Dominion From Sea to Sea
1 By Solomon. God, give the king your justice; your righteousness to the royal son. 2 He will judge your people with righteousness, and your poor with justice. 3 The mountains shall bring prosperity to the people. The hills bring the fruit of righteousness. 4 He will judge the poor of the people. He will save the children of the needy, and will break the oppressor in pieces. 5 They shall fear you while the sun endures; and as long as the moon, throughout all generations. 6 He will come down like rain on the mown grass, as showers that water the earth. 7 In his days, the righteous shall flourish, and abundance of peace, until the moon is no more. 8 He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, from the River to the ends of the earth. 9 Those who dwell in the wilderness shall bow before him. His enemies shall lick the dust. 10 The kings of Tarshish and of the islands will bring tribute. The kings of Sheba and Seba shall offer gifts. 11 Yes, all kings shall fall down before him. All nations shall serve him. 12 For he will deliver the needy when he cries; the poor, who has no helper. 13 He will have pity on the poor and needy. He will save the souls of the needy. 14 He will redeem their soul from oppression and violence. Their blood will be precious in his sight. 15 He will live; and Sheba’s gold will be given to him. Men will pray for him continually. They will bless him all day long. 16 Abundance of grain shall be throughout the land. Its fruit sways like Lebanon. Let it flourish, thriving like the grass of the field. 17 His name endures forever. His name continues as long as the sun. Men shall be blessed by him. All nations will call him blessed. 18 Praise be to Yahweh God, the God of Israel, who alone does marvelous deeds. 19 Blessed be his glorious name forever! Let the whole earth be filled with his glory! Amen and amen. 20 This ends the prayers by David, the son of Jesse.
A prayer for a king's reign that measures its success entirely by what happens to the poor, and closes the second book.
By Solomon. God, give the king your justice; your righteousness to the royal son.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Gifts from the ends of the known world, brought to a king by other kings, and gold from Sheba named specifically Psalms 72:15.
12 For he will deliver the needy when he cries; the poor, who has no helper. 13 He will have pity on the poor and needy. He will save the souls of the needy. 14 He will redeem their soul from oppression and violence. Their blood will be precious in his sight.
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. His name continues as long as the sun. Men shall be blessed by him. All nations will call him blessed.
The promise to Abraham, that in him all families of the earth would be blessed Genesis 12:3, is here attached to a king.
18 Praise be to Yahweh God, the God of Israel, who alone does marvelous deeds. 19 Blessed be his glorious name forever! Let the whole earth be filled with his glory! Amen and amen.
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.
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