SPEAKER_00: Our reading today is from Psalm chapter seventy-two.
SPEAKER_00: Give the king your justice of Solomon.
SPEAKER_00: Give the King your justice, O God, and your righteousness to the royal son.
SPEAKER_00: May he judge your people with righteousness and your poor with justice.
SPEAKER_00: Let the mountains bear prosperity for the people, and the hills in righteousness.
SPEAKER_00: May he defend the cause of the poor of the people, give deliverance to the children of the needy, and crush the oppressor.
SPEAKER_00: May they fear you while the sun endures, and as long as the moon drew out all generations.
SPEAKER_00: May he be like rain that falls on the moan grass, like showers that water the earth.
SPEAKER_00: In his days may the righteous flourish, and peace abound till the moon be no more.
SPEAKER_00: May he have dominion from sea to sea, and from the river to the ends of the earth.
SPEAKER_00: May desert tribes bow down before him, and his enemies lick the dust.
SPEAKER_00: May the kings of Tarshish and of the coastlands render him tribute.
SPEAKER_00: May the kings of Sheba and Seba bring gifts.
SPEAKER_00: May all kings fall down before him, all nations serve him.
SPEAKER_00: For he delivers the needy when he calls, the poor and him who has no helper.
SPEAKER_00: He has pity on the weak and the needy, and saves the lives of the needy.
SPEAKER_00: From oppression and violence, he redeems their life, and precious is their blood in his sight.
SPEAKER_00: Long may he live, may gold achieving be given to him, may prayer be made for him continually, and blessings invoked for him all the day.
SPEAKER_00: May there be abundance of grain in the land, on the tops of the mountains may it wave, may its fruits be like Lebanon, and may people blossom in the cities like the grass of the field.
SPEAKER_00: May his name endure forever, his fame continue as long as the sun.
SPEAKER_00: May peoples be blessed in him.
SPEAKER_00: All nations call him blessed.
SPEAKER_00: Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, who alone does wondrous things.
SPEAKER_00: Blessed be his glorious name forever.
SPEAKER_00: May the whole earth be filled with his glory.
SPEAKER_00: Amen and amen.
SPEAKER_00: The prayers of David, the son of Jesse, are ended.
SPEAKER_00: And so reads God's word.
SPEAKER_02: Good morning.
SPEAKER_02: I'm one of the leaders here at City.
SPEAKER_02: You are very, very welcome.
SPEAKER_02: It's my pleasure, uh my privilege to uh be speaking from Psalm 72 uh today.
SPEAKER_02: If you have if you don't have a Bible, uh please grab one.
SPEAKER_02: I don't want to make you fear, but we are going to look at a couple of other uh parts of the Bible as well.
SPEAKER_02: Um but I'll I'll guide you there in a while.
SPEAKER_02: Uh so this Psalm is all about uh a king.
SPEAKER_02: I wonder what you're thinking of when you think of a king.
SPEAKER_02: Um I want to kind of just get them out of the way now, uh um, but that might mean that you're thinking about these kings um for the rest of the sermon, so it might be a mistake, but I trust you all um that you'll stay with me.
SPEAKER_02: Uh obviously, obviously, uh there's King Charles, there's King uh Harold of Norway, I think, King Philippe of Spain, Henry VIII, Hamlet, Macbeth.
SPEAKER_02: Um maybe the first king that popped into your mind was the king in Shrek, maybe the one in Braveheart, maybe the King of Rock.
SPEAKER_02: Thank you very much, the King of Basketball.
SPEAKER_02: Oh, that's I didn't think this was gonna be so controversial.
SPEAKER_02: Twitter says at King James, LeBron James.
SPEAKER_02: Um and I don't know if we have any Gaelic football followers here, uh, but if you've been in the office um or you might have heard around or seen in the news that the um the All Ireland football finals on today, uh this afternoon, it's Dublin versus Kerry, which is the kingdom.
SPEAKER_02: And then I also saw an article about how the Kerry players were looking at uh they they had respect, a huge respect for the Dublin captain, James McCarthy, and they called him in this one article, he was described as a warrior king.
SPEAKER_02: Um, but yeah, to a lot of people, kings are antiquated, and I mean they are.
SPEAKER_02: We're in a republic here.
SPEAKER_02: Uh but we still we still talk about them uh a lot and what's really going on in this Psalm is not concerned with uh is not really concerned with all that, uh, but it's concerned with authority and who is uh the authority of the one who governs.
SPEAKER_02: And this Psalm is a prayer, as you see from the very beginning, give the king your justice, oh God.
SPEAKER_02: It's a prayer for the king that he would rule with righteousness, that he would rule with justice, uh, and and these come from God.
