross, A Commentary on the Psalms, 3 vols. (Kregel Academic Press, 2011–16), 1:509; Waltke and Zaspel, How to Read and Understand the Psalms, 74, 168; and Quinn, Arrival of the King, 137.
  3. Christopher Ash, The Psalms: A Christ-Centered Commentary, 4 vols. (Crossway, 2024), 2:231.
  4. Hamilton, Psalms, 1:272.
  5. Hamilton, Psalms, 1:274.
  6. Ash, Psalms, 2:241; Ross, Psalms, 1:509; Waltke and Zaspel, How to Read and Understand the Psalms, 76.
  7. Ash, Psalms, 2:245.
  8. Ross, Psalms, 1:509.
  9. W. Robert Godfrey, Learning to Love the Psalms (Reformation Trust, 2017), 68.
  10. Frank Thielman, Ephesians, Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament (Baker Academic, 2010), 124; Peter T. O’Brien, The Letter to the Ephesians, Pillar New Testament Commentary (Eerdmans, 1999),160; and Robert Rollock, Commentary on Ephesians, trans. Casey Carmichael, Classic Reformed Theology (Reformation Heritage Books, 2021), 60.
  11. Chad Van Dixhoorn, ed., Creeds, Confessions, and Catechisms: A Reader’s Edition (Crossway, 2022), 416.

© Harrison Perkins. All Rights Reserved.

You can find this whole series here.

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