Biblion Bible Commentary
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Dominion From Sea to Sea
Psalms 72:1-20
1 By Solomon. God, give the king your justice; your righteousness to the royal son. · WEB
A prayer for a king's reign that measures its success entirely by what happens to the poor, and closes the second book.
God, give the king your justice; your righteousness to the royal son Psalms 72:1.
Attributed to Solomon, and it is the prayer of a man who had asked for exactly this at Gibeon 1 Kings 3:9. Everything requested in the psalm follows from the first line: the justice is yours, borrowed rather than possessed.
He will judge your people with righteousness, and your poor with justice Psalms 72:2.
The test of the reign is named immediately and it never changes. This psalm asks for a magnificent kingdom and it measures magnificence in one way only.
He will judge the poor of the people. He will save the children of the needy, and will break the oppressor in pieces Psalms 72:4.
Three clauses, and the third is what the first two require. Justice for the poor is not compatible with leaving the oppressor in place, and the psalm does not pretend otherwise.
He will come down like rain on the mown grass, as showers that water the earth Psalms 72:6.
The image chosen for a king is rain on a field that has just been cut — the moment when growth is most needed and most possible. It is a startling metaphor for royal power, which in that world was more often compared to a lion or a storm.
He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, from the River to the ends of the earth Psalms 72:8.
The scope opens beyond anything Solomon held. Whatever the psalm was praying for, its terms outrun the reign it was written in, and the collection has done this repeatedly — the language of the Davidic covenant keeps overflowing the men it is spoken about.
The kings of Tarshish and of the islands will bring tribute. The kings of Sheba and Seba shall offer gifts Psalms 72:10.
Gifts from the ends of the known world, brought to a king by other kings, and gold from Sheba named specifically Psalms 72:15.
For he will deliver the needy when he cries; the poor, who has no helper. He will have pity on the poor and needy... Their blood will be precious in his sight Psalms 72:12–14.
The reason clause. After the tribute and the dominion, the psalm says for — and what follows is not conquest but rescue. He gets the ends of the earth because he answers the man nobody else answers, and the last phrase is the measure of the whole reign: the blood of the poor is treated as valuable.
His name endures forever... All nations will call him blessed Psalms 72:17. The promise to Abraham, that in him all families of the earth would be blessed Genesis 12:3, is here attached to a king.
Praise be to Yahweh God, the God of Israel, who alone does marvelous deeds... Amen and amen Psalms 72:18–19.
The doxology closing the second book. And then a note from whoever compiled it: this ends the prayers by David, the son of Jesse Psalms 72:20 — an editor's line, left in the text, and there are psalms of David still to come.
settled What this mark means