Psalm 72 Good Authority

ReCAST Church of Mattawan

Subscribe

Download

Share

00

00:20

You are listening to the podcast of Recast Church in Matawan, Michigan. Thank you.

00:28

I'm Mike Biancolana, as Ben said, and I'm one of the elders here at Recast Church. And it is great to be gathered together with you this morning to worship our

00:37

King. And I am really glad that you are here. This last week was week five of ten, and summer in the

00:46

Psalms, as Ben mentioned, the five of ten, but not the correct pronunciation. I'm sticking with that.

00:52

No one can take my fun from me. So we've been reading and preaching through the

00:58

Psalms. And as he said, like, you just pick up where we're at. If you have fallen off, you don't have to feel like you catch up.

01:06

That's kind of beside the point. You don't, you know, if you skip breakfast, you're not going to pound breakfast and lunch in the middle of the day.

01:14

You just eat. Unless you're the kind of person who does pound breakfast and lunch in the middle of the day and then go for it.

01:21

Taking God's word too. So we've been going along in the Psalms. And, you know, like Ben said, we're halfway through the book.

01:29

This is easy, right? Who's been enjoying the poetry? Yeah. Yeah.

01:36

A few people. And if that's not you, perhaps it'll grow on you a little bit.

01:42

Maybe. Maybe this will be a growing experience. And I hope I can be of some service to you in that this morning.

01:49

The Psalm we are looking at today is Psalm 72. This one is a prophetic blessing over God's anointed king.

01:59

This is a blessing which spills out from the king all over the people.

02:06

And I chose this Psalm because I just love the passages of scripture that describe the blessings of being under a godly ruler.

02:15

Another good example that stands out is Isaiah chapter 32 verses 1 through 8. But Psalm 72 is amazing in this respect.

02:24

And when I read passages like this, I long to see that kind of rule being described.

02:29

To be under the authority of one who is like a hiding place from the wind or like streams of water in a dry place.

02:37

And it beckons me to look forward to the full consummation of God's kingdom when sin and death are no more and all of the blessings of the righteous rule of the

02:47

Lord that we see described here in Psalm 72 are fully enjoyed by all of his people.

02:55

And on top of that, or maybe because of that, it makes me desire to be that kind of a man who is a blessing to the people who

03:05

God has made me responsible for. So let's dive in. Pardon me.

03:11

Psalm 72 is about the son of David, the king. But being prophetic poetry, it's about multiple people at the same time.

03:22

First of all, it's about Solomon, the son of David. And that is pretty easy to find out and it's pretty easy to tell from the title.

03:30

Depending on your English translation, this psalm is titled Of Solomon. In the ESV, other translations say

03:37

For Solomon. But in the Hebrew, these and these titles that you see above the psalms, those are in the

03:44

Hebrew, the original Hebrew. It says Solomon. That's the title of the psalm. So pretty clearly, this psalm is about Solomon.

03:55

As we read the text together in just a moment though, you might notice that there are some parts of the psalm that you can't seriously in any way apply to Solomon.

04:04

Like when it speaks of in his days and till the moon be no more in the same breath.

04:12

I mean, Solomon reigned for 40 years and then died and the moon is still in the sky today.

04:20

So I mean, what's going on here? This is not just hyperbole. There's something more.

04:25

The second person in view here is the greater son of David, Christ the

04:32

Lord. He is the blueprint and fulfillment of these things. This psalm is a blessing for Solomon that he would be like the

04:42

Lord as a king. And this description is just great. It is awesome.

04:47

Before I get too far into this, I'd like to give you a little bit of historical background on Solomon.

04:54

If you know of him, the first thing you probably think of is his wisdom. That's what he's really primarily known for and like at least in broad strokes.

05:05

Early on in his reign, God spoke to Solomon in a dream and God gave Solomon the opportunity to ask for anything he wanted.

05:14

Solomon asked God for wisdom to rule God's people well. And God was pleased with that request.

05:20

So he gave Solomon more wisdom than anyone before or since. And on top of that,

05:26

God gave Solomon tremendous wealth and power, even though Solomon didn't ask for those.

05:33

It was Solomon who built the first temple of the Lord in Jerusalem. And his father

05:39

David had really wanted to build that temple, but God didn't allow that so that the temple was built by a man of peace.

05:48

Solomon penned the books of Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs that we find in our

05:54

Bibles. And we are told that there never was before nor will there be another king like Solomon.

06:00

He was one of a kind. Amazing. However, he was far from perfect.

06:06

He was still just a man and in later in his life, he strayed from God. He loved foreign women, it said.

06:15

And he had a thousand wives and concubines that he married.

