A Prayer for the King
(Psalm 72)
Today is the last day of our summer series in the Psalms before heading back into the book of Romans next week. So I thought it only fitting that we end our series on Book 2 of the Psalter by talking about the last psalm in this book, Psalm 72.
Psalm 72, it says in the heading, is a psalm “of Solomon”—that is, King Solomon, who succeeded to the throne after the death of his father, King David. The term “of Solomon” here can either mean that Solomon wrote the psalm, or that someone wrote it about Solomon and the other kings of David’s line to come after him.
In the end, it doesn’t really matter—the psalm expresses the ideal, the hoped-for goal of the king of God’s people, Israel. It reminds those who pray this prayer of the high calling of the king. But if we know anything about the kings of Israel, we know that they failed spectacularly in this goal. Some kings were better than others—some were even kings one could characterize as good kings. But none of them lived up to this ideal. Even the good kings were very imperfect, very incomplete people.
So it’s easy to read this psalm cynically and think that this is a prayer that God did not answer, that this is an example of a failed prayer.
However, if you keep reading the Old Testament, you’ll come across other passages that make you think twice about this conclusion. Let’s take just one example, from the book of Isaiah, chapter 11. I’ll read the first five verses:
There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse,
and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit.
[That is, the person of whom Isaiah is speaking will be of King David’s lineage—Jesse was David’s father.]
2 And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him,
the Spirit of wisdom and understanding,
the Spirit of counsel and might,
the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.
3 And his delight shall be in the fear of the Lord.
He shall not judge by what his eyes see,
or decide disputes by what his ears hear,
4 but with righteousness he shall judge the poor,
and decide with equity for the meek of the earth;
and he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth,
and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked.
5 Righteousness shall be the belt of his waist,
and faithfulness the belt of his loins.
That sounds remarkably similar to the goals we see in Psalm 72. And while Psalm 72 is never quoted in the New Testament as a “messianic” passage, Isaiah 11 is—it is abundantly clear from the New Testament that when Isaiah prophesied about this ruler who would come from the line of David, on whom the Spirit of God would rest, who would judge with justice and righteousness and faithfulness, he was actually speaking about this figure called “the Messiah”—the perfect King whom God would send to rule his people forever.
When we realize that no human king ever met this standard, and that this standard is elsewhere applied to the Messiah, we can come to no other conclusion than that Psalm 72 may be a prayer for Solomon, a prayer for the King of Israel, but it is a prayer that finally receives its answer in the Messiah, Jesus Christ. So that’s how we should read this psalm—the prayer of this psalm describes the ideal of the ruler of God’s people, an ideal no human king was ever able to meet, and which is fulfilled in the reign of Jesus Christ.
This psalm isn’t hard to understand, but what we see here is like fuel for our worship. So let’s read attentively.
We see this perfect King exhibit five characteristics, five qualities, which help us to identify this King for who he is.
Perfect Righteousness (v. 1-4)
The first quality the perfect King exhibits is perfect righteousness. V. 1:
1 Give the king your justice, O God,
and your righteousness to the royal son!
2 May he judge your people with righteousness,
and your poor with justice!
3 Let the mountains bear prosperity for the people,
and the hills, in righteousness!
4 May he defend the cause of the poor of the people,
give deliverance to the children of the needy,
and crush the oppressor!
There are two sides to the “righteousness” coin: there is purity and piety—that is, a way of life and a standard of behavior which corresponds to God’s own desires, and a total dedication to following God’s commands—and there is justice: a desire to judge fairly, to protect the weak, to support the oppressed.
On both fronts, the kings of Israel failed. As we saw before, all of the kings of Israel were very imperfect people. Even David—almost definitely the best king in Israel’s history—was at times a violent man, a murderer and an adulterer. Jesus Christ, however, was the embodiment of perfect holiness. Hebrews 4.15 tells us that he was tempted in every respect as we are, yet without sin.
