The Bible Study Hour

Guest (Male): As the Psalms of David come to a close, we get a picture of Israel's next ruler, King Solomon. Solomon began well, but after a time, that would change. Solomon was not the ideal leader David had hoped he would be.

Guest (Male): Welcome to the Bible Study Hour, a radio and internet broadcast with Dr. James Boice, preparing you to think and act biblically. Only one person could completely fulfill the description of the king of Psalm 72—not David's son, but God's son, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Let's join Dr. Boice as he examines Psalm 72, and we'll see that while Solomon fell short of David's vision, our Lord fulfills it perfectly.

Dr. James Boice: I wonder if you can think back to the Republican National Convention in the summer of 1991, when George Bush was renominated as the Republican candidate for President, in which he chose as his vice presidential running mate, Dan Quayle. You remember that?

You may remember that there was a great deal of consternation in the media because the newspapers and the reporters who write the stories were aghast that he could choose somebody like that, somebody unknown. But that wasn't exactly the problem. The problem was that Dan Quayle was also young, and he looked even younger. And in the judgment of a lot of people who were pontificating at the time, utterly unqualified to be a vice president.

I don't think that was just, but the question was raised: why in the world George Bush would choose a person like that? Well, there was lots of speculation, of course. We don't know the inside story, but the most interesting speculation of all was something I read that had been said by Camille Paglia.

I mentioned this woman before. You may remember who she is. She's based in Philadelphia, and she is an expert in communication theory, particularly television, and a great defender of television. Sometimes when I talk about Neil Postman on the one hand as being a critic of television, I mention Camille Paglia on the other because she thinks it's wonderful.

At any rate, Camille Paglia explained to those who would listen what was really going on. She said you have to remember that television is not a rational thought process medium. It operates by images. And you have to remember that the national conventions are television events, and therefore they operate not by reason.

Now we all know that. We know there's no rationale at all for what goes on at the conventions, but she was explaining: they operate by images, and so it's the image that comes across on the screen that's important. And she said she herself was puzzled at the choice until she realized what George Bush was really doing.

She said—and I'm quoting her now almost exactly as I can—George Bush was choosing a son. Now what she meant by that, you see, is that he was the young man under the older Ronald Reagan, a distinguished old president, and Bush was younger. Now Bush was going to run for the presidency, and so Bush had to have somebody who would be younger and would be his son, and as a result of that, he chose Dan Quayle.

Now I don't know if that is really the reason or not, but it does suggest something about the Psalm to which we come now. Psalm 72 in the Psalter, one that ends the second book of the Psalms, which itself ends by the line, "This concludes the prayers of David, the son of Jesse." You would expect this Psalm to be by David. But instead of that, it's by David's son, David's son Solomon.

And it's a way of saying, it seems to me, that the prayers of Jesse are not ended until the son of David is in place. Now, it has a title, as many of these Psalms do. It says, "of Solomon." And you know anything about the Hebrew, you know that that little particle with which it begins, translated "of," could also mean "by."

So it could mean it is by Solomon. It could also mean "to." It could mean it is to Solomon. And that has given rise to a lot of debate among the commentators. Some say, well, this is the last of the Psalms of David. Therefore, it's not a Psalm that is by Solomon or of him, but is actually to him. It was written by David to his son in order to set before him how a king should really operate.

Well, that's a good theory. It would certainly make sense. But it doesn't work out very well for this reason: the ending that you have at this second book of the Psalter, "Here ends the Psalms of David, the son of Jesse," obviously is saying clearly that most of those Psalms that come before are by David.

And if you look back over that book of Psalms as well as the first book of the Psalter, you find that in many cases you have the phrase there in the title, "of David"—exactly the same particle that you have here in this particular title, "of Solomon." Now because of the ending here, "of David" has to mean "by David." These things are written by David.

And if that's true of the Psalms that are identified as being of David, well then it ought to be true of the Psalm that is identified as being of Solomon. In other words, this really is by Solomon, his successor. However, it's not because this is a Psalm of Solomon that we remember it, or this Psalm is important.

The reason this Psalm has commended itself so highly to the church is that it portrays the ideal king—not Solomon, who was far from ideal, or even David, who was a good king but not an ideal king, but rather Jesus Christ. It's looking forward to him. Now that's the way the perceptive commentators see it.

