(For Solomon.) O God, give the king thy judgments, and thy righteousness unto the king's son.
The last psalm of the second book opens with a prayer, not a promise. David asks God to give the king His own justice and His own righteousness. So who is this king, also called the royal son? The rest of the psalm describes His reign in terms no earthly rule has ever matched.
The psalm is tied to Solomon. But the picture it draws soon goes far beyond anything Solomon achieved.
Psalm 72, which closes the second book, predicts the glory of His coming kingdom. David began to write his desires for Solomon in poetic form. But the Holy Spirit caught him up in the current of His thoughts about the One of whom Solomon was only a faint picture. The KING of this psalm is One to whom the kings of Tarshish and the islands, the kings of Sheba and Seba, shall pay tribute. He is so great that "all kings shall fall down before Him: all nations shall serve Him." He is most clearly the King of kings. No one is that but Jesus.
The verse names its subject twice over, and each name carries its own weight.
Verse 1 declares His title. It sets Him before God as the one who carries out His judgment, the accepted holder of His government in righteousness. His title is twofold. He is first King absolutely; He is also the King's Son. Dominion and fear belong to Him who is Lord of all (Acts 10:36). He is in His divine person the living God, and an everlasting King (Jer. 10:10). He is King of kings, and Lord of lords (Rev. 19:16). But He is, as the incarnate fulfiller of divine counsel, the King's Son.
The second title says something about His nature, not only His family line:
David, too, had sung of this same One, who would be the King's Son (Ps. 72:1), and therefore a man. The King was a man, David's son, but Jehovah too — God and man in one person.
The prayer asks for two things, and they are not the same. The first, "justice," appears as "judgments" in older translations — the decisions a king gives.
The psalm asks God to give Him God's judgments and God's righteousness. The first is so that He may know God's mind in every situation that may arise in the kingdom. The second is so that He may judge God's people and God's poor rightly. Righteousness and judgment are the foundation of God's throne (Ps. 89:14).
The rest of the psalm rests on God answering this prayer.
The psalm opens with a prayer to God that the King may be guided by divine righteousness. Then He will be able to give decisions, or judgments, that agree with the will of God. So the blessing of the kingdom depends entirely on a King who carries out God's judgments according to God's righteousness.
Verse 1 asks for righteousness, not peace. Peace comes later, as its fruit.
Millennial peace depends on God giving authority and power to Christ, so that righteousness is established in the earth. Psalm 72 begins by asking God to give the king His justice, so that He will judge God's people with righteousness. And it is "in his days" that peace will abound, "till the moon be no more" (v. 7).
The psalms around it are full of suffering and conflict. This one is not:
Psalm 72 does not show us David in suffering and conflict. It shows the full reign of peace and royal blessing. It is the Son of David we have here, the source and securer of millennial blessings… His kingdom has the full extent of promise, but all kings fall down before Him.
This righteousness shows itself first toward people with no power to buy justice. One commentator draws a duty for today from it:
Only then will the poor receive proper care. Meanwhile the Spirit of God insists on it in the apostles: "Only, they asked us to remember the poor, the very thing I (Paul) was eager to do" (Gal. 2:10). So today, though public government does not care properly for the poor, the Church of God is made responsible to do so, though only in a limited way.
- Given, not grown. The King does not set His own standard. God gives Him His own judgments and righteousness — knowledge of God's mind, and the power to judge by it.
- King and King's Son. The double title holds two truths together. He is Lord of all in His divine person, and true man as David's son.
- Beyond Solomon. David wrote it with his son in view, but the tribute of all kings and the service of all nations fit only Christ.
- Righteousness, then peace. The psalm never asks for peace. Peace is the fruit of a throne set on righteousness — in His days, not before.
- Measured by the poor. The proof of that righteousness is care for the needy — a reign to come, and a responsibility now.
He will judge thy people with righteousness, and thine afflicted with judgment.
This prayer is also a prophecy: it asks God to give a king His own judgments and His own righteousness, and no human ruler has ever reigned that way. It raises two questions: who is this King, and who are the "poor" He cares for?
The psalm's opening prayer asks for something no king can supply for himself.
The psalm opens with a prayer to God. It asks that divine righteousness may guide the King, so that He can give decisions, or judgments, that match the will of God. We see in this way that the blessing of the kingdom depends entirely on a King who carries out God's judgments according to God's righteousness. We find this King only in Christ — the Son of David. Solomon was only a picture of Him.
David wrote the psalm with Solomon in mind, yet it reaches far past him.
David began to write his wishes for Solomon in poetic form. Then the Holy Spirit caught him up in the current of His own thoughts about the One whom Solomon only faintly pictured. The KING of this psalm is One to whom the kings of Tarshish and the islands, the kings of Sheba and Seba, will pay tribute. He is so great that all kings will fall down before Him, and all nations will serve Him. He is plainly the King of kings. No one is that but Jesus.
Righteousness comes first in this reign, not power or wealth. One writer sets it against the day Jew and Gentile condemned Jesus.
