Psalms 20-21
Dear RTB’ers,
Psalms 20-21 together are a bit confusing. As I first read Psalm 20, I read it as David praying for his men – and by association, for us. So I silently claimed these first five verses for myself (and us!). Then verse 6 points to David, “the anointed”, with verse 9a locking in that acclimation: O LORD, save the king! Then the first five verses, re-read, point also to David. Ah well. Still, I claimed them for myself and us!! Whatever blessings the Lord has for David, I’m sure that He has them for us also! [NOTE: Looking back at my 2022 post, I also claimed those verses for myself and Carol! 😊!]
Then, reading Psalm 21, my Study Bible clearly tied Psalms 20 and 21 together, with the people and the priests praying for David in both Psalms. The tone of the Psalm 21 is set in the first verse: LORD, in Your strength the king will be glad, and in Your salvation how greatly he will rejoice! This theme then continues through verse 7. But beginning in the 8th verse, I saw the “you” pronouns as referring to the Lord (deific pronouns are not capitalized in the ESV): your enemies (v. 8a); those who hate you (v. 8b); your anger (v. 9a). Nor were they capitalized in the NASB, which goes against my seeing those verses as meaning the Lord. Then beginning in verse 10 and continuing, the NASB has the “you” pronouns capitalized. So, in the end and with the recognition that I am not a Bible scholar, I’ll still read verses 8 and 9 as referring to the Lord and His enemies. [As an aside (or actually strengthening my comments), in 2022 Kathy H. posted the following comments: “This part of the Psalm brings to mind Romans 1:30,31,32 …haters of God…worthy of death… And Romans 8:22, For we know that the whole of creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now. It is not an easy thing to live in this world with people indifferent to God and very difficult with haters of God.”] Thank you, Kathy. Two of us can be wrong together!!
What did I say at the outset? Confusing!!
Blessings!