SPEAKER_02: It's God's righteousness, it's God's justice, and it's for the sake of his people, and that his kingdom would last forever, and that it would extend uh to the whole earth for the glory and praise of God.
SPEAKER_02: And this is the king we need and we should long for.
SPEAKER_02: And what I found in looking at Psalm 72 is that I want to submit to and worship this king more and more.
SPEAKER_02: I long for this king, and I hope and pray that that's uh what we all do in looking at this Psalm is that we long for this king more and more.
SPEAKER_02: So, our first point in looking at Psalm 72 is to long for this king.
SPEAKER_02: Um, we're gonna look at what this king is like that we should long for.
SPEAKER_02: So that's our first point, long for this king.
SPEAKER_02: And our first sub-point, there's three sub points.
SPEAKER_02: Our first sub point is that this king, uh, this is the king that we ought to long for because uh he's righteous and just.
SPEAKER_02: So he's righteous and just, and so we should long for him.
SPEAKER_02: He's a good king, he upholds law and order in his kingdom so that it prospers.
SPEAKER_02: And so much so that the kings of the other lands, they come and they say, they want to know how it's done, and they want to give honor uh to this king, and they bring tribute because it's such an amazing rule.
SPEAKER_02: You'll see at the top of this Psalm that it's a Psalm of Solomon, that is part of the original text there.
SPEAKER_02: The title, Give the King Your Justice, is just a repeat of the first few words.
SPEAKER_02: That's not necessarily that wasn't there in the original text, but of Solomon was.
SPEAKER_02: And um, but at the end of the Psalm, you might have realized, you might have uh noticed in verse 20, it seems to be attributed to David.
SPEAKER_02: Um this Psalm is the last Psalm in the second book of the Psalms.
SPEAKER_02: So this whole book of Psalms is split up into five books.
SPEAKER_02: Um, it's not too significant uh for us, but uh that's good just to note and where that that that last verse is popping in.
SPEAKER_02: And a lot of the Psalms in the first two books, so verses uh Psalms 1 to 72, a lot of them are attributed to David, and so that's why we have this uh this verse at the end.
SPEAKER_02: Um even though actually after this, there's a few more Psalms on to the in the rest of the Psalms to Psalm 150, there's a few more Psalms that are attributed to David, and but there's a significant amount of of these two um that are uh that are um attributed to David.
SPEAKER_02: And um so there's this note at the end saying that these are the the uh prayers or the psalms of David, uh the son of Jesse, and that they're ended.
SPEAKER_02: Um but regardless of whether the Psalm is written by Solomon or for him, that of Solomon could mean for Solomon, um, or if it's just about Solomon, sorry, a king or or for if it's written for a king.
SPEAKER_02: What the writer is saying is that the king needs to recognize that justice and righteousness come from God and that this king needs it.
SPEAKER_02: So it's probably a prayer that would have been prayed for a king, maybe for Solomon, as he was taking uh as he was taking the throne.
SPEAKER_02: And this Psalm is a prayer that he would rule and reign in such a way that people flourish, that the land prospers, and that there's peace.
SPEAKER_02: You see that word prosperity in verse 3, if you look at it, so in verse 3 it says, Let the mountains bear prosperity.
SPEAKER_02: That's actually the Hebrew word shalom, which a lot of you might know is often translated as peace.
SPEAKER_02: And it is that it means peace, but it means wholeness and prosperity.
SPEAKER_02: And that's what the psalmist prays for here under a righteous and just king.
SPEAKER_02: The psalmist clearly recognizes that this comes from God.
SPEAKER_02: He prays that God would give him your justice and your righteousness, God's justice and righteousness.
SPEAKER_02: And you might know, um, if you know the story of Solomon at all, if you ever heard that as a kid, or if you've read about it in 1 uh Kings or 2 Chronicles, that there's a lot of uh there's a lot of similarities here with the life of Solomon, especially at the start.
SPEAKER_02: Solomon was so humble and he said to God that he didn't have the ability in and of himself to govern the kingdom.
SPEAKER_02: So he asked God for wisdom to do so.
SPEAKER_02: You don't need to jump uh to 1 Kings now, but if you're taking notes, maybe just pop down.
SPEAKER_02: 1 Kings 3 is where we read about it, and we're gonna read a bit in uh 2 Chronicles 9.
SPEAKER_02: Uh that's where we we learn about the and we hear about the history of King Solomon and his life.
SPEAKER_02: But in 1 Kings 3 7, he says, And now, O Lord, my God, you have made your servant king in place of David my father, although I am but a little child.
