Psalm 72
Give the king your justice, O God,
and your righteousness to the royal son!
May he judge your people with righteousness,
and your poor with justice!
Let the mountains bear prosperity for the people,
and the hills, in righteousness!
May he defend the cause of the poor of the people,
give deliverance to the children of the needy,
and crush the oppressor!
May they fear you while the sun endures,
and as long as the moon, throughout all generations!
May he be like rain that falls on the mown grass,
like showers that water the earth!
In his days may the righteous flourish,
and peace abound, till the moon be no more!
May he have dominion from sea to sea,
and from the River to the ends of the earth!
May desert tribes bow down before him,
and his enemies lick the dust!
May the kings of Tarshish and of the coastlands
render him tribute;
may the kings of Sheba and Seba
bring gifts!
May all kings fall down before him,
all nations serve him!
For he delivers the needy when he calls,
the poor and him who has no helper.
He has pity on the weak and the needy,
and saves the lives of the needy.
From oppression and violence he redeems their life,
and precious is their blood in his sight.
Long may he live;
may gold of Sheba be given to him!
May prayer be made for him continually,
and blessings invoked for him all the day!
May there be abundance of grain in the land;
on the tops of the mountains may it wave;
may its fruit be like Lebanon;
and may people blossom in the cities
like the grass of the field!
May his name endure forever,
his fame continue as long as the sun!
May people be blessed in him,
all nations call him blessed!
Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel,
who alone does wondrous things.
Blessed be his glorious name forever;
may the whole earth be filled with his glory!
Amen and Amen!
The prayers of David, the son of Jesse, are ended.
What do we do with Psalm 72? That rhymed, by the way. Perhaps you caught that if you are the poetic type.
Now that I have inspired you with my poetry, lets look at what Psalm 72 should mean for us. Here are a few points to organize it all.
1. David is writing and praying for the king, which would be his son, Solomon
This is a little confusing, like when someone says they are both a Vikings and a Packer fan. I know, I should not have brought this up. But you get the point. It can't be both ways. The very beginning tells us this is a Psalm of Solomon and the last verse, 20, tells us it is the prayer of David. Which is it? In part, this Psalm does belong to Solomon but for the record, David is composing this prayer as a dying blessing to Solomon, if you will.
Everything David longs to be true in his son as king should be true for us as well. Let me qualify this since there are all sorts of way you can make shipwreck of that sentence. To be more precise, David shows his longings for a type of king, which we should long for as well. This is a two fold longing that should impress us. David doesn't only tell us what we should long for in a king but the more subtle suggestion is that he is telling us we should long for a king. This is profound. When you consider all of your longings where does this one rank?
3. The prayer provides the rationale for why we should long for this kind of king
Longing for the king of Psalm 72 also means blessing for his people. We see that as the king prospers, the people are blessed. Consider verse 4 "May he defend the cause of the poor of the people, give deliverance to the children of the needy, and crush the oppressor!
4. This is a prophetic Psalm that points to the kingdom of Christ
In this prayer of David we see the heart of a King, the heart of a Christian, and the heart of a Father. We begin to see what David, as God's king, values for his son and God's kingdom through the perspective of a heart in love with God himself. David want's Solomon's reign to be a remembrance of the kingdom of the messiah, something that would be realized when Jesus takes the throne. As a father, David prays his son would be filled with the wisdom and righteousness of God for the work of God.
16 May there be abundance of grain in the land;
on the tops of the mountains may it wave;
may its fruit be like Lebanon;
and may people blossom in the cities
like the grass of the field!
17 May his name endure forever,
his fame continue as long as the sun!
Well, verse 16 was clearly answered in Solomon's reign but verse 17 was to a much lesser extent. In a sense we could say solomon's name has continued but for the most part, he is a distant memory that has faded away. This isn't the case for the sun and it isn't the case for Christ, who will only continue to grow in fame and endurance and relevance, even more than the sun itself.
5. The glory of Christ is highlighted in the failure of man
We see the way David ruled and the way Solomon was blessed and we can see why a godly king is a glory. Yet, we also see their sin and the mess that was also part of their legacy. If nothing else, Jesus' life is one of perfection and we rejoice that he will build a legacy that is/will be both everlasting and untainted. It almost seems too good to be true. Our experience within a sinful world tells us that perfection is never really attainable because we know that if something seems too good to be true, it is. Absolute perfection is a reality in Christ. It is something that will take us eternity to enjoy.
Consider your king. Consider your kingdom.Consider your blessing. And rejoice
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