Psalm 21:8

Thine hand shall find out all thine enemies: thy right hand shall find out those that hate thee.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(8) Thine.—The psalm has hitherto been addressed to Jehovah. It now turns in prophetic strain to the king.

Benson Commentary

Psalm 21:8-9. Thy hand shall find out all thine enemies — When they seek to hide themselves, or flee away from thee, thy hand shall discover, overtake, and destroy them. Thou shalt make them as a fiery oven — Hebrew, תשׁיתמו כתנור אשׁ, teshithemo chetannur esh, thou shalt put them, as it were, into an oven of fire. The Lord shall swallow them up — Destroy them. Thus, Psalm 2:9, Thou shalt bruise them with a rod of iron, &c., which prediction, and those contained in these verses, particularly relate to the unbelieving Jews. Compare Malachi 4:1; Psalm 2:2-4; Psalm 109:13-15.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

21:7-13 The psalmist teaches to look forward with faith, and hope, and prayer upon what God would further do. The success with which God blessed David, was a type of the total overthrow of all Christ's enemies. Those who might have had Christ to rule and save them, but rejected him and fought against him, shall find the remembrance of it a worm that dies not. God makes sinners willing by his grace, receives them to his favour, and delivers them from the wrath to come. May he exalt himself, by his all-powerful grace, in our hearts, destroying all the strong-holds of sin and Satan. How great should be our joy and praise to behold our Brother and Friend upon the throne, and for all the blessings we may expect from him! yet he delights in his exalted state, as enabling him to confer happiness and glory on poor sinners, who are taught to love and trust in him.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Thine hand shall find out - That is, Thou wilt find out - the hand being that by which we execute our purposes. This verse commences a new division of the psalm (see the introduction) - in which the psalmist looks forward to the complete and final triumph of God over "all" his enemies. He looks to this in connection with what God had done for him. He infers that he who had enabled him to achieve such signal conquests over his own foes and the foes of God would not withdraw his interposition until he had secured a complete victory for the cause of truth and holiness. In connection with the promise made to him respecting his permanent reign and the reign of his successors on the throne Psalm 21:4, he infers that God would ultimately subdue the enemies of truth, and would set up his kingdom over all.

All thine enemies - However they may attempt to conceal themselves - however they may evade the efforts to subdue them - yet they shall "all" be found out and overcome. As this was intended by the Spirit of inspiration, it undoubtedly refers to the final triumph of truth on the earth, or to the fact that the kingdom of God will be set up over all the world. All that are properly ranked among the enemies of God - all that are in any way opposed to him and to his reign - will be found out and conquered. All the worshippers of idols - all the enemies of truth - all the rejecters of revelation - all the workers of iniquity, - all that are infidels or scoffers - shall be found out and subdued. Either by being made to yield to the claims of truth, and thus becoming the friends of God, or by being cut off and punished for their sins - they will be all so overcome that God shall reign over all the earth. An important truth is further taught here, to wit, that no enemy of God can escape him. There is no place to which he can flee where God will not find him. "There is no darkness, nor shadow of death, where the workers of iniquity may hide themselves," Job 34:22.

Thy right hand - See the notes at Psalm 17:7.

Those that hate thee - All thine enemies.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

8. The address is now made to the king.

hand—denotes power, and

right hand—a more active and efficient degree of its exercise.

find out—reach, lay hold of, indicating success in pursuit of his enemies.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