SPEAKER_02: You might see the link there between uh the royal son in uh verse 1, the royal son in verse 1 of our Psalm, and here uh Solomon is he's David's son, he's the he's the king's son, the royal son.
SPEAKER_02: Anyway, let's keep going in 1 Kings 3 here.
SPEAKER_02: He says, I do not know how to go out or come in, and your servant is in the midst of your people whom you have chosen, a great people, too many to be numbered or counted for multitude.
SPEAKER_02: Give your servant therefore an understanding mind to govern your people, that I may discern between good and evil.
SPEAKER_02: So Solomon prayed to God that he would give him his righteousness and justice to govern well, an understanding mind to govern your people, like is prayed for here in Psalm 72.
SPEAKER_02: And it was a good thing that Solomon did this.
SPEAKER_02: It's a good thing that he asked for wisdom to govern, because God commended him for it.
SPEAKER_02: And it led the kingdom of Israel to grow to its largest extent, like uh in in terms of its dominion and wealth, and Israel prospered like never before because God gave justice and righteousness to Solomon, the king in his reign.
SPEAKER_02: And some of the ways uh we see this prosperity, or at least uh the prayer for prosperity in the land under such uh a righteous and just king in Psalm 72 are places like verse 3.
SPEAKER_02: Like I said, let the mountains bear prosperity.
SPEAKER_02: Verse 16, if you if you jump down to verse 16 of Psalm 72, may there be abundance of grain in the land on the tops of the mountains, may it wave.
SPEAKER_02: I don't know if you've ever driven through uh mountains, maybe uh maybe you've been to the Wicklow Mountains to Glendelock or somewhere like that, and you may have noticed that there isn't much grain growing there.
SPEAKER_02: It's only really good for, it's certainly in Ireland, uh we keep lots of sheep and maybe some cattle.
SPEAKER_02: Um there might be coniferous trees growing there, uh good trees for for timber for building.
SPEAKER_02: Uh, that's what's grow that's what grows on mountains because the land isn't very good.
SPEAKER_02: I was uh blessed to grow up on a hill that overlooks this uh a beautiful valley uh that actually looked across to the Wicklow Mountains, and in the valley every year uh you could see fields changing from light green in spring through to dark green and gold and yellow uh through the summer and into the into the autumn.
SPEAKER_02: And that's where the good land was, down in the down in the valley, this broad valley, the second longest river in Ireland, the river Barrow flows through it.
SPEAKER_02: So it's a really rich and fertile place where they grow grain.
SPEAKER_02: But up around us, I could hear cattle and sheep, and again, there was commercial forestry up there because the land down in the valley was uh fertile, and up on the hill, up on the mountain, it's not fertile.
SPEAKER_02: If you do plant grain there, um you might get you might get uh a plant to grow, you might get grain to grow a bit, but it's not going to be growing like this.
SPEAKER_02: It's not gonna be uh like in verse 16, where uh the the it waves that that idea that it's actually growing so tall that it's kind of it's bending under the the weight of the produce, of the corn or the grain, uh, or whatever, yeah, whatever it is being uh grown.
SPEAKER_02: So it's this uh this amazing abundance, even on the top of the mountains.
SPEAKER_02: And a king who brings prosperity like this uh to a land, it's right that they should be praised and honored for reigning with justice and righteousness, for ruling in such a way as to cause the kingdom to prosper.
SPEAKER_02: And don't we long for a king like this?
SPEAKER_02: One who reigns with righteousness and justice and brings prosperity uh to the land and to all.
SPEAKER_02: Another link uh to the life of Solomon I want to look at is the link to Sheba.
SPEAKER_02: So we see there's a link in Sheba is mentioned in verses 10 and 15.
SPEAKER_02: Uh may the kings of Sheba and Sebah bring gifts, their different kingdoms.
SPEAKER_02: And then in verse 15, may gold of Sheba be given to him.
SPEAKER_02: So uh we looked already at 1 Kings 3, and I'm gonna read some uh some verses from 2 Chronicles 9.
SPEAKER_02: Um, if you want to take note of that.
SPEAKER_02: Again, I don't I don't need you to go to 2 Chronicles right now if you don't uh want to.
SPEAKER_02: Just hear uh this account.
SPEAKER_02: So now when the Queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon, she came to Jerusalem to test him with hard questions.
SPEAKER_02: And when she came to Solomon, she told him all that was on her mind, and Solomon answered all her questions.
SPEAKER_02: There was nothing hidden from Solomon that he could not explain to her.
SPEAKER_02: And when the Queen of Sheba had seen the wisdom of Solomon, the house that he had built, the food of his table, the seating of his officials, and the attendants of his servants and their clothing, his cupbearers and their clothing, and his burnt offerings that he offered at the house of the Lord, there was no more breath in her.
