Psalm 72.
Let's pray as we come to God's Word together.
Lord, we indeed pray just that you would come and give your Word success.
Lord, that you would penetrate the depths of our hearts with the truth of your Word.
Lord, we want to see you afresh.
We want to know you more deeply.
God, we want to live as your image bearers in a more rich and profound way.
And Lord, we know that you have given us your Word to accomplish just that, to shape us,
to mold us, to change us, to reveal yourself to us.
Lord, it is our sufficient and sure guide.
So, Father, we pray that by your Spirit you would come and you would work in us through
your Word this morning.
For Christ's sake, amen.
Psalm 72.
Let me read this for us.
Give the King your justice, O God, and your righteousness to the royal Son.
May he judge your people with righteousness and your poor with justice.
Let the mountains bear prosperity for the people and the hills in righteousness.
May he defend the cause of the poor of the people, give deliverance to the children of
the needy and crush the oppressor.
May they fear you while the sun endures and as long as the moon throughout all generations.
May he be like rain that falls on the mown grass, like showers that water the earth.
In his days may the righteous flourish and peace abound till the moon be no more.
May he have dominion from sea to sea and from the river to the ends of the earth.
May desert tribes bow down before him and his enemies lick the dust.
May the kings of Tarshish and the coastlands render him tribute.
May the kings of Sheba and Seba bring gifts.
May all kings fall down before him.
All nations serve him.
For he delivers the needy when he calls.
The poor and him who has no helper.
He has pity on the weak and the needy and saves the lives of the needy.
From oppression and violence he redeems their life and precious is their blood in his sight.
Long may he live.
May gold of Sheba be given to him.
May prayer be made for him continually and blessings invoked for him all the day.
May there be abundance of grain in the land.
On the tops of the mountains may it wave.
May its fruit be like Lebanon.
And may people blossom in the cities like the grass of the field.
May his name endure forever.
His fame continue as long as the sun.
May people be blessed in him.
All nations call him blessed.
Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, who alone does wondrous things.
Blessed be his glorious name forever.
May the whole earth be filled with his glory.
Amen and amen.
The prayers of David, the son of Jesse, are ended.
Well, with that we come to the end of book two of the Psalms.
And we come to the end of our series that we've been doing this summer in book two of the Psalms called Thirsting for God.
You'll remember that way back in the beginning of the summer, if you've been with us, we began in Psalm 42.
And we heard the heart cry of the psalmist calling out, God, I'm thirsting for you.
I'm longing for you.
And we've seen that sort of journey throughout this book of the Psalms.
And finally, we come here to the end, to Psalm 72.
And what do we find?
We find a psalm for the king.
A royal psalm.
Psalm 72 is essentially a prayer that ancient Israel would pray for their king.
And my guess is that as we read this psalm today, most of us would find the idea of having a king to be a bit foreign, right?
I mean, do we really need a king?
Do we really want a king?
Of course, maybe we'd like one, but only to a point.
I mean, with, you know, little George born this summer in England, you know, those of us on the other side of the pond think, oh, you know, maybe it would be kind of fun to have a royal family.
It would add a little pomp and circumstance to public life.
It would give the entertainment magazines something to talk about with at least a shred of dignity, right?
It would give us a little more national identity.
But at the end of the day, you and I don't really want a king, do we?
I mean, a figurehead is fine, great, but not a real king, not a king with real power and authority and all that.
In fact, that whole idea just makes us a bit uncomfortable.
This week, our small group went to see the production of Julius Caesar at Edgerton Park.
And if you're familiar with that Shakespeare play, you'll remember that the whole reason, or at least one of the main reasons,
why the conspirators conspire together to assassinate Caesar is because they're afraid that he'll become a tyrant.
At least that's why Brutus does the deed.
He's the one noble one among them all.
In other words, if Caesar becomes emperor, as it looks like he will, they're afraid that they'll lose their freedom.
So they kill him.
And isn't that the same fear under most of our misgivings about giving someone authority in and over our lives?
Isn't that our misgivings about having, as we would put it, a king?
Don't we fear that such authority over us will destroy our freedom and our potential to genuinely flourish?
