(Psalm 72)

(Continued from p. 76)

While the title of this instructive psalm is, "A Psalms for Solomon," in entirety and fulness it could only be true of our blessed Lord. It is a beautiful and striking finish to the second book of Psalms, where Israel is seen cast out of the beloved city and groaning under Gentile oppression, the result of God's governmental dealing with the nation. "The time of Jacob's trouble," or "great tribulation" period, is anticipated in this second book, and at the close deliverance and blessing come through the advent of the Anointed King – David's Son and David's Lord (see Psalm 110:1).

David and Solomon are both striking types of our Lord. David very fully presents Him as the anointed, yet rejected and outcast King. Solomon gives us a remarkable type of Christ in His millennial kingdom glory. Psalms 45 and 72 are intimately linked together, the former unfolding the beauties of the King, giving a description of the Lord's glorious appearance upon His return to set up His kingdom; the latter giving the characteristics of His righteous reign. This is of immense importance to God's earthly people who will enjoy the blessings of Christ's millennial rule.

In the previous psalm (71), we have-in figure-the summing up of Israel's history and the ways of God in mercy and care. The voice of the remnant is heard crying to Jehovah not to cast the nation off! Into this, doubtless, Christ enters in spirit, and finally deliverance comes in His glorious Person.

"Give the King Thy judgments, O Elohim, and Thy righteousness unto the King's Son." The King here is at the same time the King's Son to whom Elohim gives His judgments, who-as Son of David-will bring in the Melchisedek blessing of righteousness and peace.

As we ponder this psalm we are conscious that a mighty revolution, such as this world has never witnessed, is necessary when unmingled righteousness will be meted out by the true Solomon, and God's poor, for so many centuries the subject of man's scorn and hate, will especially be the objects of the King's solicitude. The poor and needy who, alas, have been so often denied justice and had to turn hopelessly away from earthly judges and rulers to the God of justice and judgment, invoking His intervention, will find in the King a righteous Administrator who will undertake their cause and "break in pieces the oppressor." Righteousness and just judgment being thus administered, securing the salvation (deliverance) of the needy, and destruction of those who oppress, all will recognize the establishment of Divine authority in Zion, which will make men fear God "as long as the sun and moon endure throughout all generations," a condition hitherto unknown.

"He shall come down like rain upon the mown grass, as showers that water the earth." This striking and simple simile illustrates the beneficent results of His rule. As the rain, invigorating and refreshing the parched earth, so His presence will prove. Israel, dry and withered, whose hopes may have seemed in vain, will receive the refreshing showers of God's blessing, fulfilling those hopes to the utmost, and securing blessing to all generations.

To give rain is the prerogative of the Creator, a standing witness throughout all generations that He is the only true God. We read in Jeremiah 14:22, "Are there any among the vanities of the Gentiles that can cause rain? or can the heavens give showers? Art not Thou He, O Lord our God? Therefore we will wait upon Thee:for Thou hast made all these things." So, in that day, it will be manifest that God alone can revive and bless men, and cause "the righteous to flourish, and abundance of peace as long as the moon endureth."

The extent of His dominion is then given. "He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth." When God entered into covenant with Abraham (Gen. 15:18), He gave the boundaries of his promised possession; "From the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates," and this was afterwards re-affirmed to his descendants at Sinai (Exod. 33:31). Again when the wilderness journey had ended, when the people stood on the confines of the promised land, Jehovah confirmed His promise and gave the extent of their possession, '"From the wilderness and this Lebanon even unto the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, and unto the great sea toward the going down of the sun, shall be your coast" (Josh. 1:4). But this promise made to Abraham, in its entirety was to be made good in Abraham's seed. In Paul's epistle to the Galatians, we learn who the seed was of whom the angel of Jehovah spake to Abraham, for Paul-under guidance of the Spirit-wrote:"He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy Seed, which is Christ." David, then, by the Spirit, referred to God's original promise, linking the subject of his theme with the Seed of the one to whom the promise was given. Long after David's throne had been overturned, Zechariah applied the eighth verse of Psalm 72 to Christ as coming King (read Zech. 9:9,10, and note the exact quotation at close of verse 10).