SPEAKER_02: And she said to the king, The report was true that I heard in my own land of your words and of your wisdom, but I did not believe the reports until I came, and my own eyes had seen it.
SPEAKER_02: And behold, half the greatness of your wisdom was not told me.
SPEAKER_02: You surpassed the report that I heard.
SPEAKER_02: Happy are your wives, happy are these servants who continually stand before you and hear your wisdom.
SPEAKER_02: Blessed be the Lord your God, who has delighted in you and set you on his throne as king for the Lord your God.
SPEAKER_02: Because your God loved Israel and would establish them forever, he has made you king over them, that you may execute justice and righteousness.
SPEAKER_02: Then she gave the king one hundred and twenty talents of gold and a very great quantity of spices and precious stones.
SPEAKER_02: Listen to those words again of Queen Sheba, the Queen of Sheba, sorry.
SPEAKER_02: Because your God loved Israel and would establish them forever, he has made you king over them, that you may execute justice and righteousness.
SPEAKER_02: She recognized God's goodness to his people in making Solomon king because of his righteousness, because of his justice.
SPEAKER_02: Which we see in the Psalm.
SPEAKER_02: And then again, like in the Psalms, she gave a ton of gold and other gifts because of his great reign, because he ruled with justice and righteousness, and that's what should happen.
SPEAKER_02: And we long for such a king who rules with justice and righteousness, the justice and righteousness of God.
SPEAKER_02: But all this justice, all this righteousness is really uh it is really significant, an important part of uh of the rule of any authority, but the psalmist doesn't leave it there.
SPEAKER_02: A king who is just and righteousness alone, he may have great success and power, but this amazing king in Psalm 72, the one we long for is compassionate and loving too.
SPEAKER_02: That's our second sub point here of why we long for this king.
SPEAKER_02: We long for this compassionate and loving king.
SPEAKER_02: I mean, if you just look at verse 4.
SPEAKER_02: May he defend the cause of the poor of the people, give deliverance to the children of the needy, and crush the oppressor.
SPEAKER_02: The motivation of this king is not merely to grow a kingdom for his own fame and glory, but his purposes for doing so are for the sake of the poor and needy in the land, the weak and the helpless.
SPEAKER_02: This king uses his power to crush the oppressor.
SPEAKER_02: How often do we hear of, and maybe we experience, power and authority not being used for the sake of the poor and the needy, the weak and the vulnerable.
SPEAKER_02: It's heartbreaking to hear how so many authority they they leverage their power to get what they want at the expense of those under them.
SPEAKER_02: They're the ones who are oppressing.
SPEAKER_02: This king isn't like that, though.
SPEAKER_02: Like we've read from verse 4, he uses his power to defend and deliver the poor and the needy.
SPEAKER_02: In fact, he releases them from this and redeems them by crushing the oppressor.
SPEAKER_02: There's such poetic justice here that the oppressor is crushed.
SPEAKER_02: Uh, even even the poetry written about this just king is just itself.
SPEAKER_02: I want to highlight the importance of seeing this compassion, this love coupled with the power and authority.
SPEAKER_02: If a king were to rule with justice and righteousness alone, like I said, it would it would be a cold reign.
SPEAKER_02: It might have success, but it would be a cold reign.
SPEAKER_02: On the other hand, if a king rules with compassion and love only, it's merely sentimental.
SPEAKER_02: The two must come together.
SPEAKER_02: The two must be together.
SPEAKER_02: Righteousness and justice are good and they're necessary, and so love and compassion uh must go with them too.
SPEAKER_02: One of the commentators uh on this, Sam, very cleverly said that righteousness is the soil in which peace flourishes.
SPEAKER_02: They don't happen apart from each other.
SPEAKER_02: A king who rules like this should be praised and honored, and we long for a king like this.
SPEAKER_02: At this point, I I want us to pause for a minute and to reflect.
SPEAKER_02: As we've been looking at the use of authority, um, I kind of mentioned it there.
SPEAKER_02: You might be thinking about rulers and governments through history or today, here in this part of the world or farther afield, where they're not just, where people do not prosper, where the defenseless are used for another's gain.
SPEAKER_02: It's good that we pray for our governments and authorities to rule with justice and righteousness, compassion and care.
SPEAKER_02: And it's good that we fight for and speak out against injustice.
SPEAKER_02: But I also want us to be somewhat introspective.
SPEAKER_02: I don't think there's any kings or queens, uh, princes or princesses.
SPEAKER_02: I don't think we have any elect elected officials here.
SPEAKER_02: Maybe we do.