We see the same contrast on the side of justice. Take v. 4 and its concern for the poor, for example. Kings can easily become consumed by greed, by a desire to accumulate wealth for themselves (and Solomon wasn’t exempt from this tendency).
By contrast, the perfect King the psalmist prays for here serves on behalf of the people—especially the poor and the needy. We read this earlier in Isaiah 11.4: God promised that a king would come, whose role was to be the guardian of justice and the protector of the poor. Indeed, when Christ comes, he describes the poor not just as “poor”, but as Derek Kidner points out, he talks about them as his poor—God’s poor. He says in Matthew 25.35 and 40:
“For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me… Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.”
Perfect Sovereignty (v. 5-11)
The next characteristic of this perfect King is perfect sovereignty, or perfect reign over his kingdom. And his sovereignty is characterized in several different ways. V. 5:
5 May they fear you while the sun endures,
and as long as the moon, throughout all generations!
6 May he be like rain that falls on the mown grass,
like showers that water the earth!
7 In his days may the righteous flourish,
and peace abound, till the moon be no more!
His reign doesn’t just bring peace and justice. It would be easy to imagine such a reign lasting for a short time, then withering away when another, less righteous king took power. But this King’s reign, the people pray, will be eternal—v. 5, as long as the sun endures, as long as the moon, throughout all generations.
Obviously no human king has ever fit this bill—every single human ruler in history has died, and will die. No matter how powerful the ruler, his or her reign is always temporary.
But the sovereignty of this perfect King will be without end.
In Daniel chapter 7, the prophet Daniel describes a vision he sees of this promised King, the “Son of Man” whose dominion would be an everlasting dominion, and whose kingdom would never be destroyed. We don’t need to read far into the gospels before we see Jesus, over and over again, saying, essentially, “The ‘Son of Man’ Daniel spoke about…that’s me.” The “Son of Man” was Jesus’s favorite title for himself.
So that’s the second thing which characterizes his reign: it is eternal.
The third thing is that his reign will not just be over one particular people. He’s not just talking about the king of Israel here; his reign will be over all people. V. 8:
8 May he have dominion from sea to sea,
and from the River to the ends of the earth!
9 May desert tribes bow down before him,
and his enemies lick the dust!
10 May the kings of Tarshish and of the coastlands
render him tribute;
may the kings of Sheba and Seba
bring gifts!
11 May all kings fall down before him,
all nations serve him!
Dominion from sea to sea, rule over allies and enemies, allegiance and gifts from kings of all nations, everywhere. (The psalmist mentions Sheba; we remember the story from 1 Kings 10 when the queen of Sheba comes to visit Solomon, because she hears of his wisdom and his wealth, and when she sees the truth of what she has heard she makes great gifts to Solomon.)
This is the kind of rule that, frankly, makes me nervous when I read it, because I can think of all the ways this can go wrong in the hands of an ordinary human ruler—even a wise human ruler. We can easily imagine a bad ruler showing his own people preferential treatment, while exacting terrible tributes from the other peoples under his reign, overtaxing them to death and burdening them beyond their means, much like the Roman Empire did to the Jews at the time of Christ.
It reassures us that Jesus of course wouldn’t do that; Jesus wouldn’t ask for burdensome tributes beyond what his people can bear. And that is true…but in some ways, Jesus is even more exacting than that. When we see the first Gentiles come to see Christ, he doesn’t tell them he’ll be asking for gifts of riches, but rather gifts of themselves. We read in John 12.20-25:
20 Now among those who went up to worship at the feast were some Greeks. 21 So these came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and asked him, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.” 22 Philip went and told Andrew; Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus. 23 And Jesus answered them, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. 24 Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. 25 Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. 26 If anyone serves me, he must follow me; and where I am, there will my servant be also. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him.
So Jesus does not ask the people under his reign to give what they do not have; but he does ask that they give him all that they have.
