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!
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©
