The Righteous King #1

We read, we get a preview of coming attractions, a preview of coming history as we study Psalm 72 together. There is a righteous King coming to rule and reign.

What will His kingdom be like? That's the question we'll ponder today on the Truth pulpit. Hi there, I'm Bill Wright, and as Don Green continues to teach God's people God's Word, he'll be taking us to Psalm 72 for this study. Don, this is a message you really enjoyed preaching to your congregation, isn't it? Well, Bill, it was.

My friend, there's a good reason for that. I love to point people forward to what lies ahead in the future of our Christian walk, because a lot of times there's not going to be much encouragement in this life. With all of the sin and sickness and sorrow that's around us, and so to look forward to the righteous reign of Christ when He is on earth and He is in charge and sin has been subdued and His people are rejoicing around His throne, yeah, that's something to look forward to. That's what we're going to see today here on the Truth pulpit.

Thanks, Don. And friend, have your Bible ready as we join our teacher now from the Truth pulpit. The Psalms are actually a composition of five different books. Psalm 72 is the last psalm of the second book of the Psalms. Psalms 1-41 is the first book, 42-72 is the second book.

And so the second book concludes with this blessing that it is to be under the reign of God's King. And Psalm 72 points us to the perfections of God's King. Now, many commentators believe that Solomon wrote this psalm on the occasion of his own coronation as he succeeded his father to the throne of Israel. And what this psalm does is it describes the nature of the reign of God's King.

Now, it is not quoted in the New Testament. Psalm 72 is never directly applied to the Lord Jesus Christ by Scripture writers. But what we'll see as we go through this psalm is that this psalm most definitely points us to the coming of Christ. It points us to the coming reign of Christ when He will reign on the earth because it far transcends anything about the nature of Solomon.

And so as we read the writing of Solomon here in Psalm 72, what I want you to see is I want you to be looking beyond Solomon and looking to a still future day to us when Jesus Christ reigns on the earth. And that will tell us, Psalm 72 informs us what His reign will be like. What will it be like when Christ is King on the earth during His millennial kingdom? What will the attributes of the King be? What will mark His rule over the nations? And what you'll find is, as we look at this, is that this is a time and that is an event, an episode, an epic in world history to long for, to look forward to. And it is going to be so much better than what we know now.

We don't realize, I'm convinced, I'm convinced that we have no idea, we have no concept of how badly sin has affected our inner man, how it has affected our horizontal relationships, how it infects the entire environment in which we live. Well Psalm 72 lifts us beyond our present environment and causes us to understand what the reign of Christ is going to be like. And it is glorious, it is wonderful, it is something that every redeemed heart will find resonating within his inner man, saying I want that far more than what I have right now. Because the reign of Christ is going to be a reflection of the perfections of Christ.

And that is what we are going to see here. Psalm 72 pointing us to the coming reign of Christ and just by way of final little bit of introduction or overview here, we know that to be the case because Psalm 72 has never been fulfilled in any earthly king that Israel ever had. Psalm 72 pulsates with expectations that far transcend anything that has occurred in history up to this day. And so we read, we get a preview of the coming attractions, a preview of coming history as we study Psalm 72 together. What is the reign of Christ on earth going to be like?

I'm going to give you five perspectives on it. And first of all, it is going to be a righteous reign. It is going to be a righteous reign. This Psalm opens with a prayer that God would give his king the ability to judge righteously. Look at verse 1. He says, give the king your judgments, O God, and your righteousness to the king's son. Now, right from the very beginning there is a recognition in this prayer that righteousness and justice ultimately come from God himself. Righteousness and justice could never emanate from a sinful man, from a sinful ruler, from someone who has corruption in his own being. Righteousness, therefore, is something that comes from God and the psalmist is asking God to manifest his righteousness during the reign of his king. What is righteousness?

You ask? Well, righteousness refers to a conformity to an ethical or moral standard. An ethical or moral standard. And in Scripture that standard is God himself. It is the nature of God.

It is the will of God. God in his very nature is righteous. He is holy.

He is perfect. He is without moral blemish. He is separate and his will is always good and right and perfect so that God's judgment in any human situation would be the right judgment. And for a king to have sovereignty, for a king to be able to dispense by his authority the implementation of righteousness would be the greatest thing that earth had ever known. It reflects a conformity to God's law and to God's nature. You can see this expressed in Jeremiah 22 if you would turn there with me for just a moment. Jeremiah 22 as we see an expression of what it means for righteousness to come from the throne of David. Jeremiah 22 verse 1. Thus says the Lord, go down to the house of the king of Judah and there speak this word and say, hear the word of the Lord, O king of Judah, who sits on David's throne, you and your servants and your people who enter these gates. Thus says the Lord, do justice and righteousness and deliver the one who has been robbed from the power of his oppressor and do not mistreat or do violence to the stranger, the orphan or the widow and do not shed innocent blood in this place. For if you men will indeed perform this thing, then kings will enter the gates of this house, sitting in David's place on his throne, riding in chariots and on horses, even the king himself and his servants and his people.