06:22

And that was against the express commandment of the Lord. God had commanded the king of Israel not to take many wives.

06:31

He had also commanded the Israelites not to marry foreign women. And Solomon managed to do both at the same time.

06:38

He was definitely someone who did things all the way.

06:43

I mean, he just he went all in. But so because of that, he was kind of a mixed bag. The wives that he had turned his heart away from the

06:53

Lord. They worshipped foreign false gods and Solomon wanted to please them.

06:58

So he built temples and shrines. And he eventually found himself worshipping there with his wives and led the people away from the

07:06

Lord through his actions. But still, even with that, the good parts of the reign of Solomon are there for God to give us a glimpse of just like a little hint of what the reign of the

07:25

Prince of Peace is like through Solomon, whose name means peace.

07:35

This psalm that we're going to read is likely for Solomon's coronation when he became king.

07:42

So it looks ahead from the beginning of his reign and asks God's blessing on that whole thing.

07:49

In this prayer, we will see the ideal king. We see authority done right.

07:57

We don't really think much about kings now because in our days, there is no king.

08:04

But we still have authority. In fact, we need authority as people, as humans.

08:12

Prior to the fall, man was a creature under God's authority. Still is.

08:18

And we'll see it was not because of sin that God gave man human authorities.

08:25

Like, that wasn't because things went sideways at the fall. We will see though that, you know, good authority does oppose sin and fight against it.

08:37

But primarily, fundamentally, authority is a way in which we are able to imitate

08:44

God. And of course, because we're sinful, we twist and pervert things that are good.

08:51

And so it's pretty easy to think of examples of bad authority.

08:59

Like, authority gone bad in various ways as people are working out their rebellion against God. Like, not hard to come up with that.

09:06

But you could probably also think of some examples of good authority. They do exist. So if you're wondering, after all this about kings and all that, what this has to do with you, well, almost all of everybody has some area of authority entrusted to them.

09:25

A king is a man placed over a nation. That's his area of authority. But for you or I, our authority is something different.

09:32

It could be our family. That's a particular one that's big. A business, an organization, a class if you're teaching.

09:42

Or it could just be the belongings of a five -year -old that his or her gave. And we all have some area.

09:51

Men, women, boys, girls. There's some area we've been given authority and responsibility over.

09:58

And this psalm is here for all of us to teach us how to deal with that well.

10:05

How can we deal with this responsibility and have good authority?

10:14

So if you'll turn with me to Psalm 72 in your Bible, devices, scripture journal, whatever you got that has

10:23

Psalm 72 in it. I'll read it of Solomon.

10:33

Give the king your justice, O God, and your righteousness to the royal son.

10:39

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.

10:48

May he defend the cause of the poor of the people, give deliverance to the children of the needy, and crush the oppressor.

10:56

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.

11:07

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.

11:18

May desert tribes bow down before him and his enemies lick the dust. May the kings of Tarshish and of the coastlands render him tribute.

11:27

May the kings of Sheba and Seba bring gifts. May all kings fall down before him, all nations serve him.

11:35

For he delivers the 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.

11:44

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.

11:54

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 grass of the field.

12:10

May his name endure forever, his fame continue as long as the sun. May people be blessed in him, all nations call him blessed.

12:20

Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, who alone does wondrous things. Blessed be his glorious name forever.

12:27

May the whole earth be filled with his glory. Amen and amen.

12:33

The prayers of David, the son of Jesse, are ended. Let's pray.

12:41

Lord, thank you for your word that teaches us even as it's recording a prayer of long ago for Solomon.

12:55

God, I just pray that you would give us ears to hear your word and hearts to receive it and that we would, through this psalm as we're reading, just see what your good reign is like and long to be obedient and under your rule and enjoy the blessings that are described here.

13:21

And may we just glorify you and bless you for all the good that you do for us and that we are looking forward to and longing for as your people and knowing that you will return in one day and set all things right.

13:40

Just give us grateful hearts as we turn to worship you and we love you.

13:46

Amen. So as we're getting settled back in, as you might know, there's coffee and juice and donuts in the back while supplies last.

13:56

Feel free to help yourself to more if you feel the need. Also, different needs.

14:02

If you need to use the restroom, it's through the double doors there. Take a right. On the left, down the hallway. Yeah. So I may as well start as we get into this with the last verse and not have the question linger about what this verse means.

14:21

And if you're confused as to what I'm talking about, hang on. You'll be more confused in a moment. Verse 20 says,

14:27

The prayers of David, the son of Jesse, are ended. And you know, that seems pretty straightforward.