SPEAKER_02: Uh but many of you have been given authority and if not, will be given authority at some stage in your workplaces, in your communities, and in your families.
SPEAKER_02: And it's good to pray for ourselves and to reflect on how we currently use or how we would use any authority given to us.
SPEAKER_02: I'm asking questions that are provoked by this.
SPEAKER_02: Sorry, am I just and righteous?
SPEAKER_02: Do I recognise and acknowledge that righteousness and justice they come from God, that they're God given, that I need to ask Him for it?
SPEAKER_02: Are my motives for my fame and glory?
SPEAKER_02: Do I consider the poor and needy the weak and vulnerable?
SPEAKER_02: Am I tempted to leverage my position for my gain at the expense of those around me, especially those under me?
SPEAKER_02: Some of you are in industries and workplaces where the culture is not for managers to show compassion, where the end justifies the means and all the while uh people are sacrificed.
SPEAKER_02: And love and compassion are seen as weak, they're seen as antithetical to prosperity and success rather than what we see here in this psalm.
SPEAKER_02: Ask God for his justice, ask him for his righteousness, ask him that you might be compassionate and loving in those places, and for the strength to do so.
SPEAKER_02: The strength to be countercultural in your thoughts, in your words, and your actions in those places.
SPEAKER_02: Let's think again about this king that we long for, this king in Psalm 72.
SPEAKER_02: Because as we've been reading this, you might you might have noticed already that this kind of king doesn't really exist.
SPEAKER_02: A king who's perfectly just and righteous in his judgment, judgments, yet compassionate and loving.
SPEAKER_02: You know this from your experience uh with authority, and you know this from you might know this from the life of Solomon.
SPEAKER_02: Despite being humble in asking for wisdom from God, Solomon was sinful and human, and he ended up using his power for himself, acting without justice or righteousness, without compassion or love at times.
SPEAKER_02: And that's all without even mentioning uh the unbelievable nature of the dominion of the king in Psalms 72.
SPEAKER_02: Uh there's it's it's scattered through there of how his uh dominion is.
SPEAKER_02: To extend to the ends of the earth and over every king and nation, from sea to sea and from the river to the ends of the earth.
SPEAKER_02: All rulers, whether inland, in the desert, or on the coast or islands, they will render this king tribute.
SPEAKER_02: And then there's the time scale of his dominion.
SPEAKER_02: It's until the sun and the moon are no more.
SPEAKER_02: Despite Solomon's relatively successful reign, he was never going to achieve such vast heights.
SPEAKER_02: No king or government has or ever will achieve this kind of dominion either.
SPEAKER_02: This Psalm points forward to a different king.
SPEAKER_02: It points to Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: And that's our third sub-point.
SPEAKER_02: This is the king that we long for, the king that we long for like this, the king who is just and righteous, compassionate and loving.
SPEAKER_02: This king is Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: You can see that throughout throughout the Psalm, can't you, with the these descriptions?
SPEAKER_02: Who delivers and saves the needy?
SPEAKER_02: It's Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: But let me take you quickly.
SPEAKER_02: I want to just go from the text.
SPEAKER_02: And these pictures, uh, these descriptions do you can you can pair them very really easily to different different things that you know about Jesus and what he did.
SPEAKER_02: But I want to go directly from the text, and this is where I'm going to ask you to do a little bit of work.
SPEAKER_02: Um we're going to go from uh verse eight to Zechariah 9.
SPEAKER_02: I'll show you where that is in a minute, and then to Matthew.
SPEAKER_02: So stick in Psalm 72, keep your finger in Psalm 72 or a bookmark or whatever.
SPEAKER_02: Um if you have it, a lot of you are on your phones.
SPEAKER_02: It'll be fairly easy.
SPEAKER_02: There's only there are only a few apart.
SPEAKER_02: Um, but we're gonna look just just read Psalm 72, verse 8.
SPEAKER_02: So Psalm 72, verse 8, before we leave uh Psalm 72 for a minute or two.
SPEAKER_02: May he have dominion from sea to sea and from the river to the ends of the earth.
SPEAKER_02: He's got this, this this is talking about his dominion and where it will be.
SPEAKER_02: It'll be from sea to sea, it'll be from the river.
SPEAKER_02: That's probably uh the river Euphrates that was uh that's that's over that way, um, to the ends of the earth.
SPEAKER_02: There's this idea that his his reign will will cover the whole earth.
SPEAKER_02: So I want you to jump then to the second last book of the Old Testament, Zechariah chapter nine.
SPEAKER_02: So second last book of the Old Testament, Zechariah chapter nine.
SPEAKER_02: Hopefully you're able to find that.
SPEAKER_02: Zechariah chapter nine, verse ten, you'll see it's pretty much the same as the verse we just read.