But if someone has rights over me, then the only option is for me to diminish as that person increases.
And yet there's a deep irony in the play.
After Caesar is assassinated, do you remember what happens?
The whole country just descends into civil war.
And the play seems to imply that the generals who end up on top in the end just might be worse tyrants than Caesar ever would have been.
And isn't there an irony in our culture too?
You know, as much as we believe that individual autonomy is the real key to happiness and to freedom,
don't we also know that our flourishing is completely bound up with the people who are in leadership over us?
I mean, think about it.
Just think of how many books are written and sold every year on management and business leadership.
Right?
You go to Amazon and you look at the shelves of leadership and they just keep going.
It's incredible.
John Maxwell has written like 4,000 books on leadership, like millions of pages on how to be a leader, right?
And I think that's because it seems that we know that the well-being of a company depends on the right functioning of its leadership.
If the leadership is bad, the company is not going to succeed.
And I think even more than that, we even harbor hopes that if we get the right leadership in place,
it won't just grow a company, but it could even heal a company.
Take the recent events at the Washington Post, for example.
Everybody knows that the newspaper industry is in trouble, right?
But when Jeff Bezos bought the Washington Post early last month, some people were thinking,
oh my goodness, maybe he'll just pull it off.
Maybe if the guy behind Amazon, the sort of genius behind sort of the digital age in some ways,
at least in making money in the digital age,
if he can get behind the Washington Post, no matter how broken the newspaper industry might be,
maybe it just stands a chance of survival.
Maybe even it could flourish.
And we know this principle is true not just in the corporate world, right?
Think about other areas too.
You know, when parents function like they should,
doesn't it bring wholeness and healing to a family?
Or when local government officials function like they should,
doesn't it bring forth the possibility of healing in a neighborhood or in a city?
It seems there's an undeniable connection between the proper functioning,
the rightness, the righteousness, if you will, of the leadership of a body
and the peace and the wholeness of that body.
So when we come to Psalm 72, and especially these first four verses of this Psalm,
and as we listen in of this prayer, into this prayer of ancient Israel for their king,
we realize that on the one hand,
what they're doing is completely in line with what we know and practice every day.
That good leaders, righteous leaders bring wholeness and healing and flourishing to their people,
so they're praying for their king to be just that.
But on the other hand, as we listen a bit more closely,
we realize that this psalm is doing something completely radical with that idea.
You see, when Israel took up this prayer for its king,
they weren't just praying for the peace and prosperity of their own little tribe
in their own little corner of the world.
You see, they were praying for a king who would be so completely fit for the task,
so completely and genuinely righteous,
that he would ultimately heal not just Israel, but the whole world.
Under the headship of this king, the needy would be provided for,
the oppressed would be delivered, the nations would be united,
and the creation itself would be renewed.
Look at verse 3.
Even the mountains and the hills are brought into prosperity.
Literally, the word there is peace, shalom, wholeness,
because of the righteousness of this king.
And of course, their kings never lived up to it, right?
Throughout the history of ancient Israel, most of their kings were weak or downright bad,
and even the good kings couldn't finally prevent the downward spiral into captivity.
And it seemed that the truly righteous king would never come,
and that might would continue to make right,
and the brokenness of the world would remain.
And yet, can't you imagine the faithful in Israel,
through all those hard and disappointing generations,
singing this song that God had given them,
hoping and longing and yearning for the day
when God would send them a true king,
to bring justice at last,
and to bring healing and wholeness to the world at last.
And isn't that deep down what we're longing for, too?
Just this week, we celebrated the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington, right?
The 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.'s great,
I Have a Dream speech,
which stands not just as one of the examples of great American oratory,
but one of the most moving and stirring visions of justice
probably ever penned in our generation, our time.
And what's so moving and stirring about that moment and about that speech
is because it connects with something deep within all of us
that longs for what's broken and wrong in the world
to finally be fixed and to be put right.
That someone, somehow, some way,
would come and be able to heal what divides us
and to right what is wrong.
And of course, the truly shocking thing
is that when God's true king finally came
to inaugurate God's kingdom of righteousness and peace,
it wasn't like anything anyone had expected.