14:34

Great. That is until you get to Psalm 86, the title of which is

14:41

A Prayer of David. So what's going on with this?

14:46

What do you do? There are a couple of things to note about this. And the first is that the Psalms were compiled over a long period of time.

14:56

They were collected for a long time. So there's one Psalm, at least one, that it was written by Moser, the exile of Judah to Babylon.

15:05

That's Psalm 137. So this is a long time. Those are at far ends of the historical timeline in the

15:13

Old Testament of God's people. So these, the

15:18

Hebrews were collecting these Psalms, but like even still, okay, long time, but why put this

15:24

Psalm here in the book with this verse, like a footnote at the end, like this is the end of David's Psalms.

15:29

And then you put more David's Psalms afterwards. Well, you could look at it and say, well,

15:36

I happened to look in my Bible at the tail end of this, it says book three. So this is the end of one of the subsections of the book of Psalms.

15:44

There are five of them and, you know, maybe that works.

15:50

But many commentators have argued that this verse here is not talking about the order of the

15:56

Psalms as they are in our Bible. They, what they are pointing out is that this verse is showing that this was a prayer of David for Solomon at his coronation, a prayer blessing

16:11

Solomon. And that would have been at the very end of David's life.

16:19

He was very old when Solomon took the throne. So this may be the last of the recorded prayers of David.

16:29

I think that's pretty reasonable. I'm going to go with that. If you still disagree and you say, no,

16:34

I think Solomon really wrote this Psalm, the substance of what we're going to go through is not different, just what you make of this last verse.

16:40

Like either it's, this is the human author, or this is a verse that's just kind of traveled with this

16:45

Psalm as it's been put in the book in the place that it is. Either way, it doesn't really change the substance here.

16:55

As we go through the rest of Psalm 72, now that we've gotten the last verse out of the way,

17:02

I will be pointing out one foundational principle for the whole thing, and then three results that flow from that.

17:11

The principle, righteousness and justice are the foundation. Righteousness and justice are the foundation.

17:19

That's found in verses 1 -2, 4 -7, and 12 -14.

17:27

The first result is abundance for the people. Abundance for the people.

17:33

Found in verses 3, 5 -7, and 16 -17. Second result, expansion of the kingdom.

17:44

That's found in verses 8 -11 and 15 -17. Expansion of the kingdom.

17:51

The third result, all glory and praise to God. Verses 18 and 19.

17:56

All glory and praise to God. For those of you who like your food not to touch on your plate, and like your verses for sermon points to be all in a row and not overlap, you're welcome.

18:09

This is poetry. And aren't you loving it? So for the first three of these points,

18:16

I'm going to go through what the verses say. For all of them, I'm going to go through what the verses say. But for the first three, after that,

18:22

I am going to look at how this was fulfilled in Solomon's life, from what is in the

18:27

Bible, and then also the ultimate fulfillment in Jesus. The last point here, verses 18 and 19, kind of switch a bit to just overflowing praise to God, and so I'm going to shift my approach there as well.

18:43

Fair is fair. The psalm here begins with this request, Give the king your justice,

18:50

O God, and your righteousness to the royal son. And I really don't want you to miss this.

18:57

Don't miss it. This is the source of everything else in this psalm. Everything past this in the psalm comes from this point.

19:07

God's righteousness and justice are the foundation of good authority.

19:16

The king is not the one at the top. He is put in place and established by God.

19:25

So he must go to God to get what he needs, because what he needs belongs to God alone, and that is the righteousness and justice.

19:35

And that's not all that belongs to God that's mentioned here. If you notice in verse 2 that the people are called

19:41

God's people. They are not the king's subjects or the king's people.

19:48

These are God's people, and the king is responsible for them to God. David's prayer for his son is that he will judge

19:59

God's people with justice and righteousness. And these two things, justice and righteousness, are very closely tied together in the psalm with the way that it's constructed, with justice appearing parallel to righteousness in verse 1, and again in verse 2 with just the order flipped.

20:20

The two ideas are closely associated in that way by the way it's written. Righteousness and justice are parts of the same gift, gift.

20:33

And we are given a better idea of what God's justice and righteousness look like in some of the verses that follow.

20:42

So this is going to jump a little bit as I'm following the ideas and not the order of the verses, but this is poetry.

20:51

In verse 4 we see that the vulnerable do not need to live in fear because a righteous king defends their cause and crushes the oppressor.

21:02

Even the poorest and those with no advocate have protection with the king.

21:09

When the king judges justly, evil is not tolerated. It is crushed.

21:16

And this comes out even more in verses 12 through 14. The king saves the lives of the poor, weak, and needy, people who have no helper.