However, he also tells them why it’s worth it: whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. As the martyred missionary Jim Elliot famously said, “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.” If we serve Christ, the reward is honor from the Father, which is better than the life people so want to keep, in order to avoid serving Christ in the first place.
Perfect Compassion (v. 12-14)
If we had any fears concerning the goodness of this King, and whether his universal rule could possibly be a good thing, we see those fears dispelled in the following verses. In v. 12-14 we see this king’s perfect compassion.
12 For he delivers the needy when he calls,
the poor and him who has no helper.
13 He has pity on the weak and the needy,
and saves the lives of the needy.
14 From oppression and violence he redeems their life,
and precious is their blood in his sight.
We have a daughter, Zadie, who’s five years old. I am Zadie’s father; at this stage in her development, I am one of two absolute authority figures in her life. Dad and Mom are king and queen. Our house isn’t a democracy; we give our kids a vote when we can, but that right isn’t absolute. Often, it comes down to us saying, “You’ll clean your room right now because I told you to clean your room right now.”
What keeps our authority over our kids from being a reign of terror is the love we have for them, and that love came out in compassion for Zadie this week. She had an allergic reaction to several mosquito bites; she was in a lot of pain, her arms and one leg swollen up like sausages. We couldn’t heal her, but we could take care of her pain to the best of our abilities, help her not to touch the blisters, hug her and let her sleep in our bed when she was hurting.
So even though we have near-total authority over her at this point, she’s not afraid of that authority, because she knows we love her. She sees our love manifested in our compassion toward her.
We see this all over the place in the gospels: Christ manifesting his love through compassion on ordinary people, although he would have every right and authority to speak a word and wipe them off the face of the earth. We read in Matthew 9.36:
35 And Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction. 36 When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.
Who would be afraid of such a ruler? His power makes him worthy of fear, in the biblical sense—worthy of reverence, of the respect and awe which he deserves. But his compassion makes him approachable. His compassion removes the reticence we might feel in the presence of a powerful figure; we want to be ruled by such a ruler, because he can take care of us in ways we can’t, and he will take care of us in ways we can’t.
What a wonderful thing to be delivered when we are needy, to receive kindness when we are oppressed, to be valued when we feel worthless. And how much more wonderful to learn that this person who delivered us and was kind to us and valued us is none other than the King who rules over us. How safe do we feel, knowing we are under his rule?
Perfect Blessing (v. 15-17)
So the prayer is that God would enable the king of his people to be endowed with perfect righteousness, perfect rule, perfect compassion. Lastly, the psalmist prays that the king would display perfect blessing toward his kingdom. V. 15:
15 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!
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!
May people be blessed in him,
all nations call him blessed!
We already saw this a bit earlier, in v. 6-7, but here he comes back to the effect this King will have on his kingdom: not just protection, but prosperity; not just peace, but blessing. 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!
In the West, in the 21st century, we are living in a time of widespread prosperity which has never been equalled in human history until now. Yet, I doubt if any of you would say that you feel as if you are “blossoming in the city like the grass of the field”—none of us would say that every single person in France is enjoying complete and total prosperity.
That’s because this kind of prosperity, this kind of blessing, was intended to be the result of the reign and rule of Jesus Christ, once he returns to renew the earth and banish sin and all of its effects, once and for all. We see hints of this in Jesus’s ministry. In John 6, he feeds five thousand men with five loaves of bread and two fish. This is a symbolic foretaste of the prosperity God’s King will bring.
But we see it perhaps most fully, I think, in Matthew 9, when he heals the paralytic. First of all, we see blessing on the material level: he heals this man who was paralyzed, enabling him to walk again. But on top of that—and more importantly for the religious leaders watching, he told the man that his sins were forgiven. The blessing he gave to this man was total: physical and spiritual.
This is the kind of King he is. And that is why the blessing goes both ways: it is blessing from the King to the kingdom, in v. 6, and it is also praise from the people of the kingdom to the King, in v. 5 and 7. A King who is endowed with such righteousness, such power, such compassion and such grace deserves such praise.