My point in taking you to that passage is to simply see what the Lord by his own word associates with a righteous reign, that there is deliverance from those who rob the innocent. There is a greater power brought to bear to turn back oppression of those who suffer at the hands of their tormentors. There is comfort. There is help. There is compassion upon the stranger, the orphan and the widow.

Those who are in an alien environment, you say, weak and without someone alongside to defend them. The nature of God's king is in righteousness to come alongside and to be their protector, to be their helper against powers that would otherwise take advantage of them. That is sweet.

That is precious. As you contemplate the wickedness of the world around us, go back to Psalm 72. And you see this expanded upon. In Solomon's words here in verse two, when speaking of the king, perhaps referring to himself in the third person, he says, May he judge your people with righteousness and you're afflicted with justice. Let the mountains bring peace to the people and the hills in righteousness. May he vindicate the afflicted of the people, save the children of the needy and crush the oppressor.

Here's what I want you to see. Three times that word righteousness is used in these opening verses. It is the foundation of the psalm. Verse one, your righteousness to the king's son. Verse two, may he judge your people with righteousness. Verse three, let the mountains bring peace to the people and the hills in righteousness.

And here's what I would have you see, beloved, as we contemplate the coming reign of Christ and what God describes as his ideal king. Righteousness is the foundation of this entire psalm. It starts out in righteousness and it builds from there, pointing out to us that the throne, the foundation of the reign of God's king is built on righteousness as its first principle. In the psalmist's view, prosperity is rooted in righteousness. Righteousness is the foundation of the kingdom and prosperity and peace flow from that. You can't have godly prosperity without righteousness. You can't have godly peace without righteousness.

And that word peace found in verse three, let the mountains bring peace to the people, that is the word peace from the Hebrew word shalom. And that means more than just the absence of conflict. You know, we're at peace with, you know, Canada or other nations right now. We're at peace with certain nations simply meaning that we're not at war with them. There's an absence of conflict.

This word goes far beyond that negative sense of an absence of conflict and it communicates an idea of wholeness, of completeness, of utter full well-being. And so the idea is that a righteous king during his reign is going to be an instrument of the of the well-being of God poured out upon his people. And we know from our own earthly experience in a non-covenant nation that our lives are affected by our leaders, our lives are affected by their character, by their policies. Well how much more then for the people of God to be living under their righteous king. And beloved, I can't wait when Christ plants his feet on this earth and establishes his reign.

That is something to look forward to. And we know that this has to be looking forward beyond Solomon to a greater king yet to come from the writing of the Psalm and from even our own day because as we read about the life of Solomon in the Old Testament, we know that he started well but he did not end well as he accumulated foreign wives to himself and imposed harsh taxation on the people. James Montgomery Boyce says this, as Solomon's reign progressed he turned away from the Lord, followed other gods and began to oppress the people with high rates of taxation to finance his building projects.

End quote. So Solomon himself did not even achieve the ideal of the Psalm that he wrote. And that tells us that because we believe in the authority of God's word, because we believe that every word will be fulfilled, as we look and see that there hasn't been a fulfillment, the king's got worse after Solomon, not better generally speaking, then our hearts are left throbbing. Our hearts are left aching.

There is this sense of unfulfilled promise, unfulfilled expectation. When will this reign take place? Because we haven't seen it in the world yet where righteousness provided a foundation that endured during a king's reign. And we look with longing anticipation, oh Lord, when will your king of righteousness come? When will your king establish this on the earth as your word speaks? We find ourselves still waiting for the ideal king of righteousness.

And as we look in the latter prophets, as we look in the New Testament, we say it has to be Christ coming one day to find the fulfillment of God's word, because God's word will not go unfulfilled. What else can we say about this king's reign? It's a righteous reign. Secondly, and I love this, it is an extensive reign. It is an extensive reign.

And let me just frame it this way. You know, a king's glory is magnified the broader his realm is. The more territory over which he reigns, he's viewed as a greater king. The more subjects that he has under his rule, the greater his realm is. His glory is measured by the extent to which he reigns. Well, what we find here in Psalm 72 is two aspects of a broad reign to God's king. First of all, Psalm 72 contemplates a long chronological reign, a long chronological reign. There will be a long reign in time.

This won't be a blip on the radar. This won't be a four-year term for God's king. Look at Psalm 72 verse 5 where it says, let them fear you while the sun endures. As long as the moon throughout all generations, may he come down like rain upon the mown grass, like showers that water the earth. In his days, may the righteous flourish in abundance of peace till the moon is no more. All generations, till the moon is no more. This is speaking of a long-term reign. As Solomon writes here, the sun and moon were created by God even before mankind was created. And as such, given their permanence, there has never been a time in the history of mankind where he was not under the testimony from the skies of the sun and moon to the glory of God.