21:29

And their lives are precious in the sight of the king. In verse 14 it says precious is their blood in his sight.

21:36

It means he values their lives. It's also worth noting that this delivering the poor and crushing the oppressor and judging justly, these are actually the only actions attributed to the king in the entire psalm.

21:55

Like this is what he's doing and the rest flows from that. And in verses 5 through 7, the king's righteousness leads the people in righteousness.

22:09

And he is to them like a refreshing rain that makes the grass grow. The righteous flourish.

22:15

What is right and good is approved, encouraged, and cultivated under the justice of the king.

22:23

And the results flowing out of the king having righteousness and justice are seen in verses 3 through 17.

22:30

The whole rest of the psalm comes from here and there is so much good that flows out of this.

22:39

And I'm excited to get into that. But first, how is this fulfilled in Solomon's reign?

22:45

This prayer for righteousness and justice. We can see it on display in the case of the two prostitutes brought before Solomon.

22:55

You might remember the story. Both of these women had recently given birth. They were rooming together. One of the infants died in the middle of the night and the mother of the dead child swapped infants.

23:07

And so now both women claimed the living child is their own. They brought their case to the king.

23:15

And Solomon called for a sword and a 50 -50 settlement of the matter. The real mother of the child was the woman who would rather give her child to a rival than see the child die.

23:25

And this case was closed and the child was returned to his actual mother.

23:31

So aside from showing wisdom and discernment, which is the context, the immediate context there of that story if you go and read it, this is showing justice given to the poor and vulnerable.

23:46

The mother of the living child, being a prostitute, was very low on the social ladder and the only recourse she had was the king judging righteously.

24:01

As much as the king is righteous in his judging, that's how much she actually had recourse, the ability to do anything about it.

24:13

So that's really good. But Solomon did fall short in this area as well.

24:19

So it's not completely good. So he also built temples for the idols worshipped by his wives, as I mentioned.

24:29

And he worshipped there as well. He led the people astray. So he's not leading them fully in righteousness.

24:35

So falling short. But our king Jesus, being the fulfillment, the ultimate fulfillment of this psalm and the blueprint for it, this is a prayer that the king of Israel would be like him, like Jesus.

24:51

Jesus has all righteousness because he is God. And Jesus showed us what righteousness looks like in a man.

25:00

Jesus showed great compassion for the poor and needy when he was on earth. We read of him healing people from all social strata, from the daughter of a leader in the synagogue, to a centurion servant, to lepers and people who are crippled and blind, to a man possessed by demons and driven out of society, kind of falling off the bottom of the social ladder there.

25:25

And most of all, like over all of that, Jesus's heart towards the helpless was shown in his atoning death where he ransomed a people for himself from slavery to sin.

25:40

We are not able to pay the debt from our sin and we stand helpless and condemned.

25:46

But Christ, our Savior, is compassionate and merciful toward us miserable poor. And Jesus continues to have the position of righteous judge of the people because he is judge of all the earth.

26:00

As Paul preached in Athens, you can read it in Acts 17 verses 30 through 31.

26:06

Paul preached to the Athenians, the times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed.

26:20

And of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead. That's Jesus judging in righteousness.

26:31

So the first result, if you notice in verses 3, 5 through 7 and 16 and 17, the result is that the people are the ones who benefit greatly from this blessing.

26:47

Not only are they secure from oppressors and injustice, but they are flourishing.

26:54

And this is the result of the righteousness. And you can tell us the result if you look at the beginning of verse 12.

27:00

There's these blessings and verse 12 says, for he delivers the needy or because. So it is out of the righteousness of the king that there is so much abundance and blessing for the people.

27:20

There's an image that runs throughout this psalm on this topic that I want to point out and it compares the people to grain.

27:30

It's kind of an odd thing, but it's what's in here and it's actually a really great image. So you can see it in verses 3, 6 and 16.

27:39

And the idea is that there's abundant crops, so there's prosperity and plenty. And in the same way, the people flourish in righteousness and peace.

27:50

Both of these things are being said here. It's not, oh, you know, it says grain, but really it's just the people.

27:55

No, it is grain. It's abundant food and grain. Plenty to eat and the flourishing and abundance of the people.

28:04

The idea is they play off of each other and amplify each other. So it's just kind of cranking it up.

28:12

So in verse 3, the mountains bear prosperity for the people. In these,

28:18

I take to be literal mountains. In verse 16, it also mentions mountains being literally just mountains.

28:25

There's nothing deep and mysterious there. Prosperity in verse 3 is the

28:31

Hebrew word shalom, which maybe you've heard this before. And the same word is translated peace in verse 7.