SPEAKER_02: So if you see at uh the last two lines in Zechariah 9, chapter 9, verse 10, it says, His rule shall be from sea to sea and from the river to the ends of the earth.
SPEAKER_02: So Zechariah was talking about this this king as well.
SPEAKER_02: And if we if you just go up to verse 9 there in Zechariah chapter 9, you'll see that he is talking about the king.
SPEAKER_02: He says, Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion, shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_02: Behold, your king is coming to you.
SPEAKER_02: It's the king like we've been talking about in Psalm 72, and then it goes on.
SPEAKER_02: Righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.
SPEAKER_02: Again, there's allusions there to things that we've been talking about in Psalm 72.
SPEAKER_02: He's righteous, saving his people, being compassionate and loving towards them.
SPEAKER_02: And maybe you're starting to see Jesus uh in this uh in Matthew 21, we have the triumphal entry, and verse 5 is actually a quote of Zechariah, chapter 9, verse 9.
SPEAKER_02: So if you'll just jump forward two books into the New Testament to Matthew, chapter 21.
SPEAKER_02: So Matthew chapter 21 and verse 5, it's a quote from Zechariah 9:9 here, which we just read.
SPEAKER_02: It says, say to the daughter of Zion, Behold, your king is coming to you, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.
SPEAKER_02: This was just uh the week before, uh the week of Jesus' death on the cross, and he's he comes into Jerusalem riding on a donkey, fulfilling this prophecy from Zechariah 9, fulfilling really the prophecy showing that he's the perfect king of Psalm 72.
SPEAKER_02: And uh just in Matthew 21, verse 9, the the crowds truly did recognize, uh, or they they at least somewhat recognized uh what was going on.
SPEAKER_02: They said uh in verse 9, and the crowds that went before him and that followed him were shouting, Hosanna to the son of David.
SPEAKER_02: Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, Hosanna in the highest.
SPEAKER_02: That's the royal son of Psalm 72.
SPEAKER_02: And Jesus was of David's line.
SPEAKER_02: The crowd was starting to recognize this.
SPEAKER_02: They welcomed Jesus as the king promised in Psalm 72, and he indeed he is that king, the perfect fulfillment of the king in Psalm 72.
SPEAKER_02: And what we see of Jesus in the Gospels is a king who is righteous and just.
SPEAKER_02: Ruling with righteousness, justice, compassion, love, and care.
SPEAKER_02: Don't we all need this king?
SPEAKER_02: Don't we all long for him?
SPEAKER_02: Don't we desire that he would have dominion from sea to sea, as it says in Psalm 72 here, that all nations and kings would come and worship him and serve him.
SPEAKER_02: They would call him blessed, they would see how amazing he is.
SPEAKER_02: In our prayer for authorities and rulers, we should also pray that his kingdom would come as we've been taught by him.
SPEAKER_02: The gospels record how Jesus was ushering in the kingdom, and it ends with him sending out his disciples to the ends of the earth to preach the good news of the kingdom.
SPEAKER_02: But what about the citizens of this kingdom?
SPEAKER_02: What about his people?
SPEAKER_02: Psalm 72 gives us a pretty amazing perspective on life with Jesus as king, what it's like to be loved by this king.
SPEAKER_02: And that's our second main point.
SPEAKER_02: Firstly, we looked at that we should long for this king, and now we're gonna look, we're gonna see that we should be loved by this king.
SPEAKER_02: We can be loved by this king, and what does it mean to be loved by this king?
SPEAKER_02: We'll look again at Psalm 72 if you want to flick back there.
SPEAKER_02: So, Psalm 72, we see that the people prosper and flourish.
SPEAKER_02: That's what it means to be loved by the king, and it's not just it's not just the strong people or the smart people or the well-connected people.
SPEAKER_02: It's very clear in this Psalm that the weak, the vulnerable, the needy, the oppressed, the helpless, the poor, they all thrive and they flourish in this kingdom.
SPEAKER_02: One day all things will be made new, and the tops of the mountains will teem with abundance for the people.
SPEAKER_02: There'll be grain growing and waving on the tops of the mountains.
SPEAKER_02: It's remarkable that in verse 3 that it says that this is for the people.
SPEAKER_02: Let the mountains bear prosperity for the people.
SPEAKER_02: The fruit of the land in verse 16 will be the best of the best, like in Lebanon.
SPEAKER_02: The people will blossom in the cities too.
SPEAKER_02: How beautiful it is, this description of people living under this king.
SPEAKER_02: All will be made right in the land and in society to the ends of the earth, not only now, forever.
SPEAKER_02: How we long for that day.
