Psalm 72 is entitled as a psalm of David's son, Solomon. But it is rightly and ultimately a psalm of David's greater son, our Lord Jesus Christ, and His eternal, righteous, kingly reign. And though Psalm 72 may be written by Solomon and speaks of His reign, This psalm describes the ideal exalted king and the blessings of Christ's reign. The picture painted in Psalm 72 so resembles the prophecies of Isaiah in Isaiah 11 and 60 and 61 and 62 that it must ultimately be of the divine messianic reign of Christ's kingdom. The righteous, everlasting, universal, compassionate, prosperous reign of the Son of God and the King of Kings. A reign of the King and of His kingdom that has already begun in the lives of His people, but will be consummated when Christ returns on that final day. And so today, as we gather on the Lord's Day and prepare for the Lord's Supper, we'll look at Psalm 72, primarily to praise the Lord and His reign, both now and forever. And may this be an encouragement for us to love the Lord and to desire for Him to reign all the more in our lives, in the lives of our families, in the lives of our church, and in all of the world. Again, if you look in the bulletin, there is a very flat outline on the inside cover of your bulletin. And we'll look at this, especially the first 17 verses, to see five different aspects of Christ's eternal reign of righteousness, His righteous reign, His unending reign, His universal reign, and a benevolent reign, and a blessed reign. And then the psalm ends in doxology in verses 18 and 19. And then the second book of the Psalms ends with verse 20, and we'll cover those things in that order. So first of all, we look at Christ's righteous reign. Look at verses 1-4 to see Christ's righteous reign. In verse 1 we read, "...give the king your judgments, O God, give him justice, O God, and your righteousness to the king's son." He will judge your people with righteousness and your poor with justice. The mountains will bring peace to the people, and the little hills by righteousness. He will bring justice to the poor of the people. He will save the children of the needy, and He will break or crush in pieces the oppressor. Solomon begins this psalm with the request that the king be endowed with righteousness and just judgments from his righteous and just God. That's verse 1. Why? Well, verse 2, if God would give to him righteousness and justice, then he might judge and rule God's people with attention to the poor. And the idea of the poor in this psalm is often talking about those who are afflicted and humble. that He could give attention to the poor with the same righteousness and justice of God. And what would be the result of such a kingdom? Oh, verses 3 and 4. So that by such righteous rule, there would be great fruit and peace for all the people. Fruits of justice, protection, compassion, and defense. Again, with attention to the needy and the afflicted. But perfect righteousness and its perfect fruits can only be known in Christ's kingdom, where it overflows from Christ's own perfect righteous character, and is imputed to and worked into his people's own lives, and will eventually be seen and experienced fully when he returns. And so this psalm is ultimately about Christ's righteous reign and kingdom. after the Son of God became the God-Man and eventually began His ministry on earth. He announced Himself as King. We saw that in the early chapters of Matthew. He announced Himself as King and that His Kingdom was at hand. It was here. And then due to His perfectly righteous life of active obedience to God's law, He was able to offer His passive obedience of suffering and death to fulfill the penalty of the law in order to offer His imputed righteousness to all who would repent and believe in Him. And so in a sense then, God's righteousness has been given to His Son. Look at verse 4. Oh, give your righteousness to the King's Son. Well, God's righteousness has been given to His Son, so that His people, those who are poor in spirit and needy in sin who come to Him, may be judged in Christ's righteousness. Verse 2. And know peace by Christ's righteousness, verse 3. And will on that last day be vindicated by Christ's righteousness, verse 4. And the oppressors of sin, death, hell, and Satan, who are already defeated by Christ, will finally be crushed and broken into pieces by Christ. And so as we learned in studying the Lord's Prayer, we pray and desire that Christ's kingdom of grace would be advanced now, and Christ's kingdom of glory would be hastened. In His kingdom characterized by grace now, by His Word, Spirit, and grace, we strive to reflect His righteousness, that more sinners would be declared righteous in Him. As Devin referred to last week in his testimony in 2 Corinthians 5, in verses 20 and 21, The love of Christ compels us as ambassadors of Christ to be ambassadors of Christ. To implore you, to implore all on behalf of Christ to be reconciled to God. For He made Christ who knew no sin to be sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. And we long for and we work for the Gospel to go forth and to advance this kingdom of grace that it might hasten the coming of the kingdom of glory in which there is no sin, but only perfect righteousness." And we can join with Peter who says in 2 Peter 3, verse 13, that we, according to His promise, look for a new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. And that will be a time when righteousness will dwell finally and fully. And so we praise our God for the righteous reign of His Son, and we look for its increase and culmination. So we