Psalm 21: Praise After The Victory

You made it through the hard thing, but did you remember to thank God on the other side? Psalm 21 has a surprising kind of power: it teaches us how to praise after the victory, after the stress, and after the moment we thought might break us. 

I’m Pastor Brandon, and on the Bible Breakdown Podcast we go one chapter a day, keeping Bible study simple, honest, and practical. Psalm 21 pairs perfectly with Psalm 20. Yesterday was the prayer you pray before the battle; today is what you do after the meeting ends, after the baby arrives, after the wedding day finally slows down, or after you survive a tense season at work. This chapter gives words for Christian gratitude that doesn’t ignore the flaws but refuses to miss the faithfulness of God. 

We read the Psalm together and talk about a “post event autopsy” style review, then we add what many of us skip: inviting God into the reflection so we can think clearly, celebrate what was good, and build hope for what comes next. You’ll hear a simple nightly challenge you can try today, plus a closing prayer to help you notice the good God is doing more than you realize. 

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Transcript

Welcome And Daily Bible Rhythm

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Hey everyone and welcome to the Bible Breakdown Podcast. In this podcast, we will be breaking down the Bible one chapter a day. Whether you are a new believer or have been following Christ for a while, we believe that you will learn something new and fresh every single day. So thank you for joining us and let's get into breaking down the Bible together.

SPEAKER_01 0:23

Well hello everybody. Welcome back to the Bible Breakdown Podcast with your host, Pastor Brandon. Today, Psalm chapter 21. Today's title is Praise After the Victory. Praise after the victory. If you're with us yesterday, it was all about praying and asking God for protection, for guidance and support before a battle. Well, then what I love about God's word is He God wants us to do life with him in all things. So we pray before we go into a battle or a difficulty. This one's about, okay, what happens after the meeting or after the difficulty? God wants to be part of all of it. And this Psalm will help us to know how to relate to God even in those times. And so if you're ready, get your Bible open with me to Psalm 21, get you Bible journals, get you coffee. Also, as always, make sure you take just a second, like, share, and subscribe to the YouTube channel and the podcast. Make sure you leave us a five-star review on the podcast. It really does help. And make sure you're going to the Bible breakdown discussion on Facebook. There's an amazing group of people doing a wonderful job there every day. And you can get all that information by going to the Biblebreakdown.com because more we dig, the more we find.

Why Psalm 21 Matters Afterward

SPEAKER_01 1:31

Well, once again, if you've been with us, the book of Psalms could be called a soundtrack for life, because this is the greatest hits of the people of God, all the way from the time of Moses to the time of Malachi. And it is going through the different seasons and times of God. And these are the songs that the Holy Spirit caused to rise to the top to help us know how to relate to God. Because just like how, you know, people have said that songs are the way our heart speaks what it feels, that's what these are. These songs in the book of Psalms help us understand how to speak our heart to God. Yesterday we talked about how in Psalm 20, it's all about right before you go into the battle, you know what I mean? Go into the difficult thing. And we talked about how it doesn't necessarily have to be a bad thing, just a stressful thing. Like the day before a wedding is so stressful because it's just, it's a big event, right? The the day before you go, like if you're gonna have your uh, you're gonna be in induced and you're gonna have a baby, that's stressful because of just the unknowns and all the different things. There's just so many things. But no matter what, Psalm 20 was how to prepare your heart to go through whatever that difficult thing is going to be with God. But here's the thing: what do you do afterward? You know, one of the things that um as a pastor, I do with my staff after we have an event is we do what we call an autopsy. And that means we talk about what was good, what was bad, what was confusing, what needs to be adjusted, just all of that because we want to make sure that we think clearly about what happened. We want to just make sure that we are thinking clearly, right? Well, how many times after we experience something do we go to God and ask God, help me think clearly about what has happened? And that's what this psalm is all about. It's about thanking God, but also remembering that God doesn't want us just to be with him in the battle, but he wants us to be with him afterward as well. So let's read this together and just see if maybe it gives us a different way of looking at what to do after a difficult or even successful moment in

Reading Psalm 21 Victory Praise

SPEAKER_01 3:39

our life. Here we go. Psalm 21, verse 1 says this How the king rejoices in your strength, O Lord. He shouts with joy because you get give him victory. You have given him his heart's desire, and you have withheld nothing he requested. You welcomed him back with success and prosperity. You placed a crown of finest gold on his head. He asked you to preserve his life, and you were granted his request. The days of his life stretch on forever. Your victory brings him great honor. You have clothed him with splendor and majesty. You have endowed him with eternal blessings and given him the joy of your presence. For the king's trust is in the Lord, the unfailing love of the Most High will keep him from stumbling. You will capture all your enemies, your strong right hand will seize all who hate you. You will throw them in a flaming furnace when you appear. The Lord will consume them in his anger. Fire will devour them. You will wipe their children from the face of the earth, and they will never have descendants. Although they plot against you, their schemes will never succeed. For they will turn and run when they see your arrows aimed at them. Rise up, O Lord, in all your power. With music and singing, we celebrate your mighty acts.

Celebrate The Good After Stress

SPEAKER_01 5:04

Wow. So what sorry about that sniff. So what God's word is saying is, is when you go through those difficult things and you come out on the other side, don't forget to celebrate with the Lord. Don't forget to take a moment and remember God was with you through that. It's just like how one of the things that we do, well, I was telling you about after a big event, one of the things we'll do is we will sit around the table and we will just go over all the good things that happen. Because if you're if you're like me, I will constantly look at stuff and go, okay, how can we make that better? How could we do this differently? How can we adjust this next time? And so it's an act of discipline for me, honestly, to sit and go, what was good? What was helpful? What worked? You know, all these kinds of things. And if we're not careful, a lot of times, after we make it through something, and it didn't have to be bad, it's just something that was, you know, that was stressful or whatever. Like once again, a birth is a good thing, uh, marriage is a good thing, first day on the new job, those are good things, but they're still stressful. But on the other side of it, pause and go, you know what, God, I'm just so thankful. Thank you for being with me. Thank you for the giving me the opportunity to be part of something like that. I'm curious, how would our lives look if instead of going from one battle to the next, if we had pauses after every one and just had celebrations? Just had a celebration with God. God, I'm so thankful. Yeah, it wasn't perfect. Yeah, that there's things I'm gonna do differently next time, but I made it. I'm on the other side. Thank you, God, for bringing me through another

Tonight’s Gratitude Challenge And Prayer

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day. Here's my challenge for you today. What if today, no matter when you're listening to this, whatever you call the end of your day today, right before you go to bed, no matter what happens, what if you take just a moment and say, God, yes, there are things I wish I would have done differently today. I just wish I had things I wish I hadn't said, places I wish I hadn't gone, whatever. But I am so thankful I got to do this day with you. And take a moment and just rehearse some of the good things that the Lord did. And watch how not only does it change your view of the day, but also watch how it gives you hope for the coming day. No matter what you face, you're not gonna face it alone. Just like you didn't face today alone, each day is a new adventure with God. Let's pray together right now. God, thank you so much for today. Thank you, God, that you are with us and that you are for us. Thank you, God, that you're always doing more in us than we can imagine. I pray, Lord, that today when we take the challenge of just celebrating you, you'll open our eyes to see so many more good things you are doing than we realize. And it will give us the hope and the confidence to never give up. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. And amen. Well, God's word says in Psalm 34, verse 1, say with me, I will bless the Lord at all times. His praise shall continually be in my mouth. I love you. I'll see you tomorrow for Psalm chapter 22.