Thursday, December 1, 2022

A Refreshing Spring Rain

Thursday, December 1, 2022

Give your love of justice to the king, O God, and righteousness to the king’s son.  Help him judge your people in the right way; let the poor always be treated fairly.  May the mountains yield prosperity for all, and may the hills be fruitful.  Help him to defend the poor, to rescue the children of the needy, and to crush their oppressors.  May they fear you as long as the sun shines, as long as the moon remains in the sky.  Yes, forever!  May the king’s rule be refreshing like spring rain on freshly cut grass, like the showers that water the earth.  May all the godly flourish during his reign.  May there be abundant prosperity until the moon is no more.  Psalm 72:1-7

In this Psalm there is a very thin and necessary line any leader must walk, if that leader will measure-up to what David prayed for his son, Solomon, who was about to take over for the dying king.  It’s the precarious line of tension between the heart and head.  On the one hand rulers must govern with rulership, applying with wisdom (of the mind) all the laws of the land equally to all the citizens.  On balance, compassion (of the heart) must make certain the law’s rigid nature tramples no citizen.  To achieve that balance is like a refreshing spring rain on a parched soil.  David’s prayer for his son contains superlatives…enemies eternally fearing Solomon, oppressors broken and crushed, fairness in the courts…always!  And let us not forget prosperity until the moon is no more.  We are talking about King Arthur’s Camelot, an everlasting paradise of blessing showered on everyone.  Can’t you just hear the pledge of allegiance?  One nation, under God, with liberty and justice for all!

If you apply those standards to ANY ruler of current day, or of any time in history, that flesh-and-blood human will fall short.  Even the one who prayed it in the 72nd Psalm for his young ruler-to-be couldn’t live up to that standard.  Indeed, it is an impossible target.  A rule of forever is not consistent with the term-limits of human life spans.  Exact justice is not found anywhere on the planet, except in the minds of the naïve or evil.  So how could David, a wise and (relatively) good king, pray for something no human can hope to attain?  Was he just setting-up his son, Solomon for failure?  Or is there something else in that prayer we’re not seeing?  Perhaps both. 

The spring rain on a field of grass is prosperity for a season; dry spells will return, as assuredly they did in Israel, not long after Solomon’s reign ended.  There were plenty of evil rulers to follow.  David knew this, but still prayed for the son’s wisdom, power, and success.  But, behind the king’s wishes for his earthly son of the next generation, David was pointing to the Son of Advent, of his lineage, nearly a thousand years later, born in a manger. 

If you use Psalm 72 as a template, placing it over the completeness of Scripture’s prophecies concerning the rule of Christ, you will see no inconsistency.  The line between justice and mercy is held high.  Judgment is righteous and fair.  Rule is with godliness.  And the godly flourish.  David’s prayer, written under the inspiration of God’s Holy Spirit, was hopefulness for Solomon’s reign as king for a season, but it was prophetic for the certainty of Christ’s reign truly forever.

For You Today  

There’s a reason we place our faith in God and not in earthly rulers, or institutions.  Earthly kings and presidents are subject to the transitory and imperfect results of being human, with all the character cracks of our nature; God, in Christ, is eternal and without failure.  That’s a permanent refreshing rain!

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!

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There are about 2,000 devotional posts and 400 sermons in the Rocky Road Devotions library.  To dig deeper on today’s topic, explore some of these: 

       One Nation UNDER God   and   Praying for a President

Images:  Title Pixabay.com   Images without citation are either personal property of the author, or in public domain.

Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation©   

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