Royal Psalms
Notes
Transcript
Royal Psalms
Royal Psalms
Psalm 72
Psalm 72
Of Solomon. Endow the king with your justice, O God, the royal son with your righteousness. May he judge your people in righteousness, your afflicted ones with justice. May the mountains bring prosperity to the people, the hills the fruit of righteousness. May he defend the afflicted among the people and save the children of the needy; may he crush the oppressor. May he endure as long as the sun, as long as the moon, through all generations. May he be like rain falling on a mown field, like showers watering the earth. In his days may the righteous flourish and prosperity abound till the moon is no more. May he rule from sea to sea and from the River to the ends of the earth. May the desert tribes bow before him and his enemies lick the dust. May the kings of Tarshish and of distant shores bring tribute to him. May the kings of Sheba and Seba present him gifts. May all kings bow down to him and all nations serve him. For he will deliver the needy who cry out, the afflicted who have no one to help. He will take pity on the weak and the needy and save the needy from death. He will rescue them from oppression and violence, for precious is their blood in his sight. Long may he live! May gold from Sheba be given him. May people ever pray for him and bless him all day long. May grain abound throughout the land; on the tops of the hills may it sway. May the crops flourish like Lebanon and thrive like the grass of the field. May his name endure forever; may it continue as long as the sun. Then all nations will be blessed through him, and they will call him blessed. 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. This concludes the prayers of David son of Jesse.
Introduction: royal psalms are interesting because they are psalms and prayers to God, but they are also prayers and psalms too and about the king.
they were sung at royal weddings or at royal precessions as an homage to the king.
so this one here the title says “of solomon” if you were here last tuesday during bible study we talked about how the titles of the psalms are difficult to interpret. “of solomon” can mean solomon wrote it. it can also mean it was written “for solomon” or “about” solomon.
we really don’t know. the most we can say is that this psalm has something to do with king solomon.
its a prayer of good fortune on the king from a father to a son, whether it’s david to solomon, or solomon to his decendant, or something.
It’s a political psalm.
1. Everyone Serves A King
It is very difficult to relate to the Royal Psalms, because we don’t have kings today.
Throughout most of human history there have been kings. Even in societies where the government is set up as a democracy or a republic, historically speaking they always always end up as a kingdom, with one king.
Ben Franklin “We’re a republic if you can keep it”
Social studies experiment with skittles
Hinge
Is america different?
Our country was founded on the idea that we shouldn’t have a king. However, the founders of our country realized the tendency for people to want to have a king.
Experience has shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.
biblical truth is, we deep down want to serve a king.
So all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah. They said to him, “You are old, and your sons do not follow your ways; now appoint a king to lead us, such as all the other nations have.”
israel didnt want to have judges they didnt want the system of government God ordained for them they wanted a king.
and i think history shows that this is true not just for israel, but for all humankind throughout history
and in samuel, samuel warns the people, you’re not going to like it, youre going to be oppressed, the king is going to rule over you.
But the people refused to listen to Samuel. “No!” they said. “We want a king over us. Then we will be like all the other nations, with a king to lead us and to go out before us and fight our battles.”
2. We want a good King
Psalm 72 talks about various attributes of a good King.
Justice
Righteousness
Prosperity
Peace
We should pray for our leaders and these are the things we should be praying for
We should pray that we live in a country that promotes Justice, that our leaders and our citizens are righteous. That they are doing God’s will
We should pray that there is peace. We want to see peace, we want to see the poor and afflicted taken care of.
It’s even ok to pray for prosperity. “May grain abound throughout the land” It’s even OK to pray for that. As a christian we are supposed to be humble, and live on less, and not be caught up in material things. But It’s OK to pray that we live somewhere that has food, so that there’s enough food to eat. And to pray that people can afford to have a house to live in.
I urge, then, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for all people—for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness.
Think about the last time you can remember when Justice, peace, prosperity and Godliness were all four prevalent in our culture.
