Psalm 21:5

His glory is great in thy salvation: honour and majesty hast thou laid upon him.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Benson Commentary

Psalm 21:5. His glory — His fame or renown, is great in thy salvation — By reason of those great and glorious deliverances which thou hast wrought both for him and by him. Honour and majesty hast thou laid upon him — Or, fitted to him, or upon him, or made adequate to him, as the word תשׁוה, teshav-veh, signifies. Thou hast given him honour and power suitable to his glorious person and high endowments. “What tongue,” says Dr. Horne, “can express the ‘glory, honour, and majesty,’ with which the King of righteousness and peace was invested upon his ascension, when he took possession of the throne prepared for him, and received the homage of heaven and earth! The sacred imagery in St. John’s Revelation sets them before our eyes in such a manner, that no one can read the description whose heart will not burn within him, through impatient desire to behold them.” See Revelation, chapters 4., 7., 19., 21., 22.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

21:1-6 Happy the people whose king makes God's strength his confidence, and God's salvation his joy; who is pleased with all the advancements of God kingdom, and trusts God to support him in all he does for the service of it. All our blessings are blessings of goodness, and are owing, not to any merit of ours, but only to God's goodness. But when God's blessings come sooner, and prove richer than we imagine; when they are given before we prayed for them, before we were ready for them, nay, when we feared the contrary; then it may be truly said that he prevented, or went before us, with them. Nothing indeed prevented, or went before Christ, but to mankind never was any favour more preventing than our redemption by Christ. Thou hast made him to be a universal, everlasting blessing to the world, in whom the families of the earth are, and shall be blessed; and so thou hast made him exceeding glad with the countenance thou hast given to his undertaking, and to him in the prosecution of it. The Spirit of prophecy rises from what related to the king, to that which is peculiar to Christ; none other is blessed for ever, much less a blessing for ever.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

His glory is great in thy salvation - Not in himself; not in anything that he has done, but in what thou hast done. The fact that thou hast saved him, and the manner in which it has been done, has put upon him great honor. He felt indeed that his condition as king, and as to the prospects before him, was one of great "glory" or honor; but he felt at the same time that it was not in "himself," or for anything that he had done: it was only in the ""salvation"" which "God" had conferred upon him. Every child of God, in like manner, has great "glory" conferred upon him, and his "glory" will be great forever; but it is not in himself, or in virtue of anything that he has done. It is "great" in the "salvation" of God:

(a) in the "fact" that God has interposed to save him; and

(b) in the "manner" in which it has been done.

The highest honor that can be put upon man is in the fact that God will save him.

Honour and majesty hast thou laid upon him -

(a) In making him a king;

(b) in the victories and triumphs which thou hast now given him, placing on his head, as it were, a brighter crown;

(c) in the promised perpetuity of his reign.

So we may say of the ransomed sinner - the child of God - now. Honour and majesty have been laid on him:

(a) in the fact that God has redeemed him;

(b) in the manner in which this has been accomplished;

(c) in his adoption into the family of God;

(d) in the rank and dignity which he occupies as a child of God;

(e) in the hope of immortal blessedness beyond the grave.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

4-6. (Compare 2Sa 7:13-16). The glory and blessedness of the king as head of his line, including Christ, as well as in being God's specially selected servant, exceeded that of all others.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

His glory; his fame or renown in the world. In thy salvation; by reason of those great and glorious deliverances which thou hast wrought both for him and by him.

Hast thou laid upon him; or, fitted to him, or upon him, as the Hebrew verb signifies; or, made it adequate to him. Thou hast given him a large and noble soul, very capable of and fit for that high and honourable estate to which thou hast advanced him, and thou hast given him honour and power suitable to so excellent a person, and to such rich endowments.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

His glory is great in thy salvation,.... That is, the glory of the King Messiah is great in the Lord's salvation of him; delivering him from all his troubles and sorrows, and out of the hands of all his enemies, when he was raised from the dead, and was set at the right hand of God, and crowned with glory and honour: or the sense is, that his glory is great in the salvation of his people by him; it was his glory as Mediator to be appointed to be the Lord's salvation to them; and it being effected by him declares the glory and greatness of his person; and the nature of it is such as cannot fast of bringing glory to him; and such is the sense his people have of it, that it obliges them to ascribe the glory of it alone to him;

honour and majesty hast thou laid upon him; which is to be understood not of the honour and majesty of his divine nature, which are essential to him, and not laid upon him by any; nor of the glory which the saints attribute to him on account of their salvation by him; but of that which his Father has put upon him, and lies in the introduction of him into his glory after his sufferings and death, and resurrection from the dead; in exalting him at his right hand above all creatures and things; in giving him all power in heaven and in earth; in putting all the gifts of the Spirit into his hands, which he receiving gave to men, and in ordaining him Judge of quick and dead.

Geneva Study Bible

His glory is great in thy salvation: honour and majesty hast thou laid upon him.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

5. Glory, honour, majesty, are Divine attributes (Psalm 8:1; Psalm 8:5; Psalm 104:1); and the victorious king shines with a reflection of them.

hast thou laid] Rather as R.V., dost thou lay. Cp. Psalm 89:19 for the same word used of Divine endowment.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 5. - His glory is great in thy salvation. David' s glory exceeds that of all other living men, through the "salvation" which God vouchsafes him. That salvation is partly temporal, consisting in deliverance from his foes; partly of an unearthly and spiritual character, arising out of his relationship to the coming Messiah. It is from the latter point of view, rather than the former, that it is said, Honour and majesty hast thou laid upon him. Psalm 21:5

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

(Heb.: 21:6-7) The help of God turns to his honour, and paves the way for him to honour, it enables him-this is the meaning of. Psalm 21:6 - to maintain and strengthen his kingship with fame and glory. שׁוּה על used, as in Psalm 89:20, of divine investiture and endowment. To make blessings, or a fulness of blessing, is a stronger form of expressing God's words to Abram, Genesis 12:2 : thou shalt be a blessing i.e., a possessor of blessing thyself, and a medium of blessing to others. Joy in connection with (את as in Psalm 16:11) the countenance of God, is joy in delightful and most intimate fellowship with Him. חדּה, from חדה, which occurs once in Exodus 18:9, has in Arabic, with reference to nomad life, the meaning "to cheer the beasts of burden with a song and urge them on to a quicker pace," and in Hebrew, as in Aramaic, the general signification "to cheer, enliven."