When the once rejected Jesus takes the throne, the earth will at last see a government marked by absolute perfection. First comes the establishing of righteousness — the first four verses are full of this. Jew and Gentile alike condemned Jesus. In His death, judgment was divorced from righteousness in the most outrageous way. When He returns in His glory and sets up His kingdom in power, that moment will arrive. Scripture says of it, "But justice will return to the righteous, and all the upright in heart will follow it" (Ps. 94:15) [older translations read, "judgment shall return to righteousness"].
The striking thing about this King's court is what it will not contain.
Think what it will mean for this oppressed and groaning earth to live under the excellent laws recorded in the inspired pages of the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible! Then a king will reign in righteousness, and princes will rule in justice. "May he judge your people with righteousness, and your poor with justice!" — no twisting of the law, no bribery, no biased verdicts then.
God calls them His poor. One writer names both the group and what this King will do for them.
He will come to break the oppressor in pieces (verse 4), and to save the children of the needy. The psalm calls the remnant of the nation, taken together, God's poor (verse 2). Such a group will be left in the land after God removes the haughty and the scoffers in judgment (Zeph. 3:11-12). On them He will come down like showers of new life on freshly mown grass (verse 6). He will visit that nation with overflowing grace and blessing, once it has reached the end of its humbling.
Their poverty is not simply economic; it is the cost of staying faithful.
This of course will mean the deliverance and vindication of the oppressed and afflicted. All through the ages, the scramble of life has trampled down the poor and needy. But "the poor and needy" in view here are, without doubt, the godly people whom the anti-Christian powers of the last days will persecute. The coming Roman leader will "wear out the saints of the Most High" (Dan. 7:25), but the King of kings will bring deliverance.
The verse describes a future government. One writer draws a line straight into today.
Only then will the poor get the care they should have. In the meantime, in the Church of God, the Spirit of God insists through the apostles, "Only, they asked us to remember the poor, the very thing I was eager to do" (Gal. 2:10). So today public government does not care properly for the poor, and the Church of God carries that responsibility instead, even if in a very limited sphere.
- Given — the reign starts as a gift. God hands His own judgments and righteousness to the King, so the kingdom's blessing rests on Him.
- Greater — Solomon fits the words only faintly. The King who receives tribute from every nation can be no one but Christ.
- Righteous — righteousness comes first. At the cross the world tore judgment and righteousness apart; His reign joins them again.
- Clean — no twisted rulings, no bribes, no favourites. His court answers every failure of human justice.
- Poor — God's own afflicted people, worn down by persecution, are the ones He delivers. Remembering the poor is already the Church's work today.
The mountains shall bring peace to the people, and the hills, by righteousness.
Psalm 72 is written about Solomon, but it reaches far past him to the reign of David's greater Son over the earth. Verse 3 answers one question: where does lasting peace for a people come from?
(Where the ESV says the mountains "bear prosperity," the older wording these writers use says they "bring peace.")
The psalm does not describe a struggle. It describes a settled state, and one commentator finds its meaning plain on the surface.
Psalm 72 introduces us, not to David in suffering and conflict, but to the full reign of peace and royal blessing. It is the Son of David we have here, the source and guarantee of the blessings of that thousand-year reign. I do not think this psalm needs much explanation, because it is so clear. Here is the king to whom God gives His judgments. He is at the same time the king's Son, the Son of David, reigning in righteousness and peace, like Solomon or Melchizedek.
Solomon's own reign never matched the language used here.
Here is a remarkable prophecy of David's Son. Solomon fulfilled only a small part of it. It still waits to be fulfilled in the true Seed, the Second Man… Most of this language cannot be applied to the Church in any sense. But read it as the literal fulfilment of the promises God gave Abraham and David about the earth — a kingdom that begins with judgment and brings in blessing for all. Read that way, the picture is divinely perfect.
The two landscape words picture rank in government — the great and the small.
Then comes the effect: "The mountains" — pictures of settled, established power — "shall bring peace to the people; and the hills" (the lesser authorities), "by righteousness." The perfect justice of the Head shows itself in everyone who represents Him.
These authorities change the moment the King appears among them.
The very presence of the Lord Jesus when His kingdom begins will so affect the governments that they too will act in righteousness (v. 3). So His authority brings justice to the poor of the people and salvation to the children of the needy (v. 4), breaking the oppressor in pieces.
Commentators differ on how far to press the figure. One takes the hills as real hills, transformed:
The mountains and the hills will bring peace. Look up at them, and you will no longer see warning fires or signs of enemies on the way. Covered to their tops with rich harvests, they will drip with sweet wine and flow with the purest oil… Violence will no longer be heard inside the borders of Immanuel's land.
The verse ties peace to righteousness, and the order matters. The two names given to Melchizedek follow it too.
First, his name, Melchizedek, means king of righteousness. Then he is king of Salem, which means king of peace. These are the two characters in which Christ will reign in the kingdom: first as David, then as Solomon. He will always combine the two. He will reign right through the thousand years in righteousness, and the effect of this will be peace.