We’ve had times where each of those attributes have been present individually, but I’d be willing to bet that you could look at any period in history and there would be at least one of those four things missing.
We recognize that the things that are talked about in this psalm are missing, so we think to ourselves “if we could just get a good king”
Ultimately, that’s what royal psalms are about.
It’s a prayer to God for a good king.
It’s a prayer for the king, either solomon or solomon’s son to be a good king. For the king to follow after God. And if we could just gett a Godly king, if we could just get a king who had wisdom and righteousness, then we would have peace, and prosperity. Then that king could reign forever, and everything would be great.
That’s what people crave. They crave a good king.
Even if you disagree with me, even if you’re like, nope, I don’t want a king, I don’t trust any politician.
Let’s have some truth time here, you still crave a king.
Even then, you probably have had a moment where you’ve thought “things wouldn’t be so bad if they just did X” What you’re really saying is, “If only I was king” things would be perfect.
No you wouldn’t. None of us would.
Everyone will serve a king, and we get stuck in this trap of looking fo a good king
but even though we pray for those things, even though we pray for wise leaders,amd we pray that god would influence their lives, we need to be doing it with the understanding that there are no good kings.
3. There are no good kings
Just read this book, it’s called the bible.
And it even has a whole four chapters dedicated to all the kings of israel and judah. All of the kings that this psalm was praying about
(Random kings in 1 and Second kings)
Did evil in the sight of the Lord.
The bible shows us again and again and again, there are no good kings.
What about outside the bible, are there good kings in history? ,
Maybe there are some who are better than others, but for the most part, there are no good kings.
Even/especially in the USA.
Even/Especially in the “good ol’ days”
The dirty little secret about America is that we are NOT a Christian nation, and we never have been.
We have this romantic idea of our country that used to be a Christian Nation, that we used to be good, that we used to have good leaders.
And I can already feel some of you about to get antsy in your seat. You’re about to argue
Most of the founding fathers of our country were not Christians. They were what you would call “Christian deists”
Which basically means they believed that Jesus was a smart teacher, but they denied any notion of him being God.
Benjamin franklin, smart guy, understood politics, did not believe Jesus was the son of God.
Thomas Jefferson had a bible that’s called the “Jefferson Bible”
Where he literally took a bible and a razor blade, and cut out all of the miracles in the Gospel, and all of the references to Jesus being the son of God.
And I need you to understand this is not coming from some sort of anti-american place. If you know me, you know that I’m probably one of the most patriotic people you’ll ever meet. I serve in the united states army, I bleed red white and blue I love our country.
So don’t think this is some sort of woke l hate america point of view.
I simply understand the fact that when paul says “all have fallen short of the glory of god, there is noone righteous, no not one, that goes for our leaders too. We are not an exception to the idea that there are no good kings.
But what this does is it leaves us in a little bit of a tricky spot.
We all crave a king.
We all crave a good king,
And number 3, there are no good kings.
What do we do with that?
How do we interact with our leaders in light of these three things?
We obey our leaders, we pray for our leaders, we do not exalt them.
Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God.
The bible calls us to be in submission to our kings, even though they are not good kings.
-We can’t worship at the altar of politics. At the same time we have to recognize that whatever King is in place, god put there for a reason.
2. The Daniel Principle.
-Daniel lived in babylon. He cooperated with the babylonian king. He worked in the government.
-Daniel was genuinely concerned with what was best for Babylon. He obeyed and cooperated with nebuchadnezzar.
-Right up until nebudchadnezzzar told him to worship the statue.
on non biblical issues, we obey.
-want to take my guns, I’m going to let them takemy guns. They want to raise taxes, they can raise taxes. They want to make me wear a mask, I’ll put on a mask.
-You tell me not to worship, I will not obey. You tell me to bow down to the statue, I will not obey, and you’re going to have to kill me for it.
3. Jesus christ is the ultimate king and the only one who matters.
3.