Verse-by-Verse Bible Commentary
Psalms 21:12

Clarke's Commentary

Verse Psalms 21:12. Therefore shalt thou make them turn their back — God can in a moment strike the most powerful and numerous army, even in the moment of victory, with panic; and then even the lame, the army which they had nearly routed, shall take the prey, and divide the spoil.

Against the face of them. — Thou shalt cause them to turn their backs and fly, as if a volley of arrows had been discharged in their faces. This seems to be the sense of this difficult verse.

Bridgeway Bible Commentary

Psalms 20-21 Before and after battle

These two psalms belong together as a pair. The former is a prayer for the king before he leads the people in battle; the latter, a thanksgiving after victory.
Addressing the king, the people call down God’s power and protection upon him (20:1-2). They pray that God will remember the king’s faithfulness and give him victory (3-5). The king replies that victory is certain, because he has God’s help. God’s power is greater than military might (6-8). In response, the people offer a further plea, brief and urgent, for God’s help (9).

The people join in thanksgiving to God that he has answered their prayer of the previous psalms (see Psalms 20:4). God has given the king his heart’s desire, enabling him to lead his people to victory (21:1-4). Although the king receives glory because of his victory, the glory is not self-centred. It is glory given him by God, in whom he trusts (5-7). Having offered thanks to God, the people turn and address the king. They assure him that through God’s power he will continue to have victory over all his enemies (8-12). King and people then unite in praise to God (13).

Coffman's Commentaries on the Bible

“For they intended evil against thee; They conceived a device which they are not able to perform. For thou wilt make them turn their back; Thou wilt make ready with thy bowstrings against their face.”

There is another side to the character of the Holy Messiah which preachers of the current era have apparently never learned. Our Holy Saviour, the Messiah, is Love Incarnate; he is gentle, loving, patient, long-suffering, and unwilling that any mortal should perish; but he is also the Terrible One, who, upon the occasion of the Second Advent will strike unspeakable terror into the hearts of the wicked. The mightiest sinners on earth will scream for the rocks and the mountains to fall upon them and hide them from the wrath of Him that sitteth upon the throne and from the Lamb (Revelation 6:14 ff).

The Bible teaches that God has appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness by that One whom he raised from the dead; and there is absolutely nothing in the Holy Scriptures that should enable anyone to view that cataclysmic occasion with any emotion except that of fear and apprehension.

The KJV here supplies some extra words: “When thou shalt make ready thine arrows upon thy bowstrings against the face of them.” “By supplying `when’ and `thine arrows,’ the KJV expresses what the psalmist has left to the intelligence of the reader.”The Pulpit Commentary, p. 145.

Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible

Therefore shalt thou make them turn their back - Margin, “Thou shalt set them as a butt.” The word back also is rendered in the margin “shoulder.” The word translated “therefore” means in this placer or, and the rendering “therefore” obscures the sense. The statement in this verse in connection with the previous verse, is, that they would not be able to “perform” or carry out their well-laid schemes, “for” or “because” God would make them turn the back; that is, he had vanquished them. They were going forward in the execution of their purposes, but God would interpose and turn them back, or compel them to “retreat.” The word rendered “back” in this place - שׁכם shekem - means properly “shoulder,” or, more strictly, the “shoulder-blades,” that is, the part where these approach each other behind; and then the upper part of the back. It is not, therefore, incorrectly rendered by the phrase “thou shalt make them turn “the back.”” The expression is equivalent to saying that they would be defeated or foiled in their plans and purposes.

When thou shalt make ready thine arrows upon thy strings - Compare the notes at Psalms 11:2. That is, when God should go forth against them, armed as a warrior.

Against the face of them - Against them; or, in their very front. He would meet them as they seemed to be marching on to certain conquest, and would defeat them. It would not be by a side-blow, or by skillful maneuver, or by turning their flank and attacking them in the rear. Truth meets error boldly, face to face, and is not afraid of a fair fight. In every such conflict error will ultimately yield; and whenever the wicked come openly into conflict with God, they must be compelled to turn and flee.

Calvin's Commentary on the Bible

12.For thou wilt set them as a butt. As the Hebrew word שכם,shekem, which we have rendered a butt, properly signifies a shoulder, some understand it in that sense here, and explain the sentence thus: Their heads shall be smitten with heavy blows, so that having their bodies bended, their shoulders shall appear sticking out. According to these interpreters, the subjugation of the enemies of God is here metaphorically pointed out. But there is another explanation which is more generally received even among the Jewish expositors, namely, that God will shut them up in some corner, and there keep them from doing mischief; ⁽⁴⁹²⁾ and they take this view, because the Hebrew word שכם, shekem, is often used to denote a corner, quarter, or place. As, however, the sacred writer, in the clause immediately following, represents God as furnished with a bow, ready to shoot his arrows directly in their faces, I have no doubt that, continuing his metaphor, he compares them to a butt, or mound of earth, on which it is customary to plant the mark which is aimed at, and thus the sense will flow very naturally thus: Lord, thou wilt make them as it were a butt against which to shoot thine arrows. ⁽⁴⁹³⁾ The great object which the Psalmist has in view is doubtless to teach us to exercise patience, until God, at the fit time, bring the ungodly to their end.