Derek Kidner, whom I've often quoted, says the New Testament nowhere quotes it as messianic. But this picture of the king and his realm is so close to the prophecies of Isaiah 11:1-5 and Isaiah 60-62 that if those passages are messianic, so is this. Language that would otherwise be no more than courtly extravagance makes sober sense with this reference.

And Charles Hodge says the same thing. He's got a section in his systematic theology. He didn't do a commentary on the Psalms, but he talks about this Psalm in his systematics. And he says this is a description of an exalted king and of the blessings of his reign. These blessings are of such a nature as to prove that the subject of the Psalm must be a divine person.

Number one: his kingdom is to be everlasting. Number two: it's to be universal. Number three: it secures perfect peace with God and goodwill among men. Number four: all men are to be brought to submit to him through love. And number five: in him all the nations of the earth are to be blessed. So the subject of this Psalm must be the Redeemer of the world.

Now that's very sound judgment. And so when we come to the Psalm, we should approach it that way. I've been careful along the way not to say that all of the Psalms are messianic, that is, they all relate to Jesus Christ. There are commentators who have tried to do that; the great Saint Augustine is one. I think that's a faulty way of proceeding.

But there are nevertheless some that are, and this is one of them. "Of Solomon," but of the greater than Solomon that would one day sit upon the throne. Now it's because of this that this Psalm has given us a number of our great hymns. Some of them we know very well. James Montgomery's "Hail to the Lord's Anointed"—that's based on this Psalm.

Isaac Watts' "Jesus Shall Reign Where'er the Sun Does His Successive Journeys Run"—that's another one. Here's a writer that we don't know so well, Henry Scott Holland, but he wrote a hymn called "Judge Eternal Throned in Splendor," and we know the hymn. And then from the Geneva Psalter, some of these verses have been rendered into poetry in the Psalter and became the base for Gilbert Sullivan's "Christ Shall Have Dominion," which is sung to the tune of "Onward Christian Soldiers" by Sir Arthur Sullivan.

The original Trinity hymnal that we used to have some years ago had in it seven hymns that were based upon Psalm 72. Our present Psalter only has four of them, but you get an idea for how important it is. Now, it's got five stanzas, if you accept the doxology or benediction that comes at the end, and these five stanzas each in a different way talk about a characteristic of this kingdom of Jesus Christ.

You can number them down the edge if you make notes. The first stanza talks about its character, verses 1 to 4. Second stanza talks about its duration, verses 5 to 7. Third stanza talks about its expanse, what territory it's going to cover, verses 8 to 11. Next stanza talks about its nature, verses 12 through 14. And then finally, the last stanza, its blessing, verses 15 to 17.

And then after that you have a doxology and then that final line that says this is the end of the second book of the Psalter. Now let's just look at those five. Very important, each one. The first four verses of the Psalm are talking about the essential character of this kingdom, the kingdom that's to come, that Jesus Christ will bring, and it is righteousness.

It's going to be a righteous kingdom. Now that word occurs three times. You can't miss it. It's in verses 1, 2, and 3. Verse 1 asks that the king might be endowed with righteousness. And here you have something that links it up with Solomon. It's also a prayer for him. Verse 2 predicts that so endowed, the king will judge the people in righteousness.

And then verse 3 speaks of the fruit of righteousness, which is prosperity. That theme is going to be developed a little later on in stanza 5. What is righteousness? When we think of righteousness, we think of it largely in Pauline terms, that is, the imputed righteousness of Jesus Christ, which is imputed to those who believe on him.

We become righteous because of his righteousness. Now, generally in the Old Testament, it doesn't mean that. And when we were looking at this last time, we saw it has to do with acting justly or doing what's right. And this is the way it's being used here. This king, this king who is coming, is going to do right.

Now, I said this has some relationship to Solomon. It's by him and probably about him. It's also expressing a prayer that he might be like this, and it leads us to ask whether Solomon really was or not. And the answer is, yes, he was. He really was a righteous king, at least at the beginning. When God told him to ask of him whatever he wanted for the blessing of the kingdom, we're told that he prayed for wisdom.

