Chapter 8—Psalm 72
In the song of loves or delight, as Psalm 45 is called, we have a description of the Lord's personal appearance on His return from heaven. In a Psalm for Solomon (72), which completes the prayers of David the son of Jesse, we learn the character of Messiah's reign—a subject of immense importance for the earthly people who will enjoy the favor of His personal rule. In Psalm 71 we are made acquainted with their wishes, and in Psalm 72 we are taught how God will respond to them. Some of their circumstances, similar in measure to those through which the Lord Jesus has passed, are recounted in Psalm 71, of which verses 1-3 are very similar to the first three verses of Psalm 31; verses 5 and 6, 10 and 11, and 12 correspond very closely to the utterances of the Lord Himself in Psalm 22:9 and 10, 8, 19, and verse 13 to the words of Psalm 40:14. Their wish to be preserved in old age, preferred in Psalm 71:9-18, will be granted most fully, as Psalm 72:14 assures us. A new era then will have dawned upon this earth on which night has as yet only reigned, though we can now say, The night is far spent, and the day is at hand. (Rom. 13:12.)
Casting our eyes over this Psalm, we must own that a revolution will have taken place when that of which it speaks shall be fulfilled—a revolution like none that men have witnessed, a revolution such as the world most dreads, for judgment will have returned unto righteousness, and the reign of the true Solomon will indeed have commenced. God's people, God's poor, so long the object of men's contempt and hatred, will be the special subjects of the King's supervision and care. The poor and the needy, who have had so often to turn from judges and rulers on earth to invoke the aid and justice of the Almighty, will learn that the King in Zion will administer justice for them, and deal with them in righteousness. The helpless will find they have a judge to maintain their cause, and the once friendless will be so no longer.
When David penned these words this halcyon time had not arrived. Of his own day therefore the Psalm does not speak. David was the king and while he lived, what he described could not be enjoyed, for His Son must be the King, actually seated on the throne, and exercising the sovereignty which none but the monarch himself has authority to wield. No delegate deriving authority from the monarch, too old perhaps himself to discharge the duties of his office, could answer to the description here given, nor could David and Solomon together have fulfilled what the royal prophet has sketched out.
One person, not two, is here before us as invested with supreme command; and to fix the readers' eyes on the One whose rule is depicted, the limits of His kingdom are stated in verse 8, the boundaries first mentioned by God when He made a covenant with Abraham (Gen. 15:18), and confirmed by Him when Israel entered into a covenant with Him at Sinai (Exod. 23:31). Again mentioned after the wilderness journey was over (Josh. 1:4), for no failure on Israel's part could annul God's unconditional covenant with Abraham, the whole land was, however, never subdued till the reign of David, and two only of the kings who have reigned at Jerusalem could affirm that this Psalm states the limits of their dominions; namely, David and Solomon. If then the Psalm has been fulfilled, Solomon is the only one to whom it could apply, for he was the king's son, and he reigned, as 1 Kings 4:21 states, from the Euphrates to the southern extremity of Canaan. But he died, whereas of this King it is stated, "He shall live," (vs. 15); for death will not cut short His days, nor ever terminate His reign.
Bright indeed was the commencement of Solomon's reign, and his name became ever after a synonym for those gifted with more than ordinary intelligence and acquired knowledge; but its end was very different. He began full of promise, like the dawn of a summer's day, with nothing on the horizon to portend the approach of the least cloud to dim the brightness of the sun; but, ere he breathed his last, lowering clouds, ominous of a coming storm, announced the break-up as near at hand of that empire, which David, under God, had formed, and Solomon had enjoyed.
Of whom then does this Psalm speak? No writer in the New Testament has quoted from it to cast the light of a fuller revelation on the words of the Holy Ghost by David. But, if we cannot turn to the New Testament for help, we can appeal to the Old, and there find confirmation' of the thought, the Messiah, the Lord Jesus, is the One whose reign is here so beautifully described. To Abraham God had said, just after the offering up of Isaac, "In thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed." Gen. 22:18. From Gal. 3:16 we learn who the seed was, of whom the angel of Jehovah, who called to Abraham out of heaven, really spoke—"thy seed, which is Christ." To this promise our Psalm refers in the words, "men shall be blessed in Him" (vs. 17); the Holy Ghost, by David, taking up that record, applies it directly to Messiah, which Paul, centuries after, was permitted to explain.
