PREVENTED BY BLESSINGS OF GOODNESS WITH A CROWN OF PURE GOLD

IN THE DAYS OF HIS POWER SERIES.

TOPIC: PREVENTED BY BLESSINGS OF GOODNESS WITH A CROWN OF PURE GOLD

SERMON BY-:
Rev. Innocent Chukwudi Peace-Udochukwu President Living Fountain Ministries Int’l LIFOM

“Thou preventest him with the blessings of goodness: thou settest a crown of pure gold on his head”
(Psalm 21:3).

At first glance, this verse by David is a bit puzzling. The word “prevent” is usually associated with hindrance, not with blessing. A modern translation here would be, “The Lord hindered David with the blessings of goodness.”

The biblical word for “prevent” signifies a completely different meaning. It means “to anticipate, to precede, to foresee and fulfill in advance, to pay a debt before it is due.”
Furthermore, in almost every instance, it implies something of pleasure.

Isaiah gives us a glimpse of this kind of pleasure when he explains that God anticipates our need and fulfills it ahead of time. “It shall come to pass, that before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear” (Isaiah 65:24).

This verse provides us with an incredible picture of our Lord’s love for us. Evidently He is so anxious to bless us, so ready to fulfill His lovingkindness in our lives, that He cannot wait for us to tell Him our needs. He jumps in and performs acts of mercy, grace and love toward us before we even ask—and that is a supreme pleasure to Him.

So this is just what David was saying in Psalm 21:
“Lord, You pour out blessings and lovingkindness on me before I can even ask. And You offer more than I could ever conceive of asking.”

David was referring to some awesome work that God performed for him in the spiritual realm. It was something that gave David answers to prayer, overcoming power, victory over his enemies, and unspeakable joy. And God did it all before David could go to prayer to unburden his heart or present his request. Once David finally did pour out his heart, he discovered that God had already made provision to defeat his enemies. David’s victory was assured before he could even get near the battlefield!

David here speaks for himself in the first place, professing that his joy was in God’s strength and in his salvation, and not in the strength or success of his armies. He also directs his subjects herein to rejoice with him, and to give God all the glory of the victories he had obtained; and all with an eye to Christ, of whose triumphs over the powers of darkness David’s victories were but shadows.

Thou preventest him with the blessings of goodness. All our blessings are blessings of goodness, and are owing, not at all to any merit of ours, but purely and only to God’s goodness. But the psalmist here reckons it in a special manner obliging that these blessings were given in a preventing way; this fixed his eye, enlarged his soul, and endeared his God, as one expresses it. 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 us with them. Nothing indeed prevented Christ, but to mankind never was any favour more preventing than our redemption by Christ and all the blessed fruits of his mediation.

“For You meet him with the blessings of goodness; You set a crown of pure gold upon his head.”
Psalm 21:3

It was certainly true that God went before David with blessings, and that David recognized and praised Him for it. Yet often it did not seem like that in the many long years between his anointing for the throne as a young man and when he finally took the throne of Israel.

“You set a crown of pure gold upon his head:
David wore the crown both of the throne of Israel – God’s special nation – and the crown of victory. Its nature of pure gold shows how special the nation and the victory were.

It was undeniably true of King David that he let God put the crown on his head. Though in some sense he had the right and the reasons to forcibly take the crown from Saul, he waited for God to place it upon his head.

“For thou preventest him with the blessings of goodness.”
The word prevent formerly signified to precede or go before, and assuredly Jehovah preceded his Son with blessings. Before he died saints were saved by the anticipated merit of his death, before he came believers saw his day and were glad, and he himself had his delights with the sons of men. The Father is so willing to give blessings through his Son, that instead of his being constrained to bestow his grace, he outstrips the Mediatorial march of mercy. “I say not that I will pray the Father for you, for the Father himself loveth you.” Before Jesus calls the Father answers, and while he is yet speaking he hears. Mercies may be bought with blood, but they are also freely given. The love of Jehovah is not caused by the Redeemer’s sacrifice, but that love, with its blessings of goodness, preceded the great atonement, and provided it for our salvation. Reader, it will be a happy thing for thee if, like thy Lord, thou canst see both providence and grace preceding thee, forestalling thy needs, and preparing thy path. Mercy, in the case of many of us, ran before our desires and prayers, and it ever outruns our endeavours and expectancies, and even our hopes are left to lag behind. Prevenient grace deserves a song; we may make one out of this sentence; let us try. All our mercies are to be viewed as “blessings;” gifts of a blessed God, meant to make us blessed; they are “blessings of goodness,” not of merit, but of free favour; and they come to us in a preventing way, a way of prudent foresight, such as only preventing love could have arranged. In this light the verse is itself a sonnet!
“Thou settest a crown of pure gold on his head.” Jesus wore the thorn-crown, but now wears the glory-crown. It is a “crown,” indicating royal nature, imperial power, deserved honour, glorious conquest, and divine government. The crown is of the richest, rarest, most resplendent, and most lasting order—​”gold,” and that gold of the most refined and valuable sort, “pure gold,” to indicate the excellence of his dominion. This crown is set upon his head most firmly, and whereas other monarchs find their diadems fitting loosely, his is fixed so that no power can move it, for Jehovah himself has set it upon his brow. Napoleon crowned himself, but Jehovah crowned the Lord Jesus; the empire of the one melted in an hour, but the other has an abiding dominion. Some versions read, “a crown of precious stones;” this may remind us of those beloved ones who shall be as jewels in his crown, of whom he has said, “They shall be mine in the day when I make up my jewels.” May we be set in the golden circlet of the Redeemer’s glory, and adorn his head for ever!

SHALOM!

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