28:39

And that Hebrew word encompasses both of those concepts. It's both prosperity and peace and then some.

28:48

It is a wholeness. It is a prosperity and abundance. It's quietness and peace.

28:53

It is a holistic good to all parts of the person and a right ordering of everything.

29:00

It's a really big concept. And the prosperity of peace and righteousness appear parallel to each other here.

29:09

And so it's associating these things closely. There's righteousness and peace.

29:18

You know, let the mountains bear prosperity and the hills in righteousness. So peace and righteousness are all throughout the land, from the low hills to the tippy top of the mountains.

29:30

And in verse 5, the righteousness of the king brings out the righteousness of the people.

29:35

May they fear you, it starts out in verse 5. This is talking about the Lord and the fear of the

29:41

Lord is righteous. And we start to see the length of time that is in view here in verse 5.

29:48

While the sun endures and as long as the moon throughout all generations, like forever, just keep going.

29:55

In verse 6, the king is like rain that falls on the mown grass. And when this says showers, like showers that fall on the mown grass, it's not just like a little drizzle.

30:05

This is a lot of rain. This is plenty. And the meaning of this, what this is talking about, is really easy to see.

30:15

We're in Michigan. It's summer. If you mow your grass and then it rains a bunch, your grass grows.

30:22

It comes back. If it doesn't rain, it turns brown. And if you don't sprinkle it, it all turns brown and you don't have to mow it anymore and I'm happy.

30:32

But to the original audience, there's even more to this. Like, yes, obviously it rains and it makes stuff grow.

30:39

But the Israelites didn't mow their grass to get that cool crosshatch pattern in front of their house.

30:45

They were cutting down grasses because these were crops like wheat. So they harvest, the rain comes, it grows back and they can harvest more.

30:56

It just keeps coming. But in verse 3, is this really talking about rain? It says the king is like rain.

31:03

So what is growing here in this instance? Well, keep reading. Verse 7 ties it together.

31:09

The righteous will flourish and peace will abound. The king, with God's righteousness and justice, is to the people like showers are to grass growing.

31:23

And it's not just a little bit. Until the moon is no more. Like, just keeps going. So he's like this.

31:29

And this brings verses 5, 6, and 7 together. The people fear the

31:35

Lord, the righteous flourish, and peace is just filling the place. And this is going on forever.

31:44

And if you move down into verse 16, jumping around a little bit I suppose, at that point we really are talking about abundance of food.

31:53

It says, may there be abundance of grain in the land. On the tops of the trees of Lebanon.

32:00

And by saying that the fruit of the field, this is wheat and crops, are like Lebanon, the psalmist is painting a really vivid picture here.

32:11

You might remember Ben mentioning a few weeks back that Lebanon was known for their forests of strong and tall cedar trees.

32:22

I mean, the cedar tree is still like the symbol of Lebanon if you look at their flag right in the middle. But imagine your wheat field is like that.

32:33

Like, when you go and you look at the field, you're like, wow, that's like a huge forest of really tall trees.

32:39

Like, that is some hearty crops that we're talking about here. So to get that impression it's got to be like off the chart.

32:47

But what's more, if you keep going in verse 16, the people are blossoming in the city in the same way, like the grass of the field, in the exact same fruitful, vigorous, healthy way.

32:59

The fields grow abundantly like a forest. The people in the cities grow that way too. So can you find me a city on the map these days that you can say that of the people there?

33:13

Not so much. And this idea, this whole idea is put simply in the second half of verse 17, summing it up, may the people be blessed in him.

33:26

The people are blessed and they in turn call the king blessed. And this is all the result of God's righteousness given to the king.

33:39

That's the result. The people are just prospering. It is great.

33:44

So in Solomon's time, how did this play out? Well, the people were numerous and it sounds to me like they were pretty prosperous and they were safe from enemy nations.

33:56

Here's some evidence I pulled from the Old Testament, a few verses here. In 1 Kings 4 verse 20, it says

34:04

Judah and Israel were as many as the sand by the sea. They ate and drank and were happy.

34:10

Sounds good. 1 Kings 4 verse 25, just a little past the previous verse, and Judah and Israel lived in safety from Dan even to Beersheba, every man under his vine and under his fig tree all the days of Solomon.

34:27

It's good. Prosperity for the people. 2 Chronicles 9 verse 27, and the king made silver as common in Jerusalem as stone, and he made cedar as plentiful as the sycamore of the

34:40

Shephelah. So stuff that is like valuable and hard to obtain, it was just like common. Like, eh, it's just, we got all this silver.

34:47

What are we going to do with it? So there was lots of plenty.