(492) Kimchi and others read, “Thou wilt put them into a corner;” which has been understood in this sense, “Thou wilt thrust them into a corner, and then direct thine arrows against their faces.” — See Poole’s Synopsis Criticorum.

(493) This is the view taken by Ainsworth, Castellio, Cocceius, Diodati, Dathe, Horsley, andFry. Horsley translates the verse thus:—

“Truly thou shalt make them a butt for thine arrows;
Thou shalt take a steady aim against them.”

“I take,” says he, “כונך, [the word which he translates a steady aim, ] to be a technical term of archery, to express the act of taking aim at a particular object.” In our English version it is, Therefore thou shalt make them turn their backs.” In defense of this sense of שכם, shekem, see Merrick’s Annotations. Gesenius takes the word in the same sense. Literally, “thy bow-string.”

Smith's Bible Commentary

Psalms 21:1-13

Again, to the chief musician, the psalm of David.

The king shall joy in thy strength, O LORD; and in thy salvation how greatly shall he rejoice! Thou hast given him his heart's desire, and you have not withheld the requests of his lips ( Psalms 21:1-2 ).

Now the Selah indicates, really, sort of a change of thought. It sort of introduces a new idea. It is just sort of a rest, and then introducing of a new idea, new thought pattern.

For you prevent him with the blessings of goodness: you set a crown of pure gold on his head. He asks for life from thee, and you gave it to him, even the length of days for ever and ever. His glory is great in thy salvation ( Psalms 21:3-5 ):

He is talking about the king's delight in the Lord, and how he was just so gracious for what God has done.

For thou hast made him most blessed for ever: thou hast made him exceeding glad with thy countenance. For the king trusts in the LORD, and through the mercy of the Most High he shall not be moved. Your hand shall find out all your enemies: your right hand shall find out those that hate thee. You will make them as a fiery oven in the time of thine anger: the LORD will swallow them up in his wrath, and the fire shall devour them. Their fruit will you destroy from the earth, and their seed from among the children of men. For they intended evil against thee: they imagined mischievous devices, that they are not able to perform. Therefore thou shalt make them to turn their back, when thou shalt make ready your arrows upon thy strings against the face of them. Be thou exalted, LORD, in your own strength: so will we sing of thy praise and thy power ( Psalms 21:5-13 ). "

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

Psalms 21

This royal psalm of thanksgiving is a companion to the preceding one in that it records David’s thanksgiving for the victory that he anticipated in Psalms 20.

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

2. Anticipation of further blessing 21:8-12

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

Even though David’s enemies opposed him, they would fail. David would make them flee in retreat and would hand them a devastating defeat-described as shooting them in the face with his arrows.

Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible

Therefore shall thou make them turn their back,.... Or flee and run away to private places, to hide themselves from the wrath of God and of the Lamb, though to no purpose; or "make them turn [behind thy] back": God will turn his back upon them, and be negligent and careless of them, and not regard them when they cry in their misery and destruction. Some Jewish interpreters e understand it of their being put together on one side, in one corner, and be separate from the people of God; to which sense the Targum inclines, rendering the word for "back" the "shoulder", which sometimes signifies unanimity and union, Zephaniah 3:9; and thus, being all together by themselves, the wrath of God shall be poured forth upon them, and they shall be destroyed at once: so the Christians were, by the providence of God, brought out of Jerusalem before its destruction; and the saints will be called out of Babylon before its fall; and the goats, the wicked, will be separated from the righteous, and set together at Christ's left hand; for they shall not stand in the congregation of the righteous: but the best sense of the words is, "thou shalt set them [for a] butt" or f "heap"; or, as it is in the Hebrew text, a shoulder; a butt to shoot at being so called, because it is earth heaped up like a shoulder; see Job 16:12; and to this agrees what follows:

[when] thou shalt make ready [thine arrows] upon thy strings against the face of them; that is, direct the arrows of his wrath and vengeance right against them; see Psalms 7:11.

e Kimchi Ben Melech in loc. f תשיתמו שכם "ponis eos metam", Cocceius "humerum", Pagninus, Montanus, Gejerus; "velut tumulum", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator.