He lived in obscurity for 30 years,
and when his public ministry started,
he chose humble, common men and women to be his closest followers.
And then he started eating with tax collectors and sinners.
And he never rose an army,
and he didn't try to overthrow the Roman oppressors.
And in fact, he was rejected by the Jewish authorities
and crucified by the Romans outside of Jerusalem
and buried in a borrowed tomb.
And that would have been the end of the story.
No one would have worshipped a crucified would-be Messiah,
except that three days later, God raised him from the dead.
And in the resurrection of Jesus Christ,
God's new creation kingdom of righteousness and peace
was unleashed into the world.
The prayer of Psalm 72 finally found its traction
as God came in Christ.
And after being raised, Jesus appeared to his disciples,
instructed them for 40 days,
and commissioned them to go to the nations,
proclaiming the forgiveness of sins in his name.
And then he ascended to the Father
and sat down in majesty at the right hand of God
as king over all and poured out his Holy Spirit upon his church,
empowering them to take the good news
of the gospel of his reign to the very ends of the earth.
You see, friends, in Jesus, God's king has finally come,
that truly righteous one who can cause not just a family
and not just a city or not just a nation,
but even the whole world to flourish under his kingship.
And that means that when we read Psalm 72 today,
we're not just reading something that's merely a future hope,
but something that is a present work in progress.
The truly righteous and rightful king
now sits at the head of the universe,
and we're shown here what sort of kingdom he's bringing about.
In particular, I think we're shown three things about this kingdom,
three things that Israel prayed for and longed for,
which are now coming to pass in Christ.
So let's look at these three things briefly together.
First, in verses 5 through 7,
we see that Jesus' kingdom is an endless kingdom.
In verse 5, we're told that the fear of this king,
the reverence in all of him,
will be without end as long as time goes on,
as long as sun and moon continue their cycles,
as long as one generation follows another.
In verse 7, we're told that in his days,
the righteous will flourish and peace will abound
till moon be no more.
Which is a fancy way of saying forever and ever, right?
His kingdom is endless.
And that means that, you know,
if his kingdom is truly endless,
then it means that it will last when all else fades.
Think about it.
Throughout the course of human history,
countless kingdoms have come and gone.
And those who have lived merely for the glory
of those earthly kingdoms,
sadly have largely lived their lives in vain.
How about you, friend?
What are you living for?
And are you living for what really is going to last?
Because that which is done for Christ
and for his kingdom is not in vain.
And that means as we approach our work
for God's glory and for the love of our neighbors,
it's not in vain.
And as we seek to bear one another's burdens
in the community of faith,
though it's hard and though it takes a lot of us,
it's not in vain.
And as we seek to extend the love of Christ
to those who don't believe in word and in deed,
it's not in vain.
When we do anything for his kingdom's sake,
it will last because his kingdom will have no end.
You know, sometimes people think
that if you come to believe in the resurrection of Jesus
and if you become a Christian,
then you start to lose any motivation
that you might have to work for change
in the world here and now.
Have you run into that kind of thinking
that religion is merely an opiate for the masses,
that you sort of believe in pie in the sky
and you lose any motivation
to sort of actually work and work for change?
But you know, in the Christian worldview,
God's eventually going to renew the world,
not throw it away.
And the resurrection of Jesus
and the establishment of his kingdom
in the resurrection of Christ
is a great sign of that fact.
In fact, if you think about it,
nearly every other worldview
gives you very little motivation
to do the hard, long work
towards changing how things run
in the world as it is.
I mean, if in a handful of decades,
you're just going to turn to dust.
And if in a few hundred millennia,
the earth's just going to freeze
or be incinerated when the sun expands,
what is the point of sacrificially
giving your time and your energy
and your money and your work
to make it a better place?
You'll give to a point.
But sacrificially?
I mean, under that worldview,
isn't it all just ultimately in vain?
But not if what we're told here
about the kingdom of Christ is true.
If his kingdom will last forever,
then our longing for justice
actually makes sense.
It actually connects up
with something that is right and real.