You recall that. But the reason he prayed for wisdom was that he might rule justly. And so he did. He ruled with great righteousness and wise judgment, but unfortunately only at the beginning. Solomon didn't seem to live up to that high standard, and as time went on, he became oppressive. We're told in the accounts of his reign that he began to tax the people heavily and in an oppressive way in order that he might raise money for his great spending projects.

And so the quality of his reign began to decline. Now, that's the way it is with all human kingdoms. They start well, often with very good intentions, but they tend to wind down. That's true of revolutions. Revolutions start with high ideals. They want to get rid of the unrighteous scoundrels that are there before them.

And so they drive them out, somebody else is established in place, but in order to maintain himself, he becomes increasingly oppressive. It's also true of democracies. You get a group of people in government and they start with high ideals, but corruption begins to creep in. And pretty soon you've got people appointed for personal and not noble reasons.

And then you have people doing wrong, and then you have cover-ups and all that sort of thing. It's one reason why we need a democracy. You see, the one thing you often hear at elections, especially in this country after somebody's been in for four or eight years, is "let's get rid of the rascals and get somebody else in there that's going to do things right."

Well, what we're confessing when we say that is the nature of human kingdoms. Human kingdoms are all like that. But you see, what we're talking about here is a kingdom which will always be characteristic, characterized by righteousness and by upright conduct. Only of him can we say with full conviction, as this writer does in verses 2 and 3: "He will judge your people in righteousness, your afflicted ones with justice. The mountains will bring prosperity to the people, the hills the fruit of righteousness."

Now in Jesus' case, the fruit of this righteousness exceeded anything that Solomon himself could possibly have accomplished. Jesus gives the gift of righteousness to his people as a result of his death. And then through the power of his Holy Spirit, which he sends, he actually empowers them to lead a righteous life.

Calvin in one place in his commentary on this says, "This brings back righteousness which otherwise would be banished from the world." So the first characteristic of this kingdom is that it is a righteous kingdom. Now the second stanza, verses 5 through 7, describes the duration of Christ's kingdom, and the idea here is that it is eternal. It's a kingdom that's never going to end.

David was a great king. He reigned 40 years—a very long time to reign—but in the end he died. And Solomon who followed him was a wise king, and he ruled for 40 years, but in the end he died. And so it is with all the rulers of the world. No matter how wise they may be, no matter how just they may be, no matter how esteemed, justly, they may be, they nevertheless do die in time and they're succeeded by others.

And it may be the people call out, as they seem to even here in the Psalm, verse 13, "May the king live forever." But kings don't live forever, they die. But not Jesus. You see, Jesus was here in the flesh once. He died, he rose again, but he rose again in order to live forever. And he's going to return and rule eternally as well.

Now it's true that the kingdoms of this world have not yet acknowledged the sovereign reign of Jesus Christ, but he's nevertheless in control. He's in control by providence, guiding everything that happens, and he is in control in a special way, drawing people to himself, forming as it were a kingdom of righteousness within the various kingdoms of the world.

All these other kingdoms decline. Charles Spurgeon wrote in one place, "We see on the shore of time the wreck of the Caesars, the relics of the Mongols, the last remnants of the Ottomans. Charlemagne, Maximilian, Napoleon, they all flit like shadows before us. They were and are not, but Jesus forever is." Well, those are names that are pretty far in the past.

But we look around today and we say the same thing. In our lifetime, Hitler was once a great menace to the world, but he's gone. Mussolini is gone, Stalin is gone, Gorbachev is gone. You see, even the Great Soviet Union, which was such a threat, or perceived to be a threat to the United States and the Western world, collapsed as it were almost overnight.

The kingdoms of the world are like that, but the kingdom of Jesus Christ is forever. These verses, the ones that are talking about the duration of the kingdom, also talk about the blessing of the reign of Jesus Christ. And it's described by an image: rain falling on a mown field and shadows, as showers watering the earth. Now those are images, they're found in a lot of different places in the Old Testament, but most characteristic and perhaps with most bearing here, they're found in 2 Samuel 23 in David's own personal instruction to Solomon.

And what it would seem to indicate is that Solomon actually heard what his dad had to tell him. That was a miracle in itself. It shows that he was on the right track at the beginning. And so when he came to write this, he remembered some of his father's words and he put them in here.