SPEAKER_02: But those under King Jesus still flourish today, and increasingly so as they continue to submit to and worship King Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: So we flourish, we prosper under this King as we're loved by Him.
SPEAKER_02: King Jesus also saves and delivers His people.
SPEAKER_02: We're helped, saved, and delivered by this King, by King Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: This goes hand in hand with people flourishing under his righteousness and his righteous and just rule.
SPEAKER_02: I mean, how can people flourish if they're in need of rescuing and they're in need of being freed?
SPEAKER_02: So King Jesus does that.
SPEAKER_02: In verse 3, he defends the cause of the poor, he gives deliverance to the children of the needy, and he crushes the oppressor.
SPEAKER_02: Jump down to 12 to 14, verses 12 to 14.
SPEAKER_02: For he delivers the needy when he calls, the poor and him who has no helper.
SPEAKER_02: He has pity on the weak and the needy and saves the lives of the needy.
SPEAKER_02: From oppression and violence he redeems their life, and precious is their blood in his sight.
SPEAKER_02: How has Jesus done this?
SPEAKER_02: How has he delivered the needy, the poor, and the helpless like us?
SPEAKER_02: How has Jesus saved their life?
SPEAKER_02: How has he redeemed them and shown that their blood is precious in his sight?
SPEAKER_02: In his cross.
SPEAKER_02: When he was announced as the king of the Jews, when he was given a crown of thorns, when his blood was shed.
SPEAKER_02: The blood of his people is so precious to him that his blood was shed for them.
SPEAKER_02: On the cross, he redeemed the lives of his people from the oppression of sin and death.
SPEAKER_02: On the cross, he crushed the oppressor, he delivered the children of the needy, and he defended the cause of the poor of the people.
SPEAKER_02: On the cross, we see in a truly amazing way how King Jesus, the righteous and just one, had compassion for the weak and needy.
SPEAKER_02: How he loved the poor and the vulnerable.
SPEAKER_02: It's righteousness and justice, it's compassion and love coming together.
SPEAKER_02: We see that at the cross.
SPEAKER_02: But who is it that's part of his kingdom?
SPEAKER_02: If you're here today and you wouldn't call yourself a Christian, you wouldn't say that Jesus is King of your life, then I would urge you to consider him, to see the beauty, to see the wholeness and goodness of life under him.
SPEAKER_02: The life that he offers.
SPEAKER_02: To acknowledge your need of him as you see, through this psalm, it's for the sake of the needy, it's for the sake of the poor, the sake of the defenseless, the helpless.
SPEAKER_02: Acknowledge your need of him as one who is poor in spirit.
SPEAKER_02: Call on him for deliverance and help to save and redeem your life.
SPEAKER_02: Verse 9 is a reality that those who don't submit to him will be defeated.
SPEAKER_02: One day his enemies will lick the dust.
SPEAKER_02: Those who do call to him, however, he refreshes like rain that falls on the moan grass.
SPEAKER_02: Like showers that water the earth.
SPEAKER_02: Those who are in his kingdom, they flourish and have peace both now and on into eternity.
SPEAKER_02: So we're loved by this king.
SPEAKER_02: And that brings us on to our next point that we should live for this king.
SPEAKER_02: We should love and glorify him.
SPEAKER_02: So live for him.
SPEAKER_02: He's done wondrous things, as it says at the end of this Psalm.
SPEAKER_02: So glorify him.
SPEAKER_02: So in this last point, and a couple of subpoints again, how do we respond to this perfect king?
SPEAKER_02: How do we respond to a king, King Jesus, who rules with God's righteousness and justice?
SPEAKER_02: Well, he's worthy of honor and praise, so we worship him.
SPEAKER_02: The perfect king is worthy of our worship.
SPEAKER_02: He's worthy of our worship.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus is worthy of our worship for who he is, for being righteous, for being just, for his wisdom, his authority, for his compassion and love.
SPEAKER_02: We acknowledge his perfection, that's worshiping him.
SPEAKER_02: We marvel at it, that's worshiping him.
SPEAKER_02: And we burst out in songs of praise.
SPEAKER_02: We tell of his compassion and love, wanting everyone to know him.
SPEAKER_02: And we should look at where we don't worship him.
SPEAKER_02: We should look at what parts of our lives that Jesus is not King.
SPEAKER_02: What are we giving authority to in our hearts as King instead of King Jesus?
SPEAKER_02: All kings will fall down before him.
SPEAKER_02: Submit these things that we're making king.
SPEAKER_02: Submit them to the perfect king and live for him.
SPEAKER_02: I want us to remember the context of this psalm for a moment.
