The Ohio Independent Baptist, April 1971

salm auh A nrm By Ralph T. Nordlund (Read Psalm XXI in your Bible first) King David joyed in Israel' God of power, And in alvation from defeat in war; Gave thank for an wered prayer in danger's hour And e en a ked for li fe for evermore. Rejoice, thy heart desire is blossoming For Christ i ri en an eternal King ! King David ang of blessings on ahead Waiting to welcome him with golden crown; Of honor and of maje ty unlimited To lay upon him as a royal gown. Rejoice, thou forebea r of a greater Son With resurrection glories just begun! King David tood unmoved in armored might, And confident of further victories; Convinced that in his battles for the right The hand of God would slay his enemies. Rejoice , for oon the wars of earth shall cease: The risen Christ returns as King of Peace! A s Spurgeon called the T,ventieth Psalm a national anthem to be sung in time of war, he called the Twenty– first "The Royal Triumphal Ode. " All of us can see this connection between the two. God did hear David in his BAPTIST BIBLE COLLEGE OF PENNSYLVANIA I ''Holding fast the Iaithful Word" 0 0 0 0 0 - :ti - < - 14 APRIL, 1971 prayer for victory, and so the Twenty-first Psalm was written in grateful and joyful acknowledgment. He be– lieved that the redeemed ought to say so. If we felt it was appropriate to read Christ into the first of these two psalms, we must do so in the second. It may be true that ancient kings loved to make extrava– gant claims, and sycophants around their thrones would even cry "Thou art divine and shall live forever!" but we cannot believe that David was thinking of himself in much of what he says in this psalm. He must have risen above the joy of his own victory to think of his real heart's desire, that of the fruit of his loins Messiah would come and reign forever! It was He who would find out all of the Lord's enemies and destroy the destroyers. At least he did put himself among his victorious people and sing to the Lord ·'We will sing and praise thy power." The personal and prophetic rightly mingle ia David's psalms, for he was a type of Christ, as well as His an– cestor. With that in mind, we have written our poem as if we were rejoicing with D avid, but also reminding him that the real victory will come in the resurrection of his greater Son . David won earthly victories by escaping death on the battlefield; but Christ won a spiritual victory by going through the valley of death and emerging on the other side as our risen Lord and coming King . We Changed Our Name • • • - BUT ONLY to make clear who we are. Be- cause of our surname, ' 'Seminary,' ' fre– quent requests come to us for our graduate school catalog. Let us remind you that we are an undergraduate Bible college . . . Baptist and Biblical. Though we have change.d our surname, you can still depend upon the same high standards of training and conduct you have come to expect of our graduates these past thirty-eight years when we were– known as Baptist Bible Seminary. Official use of our new name will begin July 1st. - THE OHIO INDEPENDENT BAPTIST •