34:53

So this was fulfilled in a pretty great way. But it wasn't 100%.

34:58

He fell a bit short in this department and he's just a man. There was not righteousness in all of the people and he couldn't produce that righteousness in the people.

35:10

He turned away from the Lord and led them in the opposite way. Also, it didn't last forever.

35:16

He reigned for 40 years and the moon outlasted him by a bit. So the kingdom was pretty good.

35:25

I mean, it's hard to say otherwise, but it could not be sustained because there was still sin polluting the righteousness.

35:31

So it just couldn't keep going. He couldn't keep it up. The ultimate fulfillment in Jesus, however, is fully fulfilling this.

35:44

So in Hebrews 1 .8, we read of Jesus, quoting Psalm 45, but of the son, he says, your throne,

35:53

O God, is forever and ever. The scepter of uprightness is the scepter of your kingdom. You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness.

36:01

Therefore, God, your God has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions. So going on forever.

36:09

Second Peter, chapter one, verse 11, says, for in this way, there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our

36:20

Lord and savior, Jesus Christ. So we're provided an entrance into this kingdom.

36:27

It lasts forever. And because it is everlasting, the people in his kingdom, in Christ's kingdom, are very numerous because he gathers them from all ages, all time.

36:38

He's pulling people into his kingdom, redeeming them. And those in his kingdom are made righteous with his righteousness.

36:47

Second Corinthians 5 .21 says, for our sake, he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him, we might become the righteousness of God.

36:59

So we who are in his kingdom are certainly blessed abundantly with eternal life, with the

37:05

Holy Spirit, with the love of God. And to these greater goods, God also gives us many other goods to enjoy.

37:13

Just the things every day we enjoy. And the next result flowing out of the righteousness and justice of the king, and that being given by God, is expansion of the kingdom.

37:32

As more lands and kingdoms and people and treasures and fame and authority are folded in to the kingdom.

37:40

In verse 8, we see the kingdom expands geographically. May he have dominion from sea to sea and from the river to the ends of the earth.

37:49

From sea to sea is probably referring to the Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. Just that kind of,

37:55

Israel's in between those two. So like from one end to the other, top to bottom, kind of. And the river, parallel to this, in the verse, the river is the

38:11

Euphrates. And it was, the Euphrates is such a big deal in that area in time that you didn't actually need to say the name of it.

38:20

You just, the river. Oh yeah, Euphrates. It was a big deal. And it was kind of the center geographically of things in that area at the time.

38:29

So mentally, like that's the center, and to the ends of the earth. So that's the ends, you know, the edges.

38:36

So we're talking about from the top to the bottom, from the center to the edges, the whole world.

38:42

May the king have dominion over everything. In verse 9, the kingdom expands over enemies who are defeated.

38:51

The desert tribes mentioned bowing down before the king are nomadic people who lived out in the desert.

38:56

These are kind of the last people that anybody would conquer around there because why bother?

39:02

They don't sit on resources, they're not tied to land, and they're out in the desert. They're really difficult to pin down.

39:08

It would be costly and not worth it. But even then, they will be brought into the kingdom and bow down to the king.

39:17

It says here, enemies, even the unreachable ones, like these tribes would be, will be brought low and conquered.

39:25

And they will be humiliated. That's what it means by licking the dust. Enemies who defied the king will be humiliated and put down.

39:33

So it's saying, may all the enemies of this king be defeated. And moving on into verse 10, the kingdom expands to include riches.

39:42

So the places here don't mean as much to us now as they did then, but these are far off places, like just exotic and full of riches.

39:51

They were really well known for their wealth, for the precious metals that came from them and the trade that went on.

39:58

So Tarshish, the location of that's a little debated, but generally it's thought that it is what is now

40:08

Sardinia. It's an island in the Mediterranean off the west coast of Italy. It's kind of lined up north to south with Switzerland, which is way up there.

40:19

But if that helps you at all. But it's, it's way out west of Israel. And they were really known for silver especially, but just generally trade.

40:31

They traded with all the countries around in the Mediterranean being an island and the coastlands also.

40:37

It's along the same lines. Coastlands, sea trade, they became really wealthy.

40:44

Also when it talks about Sheba and Seba, those were cities and lands south of Israel, way down, kind of modern day

40:54

Yemen. And I apologize, I don't have a map for you, and I'm not awesome with geography. I don't imagine everybody is awesome with geography, but just south of Israel, kind of down at the mouth of the

41:05

Gulf of Arabia there. Sheba and Seba were also really well known for their wealth.

41:12

If you look at verse 15, it talks about the gold of Sheba being given to him. They have gold there.