If it's an endless kingdom
and working for it can't be in vain
and the sacrifices that we make for it
will be worth it all in the end.
Of course, we don't know ultimately
how all our labors are going to actually
come together in Christ's kingdom
when it's completed.
I ran across this illustration
a little bit ago
and I thought it was helpful.
It's sort of like the construction
of an ancient cathedral
are sort of labors for Christ's kingdom.
You know, when an ancient cathedral was built
there were hundreds,
just scads of workers
who worked on these things.
And some of them never even saw one another
as they went about cutting stone,
as they went about carving statues,
as they went about preparing timber
for the beams,
as they went about doing all the sort of work
that went into building this cathedral.
And many of them were not even sure
how their particular job,
how their particular piece
was even going to fit into
the overarching scheme.
And many of them died
before the thing was even completed.
But you see, friends,
the architect knows exactly
how it's all going to fit together.
And when it does,
it's going to be glorious.
And each part will find its place.
You see, our labor for the kingdom of Christ
is much like that.
We may not be sure how it will all fit in
and all fit together when Christ returns,
how our faithful mothering
day in and day out
is going to fit in,
or how our private prayers
morning to morning
are going to come together
in the glory of His kingdom,
or how our consistent witness
to our neighbors
is going to find its place.
But friends,
when it comes together
in the glory of His kingdom,
it will be glorious.
And another thing, you see,
if His kingdom is endless,
as we see here,
then we can be sure
that nothing is going to turn it back
and nothing is going to stop its growth.
It will go on and on.
In verse 6,
we're told that the king
will be like continual,
refreshing showers upon the earth,
bringing new life
to the dry and cracked land
and bringing new creation
to dry and bitter hearts.
Isn't that a beautiful image?
Like rain on the mown grass.
That's what His kingship is like.
Even when the meadow is cut down low
in the heat of the summer,
He comes like a rain
to soften the soil
and to keep the roots
from withering away.
He will make sure
that His kingdom endures.
So you don't need to be worrisome
and you don't need to be anxious
when you feel like
you're not sufficient for the task,
when you feel like
you've really blown it this time,
when you can't possibly see
how good could come out of the situation.
Friends, His kingdom goes forth
and it is endless
and nothing will turn it back.
So that's the first thing we see
in this psalm,
that the kingdom of Christ
will be endless,
that it's for all times.
But next the psalm turns
and shows us that
the kingdom of Christ
will be a boundless kingdom,
not just an endless kingdom,
but a boundless kingdom.
In verses 8 through 11,
we see that His kingdom
is for all nations,
that it will extend
to the ends of the earth.
And that was always God's plan
from the beginning, you know.
The prophets all foresaw a time
when the Gentiles
would come streaming in
and worship the one true God.
So it comes as no surprise
that after the resurrection,
Jesus commissions the church
to make disciples of all nations
and to be His witnesses,
not just in Jerusalem
and Judea and Samaria,
but to the ends of the earth.
And what this means
is that Jesus is the rightful king
over every nation
and over every person.
And everyone is called
to submit to Him as Lord,
regardless of nationality,
ethnicity, language, or culture.
And of course,
as we ponder that fact
at first glance,
it sounds a bit scary, doesn't it?
Well, isn't that
the sort of tyrannous rule
that we were worried about
in the first place?
This is why we assassinated Caesar,
and now you're saying
that Jesus is going to rule over everyone
without remainder?
But friends, look again.
Look again at why
the nations are shown
as willingly submitting
to this king.
In verses 12 through 14,
we're told that the nations come
for He delivers the needy.
When the needy calls,
the poor in Him has no helper.
Yes, this is a righteous king
who brings healing to the world,
and it will be without end.
But this is also
a massively compassionate king,
a king of mercy and love.
You see, the boundless nature
of His kingdom
is undergirded by the boundless nature
of His compassion.
He has rightful authority
over everyone, yes,
but you see,
His authority
is ultimately for everyone
to deliver,
to save,
to redeem,
to liberate.
This was one of the things
that Jesus' disciples
during His earthly ministry
had such a hard time grasping.