Here's what David said to him. This is 2 Samuel 23, verses 3 and 4: "When one rules over men in righteousness, when he rules in the fear of God, he is like the light of morning at sunrise on a cloudless morning, like the brightness after rain that brings the grass from the earth." Now that's true, even of human rule. Righteousness does bring blessing.

We read in the Bible: righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a disgrace to any people. But you see, among earthly rulers, that's an ideal that is realized only partially and from time to time. But in the case of Jesus Christ, his reign is a righteous reign that endures forever and therefore brings eternal blessing.

Now this hymn that was set to music by Sir Arthur Sullivan says this, it gets this idea. It says, "Ever and forever shall his name endure. Long as suns continue, it shall stand secure, and in him forever all men shall be blessed, and all nations hail him, King of kings confessed."

Now look at the third stanza. It's verses 8 through 11. This is talking about the great expanse of Christ's kingdom. And the point here is that it's universal. It's going to be everywhere. Here's the way the language describes it: it is "from sea to sea and from the river to the ends of the earth."

Now the river is the Euphrates, of course. That's the way the great Euphrates River was always referred to. But this isn't to say that all the writer has in mind is the historic territory that was ruled by Solomon and perhaps for a short time his immediate successors, that is, from the Euphrates in the east to the sea, that is, the Mediterranean on the west.

These are words that the writer is using here to indicate as extensive a domain as can possibly be imagined. He mentions Tarshish, for example. That's the farthest city to the west, way over on the coast of Spain. No Jewish king ever ruled that far, ever controlled territory like that, but it's saying that this future king will.

And when he mentions the Euphrates, all he's really doing is referring to the great landmark that was the furthest thing to the east that he could think of. A couple of other references here. He refers to Sheba and Seba. Those were kingdoms to the south. And in fact, the extent of this kingdom is so vast, he says, verse 9, that even the desert tribes will bow before him.

And then in case you missed the idea, verse 11 says all kings will bow down to him and all nations will serve our king. So what that means, you see, looking forward to the reign of Christ, is that not only that it will endure forever, so his kingdom will last throughout all ages, it will also cover all territories. It will embrace all places and all people.

No one's going to ultimately escape his righteous rule. Now that hymn I just referred to starts this way. We probably know it better than the verse I just read, but it captures the idea. "Christ shall have dominion over land and sea. Earth's remotest regions shall his empire be. They that wilds inhabit shall their worship bring. Kings shall render tribute, nations serve our King."

I mentioned James Montgomery's great hymn earlier. It has the same idea. Here's the way it goes: "O'er every foe victorious, he on his throne shall rest, from age to age more glorious, all-blessing and all-blest. The tide of time shall never his covenant remove. His name shall stand forever, that name to us is love."

You know, this is going to be one of the themes of the songs of heaven, too. Do you know that? You read about those songs in the Book of Revelation in the 11th chapter. The people in heaven are singing: "The kingdoms of the world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ, and he will reign forever and ever." Now you see we have that theme here in the Old Testament, we have it the whole way to the very end of the New Testament, too.

Well, those are three of the stanzas. Here's the fourth. It talks about the nature of this kingdom, and the point here is that it's compassionate. This is what's developed from verses 12 through 14. Now most of the world's rulers want to be thought compassionate. I suppose even the most wicked ones have a nice side and want to be remembered for that. I suppose Hitler kind of thought that he was nice and wanted people to think how nice he was.

If that is true of people like that, it's certainly true of the rulers we know. You may recall George Bush and his latest campaign wanted to have a kinder, gentler America. And of course, America didn't become kinder or gentler, quite the opposite. It's become harsh, brutal, unkind, cruel, even murderous, deadly, very dangerous at times.

That's what's happening because the problem is the people, and the people have departed from God, and when you depart from God, those are the things that follow. And so that's the direction our country is moving. But you see, where Jesus is ruling—in the hearts of his people, in his kingdom, in his church—there kindness becomes evident and people are treated gently and compassionately for his sake.

You look at the Psalm, you find in verse 12 that the needy cry out and receive help. Verse 13: the weak are pitied. Other people scorn them. You don't get anything from the weak, but Christians pity them. And those who are in danger of death are rescued. People who have suffered oppression and have been victimized by violence are rescued by those who love and serve the King of kings, even Jesus Christ.

