Psalm 72 - A Psalm For A King

Hello, and welcome back to the final episode of Tabernacle Talk in Book 2 of Psalms. We are in Psalm 72 today.

This is a coronation psalm. Maybe. It is a song that the inscription says it's of Solomon, and the very ending of the psalm says, the prayers of David, son of Jesse, are concluded.

So this might be a psalm that David wrote for Solomon as he was becoming king.

This may also have been some things that David had said to Solomon as he was going to be ascending the throne, that then Solomon put it to music or put it in the particular kind of Hebrew poetic structure, but then gave the disclaimer at the end of

it, okay, really, all this stuff is from my dad. So it doesn't super specify whether Solomon entirely wrote it or if David entirely wrote it for Solomon or if it's a mix of the two. So, but this is for for Solomon. That's what we do know.

Verse number one says this, God, give your justice to the king and your righteousness to the king's son. He will judge your people with righteousness and your afflicted ones with justice.

May the mountains bring well-being to the people and the hills righteousness. May he vindicate the afflicted among the people, help the poor, crush the oppressor.

May they fear you while the sun endures, and as long as the moon throughout all generations, may the king be like rain that falls on the cut grass, like spring showers that water the earth.

May the righteous flourish in his days and well-being abound until the moon is no more. May he rule from sea to sea and from the Euphrates to the ends of the earth. May desert tribes kneel before him and his enemies lick the dust.

May the kings of Tarshish and the coasts and islands bring tribute. The kings of Sheba and Seba offer gifts. Let all kings bow in homage to him.

All nations serve him. For he will rescue the poor who cry out and the afflicted who have no helper. He will have pity on the poor and helpless and save the lives of the poor.

He will redeem them from oppression and violence. For their lives are precious in his sight. May he live long.

May gold from Sheba be given to him. May prayer be offered for him continually. And may he be blessed all day long.

May there be plenty of grain in the land. May it wave on the tops of the mountains. May its crops be like Lebanon.

May people flourish in the cities like the grass of the field. May his name endure forever, as long as the sun shines. May his fame increase.

May all nations be blessed by him and call him blessed. Blessed be Yahweh God, the God of Israel, who alone does wonders. Blessed be his glorious name forever.

The whole earth is filled with his glory. Amen and amen. The prayers of David, son of Jesse, are concluded.

What a great psalm. And I noticed a couple of things in here. Number one, that this points us to Jesus.

Certainly all of scripture does that. This psalm talking about a king definitely sets off a lot of those like, hey, here's Jesus alarms in my head. And we'll look at a couple of those.

I also noticed that this really shows us how imperfect our human rulers are. And I don't think I have to like super convince you all of that. I think you guys know that humanity, we need a savior and that includes our leaders.

Our leaders need a savior as well. Verses number one through four. It's what we're going to look at first.

He says, God, give your justice to the king and your righteousness to the king's son.

So he says, God, I want you to help the king, help his descendants, like help this line of the throne to be a place where there is rightness that is happening, that equitable, fair, decent, right dealings are occurring everywhere.

Verse number two, it says, He will judge your people with righteousness and your afflicted ones with justice. This is the call of government. The call of government is not to give you necessarily a great economy.

The call of government is not perhaps to be worldwide police. The call of government is not to necessarily, you know, enable the greatest of learning in colleges. That's not at its essence what it's for.

When God set up human government, it was to avenge those that had been killed. There, as God gives the command to Noah after they got off the ark, whoever sheds man's blood, by man his blood shall be shed, for he was made in the image of God.

And with that first command that there would be those that would execute justice and righteousness on the behalf of the wronged, that is the core element of what our government is for.

Now, certainly, there are things that can be added on, and it's not a crime to do so, even as we look at some of these verses. I think we'll note some things as we go through.

But at its core, we need justice and righteousness from our leaders and from our government. Some people have said, like, we don't need a pastor in the Oval Office or in Congress. We just need someone that's really good at this or that.

And the truth is, as actually Solomon would say, righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people. And that includes all sin.

Anything that we think, say or do that goes against God's law, it drags us down, it shames us, it destroys our people from the inside.

And then certainly, as we continue in that, then God, as he has done throughout human history, many of those nations destroyed from the inside by their sin are then consumed from the outside by other sinful nations.

Verse number three, he says, may the mountains bring well-being to the people and the hills righteousness. He's saying from these lofty, exalted places where kings would have outposts, where perhaps different castles, palaces would be.

Certainly, there's some elements where hills and mountains in particular were thought to be places where there was kind of an overlap with some of the spiritual realms. So kind of a cry for angelic assistance in what is being done basically.

Like, God, would you have your guardian angels work with the king to here bring the well-being or peace to the people and righteousness from the hills?

Verse number four, may vindicate the afflicted among the people, help the poor, crush the oppressor.

So there are people that are being accused of things that they are not guilty of, people that are saying, hey, I'm being done wrong by whoever is wronging me, whether an authority over me or in some area by me, that there is this almost kind of call

to civil law and vindication of these people, that the government here, the king would say, yes, you have been wronged. You are vindicated in your statements that you've made. So I'm going to help you hear the direct statement, help the poor.