While they were on their way
to Jerusalem for the last time,
do you remember James and John
approaching Jesus
and saying,
Jesus, when you enter
into your kingdom,
let one of us sit
at your right hand
and one of us sit
at your left hand.
We want to be close
to the center of power
once you kind of come in
and do whatever you're going to do.
And we know it's probably
going to look like
a massive military coup.
But they didn't realize
that Jesus wasn't going
to Jerusalem
to stage a coup,
but to go to the cross.
And as the disciples
start bickering with one another
and getting into an argument
and getting indignant
at James and John
for getting to the,
getting to Jesus first
and asking for something
they were kind of wanting
probably to ask Jesus,
what does Jesus say?
He says,
that's how the Gentiles
lorded over their subjects.
But you see,
the Son of Man has come
not to be served,
but to serve
and to give His life
as a ransom for many.
Friends,
the present reign of Jesus
is a reign of grace.
He's come for the weak
who know they can't
rescue themselves.
And He's come for the poor
who admit that they're out
and that they're sinners.
And He's come for the helpless
who've laid down their attempts
at trying to earn God's approval.
And He's come for the oppressed
who know the weight
and gravity
of their lost condition
before God.
And through the cross,
He redeems their life.
He pays the cost
to free them
from their debt
and from their oppression
and from their tyranny
of sin
and death
and separation from God.
And why does He do this?
He does it because
He loves them.
Their blood is precious
in His sight.
He's not the sort of king
who views His subjects
as just so many
expendable pawns
in a game of conquest
as stepping stones
to His own greater glory
at their expense.
No, friends,
you are precious
in His sight
and at His own expense.
He lifts you up.
And He does whatever it takes
to redeem
and to deliver
and to save.
Do you see now
why people
from all nations
come streaming in
to worship
and to serve this king?
It's because
no other kingdom
works like this.
Every other kingdom
assigns you
your place
and your value
based on
your performance
or your usefulness
to those
who happen
to be in charge.
And when you've
outlived
your usefulness
and when your performance
falls below
the par,
you're forgotten
or you're replaced.
And many of us
still treat Christianity
as if it's all about
our moral performance.
That if I live
a good life,
then God will accept
me into His kingdom.
But isn't that
just the opposite
of what we're seeing here?
That this kingdom
is not based
on your performance
but on His performance.
Friends,
here's what we bring
to the kingdom.
We bring our weakness
and we bring our poverty
and our need
and our sin.
And what does He bring?
He brings His righteousness
and He brings His compassion
and He brings His love
and He brings His spirit
and He redeems us
and He clothes us
and He brings us in
and He grants us
a place of dignity
not because of what
we've done
but because of what
He's done for us.
And He finds you
precious in His sight
before you could do
anything good at all.
And this is why
His kingdom
has no bounds.
Because the only requirement
for entry
is admitting your need
and accepting what He's done
on your behalf.
There's no cultural requirement.
There's no ethnic requirement.
There's no moral requirement.
There's no educational requirement.
Simply the humility
to come
in repentance
and belief.
Friends,
isn't that a wonderful thing?
Show me a kingdom
that operates
on these principles.
And friends,
as you think about
entry into this kingdom,
let me ask you this morning,
is it true for you?
Have you called out
to Christ in that way?
In your need
and in your weakness
to take what only
He can give
and to know the joy
and the freedom
that comes
in receiving His redemption
and His forgiveness?
We often think
that admitting
our weakness
and our need
is a sign of failure.
That if we actually
were to open up
and to admit
that we're broken,
that our hopes
of being loved
and accepted
and of flourishing
would just go right
out the window.
And yet,
in the moment
when you call out to Him
in your weakness
and need,
He comes
and He clothes you
with His righteousness,
and His peace,
not to shame you
but to receive you
and to restore you.
And that leads us
to our last point,
that Jesus' kingdom
is not just
an endless kingdom
and it's not just
a boundless kingdom
but finally
it's a blessed kingdom.
Verses 15 through 17,
look at all the images
in this passage
that are just
overflowing
with joy.
The people come
and they gladly
bestow their gifts
on their King
and their prayers
and their blessings
and they're finding
their joy in Him.