Blessed indeed to realize that man's failure can never void the counsels of God, and if Israel never took full possession of the whole land, God's unconditional promise must stand fast, His Word cannot be broken, and Zechariah retraces the boundaries of the coming kingdom, and shows that in not one whit shall it be diminished. The boundaries of the coming kingdom being announced, and God's Firstborn made higher than the kings of the earth (Ps. 89:27, etc.), all must pay homage to the King. "They that dwell in the wilderness shall bow down before Him, and His enemies shall lick the dust." The Arabs, "dwellers in the wilderness," descendants' of Ishmael, those nomad lawless tribes, who-remarkably- no government has yet been able to subdue, evidencing the wild temper and disposition of their progenitor, will at last be subdued and yield to God's King in Jerusalem. Their stubborn and rebellious hearts at last humbled by the power of God, "His enemies shall lick the dust." What political problems will thus be solved! Think of present day conditions in Palestine and the impotency of the most powerful Empire on earth to fulfil their promise to the Jews, simply because God's time has not arrived. In that coming glorious day these problems will be solved, and the unruly and turbulent who have so often baffled and thwarted the best-intentioned governments, will find a Ruler whose will is supreme and must be obeyed implicitly. As absolute Ruler, reigning in Jerusalem, the King must be pre-eminent, and all kings of the earth must pay homage to Him, and all nations will serve Him.

"Kings shall fall down before Him,
And gold and incense bring,
All nations shall adore Him,
His praise all people sing.
Outstretched His wide dominion
O'er river, sea and shore,
Far as the eagle's pinion,
Or dove's light wing can soar."

But let us briefly retrospect. Before the glorious reign is ushered in, Satan will have made a supreme effort to capture universal dominion. To him the kings will give allegiance, the old Roman boundaries marking the extent of the supremacy established. Nations will be amazed at the rapidity and universality of this world power, the last great effort of Satan ere he is bound and cast into the bottomless pit. But this mighty empire is only transient, and the King of the North disputes its authority! Then comes the great overthrow of the kingdoms of the earth, and the ushering in of Christ's kingdom ! Deliverance will be found under the righteous scepter of God's King, and the poor and afflicted will rejoice in His delivering power (see vers. 12-14). During the awful reign of the Beast, under the protection of Satan, the poor and needy will suffer deceit and violence, and blood will flow in rivers. Here, all is reversed. The King will redeem them from "deceit and violence, and precious shall their blood be in His sight." Peace never yet fully known on earth, since the Prince of Peace was refused, shall at last prevail, and the kingdoms of the earth shall become the kingdoms of the Lord and His Christ. "And He shall live;" death will not cut short His days, terminating His reign! This, in striking contrast to Solomon, whose bright arising to power and glory was like the rising of the morning sun, but that brightness became, alas, beclouded by saddest failure, clouds gathered, betokening a storm near at hand,-even the break-up of David's empire.

This kingdom will be an everlasting kingdom, with nothing to dim the glory of Messiah's reign. "Prayer shall be made for Him continually, and daily shall He be praised." So beneficent will be this glorious reign that men will devoutly pray for its continuance. What a striking revolution of men's thoughts as to Christ we have here! A little previous to this the world's forces were marshaled, under the Beast, to annihilate Jerusalem and keep out the King, but now men long for a continuance of His kingdom, and daily praise His wisdom and goodness.

Next we see (verse 16) prosperity filling the earth, so that in the least likely part of the earth to produce a harvest (on the top of the mountains), "the fruit thereof shall shake like (the trees of) Lebanon, and they of the city shall flourish like grass of the earth." At last- after millenniums of retarded fruitfulness on account of man's sin-the fruitfulness of the earth will be unrestrained and yield abundantly for blessing of man and beast. What a glorious day awaits this groaning creation!

Then, above it all, His name is glorious. "His name shall endure forever; His name shall be continued as long as the sun:and men shall be blessed in Him:all nations shall call Him blessed." That name so often used in profanity and in execration shall be all-glorious – the only name eternally remembered.

The psalmist rapturously exclaims:"Blessed be His glorious name forever:and let the whole earth be filled with His glory; Amen and Amen." And this desire shall be blessedly fulfilled, the glad earth will give back her meed of praise in that day when creation's groan shall be hushed, and the wilderness blossom as a rose.

With the establishment of this glorious era, every earthly hope will be fulfilled, leaving nothing to be desired, hence the concluding words:"The prayers of David the son of Jesse are ended." What a beautiful finish to the second book of Psalms! J. W. H. N.
(To be continued in next number, D.V.)