To the patriarch God had spoken of a seed; in this Psalm God speaks of a Person, the king's Son, whom the Holy Ghost in Galatians directly affirms to be the once humbled and crucified, but now risen and glorified One, the Lord Jesus Christ. As David then, referring thus to Genesis, connects the subject of his theme with the seed of Abraham, to whom the promise was given, Zechariah, another prophet, writing long after David's throne had been overturned, applies what is stated in verse 8 of our Psalm to the Lord Jesus, as Jerusalem's King. One sovereign, it is true, then reigned over all the country between the Euphrates and the river of Egypt; but, whereas David and Solomon had their throne at Jerusalem, and could speak of their kingdom as on this side of the Euphrates, the king of Zechariah's day spoke of this same country as beyond the river to him, reversing the condition of things as they existed in David's time.
God's word, however, cannot be broken; so His unconditional covenant with Abraham will not be abrogated, as the son of Iddo reminds the returned remnant, retracing the boundaries of Messiah's kingdom, and showing that by not one inch of ground, of which God spoke to Abraham, shall its area be diminished (Zech. 9:10). So, though this Psalm is never quoted in the New Testament, the reference in it to Gen. 22:18, and the quotation from it in Zech. 9:10, make it very clear about whom it was written. And since the Lord, though He has entered Jerusalem on the ass's colt as the King, has not yet occupied the throne in the manner here predicted, it is manifest that we have from the pen of David the Holy Spirit's description of events still future.
The question being settled as to whom the Psalm refers, let us now turn for a little to examine of what it speaks. God's judgments and God's righteousness having been requested for the king's son, what will follow, on their being granted, form the subjects of this inspired composition. As a young monarch, Solomon had asked of God something similar to these petitions (1 Kings 3:9), "and the speech pleased the LORD, that Solomon had asked this thing"; and riches, and wealth, and honor were also granted to him. How suited was his prayer, David's prayer for the king's son illustrates, while proving that, though entitled, "For Solomon," it looked on to One beyond him. For Solomon did not plead for the fulfillment of David's request on his behalf, but asked, as we read, for himself for Wisdom and intelligence, conscious of what he needed to govern God's people aright. For it was not a limited monarchy which David established, and Solomon inherited, but a monarchy absolute in its character, and in which all depended upon the king who sat on the throne executing judgment and justice for all Israel. David and Solomon being monarchs of this class, it is clear that He too must be absolute as King when He reigns on earth, who can now sit on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens. When He reigns all will depend on Him, as of old when the kings of Judah were faithful, the kingdom prospered, and hence we can understand why all David's desires center in God's gifts to the King, who, receiving God's judgments and God's righteousness, will act as God acts, and peace and order will be the result—peace, not the effect of compromise with evil, but peace in righteousness, so little known, though surely often desired.
Righteousness and judgment thus administered, the salvation of the needy and the destruction of the oppressors will attest to all the new character of the rule established by divine power in Zion, which, so different from what history can speak of, will tend to make men fear God throughout all generations (v. 5). Observe that this is the first effect of His reign, as stated in the Psalm. When this righteous rule is established, God will be feared as long as the sun and moon endure -a condition of things never known before. Then follow the beneficent results of His rule, and the place on earth which powers and authorities will accord to Him -God first, Himself next, for here, as man, the king's son, does He take His place and reign.
Refreshing like the rain to the mown grass will His presence prove, a simile all can understand, reviving and reinvigorating what will have appeared as burned up and withered; for Israel's hopes, which may have seemed vain, will then be fulfilled to the uttermost, His presence introducing and insuring their blessing to all generations. To give them rain is the Lord's prerogative, a standing witness in all ages that He alone is the Creator and true God (Jer. 14:22). Then too will it be proved that He alone can make that descend upon men, which answers to the softening, reviving showers in the world of nature; added to this, the righteous shall flourish, and abundance of peace so long as the moon endures.