Israel learned the cost of reversing that order.
In the past Israel sought peace at the cost of righteousness. Now they find there can be no peace without righteousness. Righteousness and peace can only kiss each other because of the value of the sacrifice of Christ.
The verse is not a description of the present world, and one writer marks the difference between the ages.
In the present age grace reigns through righteousness (Rom. 5:21). In the eternal state righteousness will dwell (2 Peter 3:13). But in the kingdom of the thousand years righteousness will reign. That will be its mark, as the prophet says: "Behold, a king shall reign in righteousness" (Isa. 32:1).
Though the scene is future, the principle behind it has already reached believers by another route.
In the thousand-year kingdom, righteousness must rule first, so that peace can come in… This is as true now as it will be then, and the gospel fulfils it in a far more wonderful way. Peace has come to us as the result of righteousness at the cross. Our Melchizedek has truly lived up to His name.
- The King. The reign described is that of David's Son — clear, settled, and only partly pictured in Solomon.
- The channel. Peace arrives "by righteousness"; reverse the order and you get neither.
- The reach. Mountains and hills stand for greater and lesser authorities, so the King's perfect justice shows in every officer under Him.
- The result. He gives the poor justice, saves the needy, breaks the oppressor — peace measured by what happens to the weakest.
- The preview. The same order runs through the cross: righteousness satisfied there, peace given to us now.
He will do justice to the afflicted of the people; he will save the children of the needy, and will break in pieces the oppressor.
Psalm 72 is titled "of Solomon," yet this verse promises a justice no human government has ever delivered. Who are "the poor of the people," and who is the King who defends them and crushes the oppressor?
The verse reads like a prayer for a king. But its details outrun the son of David who first wore the crown, and one writer reads the psalm as prophecy of a second Man:
This is a remarkable prophecy of David's Son. Only a small part of it was fulfilled in Solomon. The rest still waits for the true Seed, the Second Man… Most of this language cannot be applied to the Church in any sense. But God made promises to Abraham and David about the earth. As a literal fulfilment of those promises, and as a picture of a kingdom that opens with judgment and brings blessing to the whole world, the description is perfect.
The poor here are not just the badly off. One writer calls them God's own poor, and calls their rescuer God's King:
He is God's King. He will carry the government on His shoulder in the name of God and in the fear of God… He will come to break the oppressor in pieces (verse 4), and to save the children of the needy. But this Psalm praises Him most of all as the One who binds up the wound of His earthly people — the One who fulfils for Israel the mercy God swore to their fathers. It calls the remnant of the nation, taken together, God's poor (verse 2). Such a remnant will be left in the land after judgment has removed the proud and the scornful.
Other translations render "poor" here as "afflicted." This King does not punish the weak; He rescues them. One writer follows the grace that runs through the whole psalm:
His reign of righteousness will surpass Solomon's reign, which was so sadly cut short. It will surpass it in splendour and in length… But it will also begin as Solomon's reign never began: "He will come down like rain on the mown grass" (v. 6). He brings heavenly blessing to the very place where judgment has done its work and has left nothing to harvest. Under His gentle care a new harvest will spring up… Notice this character of grace in our psalm. It brings compassion, deliverance and salvation, to bring the afflicted out from under the yoke of the oppressor.
The verse pairs two actions: He judges, and He saves. That second word decides what kind of kingdom this is:
Christ's kingdom is not only a reign of righteousness. It is, just as surely, a kingdom for salvation. You see this in the grand picture of Psalm 72… The saving side of the kingdom has to be in that picture, or the picture would not be a true one at all. Could any worthy idea of God leave out His grace?
One writer says better laws will never do this, because of what people are:
People love to dream that this is the goal of human progress and enlightenment. But they do not know, or they forget, that human nature is corrupt beyond cure. So they never stop to think that even if the whole world were given fair and equal laws, those laws would still fail — either in the way they are run or in the way they are applied. No; Christ is the only hope for the earth.
Another writer sets the same truth in time. Doing right costs something now; in Christ's coming reign on earth it will hold the throne.
Ever since the Lord Jesus was rejected — in fact, ever since Abel — righteousness has always suffered. Just try to live a righteous life in practice, and you will suffer… In the millennial day righteousness reigns.
The verse describes a future King, but His care for the poor is not on hold until then:
Only then will the poor get the care they should have. Meanwhile, the Spirit of God presses this on the Church through the apostles: "They asked only that we should remember the poor, the very thing which I also (Paul) was eager to do" (Gal. 2:10). So today, though public government does not care for the poor as it should, God has made the Church responsible to do it.
- The King — Solomon's name heads the psalm, but he answers only part of it; the rest waits for David's greater Son.
- The poor — "the poor of the people" are God's poor, the group left in the land after judgment has removed the proud.
- The rescue — He does not only judge; He saves. Grace is the heart of His reign.
- The oppressor — better laws cannot cure human nature. Christ does not reform the oppressor; He breaks him.
- The meantime — righteousness suffers now and reigns then, so God hands His people the King's own care for the poor in advance.