Henry's Complete Commentary on the Bible

      7 For the king trusteth in the LORD, and through the mercy of the most High he shall not be moved.   8 Thine hand shall find out all thine enemies: thy right hand shall find out those that hate thee.   9 Thou shalt make them as a fiery oven in the time of thine anger: the LORD shall swallow them up in his wrath, and the fire shall devour them.   10 Their fruit shalt thou destroy from the earth, and their seed from among the children of men.   11 For they intended evil against thee: they imagined a mischievous device, which they are not able to perform.   12 Therefore shalt thou make them turn their back, when thou shalt make ready thine arrows upon thy strings against the face of them.   13 Be thou exalted, LORD, in thine own strength: so will we sing and praise thy power.

      The psalmist, having taught his people to look back with joy and praise on what God had done for him and them, here teaches them to look forward with faith, and hope, and prayer, upon what God would further do for them: The king rejoices in God (Psalms 21:1; Psalms 21:1), and therefore we will be thankful; the king trusteth in God (Psalms 21:7; Psalms 21:7), therefore will we be encouraged. The joy and confidence of Christ our King is the ground of all our joy and confidence.

      I. They are confident of the stability of David's kingdom. Through the mercy of the Most High, and not through his own merit or strength, he shall not be moved. His prosperous state shall not be disturbed; his faith and hope in God, which are the stay of his spirit, shall not be shaken. The mercy of the Most High (the divine goodness, power, and dominion) is enough to secure our happiness, and therefore our trust in that mercy should be enough to silence all our fears. God being at Christ's right hand in his sufferings (Psalms 16:8) and he being at God's right hand in his glory, we may be sure he shall not, he cannot, be moved, but continues ever.

      II. They are confident of the destruction of all the impenitent implacable enemies of David's kingdom. The success with which God had blessed David's arms hitherto was an earnest of the rest which God would give him from all his enemies round about, and a type of the total overthrow of all Christ's enemies who would not have him to reign over them. Observe, 1. The description of his enemies. They are such as hate him, Psalms 21:8; Psalms 21:8. They hated David because God had set him apart for himself, hated Christ because they hated the light; but both were hated without any just cause, and in both God was hated, John 15:23; John 15:25. 2. The designs of his enemies (Psalms 21:11; Psalms 21:11): They intended evil against thee, and imagined a mischievous device; they pretended to fight against David only, but their enmity was against God himself. Those that aimed to un-king David aimed, in effect, to un-God Jehovah. What is devised and designed against religion, and against the instruments God raises up to support and advance it, is very evil and mischievous, and God takes it as devised and designed against himself and will so reckon for it. (3.) The disappointment of them: "They devise what they are not able to perform," Psalms 21:11; Psalms 21:11. Their malice is impotent, and they imagine a vain thing,Psalms 2:1. (4.) The discovery of them (Psalms 21:8; Psalms 21:8): "Thy hand shall find them out. Though ever so artfully disguised by the pretences and professions of friendship, though mingled with the faithful subjects of this kingdom and hardly to be distinguished from them, though flying from justice and absconding in their close places, yet thy hand shall find them out wherever they are." There is no escaping God's avenging eye, no going out of the reach of his hand; rocks and mountains will be no better shelter at last than fig-leaves were at first. (5.) The destruction of them; it will be an utter destruction (Luke 19:27); they shall be swallowed up and devoured, Psalms 21:9; Psalms 21:9. Hell, the portion of all Christ's enemies, is the complete misery both of body and soul. Their fruit and their seed shall be destroyed,Psalms 21:10; Psalms 21:10. The enemies of God's kingdom, in every age, shall fall under the same doom, and the whole generation of them will at last be rooted out, and all opposing rule, principality, and power, shall be put down. The arrows of God's wrath shall confound them and put them to flight, being levelled at the face of them, Psalms 21:12; Psalms 21:12. That will be the lot of daring enemies that face God. The fire of God's wrath will consume them (Psalms 21:9; Psalms 21:9); they shall not only be cast into a furnace of fire (Matthew 13:42), but he shall make them themselves as a fiery oven or furnace; they shall be their own tormentors; the reflections and terrors of their own consciences will be their hell. Those that might have had Christ to rule and save them, but rejected him and fought against him, shall find that even the remembrance of that will be enough to make them, to eternity, a fiery oven to themselves: it is the worm that dies not.

      III. In this confidence they beg of God that he would still appear for his anointed (Psalms 21:13; Psalms 21:13), that he would act for him in his own strength, by the immediate operations of his power as Lord of hosts and Father of spirits, making little use of means and instruments. And, 1. Hereby he would exalt himself and glorify his own name. "We have but little strength, and are not so active for thee as we should be, which is our shame; Lord, take the work into thy own hands, do it, without us, and it will be thy glory." 2. Hereupon they would exalt him: "So will we sing, and praise thy power, the more triumphantly." The less God has of our service when a deliverance is in the working the more he must have of our praises when it is wrought without us.