The world owes a great debt to those who are Jesus' people, even though the world doesn't acknowledge it. And we are in the train of those who have gone before. Well, the preceding stanzas have all in one way or another contributed to the idea of prosperity. Because of its righteous character, prosperity is going to flow down from the mountains and the afflicted will be rescued. You find that in stanza 1.

Because of its endless duration, the righteous are going to flourish and wealth is going to increase. You find that in stanza 2. Because of its universal expanse throughout the earth, peace will prevail and treasure will flow to this realm sovereign. You find that in stanza 3. And because of its compassionate nature, all who are needy or afflicted or in danger will be helped out. You find that in stanza 4.

Now that's a way in which each of these preceding stanzas has been leading up to the fifth, which is where we come now. That's the way the verses work. That's the way you get the flow in the poetry. And here, sort of been preparing for this final stanza that ends. Now this is given over wholly to the blessing that's going to come as a result of Christ's rule.

And it's twofold according to this stanza. Part of it is material, materialistic, material blessings. And then the second and more important thing is spiritual. Now the way this material prosperity is described, it has to do with gold pouring in from Sheba and with grain and fruit thriving even on the tops of the hills.

Now the tops of the hills are the least productive part of the land, so if grain would flourish up there, it's going to be a very, very prosperous and bountiful country. It's a way of saying that under the rule of Jesus, there is going to be great material prosperity. That doesn't mean that every Christian's going to get rich, of course, but it does mean that where you follow the teachings of Jesus Christ in a general way, prosperity comes, and history shows that.

Because you see, families become stable. Husbands care for wives, wives for husbands. Both care for their children. They sacrifice in order to have their children receive sound educations and get launched well in a productive way of life. And because they're Christians, they look out on those who are not fortunate, people who are non-productive, they can rescue many times for productive roles in society.

A country that is built upon principles like that generally speaking becomes prosperous. And this way, Christianity has contributed much to the economic welfare of the nations of the world, and where Christianity has been oppressed, where it's been driven out, these nations in many cases have suffered greatly for it. So that's the material side of it.

And yet as you read on in this stanza, you soon get the impression that that's the least important of the two things. The important thing is the spiritual blessing. You find that in verse 17, because that verse is certainly referring to the blessing God gave Abraham when he called him out of Ur of the Chaldees. You go back to Genesis 12, you find it in verse 3.

It says all people on earth will be blessed through you, and that's what it's referring to. All nations will be blessed through him. Now how did that come? Did it come through Abraham? Answer is no, didn't come through Abraham. It came through Abraham's seed, that is, a descendant. And who was that? Was it David? No. Solomon? No.

Abraham's great seed or descendant, the Savior, the Redeemer, is Jesus Christ. So this is saying that spiritual blessings come to the world through Jesus Christ. Now Paul wrote that way. You know the Book of Galatians, you know in the third chapter he made this very clear. He said, "The scriptures foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith and so he announced the gospel in advance to Abraham saying 'All nations will be blessed through you'."

That's exactly this verse, you see. So those who have faith are blessed along with Abraham who had faith. Now that's real prosperity. You see, I said that God quite frequently blesses, and he certainly blesses a country that'll follow after righteousness and the principles that are laid down in scripture, but the great blessing is the blessing that we have in Jesus Christ.

Scriptures say that we have all heavenly blessings in Jesus Christ. We have the forgiveness of our sins, we have an imputed righteousness, we have fellowship with God, we have the opportunity to pray to him about all things at all times and know that he hears and that he answers. And we're brought into a new family, a new fellowship known as the church, composed of people of all races, all nationalities, all backgrounds, all one because of what Jesus Christ has done for them, each and every one removing their sin.

Great blessings, you see. And so what we have as an opportunity here as Christian people is to begin to actualize in our fellowship something of that great blessing that's going to come to the entire world when Jesus Christ actually reigns over it.

Now all of that brings us back to the doxology that ends not only this Psalm but also the second book of the Psalter. You have something like this at the end of each of the books, but the others are shorter—shorter ending to Book 1 and 4, and a much shorter ending to Books 3 and 5. It says, "Praise be to the Lord God, the God of Israel, who alone does marvelous deeds. Praise be to his glorious name forever. May the whole earth be filled with his glory. Amen and Amen."