When they seek to hide themselves or flee away from thee, shall discover, and overtake, and destroy them. Or, shall be sufficient (as this verb sometimes signifies, as Numbers 11:22 Judges 21:14) for all thine enemies, to wit, to conquer them; thou shalt need no foreign succours to help thee.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Thine hand shall find out all thine enemies,.... The Jews, that would not have him to reign over them, who crucified him and persecuted his apostles; the Gentiles, who were also concerned in his death; the Roman emperors, who persecuted the Christians, and are signified by the red dragon that waited to devour the man child when brought forth by the woman, the church, Revelation 12:3; and also the Papists, the followers of the man of sin, who oppose Christ in his offices and grace, and are the enemies of his witnesses, and of his interest; and besides these there are many professors of religion who are enemies of Christ, either doctrinally or practically; to whom may be added, the devil and his angels, and all those who are the children of him and are influenced by him: these the hand of Christ will find out sooner or later; for the words are an address to the King Messiah, who being omniscient knows where all his enemies are, and where to find them; and being omnipotent he will lay hold upon them, and hold them, and none shall escape from him; his hand of vengeance shall fall upon them, and he shall inflict righteous and deserved punishment on them; and this shall be the case of "all" of them, none will be able to hide themselves in secret places from him. This has been in part verified in the Jewish nation at the destruction of Jerusalem, when wrath came upon that people to the uttermost for their treatment of the Messiah; and in the Pagan empire, when it was demolished, and kings and great men in vain called to the rocks and mountains to hide them from the wrath of the Lamb, Revelation 6:15; and will have a further accomplishment in the antichristian states and kingdoms, when the vials of God's wrath shall be poured out upon them; and especially at the battle of Armageddon, when Christ will avenge himself, and get rid of all his enemies at once; and will have its final accomplishment in all wicked men and devils at the day of judgment, when all Christ's enemies will be found out by him, whether open or secret, and receive their just punishment;

thy right hand shall find out those that hate thee; this is the same with the former clause, and is repeated for the further certainty and greater confirmation of the thing; and "the right hand" is mentioned as expressive of the mighty power of the Lord. The Chaldee paraphrase renders it, "the vengeance of thy right hand".

Geneva Study Bible

{e} Thine hand shall find out all thine enemies: thy right hand shall find out those that hate thee.

(e) Here he describes the power of Christ's kingdom against the enemies of it.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

8. shall find out] Reach them and get them into thy power (1 Samuel 23:17).

8–12. The king, who must be supposed to be present, is now addressed. This victory is an earnest of future victories. The total destruction of all his enemies is confidently anticipated.

Pulpit Commentary

Verses 8-12. - In this second portion of the psalm, the people address themselves to David, anticipating future glories for him. "Having shown what God would do for his anointed, the psalm now describes what the latter shall accomplish through Divine assistance" (Alexander). Past success is taken as a guarantee of victory over all other enemies. Verse 8. - Thine hand shall find out all thine enemies; i.e. "shall reach them, attain them, punish them" (comp. 1 Samuel 31:3). Thy right hand (the hand of greater power) shall find out those that hate thee; and, of' course, punish them severely. Psalm 21:8

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

(Heb.: 21:8-9) With this strophe the second half of the Psalm commences. The address to God is now changed into an address to the king; not, however, expressive of the wishes, but of the confident expectation, of the speakers. Hengstenberg rightly regards Psalm 21:8 as the transition to the second half; for by its objective utterance concerning the king and God, it separates the language hitherto addressed to God, from the address to the king, which follows. We do not render Psalm 21:8: and trusting in the favour of the Most High - he shall not be moved; the mercy is the response of the trust, which (trust) does not suffer him to be moved; on the expression, cf. Proverbs 10:30. This inference is now expanded in respect to the enemies who desire to cause him to totter and fall. So far from any tottering, he, on the contrary, makes a victorious assault upon his foes. If the words had been addressed to Jahve, it ought, in order to keep up the connection between Psalm 21:9 and Psalm 21:8, at least to have been איביו and שׁנאיו (his, i.e., the king's, enemies). What the people now hope on behalf of their king, they here express beforehand in the form of a prophecy. מצא ל (as in Isaiah 10:10) and מצא seq. acc. (as in 1 Samuel 23:17) are distinguished as: to reach towards, or up to anything, and to reach anything, attain it. Supposing ל to represent the accusative, as e.g., in Psalm 69:6, Psalm 21:9 would be a useless repetition.