And as such, they symbolize longevity. And what the psalmist is praying for here, in light of that enduring comparison of time, he's asking that the reign of God's king would result in long-term reverence for God. May your righteousness inform the reign of this king. May he reign throughout all generations. And therefore, when he is reigning at such extended length, the glory of God will be on display continually, again and again, repeatedly, continually, continuously, God's glory being manifested through the reign of his king. Well, that didn't happen with Solomon.

He does not fulfill the ideal of Psalm 72 at all. He reigned 40 years. A great reign by earthly standards, you might say, but that's not all generations.

That's not the length of which this word speaks. Like all earthly kings, he died. Like all earthly kings, his memory fades away. It's the nature of earthly kings. You know, we're far too wrapped up in the mechanisms of earthly political power. Who's the president and who's the senator and which party is controlling the seats of Congress or our state legislator or any of that stuff? Listen.

Listen. When we're wrapped up in that, we're looking at life with blinders on. We are not seeing it at all from God's perspective.

We're not even seeing it from a proper human historical perspective, let alone from any sense of biblical perspective. Who are earthly kings? Who are United States presidents?

Except men whose breath is in their nostrils, who rise up for a time under the providential opportunity given to them by God, but then they fade away and they die. Many of you know that I have visited a number of the presidential grave sites, the United States presidential grave sites. It's remarkable to go to these places, some of which are virtually forgotten, or visited very rarely. You can go to the grave site of Martin Van Buren in upstate New York, our eighth president, 1837 to 1841. At one time, the king of the hill, metaphorically speaking. Now, today, you can barely even read the inscription on his grave site.

You really can't read it unless you're getting just the sun just exactly right. His monument, the highest marker in the cemetery, as I recall. You go to it now, some 160 years later, 175 years later, you can barely even read it. And most of you, I would venture to say, couldn't name one fact about Martin Van Buren. That's okay.

I don't expect you to. He's not important, especially when we're opening God's Word. I'm just making a point. At one time, he was the man, and now his memory is virtually erased from our public consciousness, except for those who read about such things. Don't you see? Don't you see that when we talk about earthly leaders, we're talking about men who rise for a time and they fade away, then why are we so wrapped up in what they do? Why are we so wrapped up in what they think?

Why are we so wrapped up in the decisions they make? Because we're too bound up in the mechanisms of time, and we're not seeing it from God's perspective. We haven't thoroughly drunk in the fact that the only rain that matters is the coming rain of Christ, and that is certain to occur, though uncertain in its timing, and we give glory to Him, and we look forward to that rather than being preoccupied by these—it's the word that's in my mind—these pipsqueaks that hold power for a short period of time, and then they die and they're forgotten. We must view earthly power from the perspective of God's Word.

We must measure all men by the glory of Christ, and their temporary glory fades into nothing when we do. God's King is going to endure, and not only that, not only is He only going to endure over time, this King is going to have a broad geographic reign as well. Over time He will rule, and He will rule over all the earth.

Look at verses 8 through 10, Psalm 72, verses 8 through 10. Speaking of this extensive reign of God's King, Scripture says, may He also rule from sea to sea, and from the river to the ends of the earth. Let the nomads of the desert bow before Him, and His enemies lick the dust. Let the kings of Tarshish, probably a city in Spain, and of the islands bring presents.

The kings of Sheba, modern Yemen on the other side of Saudi Arabia, and Seba, a region in northern Africa, offer gifts. And let all kings bow down before Him, all nations serve Him. And so there's this expectation that every nation will bring tribute, every nation will bow before this King.

Now Solomon tasted a portion of this when the Queen of Sheba came from distant lands, and others came to hear of His wisdom. But nothing, nothing like this, nothing where all nations bowed before Him, where all nations served Him. Solomon is not the fulfillment of this.

Look again at verse 11 just to reemphasize the point. Let all kings bow down before Him, all nations serve Him. And so what you have described here is a king with an open-ended reign that is adored and worshiped and served by all the earth. That's only speaking of Christ, beloved.

There is no one else that could have such a worldwide impact. And what you find as you follow the logic, as you follow the force of what is said in this psalm, is that God's King, God's righteous King, He deserves a worldwide dominion. So great is His glory, so great is His righteousness, that it is only proper and fitting that nations bow before Him, that all men would bend the knee and recognize Him for the greatness of His glory. And Scripture points us to the fact that one day that will belong to Christ. The reign of Christ on earth will be one of righteousness, and it will endure. What glorious promises from the Word of God. Pastor Don Green will have three more characteristics of the coming kingdom on our next program.

So plan now to be with us here on The Truth Pulpit for part two of his message, The Righteous King. Meanwhile, we invite you to visit our website, thetruthpulpit.com. There you can download podcasts or find out how to receive CD copies of Don's radio messages for your personal study library. And if you want to go even more in depth, you'll also find the link Follow Don's Pulpit. That'll take you to Don's full length weekly sermons, not subject to the time editing we need for radio broadcasts. Also, if you'd like to put social media to good use, connect with Don on Facebook. A link to that is also at thetruthpulpit.com. Visit today. I'm Bill Wright. We'll see you again next time as Don continues to teach God's people God's Word from the Truth Pulpit.