41:18

So all of these kingdoms and people and all the wealth will be under the dominion of the righteous king.

41:26

And verse 11 sums all of this up. It's kind of building this up and then it sums it up.

41:32

May all kings fall down before him. All nations serve him. And in verses 15 through 17, the kingdom expands in fame and in time.

41:45

The blessings and prayers of the people are given for him. And I don't think this will be grudgingly. I mean, the people will love their king and pray for him that he can continue his righteous rule.

41:54

Things are good. With a kingdom extending like this, in all these ways, it will be hard not to notice this king.

42:03

I mean, you might notice that his dominion is expanding. And the prayer in this psalm is that the king, his fame for his righteousness would go on.

42:17

It would last forever. And with the dominion expanding and the people in that dominion fearing the

42:24

Lord and living in abundant peace, more and more people will call the king blessed until all nations do.

42:34

So how did, how was this fulfilled with Solomon? Well, he ruled over Israel at the height of its size and power.

42:43

It was biggest that it ever was under Solomon. His father

42:48

David conquered enemies on all sides and handed Solomon a kingdom at peace. Solomon put things in order quickly when he got on the throne and continued to build

43:01

Israel up. He did receive gold and silver from Tarshish and Sheba, both mentioned here, and lots more things besides that.

43:11

He traded in all kinds of valuable materials. We hear of like horses and chariots and rare woods and spices and apes and peacocks and all kinds of things.

43:26

And his fame was so great that it brought the queen of Sheba to see him bringing lots of valuables and not just gold, just all kinds of stuff.

43:36

You might remember that. She came to hear his wisdom, but she brought tons of stuff. And so Solomon's fame,

43:45

I mean not just bringing the queen of Sheba, but I mean he has lasted down to this day. And we don't think of it a whole bunch.

43:52

It's a bit diminished, but there's lots of stories you can find that involve the treasure of Solomon.

44:01

And the idea of it is this inexhaustible hoard of treasure that, you know, is legendary and people are seeking it out.

44:11

But again, in this area, Solomon fell a bit short. After he was gone, the people evidently felt he had a tendency to work them a bit too hard.

44:21

They wanted a break after all his building projects. He was just going building stuff and having the people do all this work.

44:29

And because of Solomon's unfaithfulness to God, there were some adversaries that God raised up to disturb the peace.

44:38

His kingdom, Solomon's, didn't extend to Tarshish. He did trade with them, but he didn't extend his kingdom over them.

44:47

Solomon also managed to die, as I mentioned. So he did not continue on. So this is not going to keep going.

44:58

The fulfillment in King Jesus, however, his kingdom, as I said, is an everlasting kingdom.

45:04

And that will fill the whole earth. And all his nation, all his enemies, will be put under his feet.

45:12

Sin and death being the last enemies mentioned in Revelation. And Jesus has all authority.

45:21

He told his disciples as he was sending them out with the great commission in Matthew 28 18, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

45:30

All nations will be blessed in him. Which was promised to Abraham in Genesis 12.

45:36

It's echoed here in this psalm. And you see it fulfilled in Revelation. And when people from every tribe, nation, tongue, and land are brought in, and they're worshiping at the throne.

45:52

So his kingdom extends over all the nations. And his glory will fill the whole earth. If you want to talk about possessions,

45:59

Jesus upholds the universe by the word of his power in Hebrews 1 3. So he owns all of everything already.

46:06

But treasures will be brought into his kingdom. His treasure, his tribute, will be his sons and daughters that he has redeemed.

46:17

Isaiah chapter 66 says that the Lord will send his remnant out to declare his glory among the nations.

46:25

And from Tarshish and the coastlands, among other places, they shall bring in the redeemed from all the nations as an offering.

46:35

So that is his tribute that's brought in. And the third result, at the end of this psalm, after all the building up of blessings and honor, and the flourishing of the people, after all of this, it crescendos in a great outburst of praise to the

46:54

Lord. Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, who alone does wondrous things.

47:00

Blessed be his glorious name forever. May the whole earth be filled with his glory.

47:06

Amen and amen. This recognizes the Lord as the one who blesses the king and through the king blesses the people.

47:16

What's more, all the things that have been prayed for the king at length throughout this whole psalm are here in a smaller space attributed to the

47:24

Lord. And in view of such amazing blessings and abundance and goodness, why would we not want to worship

47:31

God? So, if the blessings from a righteous ruler have any appeal, based on what we're reading here, we should desperately want to be under the

47:43

Lord's rule. God is our perfect king. He is the good authority that all these blessings for Solomon point to.

47:52

He is the only one who does wondrous things. I mean, Solomon did some things that are pretty impressive.