Every step that we take in this Psalm only brings out in bright relief the contrast of that day to all that has been before it; and greater surely will the contrast appear to those who will have passed through the time of Jacob's trouble just previous to the Lord's millennial reign, having experienced the misery of being under godless power, unchecked for a while in its career of lawlessness and opposition to all that is of God. Then peace, that blessing of which men have often promised themselves a continuance, but always have found that they could not ensure its permanence, will at last be established on this earth, to abide while times and seasons shall run their appointed course.
The King viewed here as Messiah, the limits of His kingdom are announced, whom all kings will serve, made God's First-born higher than the kings of the earth (Psalm 89:27); and those nomad, lawless tribes, whom no government has yet tamed, inheriting the temper and disposition of their ancestor, Ishmael, will yield to Him obeisance, while His enemies will lick the dust. What problems in government will then be solved, but only by Him who is God's King. The unruly and turbulent who now so often baffle the best intentioned monarchs, will find in Him a ruler whose will must be obeyed; and again in the history of Israel will it be recorded that to the One reigning at Jerusalem tribute and homage must be paid by the kings of the earth, all acknowledging His superiority, who will deliver the "needy when he crieth; the poor also, and him that hath no helper."
Let us stop here for a moment, and survey the scene presented to us. Satan will have attempted to establish a supreme power, to whom kings will give allegiance, while the nations under their rule will wonder at its might. But after all, Satan's masterpiece, his last great effort before he shall be bound in the bottomless pit, will have results transient only in duration and limited in extent. The boundaries of the Roman earth will mark the extent of that supremacy, which a power outside it (the King of the North) will refuse to admit. Here, however, all kings shall fall down before the king's Son; all nations shall serve Him. And, whereas no deliverance will have been wrought by the beast, full deliverance for those who want it will be obtained and maintained by the protecting scepter of the Christ of God. The poor and afflicted will rejoice in His delivering power; the weak ones and the orphans will experience the strength and shelter of His arm; and the needy, those having a wish which none else can satisfy, will be satiated never more to want. Death for His own will be abolished, and deceit and violence no longer succeed against them.
Compare this, the settled order of things to be introduced by Him, with Psalm 79:1-5. The blood of His servants so often spilled, will be spilled no more. Precious in His sight will be the blood of those then living upon the earth. Peace, which the world under fallen man has never yet fully known, and also immunity for His people on earth from man's oppression and Satan's restless activity, with all earthly powers paying homage to God's King ruling in righteousness—these are features of that day of blessedness and glory, which will abide while sun and moon shall last, throughout all generations; for as all will rest for stability on the King, and "He," we read, "shall live," a settled order of things will be established, such as has never yet been witnessed.
And then, what may appear to be stranger than all, will be seen the complete revolution of feeling in men's minds about the Lord Jesus Christ; for they will pray for His continuance (v. 15), against whom, but a short time previous, the beast and his armies will have been arrayed to keep Him out of His kingdom. The counsels of the rulers against the Lord and His Christ, first developed at the cross, will never succeed. God's purpose about His
Son, in spite of all opposition, will be made good. "Men shall be blessed in Him: all nations shall call Him blessed." And so surely will this be the case that we have portrayed in this Psalm that time of blessedness, as if from the pen of an eye witness. The time of the restoring of all things will arrive, but not without the presence of the central figure and the pillar of it all, the Lord Jesus Christ. He is now in heaven, but will return to earth for that era of blessedness and brightness to commence, in which the whole creation will be interested, for earth's fruitfulness (at present restrained by man's sin) will then return. "There shall be a handful [abundance] of corn in the earth upon the top of the mountains; the fruit thereof shall shake like Lebanon: and they of the city shall flourish like grass of the earth." How many new things will in that day be seen! Where men now look not for fertility, there will it appear; and Christ's name, so often the subject of execration, shall be perpetuated, enduring forever.
With these thoughts the psalmist concludes. Beyond them his desires for the king's Son cannot go, and as on another occasion (2 Sam. 7) he could only find vent for his feelings in worship, he here winds up with a doxology—"Blessed be the LORD God, the God of Israel, who only doeth wondrous things. And blessed be His glorious name forever: and let the whole earth be filled with His glory. Amen, and Amen."
This is a fitting conclusion to so wondrous a theme. The prayers of David, the son of Jesse, having been ended, the last tones of his lyre which fall on the ear are those of praise!