Well, that doxology's a reminder, as G. Campbell Morgan says, that the kingdom described in Psalm 72 is a kingdom for which the world still waits. And will wait until Jesus Christ brings it. You see, one of the great failures of the evangelical church in our country, in our time, has been to identify the kingdom of God with the United States of America.

And so we're always trying to Christianize America or re-Christianize America. It can't be done. America's a secular state, just like all the other secular states of the world. It may be influenced and has been. There are times when Christians have been in positions of significant authority and have stood for righteousness and the country's been blessed as a result, but the country as a whole, the system as a whole, is a secular system.

And we don't place our hope in that. We don't place our hope in a Christian America anymore than if we were English a generation ago, we'd have placed our hope in a Christian Britain or some other country of the world. We place our hope in the kingdom of Jesus Christ, and we look for him.

Isn't it interesting that's the way the Bible flows? You know, you go back to the very beginning of Genesis, you have the scene of the fall in the garden, and the promise there is of a Redeemer who will come, the one who is going to crush the head of Satan, even though his heel is going to be wounded in the process. So at the very beginning of the human race, in the Garden of Eden with our first parents, Adam and Eve, you had a looking forward to Jesus Christ.

And here in the Psalter, at the end of the second book that concludes the Psalms of David, the son of Jesse, you have the same thing. David stepping aside now, his son Solomon taking his place, but the hope is not in Solomon. Here we're looking ahead to the coming of Jesus Christ.

You come to the New Testament, our Lord comes, but he comes to die. He rises again, he gives instructions to his disciples and he says to them, "I'm going to the Father, but I'm going to come again. In the meantime, don't be troubled, live for me." And so even in the Gospels, we're directed to look ahead.

And then we go to the very end of the Bible, to the Book of Revelation, and what do we find? The very last words there are the words of Jesus. He says, "Behold, I'm coming quickly." He's been saying all along in the book, "Hang in there, stand for righteousness, obey me, live for me." And he says, "Remember, I'm coming quickly."

And the church looks down the ages into the future and it says, "That's what we want, yes." And it prays, "Even so come, Lord Jesus." You see, that's our hope. That's the one we talk about. That's our witness to the world: Jesus, who is the King of kings, the Lord of lords, who reigns in righteousness. And we want to allow him to reign in righteousness in our hearts.

Our Father, we thank you that we have had time to study this important Psalm, and we ask for your blessing on the lessons of the Psalm in our lives. Very easy for us to hear things and then go and live in a different way entirely, just because we're surrounded by the world and its values.

But we don't want to do that. We're your people. Jesus is our King. We want to live for righteousness even as he stands for righteousness. And we would ask that you'd help us to do it this night, throughout this week, and the next week, wherever we may be.

So that as we who are subjects of this King go from place to place, to that extent in this time, in our age, the kingdom and the rule of Jesus Christ is extended and his name is honored. We pray that in Jesus' name. Amen.

Guest (Male): Thank you for listening to this message from the Bible Study Hour, a listener-supported ministry of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals. The Alliance is a coalition of pastors, scholars, and churchmen who hold to the historic creeds and confessions of the Reformed faith, and who proclaim biblical doctrine in order to foster a Reformed awakening in today's church.

To learn more about the Alliance, visit AllianceNet.org. And while you're there, visit our online store, Reformed Resources, where you can find messages and books from Dr. Boice and other outstanding teachers and theologians. Or ask for a free Reformed Resources catalog by calling 1-800-488-1888.

Please take the time to write to us and share how the Bible Study Hour has impacted you. We'd love to hear from you and pray for you. Our address is 600 Eden Road, Lancaster, Pennsylvania, 17601. Please consider giving financially to help keep the Bible Study Hour impacting people for decades to come.

You can do so at our website, AllianceNet.org, over the phone at 1-800-488-1888, or send a check to 600 Eden Road, Lancaster, Pennsylvania, 17601. For Canadian gifts, mail those to 237 Rouge Hills Drive, Scarborough, Ontario, M1C 2Y9. Thanks for your continued prayer and support, and for listening to the Bible Study Hour, preparing you to think and act biblically.