And the King
bestows His gifts
upon His people.
He lavishes them
and loves them.
And we see something here
that's shocking.
We see here
that like an upward spiral
in His kingdom,
His greater fame
means our greater flourishing.
that these two things
are not in competition.
That as He is exalted
and loved
and as we find
our joy in Him,
that we find
our own hearts
being lifted up
and our own blessing
increasing.
Look at the images
that we're given.
The fields
and even the mountains
are covered in grain
and the cities
are flourishing
with people
who are as glad
and as beautiful
and free
as the grass
of the fields.
Friends,
this is what the gospel
can do.
Don't you see?
It can create a people
and it is creating
a people
who will blossom
in the cities
like the grass
of the fields.
Christian,
do you realize
what you've been
entered into,
what you've become
a part of
in Christ
as He's brought you
into His kingdom?
You've been ushered
into the great plan
of God
to reclaim
His creation
and to share
His joy.
It's sad
that many people
view Christianity
as a dull
and lifeless thing
when in fact
at the heart
of Christianity
is nothing but joy
and newness
of life.
Not the cheap
sort of happiness
that comes and goes
but the very
blessing
of God.
Verse 17
ends,
may people
be blessed
in Him
and all nations
call Him
blessed.
You know,
this verse
connects up
with one of the
most important
promises
in the Old Testament.
Remember,
when God
called Abraham,
He promised him
that Abraham
himself would be
blessed,
but in and through
him,
in and through
his offspring,
all the nations
of the earth
would be blessed
as well.
That is,
this curse
of sin
would be lifted
and the favor
of God
would be granted.
And what this
psalm is saying
is that this promise
of divine approval
and acceptance
that our hearts
are longing for
comes at last
through the true
offspring of Abraham
and the true
king of Israel,
Jesus Christ.
Christ,
that in Him,
the truly blessed
one,
we are truly blessed.
That darkness
is lifted
and hope
is restored
and sins
are forgiven.
And people
blossom in the cities
like the grass
or the fields.
Friends,
this is what the gospel
can do in our city
as we think
about being
the people of Christ
here in our place
and in our time
and amidst
these people
in this corner,
in this aspect
of Christ's
global and universal
reign.
Here it is
as His blessing
goes forth
in the gospel
blossoming
in the cities
like the grass
of the fields.
the gospel
is taking people
who are broken
and making them whole.
And it's taking people
who are weary
and searching
and giving them rest.
And it's taking people
who are religious
and who are proud
and are making them
soft
and humble.
This is the vision
of renewal
that comes
with knowing
Christ
as King.
This vision
of indestructible
and ever-spreading
joy.
In a moment,
we're going to go
to the Lord's Supper
together
and we're going
to celebrate
our King
at the table.
We're going to celebrate
the King
who died for us
so that He might
grant us
this joy.
We're going to
celebrate the One
whose kingdom
is for all time
and for all people
and for our
everlasting joy.
But before we do that,
just look at the last
few verses
of our psalm.
These last few verses,
most commentators say,
will bring
not just Psalm 72
to a close,
but bring this whole book
of psalms
to a close.
All of book two
comes to its
rousing conclusion
in these last few verses.
And as we've been
reflecting on Jesus'
kingdom,
isn't it a fitting way
to conclude?
May the whole earth
be filled
with His glory.
Amen
and amen.
Let's pray together.
God, this morning
as we've
entered into
this ancient prayer
of Your people
for their true
and righteous King,
Lord, we pray
that our own hearts
would grow
with a longing
to see the reign
of our Lord Jesus
grow.
Lord, as You show us
it is endless
and it is boundless
and it is blessed,
Lord, I pray
that we would be
captivated
by the scope
and by the depth
of the reign
of our Lord Jesus.
Lord, we want to live
and we want to work
and we want to rest
in the great
and loving knowledge
that we have
such a King,
a King who is righteous
and a King who is righteous
not just over us
but even for us,
that in His righteousness
we are found,
sinners that we are,
to be righteous,
to be blessed.
Lord, we thank You
for all these things.
In Christ's name,
Amen.