47:59

I mean, you can't say he didn't, but that is nothing compared to God. And without God's blessing,

48:05

Solomon himself would have been nothing. And so, of course, we should want to see

48:11

God's glory spread over all the earth to have our righteous and just king Jesus return and set things right by his rule on earth.

48:21

Amen and amen. Like, what else are you going to say to that? So, after looking at all of that, and it is,

48:31

I feel like it's just amazing. So, what are we going to do with this?

48:36

Like, this is written for us. And we're not just left to sit around until Jesus comes back, because that will be awesome, but God has given us each responsibility.

48:49

And we should be taking notes on this psalm to know what we should be doing, how to discharge that responsibility well.

48:56

So, I have four suggestions on how to bring this psalm home and apply it for you. The first is, take stock of where the

49:04

Lord has placed you in a position of authority. It's easy to say, in general, and you may have heard it, that everyone leads somewhere.

49:11

I mean, that's true, but take some time to consider what God has given you specifically and what you are responsible to God for.

49:23

As I was preparing this sermon over the last couple of weeks, this really settled in on me.

49:30

One of the areas I've been given authority is as a husband and a father. And that's not negotiable, it's just a fact.

49:38

And the only thing I get to decide is whether I will be a good authority and bring flourishing and peace, or be a bad authority and smother the life out of my home by selfishness and sin.

49:51

So, this is really important. But God has given all of us different levels or areas of authority, and perhaps different amounts.

50:03

And, you know, I mentioned other things at the beginning besides family. There's a business, an organization, a class you might be teaching, just a group of people who you are leading.

50:13

It doesn't, yourself, you are responsible for you. I don't know if you know that or not, but it's true.

50:22

And, you know, I feel like with mentioning the family, that although responsibility in a household rests with the husband as the head, that does not mean that the wife has no authority.

50:33

On the contrary, every wife has authority under the authority of her husband, quite a bit, actually.

50:40

But that also means because he is the head, he is also responsible for all that she is responsible for.

50:48

So, that, just take stock of where God has placed you.

50:54

And secondly, ask God for righteousness and justice, and pursue this by faith.

51:00

We ought to pray for this. Our righteousness is from Christ alone, through faith alone.

51:07

There's not, like, this one weird trick to righteous leadership. It's not a technique. You can't do it by your own effort.

51:15

But, nevertheless, it's something we should aim for. We should choose, direct our way that direction.

51:24

So, pray to God to give you this righteousness and depend on him for it. And all this is so that you can be a blessing to others.

51:35

Related to that, and maybe coming out from it, is pray for your children, the third application here.

51:45

This is what, this psalm was David's prayer for Solomon at Solomon's coronation. And as we saw, so much of this was fulfilled in Solomon's life.

51:55

So, be bold and pray for your children, that they will be given righteousness and justice, godly character and actions that image

52:03

God accurately and are a blessing to others. And, if you are not a parent, you can still pray for any children the

52:12

Lord might give you in the future, never too early. The fourth thing is that clinging to sin will keep you from being this kind of a blessing.

52:26

So, this, if you cling to sin, you're not going to have righteousness.

52:32

It's just the fact of the case. There's no way around it. And you can't be this kind of a blessing to others.

52:40

So, that's what repentance is for. And we should not cling to sin.

52:47

And this is, you know, you can just add this to the list that's really, really long of all the sin is horrible and sucks.

52:54

So, this is just a fact. So, keep short accounts with God.

53:03

And after looking at all of this, now we have a chance to worship through communion.

53:11

And in it, we remember that our king came and he bought us with his blood. We celebrate that through that atoning sacrifice.

53:22

God has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved son, folding us in to the expanding kingdom and the blessings there.

53:33

And under his good authority, we have abundant peace.

53:39

That's something to celebrate. So, let's celebrate with communion here.

53:45

We have the tables that are set up in the back and at the corners. So, in a moment, get up, get the the crackers and juice, return to your seat, take them when you're ready.

53:57

Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for showing us what good authority looks like.

54:08

I know sometimes it's easy for me to lose sight of that, given all the ways that people abuse the positions of authority that they have and neglect their responsibility.

54:22

And even me, I don't do this perfectly. So, Lord, please give us, your people, your righteousness and your justice so that we can be this kind of a blessing.

54:37

That the blessing that you give through that would just flow from us to the people you've made us responsible for.

54:48

Thank you for your rule and your protection and your love of us, that you care for us, even though we are just weak and helpless.

55:01

And we were your enemies and you brought us in to your kingdom. Give us joy and gratitude and just help us to see the tremendous good and blessing that that is and to praise you for it.