Psalm 21:3
 Psalm 21:3 
New International Version (©2011)
You came to greet him with rich blessings and placed a crown of pure gold on his head.

New Living Translation (©2007)
You welcomed him back with success and prosperity. You placed a crown of finest gold on his head.

English Standard Version (©2001)
For you meet him with rich blessings; you set a crown of fine gold upon his head.

New American Standard Bible (©1995)
For You meet him with the blessings of good things; You set a crown of fine gold on his head.

King James Bible (Cambridge Ed.)
For thou preventest him with the blessings of goodness: thou settest a crown of pure gold on his head.

Holman Christian Standard Bible (©2009)
For You meet him with rich blessings; You place a crown of pure gold on his head.

International Standard Version (©2012)
You go before him with wonderful blessings, and put a crown of fine gold on his head.

NET Bible (©2006)
For you bring him rich blessings; you place a golden crown on his head.

Aramaic Bible in Plain English (©2010)
Because the blessing of goodness went before him and you have set a precious crown upon his head.

GOD'S WORD® Translation (©1995)
You welcomed him with the blessings of good things and set a crown of fine gold on his head.

King James 2000 Bible (©2003)
For you meet him with the blessings of goodness: you set a crown of pure gold on his head.

American King James Version
For you prevent him with the blessings of goodness: you set a crown of pure gold on his head.

American Standard Version
For thou meetest him with the blessings of goodness: Thou settest a crown of fine gold on his head.

Douay-Rheims Bible
For thou hast prevented him with blessings of sweetness: thou hast set on his head a crown of precious stones.

Darby Bible Translation
For thou hast met him with the blessings of goodness; thou hast set a crown of pure gold on his head.

English Revised Version
For thou preventest him with the blessings of goodness: thou settest a crown of fine gold on his head.

Webster's Bible Translation
For thou hast met him with the blessings of goodness: thou hast set a crown of pure gold on his head.

World English Bible
For you meet him with the blessings of goodness. You set a crown of fine gold on his head.

Young's Literal Translation
For Thou puttest before him blessings of goodness, Thou settest on his head a crown of fine gold.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

21:1-6 Happy the people whose king makes God's strength his confidence, and God's salvation his joy; who is pleased with all the advancements of God kingdom, and trusts God to support him in all he does for the service of it. All our blessings are blessings of goodness, and are owing, not to any merit of ours, but only to God's goodness. But 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, or went before us, with them. Nothing indeed prevented, or went before Christ, but to mankind never was any favour more preventing than our redemption by Christ. Thou hast made him to be a universal, everlasting blessing to the world, in whom the families of the earth are, and shall be blessed; and so thou hast made him exceeding glad with the countenance thou hast given to his undertaking, and to him in the prosecution of it. The Spirit of prophecy rises from what related to the king, to that which is peculiar to Christ; none other is blessed for ever, much less a blessing for ever.


Pulpit Commentary

Verse 3. - For thou preventest him with the blessings of goodness; i.e. thou givest him blessings before he asks, and more than he asks.. "The blessings of goodness" is pleonastic, since a blessing cannot be otherwise than a good. Thou settest a crown of pure gold on his head. It is remarked that David, as the result of one of his wars, did actually take the crown of the conquered king, which was a crown of gold, from off the king' s head, and place it upon his own head (2 Samuel 12:30); but this is scarcely what is intended here. As Hengstenberg observes, "The setting on of the crown marks the bestowment of dominion," not in one petty ease only, but generally, and is scarcely to be altogether separated from the promises recorded in 2 Samuel 7:12-16.


Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

For thou preventest him with the blessings of goodness,.... Not temporal, but spiritual blessings, which spring from the grace and goodness of God, and consist of it; and relate to the spiritual and eternal welfare of those for whose sake he receives them, and who are blessed with them in him: his being "prevented" with them denotes the freeness of the donation of them; that before he could well ask for them, or before he had done requesting them, they were given him; and also the earliness of the gift of them, they were put into his hands before his incarnation, before he was manifest in the flesh, even from the foundation of the world, and before the world began, Ephesians 1:3, 2 Timothy 1:9, and likewise the order in which they were given; first to Christ, and then to his people in him, as the passages referred to show;

thou settest a crown of pure gold on his head; which is expressive of his victory over all enemies, sin, Satan, and the world, death and hell; and of his being possessed of his throne and kingdom; and has respect to his exaltation at the right hand of God, where he is crowned with glory and honour: and this crown being of "pure gold" denotes the purity, glory, solidity, and perpetuity of his kingdom; this is a crown, not which believers put upon him by believing in him, and ascribing the glory of their salvation to him, or what the church, called his mother, has crowned him with, Sol 3:11, but which his father put upon him, who has set him King over his holy hill of Zion, Psalm 2:6; compare with this Revelation 14:14. The Septuagint and Vulgate Latin versions read "a crown of a precious stone"; and so Apollinarius; and seem to refer to the crown set on David's head, which had precious stones in it, 2 Samuel 12:30; Josephus (x) says it had a sardonyx. Fortunatus Scacchus (y) fancies the topaz is meant, and that the Hebrew text should be read "a crown of topaz"; mistaking the sense of the word "phaz", which never signifies a topaz, but the best gold, pure solid gold.

(x) Antiqu. l. 7. c. 7. s. 5. (y) Elaeochrism. Sacr. l. 3. c. 40. p. 1003.


Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

3. preventest—literally, "to meet here in good sense," or "friendship" (Ps 59:10; compare opposite, Ps 17:13).

blessings of goodness—which confer happiness.

crown of pure gold—a figure for the highest royal prosperity.


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The King Rejoices in Your Strength!
1The king shall joy in your strength, O LORD; and in your salvation how greatly shall he rejoice! 2You have given him his heart's desire, and have not withheld the request of his lips. Selah. 3For you prevent him with the blessings of goodness: you set a crown of pure gold on his head.

Revelation 14:14 I looked, and there before me was a white cloud, and seated on the cloud was one like a son of man with a crown of gold on his head and a sharp sickle in his hand.
2 Samuel 12:30 David took the crown from their king's head, and it was placed on his own head. It weighed a talent of gold, and it was set with precious stones. David took a great quantity of plunder from the city
Psalm 59:10 my God on whom I can rely. God will go before me and will let me gloat over those who slander me.
Psalm 79:8 Do not hold against us the sins of past generations; may your mercy come quickly to meet us, for we are in desperate need.
Psalm 132:18 I will clothe his enemies with shame, but his head will be adorned with a radiant crown."
Zechariah 6:11 Take the silver and gold and make a crown, and set it on the head of the high priest, Joshua son of Jozadak.