SPEAKER_02: It's a prayer for the king as he's about to set out on his reign, that he would rule with righteousness and justice, and in that to be compassionate and loving.
SPEAKER_02: As I said before, this is what we should be praying for our authorities.
SPEAKER_02: It's good and right to pray for them, even if we don't agree with them or if we feel hard done by sometimes because of the way they exercise their authority.
SPEAKER_02: We should pray that they govern with righteousness.
SPEAKER_02: We should pray that they are just and that they judge us rightly.
SPEAKER_02: And we should pray all this, recognizing that it's God who gives us who gives authority and it's he who gives his righteousness and justice.
SPEAKER_02: And where we see good governance, we should thank God and worship him for it.
SPEAKER_02: Where we see injustice and suffering, we should pray for that power to be used to crush the oppressor.
SPEAKER_02: This is actually worship uh to Jesus, that we should see that his authority and his rule uh cover the whole earth in every aspect.
SPEAKER_02: So we should worship King Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: That's how we respond to this perfect king, and we should also uh we should also live for him because he gives us life.
SPEAKER_02: He's saved us, he's redeemed us, he's given us life, and so we live for him.
SPEAKER_02: That's our second sub point here under under how we should respond to this king that we should live for, love, and glorify him.
SPEAKER_02: And this life that he gives us, it's not just mere existence, but it's true life.
SPEAKER_02: The life he gives is one of abundance and flourishing.
SPEAKER_02: And what do you do with such a life?
SPEAKER_02: I think it can actually be summed up a lot in what God said uh to Adam and Eve in the garden, be fruitful and multiply.
SPEAKER_02: God has given us so much, so we use what he's given us.
SPEAKER_02: We enjoy his good gifts.
SPEAKER_02: The amazing thing here is that we don't earn this.
SPEAKER_02: It's clear in this psalm again that we're the weak and the needy ones.
SPEAKER_02: We don't come with anything, yet God gives us this abundant life.
SPEAKER_02: So be fruitful and multiply.
SPEAKER_02: In the Gospels, especially in Matthew, Jesus teaches about what kingdom life is like, what it means to live for Him.
SPEAKER_02: So it's important that we look to His teachings.
SPEAKER_02: He teaches that we should love God and that we should love others.
SPEAKER_02: Elsewhere in the New Testament, we're taught about what the fruit of the Spirit is: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
SPEAKER_02: One thing that you might have picked up on in verse 12 is that the king delivers the one who has no helper.
SPEAKER_02: And through our series in John, we saw how Jesus gives the Holy Spirit to all his people, and the Holy Spirit is our helper.
SPEAKER_02: So this part of the abundance the King gives to his people is that he actually gives us himself, he gives us the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_02: And it's out of that, by the enabling of the Holy Spirit, that we can live for him, that we can have the fruit of the Spirit, that we can love God and love others.
SPEAKER_02: So in calling us to live for him, I don't call you to do it on your own strength.
SPEAKER_02: It's in his strength, it's by the power of his spirit.
SPEAKER_02: And he has done wondrous and glorious things.
SPEAKER_02: He has done wondrous things, so we glorify him.
SPEAKER_02: If you look at the the end of the Psalm.
SPEAKER_02: Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, who alone does wondrous things.
SPEAKER_02: Blessed be his glorious name forever.
SPEAKER_02: May the whole earth be filled with his glory.
SPEAKER_02: Verses 18 to 19 that I just read there, uh, that's a doxology.
SPEAKER_02: It's the end of there's a doxology at the end of each of one of those books of the Psalms, the five books of the Psalms that I mentioned.
SPEAKER_02: This is the doxology at the end of book two.
SPEAKER_02: And it's it's a fitting end not only to uh every book of the Psalms, giving praise uh to God, giving worship to Him.
SPEAKER_02: Doxology is just uh an expression of praise and worship uh to God.
SPEAKER_02: It's fitting at the end of uh book two and every book, but it's also fitting at the end of this Psalm that it points our eyes up to worship God.
SPEAKER_02: It points our eyes forward to see that the whole earth will be filled with his glory.
SPEAKER_02: This doxology and this psalm tell of the wondrous things God has done and that he alone is worthy of glory.
SPEAKER_02: As we worship him for who he is, as we live for him, the one who has given us life, we do so to bring glory to his name.
SPEAKER_02: We know that the whole earth will be filled with his glory, as we see here, and so we invite the nations to serve him.
SPEAKER_02: All kings, we invite them to bow down before King Jesus, and that's how we live.
SPEAKER_02: So we long for this King who judges with righteousness and justice, who gave his life in love to save his people, that we may flourish, that we may blossom, and so we live lives of worship to him, bringing glory to his name.