Doxology & Conclusion (v. 18-20)
Now this psalm ends with a slightly different turn, and that is because the conclusion of the psalm isn’t merely a conclusion to this psalm, but of all of book 2 of the psalter. V. 18:
18 Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel,
who alone does wondrous things.
19 Blessed be his glorious name forever;
may the whole earth be filled with his glory!
Amen and Amen!
20 The prayers of David, the son of Jesse, are ended.
This is a fitting conclusion to this psalm, however, because it reminds us that the only King who is capable of being the kind of ruler this psalm prays for is God himself.
Jesus Christ is that ruler. His reign has begun, and will one day be fully realized, when he returns and cleanses sin from his creation.
Now I have a confession to make. There’s a big part of my brain that reads a psalm like this and accepts everything I’ve just spent the past half hour saying. That’s the Christian part—the part that the Holy Spirit has rewired to see the world as he says God sees it.
But there’s still another part of my mind that reads this with a fair amount of cynicism. That’s the part of my brain that remembers what it was like before I became a Christian, and who knows how I would have heard the things I’m saying today when I was twenty. Because after reading this text, that guy would have had two major questions that aren’t easy to answer.
The first is, how can I be sure this is good news? And the second is, why does it matter?
So let’s just give the best answer I can to both of those questions, really quickly. Firstly: how can I be sure this is good news? The reason why this is an important question is because we’ve seen goals like this go wrong over and over again throughout history. Dictators proclaim lofty goals—sometimes even admirable goals—and destroy their people in order to make those goals a reality. This is what happens when human beings wield this kind of power: it does not go well. So any reasonable person would probably be a little dubious about such a prayer for a king.
But ultimately, this is still good news for us, and here’s why: our King—the perfect King for whom the people pray in this psalm—was crucified. We should make no mistake: the cross was not a bump in an otherwise smooth road. It was not a crisis to be solved. The cross was the plan all along. This King, to take power, would take the place and the punishment his people deserve, for them. The crucifixion was not a defeat—it was a coronation.
Jesus Christ was brought lower, and endured more, than any human being in all of human history, for the human beings he would rule. This is no ordinary reign, and he is no ordinary King. So those of us who feel nervous about someone holding this kind of power can relax: Christ is the only being in the entire universe who can wield that power rightly.
Secondly: why should the perfect reign of this perfect King matter?
To put it simply, the kingdom of God has already come in Jesus Christ, and will be fulfilled when he returns. If we belong to God, we are already citizens of his kingdom. And the fact that we are citizens of his kingdom means that we are inevitably going to be out of step with the world around us. The apostle Peter said that we are exiles on this earth: sojourners and strangers, belonging to one kingdom but living in another.
Every expat knows what that feels like, being in one place but really belonging to another. On the one hand—at least if you love your country—it makes you homesick. You want to be there, with your family, in your country, with your people. And since you’re not there yet, you’ll do whatever you can to experience it, even a little: you’ll listen to music or eat food or watch movies that remind you of home. At the same time, because you love your country, you want others to discover it too. You want them to know what it’s like to live there, you want them to understand and to love the things that you love.
We are spiritual expats in this world. We have our hope and our assurance in the promise that Christ is coming back, and we will be with him forever, on a perfected earth, rid of the effects of sin. And while we’re here, we want to experience every possible foretaste of this kingdom over which Christ reigns. We want to be with his people and sing his music and speak of his goodness; we want to be reminded, every chance we get, of just how good he has been to us.
And while we want to experience these foretastes of the coming kingdom, we also want to be a foretaste of the coming kingdom to others. We want them to know where we’re from; we want them to desire to be with us when we finally get to go home.
So we pull them close and we love them well and we tell them the story of our King, praying all the while that they will know him as we know him, and love him as we do, and worship him as we do. Because he deserves every song, every word, every act of obedience, every moment of thankfulness. This is our King, today. And one day we’ll see him.
