The King's Blessing

Psalm 21

Behind this Psalm is the recognition that the king rules only by permission of the Lord. The people recognize this connection in the moment of the king’s coronation (verse 3). The next verses describe the implications of the blessing involved in that coronation, for the life of the land and for the king personally. The sense is actually that the life of the land is happy because of the the Lord’s blessing on the king. This kind of assumption would have made things very awkward for kings who presided over hard times!

The reality is probably a mixture of the two. I mean, I’m not going to contradict the inherent theology here which assumes the spilling over of personal blessing on the king. But subsequent Scripture gives us warrant to believe what we would suspect: that it is not that simple. We don’t have to travel to the New Testament to find challenged the simple assumption that the righteous prosper and the evil suffer. On the contrary there is a good deal of faithful angst over why the opposite happens, even within the psalms.

It is too easy to fall into the assumption that things go well for a person/leader/ruler- whatever, because s/he has the ‘blessing of God’ – while, I guess, those who struggle do not. This is just so wrong. We have no idea what is going in the spiritual realm affecting our endeavours: when troubles are sign of wrong direction or sin somewhere, or is it a test of some kind, evil forces attempting to thwart the Lord’s work, etc, etc. We are just incapable of discerning all this. So what do we do?

1. We don’t presume to judge anyone’s degree of blessing from the Lord, especially our own.
2. We pursue what we prayerfully together discern to be the Lord’s will, to the best of the ability he gives us to do the mission he commands, praying constantly.
3. Trust God for the results.

For whatever you pursue in faith, you can take these words as being directly for you:

The LORD himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.
- Deuteronomy 31:8

Prayer:
Lord, let my constant concern be to do your will, for you alone are my God. In Christ. Amen.