“O Lord, in your strength the king rejoices, and in your salvation how greatly he exults!” -Psalm 21:1
This Psalm appears to be complementary to Psalm 20. In the preceding, we discovered a corporate form designed to cultivate within the congregation of God’s people a certain earnestness for the preservation of their king. This Psalm is more of a prayer and song of thanksgiving after the battle in which the king was victorious, and that for the salvation of his people.
Ultimately, it is written and preserved by the Holy Spirit to point us to Christ, who is the telos of David’s kingdom. Christ is our head who won the ultimate victory for us, his people, by the salvation of God who raised him from the dead. It is in Christ that we rejoice because “having been buried with him in baptism, in which [we] were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead.” -Colossians 2:12