1 O LORD, the king rejoices in your strength.
How great is his joy in the victories you give!

2 You have granted him the desire of his heart
and have not withheld the request of his lips.
Selah

3 You welcomed him with rich blessings
and placed a crown of pure gold on his head.

4 He asked you for life, and you gave it to him—
length of days, for ever and ever.

5 Through the victories you gave, his glory is great;
you have bestowed on him splendor and majesty.

6 Surely you have granted him eternal blessings
and made him glad with the joy of your presence.

7 For the king trusts in the LORD;
through the unfailing love of the Most High
he will not be shaken.

8 Your hand will lay hold on all your enemies;
your right hand will seize your foes.

9 At the time of your appearing
you will make them like a fiery furnace.
In his wrath the LORD will swallow them up,
and his fire will consume them.

10 You will destroy their descendants from the earth,
their posterity from mankind.

11 Though they plot evil against you
and devise wicked schemes, they cannot succeed;

12 for you will make them turn their backs
when you aim at them with drawn bow.

13 Be exalted, O LORD, in your strength;
we will sing and praise your might.

This psalm is considered a companion to psalm 20 where the psalmist is requesting answers and later in this psalm is a little further along and is now basking in the sunshine of the Lord's glorious presence and rich blessings.

Verse 3 in the New Oxford Annotated Bible gives a translation of rich blessings rather than blessings of goodness.

A major theme in this psalm is that these blessings, while present in the here and now to the psalmist will be ongoing and extend into eternity and in a sense they go forward into eternity but also extend backwards from the eternal to the present so in actuality the Psalmist is seeing the presence of the eternal in the at hand blessings in the midst of his lifetime.

Verse 4 speaks of salvation and verse 5 speaks of blessings forever. The NIV translation of verse 6 says,  6 Surely you have granted him eternal blessings
and made him glad with the joy of your presence.

The point of pondering using this psalm is the meeting with the Lord within blessings of goodness, the rich blessings, or abundant blessing as mentioned in verse 3. He is welcomed or met with rich blessings. Even in the case of the Prodigal Son, he is welcomed back with not only a greeting but new rich blessings. While the psalmist here isn't prodigal, he is still met in the fashion of being given rich blessings. The welcoming or meeting is ongoiing and the rich blessings are ongoing.

The personal meeting with the Lord is thematic to the psalms as a whole.

With the idea of meeting, we can begin to obtain a view of the balance of the relationship and that is certainly doesn't qualify as beggarly. The Prodigal Son did become beggarly in his meanderings as he had squandered his inheritance. However, when he met with his Father and came back, there was never a hint of earning he way back, the balance of the relationship was immediately restored and he was welcomed or met with rich blessings right away.

while the vision of meeting with the Lord may not contain Prodigal in your case, the balance of the true relationship can be pondered and seen in a greater light as it can be seen with deeper meaning and clarity..

This psalm strongly alludes to the personal encounter for better or worse and later in this psalm it is talking about those who are working evil against the policies of the Lord, yet the Lord does see the individual faces of those who are involved in this..

Try to image this, visualize this, ponder this meeting. If indeed you are seeking blessings from the Lord, it will as in the case of the psalmist David, involve a meeting with the Lord. He was welcomed with rich blessings, it is not as it the blessings were dropped off like a plane might drop of aid to an area of the world that needs help today. The blessings were part of the meeting and the personal encounter with the joyful presence of the Lord. They did not come from a seperate sphere.

Don't be attached to  what the rich and good blessings will be, but they will characterize as rich and good. The focus should be first on the meeting and welcoming which will interwine with the blessings. If you are meeting a friend you enjoy, first you are meeting them and the blessings are more of an adjunct to this meeting.

There would be a timeless element. You might be mired in your current circumstances, but the Lord is the lover of your soul, and this meeting could be imagined in another century, another era, another location, another set of circumstances that are quite different than what you are presently facing.

Separate from all this and ponder the Lord is meeting you. The joyful presence of the Lord vastly supersedes your present circumstances and may override them only for good..

There are rich blessings and blessings of goodness within this meeting and there can be a detachment as to what you think they could be but an understanding towards what they actually are and what they signify in the joyful presence of the Lord.

There might be an incorrect view and what could or would be a better view becomes a source of speculation and maybe hope.

View what the balance of the relationship is. When you adjust the rear view mirror of a car, you are trying to get the most accurate view of what you are passing by as you proceed down the road.. Ask the Lord to give a mirror to this meeting with you so that you can see its truth and meaning in greater depth.

The view is not as much to the attached blessings as to the meeting itself.

The later verses of this psalm talk about the Lord beholding the face of the evildoer.

The face of evil is not hidden in the crowd either. The presence of the Lord is everywhere and to everyone, and to the face of the one.

The side of the riverbanks that the psalmist David is on is a personal journey and meeting with the Lord that carries the richest blessings extending all the way into eternity and this is the model of hope presented in this psalm.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/advertising-articles/rich-blessings-and-psalm-21-1942281.html

Author: Joseph Jagde