This is one of the things that government is intended to do. Government's not intended to do everything, but one of the things in addition to righteousness and justice, vindicating those that have been afflicted and wronged is to help the poor.

The end of verse four, and crush the oppressor. This would be some of the criminal justice stuff, if you will, that government would come down on those that are oppressing people.

I mean, there are many different oppressive practices that people have done in a variety of ways.

I feel like just recently heard of some predatory type things that were happening with some landlords that were doing their tenants wrong, and that, if you will, justice came in, and some right was done, and people were compensated fairly for what

had been done, and those people that were oppressing were no longer able to in that way. And that is certainly one of the goals of government, and one of the things that we should pray for, even as election season is coming up, that we would look

for, okay, who is going to vindicate the afflicted? Who is going to help the poor? Who is going to crush the oppressor? These are types of people that are doing the things that God says, this is what a king, what a government should be doing.

Then verses five and on, may they fear you while the sun endures, and as long as the moon throughout all generations, that there would be this awe of the government, that there wouldn't be just kind of a flippancy that would say, ah, it doesn't

really matter what the government says, I'm just going to kind of do my thing, or that people would think I can overthrow the government. He says, may there be this healthy fear or respect for a long time. May your rain rule.

It says, may the king be like rain that falls on the cut grass, like spring showers that water the earth. May this ruler be a refreshment to the people, not a burden, not a cause of concern. May he be refreshing.

Verse number seven, may the righteous flourish in his days, and well-being abound until the moon is no more. He's asking here for a long lasting reign of peace and prosperity.

Verses number eight through 11, may he rule from sea to sea, from the Euphrates to the ends of the earth. May desert tribes kneel before him and his enemies lick the dust. I do want to note one thing.

So may you have, not just may you rule for a long time, may you rule over a vast area.

Here, his enemies licking the dust makes me think of Satan and what God told him in Genesis chapter three, where he told him, hey, you're cursed more than any beast of the field.

You will go on your belly all the days of your life and you're going to eat dust. And here, though certainly this is talking about Solomon, there is a future noticing of Jesus. And Jesus' enemy bit the dust, if you will.

Verse number ten, May the kings of Tarshish and the coasts and islands bring tribute. The kings of Sheba and Seba offer gifts. May the nations surrounding you recognize your rule and think that you're great and want to befriend you.

And then verse number eleven, Let all kings bow in homage to him. Let all nations serve him.

Think here of even the Christmas season and the song that's often sung, We Three Kings of Orient are, and those wise men, those Magi from the East that came and worshiped him here, those, you know, maybe not kings in the modern sense, but those

ruling leaders that came to honor the king of kings, this descendant of Solomon and David, descendant of Solomon through Joseph's adoption of Jesus, if you will, that they came and they bowed to him and they served him. And certainly Solomon was

great and famous and revered and was brought many gifts and all of those things in his day as well. Verse number 12, For he will rescue the poor who cry out and the afflicted who have no helper.

He will have pity on the poor and helpless and save the lives of the poor. He will redeem them from oppression and violence, for their lives are precious in his sight.

Here, just these consistent reminders of, yes, a king serves those who have lots of stuff and who have lots of land, but those aren't often the people that need the government's help.

It is the poor, it's the oppressed, it's those that violence is being done against, it's those that do not have any other recourse. Those are the ones in need of help from the government.

And here, this is what's being said, and certainly I think here there is an element where it describes Jesus, that Jesus rescues the poor who cry out. Jesus is the one who had pity on the poor and helpless and saved their lives.

He is the one who redeemed us from oppression and violence because our lives are precious in his sight.

And what a great truth there, that we who were spiritually poor and bereft and helpless and not able to save ourselves, that Jesus came and he saved us. Verse 15, may he live long, may gold from Sheba be given to him.

You can think of the gifts to Jesus, gold and frankincense and myrrh. He says, may prayer be offered for him continually and may he be blessed all day long.

Then a prayer for prosperity of plenty of grain in the land, waving on the tops of the mountains like Lebanon, those great big trees. He's asking for great big crops of grain. He says, may people flourish in the cities like the grass of the field.

May his name endure forever as long as the sun shines. May his fame increase. May all nations be blessed by him and call him blessed.

This was the Abrahamic blessing that God said all of the nations will be blessed through your descendants and specifically through Jesus. Then verses 18 through 20, the ending of Book 2 of Psalms.

Blessed be Yahweh God, the God of Israel, who alone does wonders. If anything good happens, it is from the Lord.

James 1 17, every good gift and every perfect gift comes down from above, from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variableness or shadow of turning. Verse 19, blessed be his glorious name forever. The whole earth is filled with his glory.

Amen and amen. The prayers of David, son of Jesse, are concluded. Well, thank you for tuning in today.

If you're watching the thing, I apologize. My Bible whacked the laptop and shook the whole thing. Thanks for being with me on this journey through Book 2 of Psalms.

We're going to end the week with the Book of Haggai, one of the minor prophets, and it's only two chapters. So it works great that we've got two days left in the week and those two chapters to help us out.

And then we'll be looking at what we've got coming up next for Tabernacle Talk. Thanks for tuning in. Have a wonderful day.