see Christ's righteous reign in these first four verses of this psalm, and really that sets the flavor and the stage for the remainder of the psalm as well. And so then verses 5 through 7, we see this is a righteous reign, but it's an unendingly righteous reign as well. It's an unending reign of Christ. So look at verses 5-7. They shall fear you as long as the sun and moon endure throughout all generations. He shall come down like rain upon the grass before mowing, like showers that water the earth. In his days the righteous shall flourish, In His days the righteous shall flourish, an abundance of peace, until the moon is no more." And you see phrases like, as long as the sun and moon endure, and throughout all generations, until the moon is no more. Those are phrases that use temporary earthly items to poetically express an unending reign of this King. And David's son Solomon reigned righteously for a time, but he died. Like his dad, he reigned 40 years. So not only was his reign not perfectly righteous, it also ended, and his reign died as well with him. But David's greater son's perfectly righteous reign has no end. Not only does King Jesus' righteousness have no end, He conquered death, hell, sin, and the evil one to live forever. And He has no end, so His reign is endless. In Luke 1, verses 30-33, we see the angel Gabriel announcing to Mary of the incarnation of Christ. And the angel says, do not be afraid, Mary. You will conceive in your womb and bring forth a son and shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Highest. And the Lord God will give him the throne of his father David. And he will reign over the house of Jacob forever. And of His kingdom there will be no end. So it was said from the beginning, even at His birth and before His birth, that this Christ would reign forever. Of His kingdom there will be no end. According to Psalm 72, due to Christ's endless and endlessly righteous reign, He reigns down. I like the R-A-I-N rain in this psalm. He rains down abundant righteousness and grace and peace upon his people, both now and forever. This poetically expresses itself as showers abundantly coming down from the earth to nourish the land and to cause it to fruitfully and lushly flourish in verses 6 and 7 in Psalm 72. The point is that the unending righteousness of King Jesus' unending reign rains down abundantly and everlastingly upon His people and kingdom, bringing sure peace and joy now, and complete peace and joy when He returns. And so we can sing the first stanza of Isaac Watt's interpretation of Psalm 72, Jesus shall reign wherever the sun. When he writes, Jesus shall reign wherever the sun, does his successive journeys run, his kingdom stretch from shore to shore till moon shall wax and wane no more. So we see from Psalm 72 that Christ's reign is a righteous reign. It's an unending reign. It's also a universal reign in verses 8-11. A universal reign. In verse 8 we see, He shall have dominion or rule also from sea to sea, and from the river, that's Euphrates River, to the ends of the earth. Those who dwell in the wilderness or the desert will bow before Him, and His enemies will lick the dust. And the kings of Tarshish and of the Isles will bring presents, tribute, gifts, presents to this king. The kings of Tarshish and of the Isles will bring presents. The kings of Sheba and Seba will offer gifts. Yes, all kings will fall down before him. And all nations, all nations shall serve him. Solomon's kingdom and dominion and rule was great. in human terms. And the Queen of Sheba did come to him, if you remember in 1 Kings 10. In 1 Kings 10 verses 1-13 we see how the Queen of Sheba came to see this kingdom of Solomon. And Solomon himself, because she'd heard so much, she was skeptical. But she came and she brought Solomon very much gold, and spices, and precious stones. And she came away much impressed with his wisdom, and his wealth, and his rule. And in 1 Kings 10 v. 7-9, she says this about Solomon and his great kingdom in 1 Kings 10 v. 7-9, Your wisdom, speaking to Solomon, and prosperity exceed the fame of which I heard. Happy are your men, and happy are these, your servants, who stand continually before you and hear your wisdom. Blessed be the Lord your God, who delighted in you, setting you on the throne of Israel, because the Lord has loved Israel forever. Therefore he made you king to do justice and righteousness." It's interesting in Matthew chapter 12, Verse 42, we'll get there eventually, but in Matthew 12, verse 42, Jesus says, in a reference to this Queen of Sheba and her humble visit to Solomon, he says, one greater than Solomon is here, speaking of himself. And we can assume, rightly so, that even more happy are Christ's servants. who continually stand before Him and hear Christ's wisdom from His Word. More happy are those who are loved by Him forever. They're king of justice and righteousness. But the expanse of Christ's kingdom is universal. This is clearly put forth in Psalm 72, and in particular verses 8 through 11. The expanse of Christ's kingdom is universal. It's from sea to sea in verse 8. It's from the east, that's the Euphrates River, to the west, that's where Tarshish is, to the south, that's where Sheba was. All directions. From those in the wilderness or the desert, to the enemies of the king, to the kings themselves, all types of people. In verses 9 and 10. And from all kings, to all nations, to all ends of the earth, is the reign of King Jesus. And this represents not just a universal geographical rule, but that of all nations, tribes, and tongues, for all ages, and over all creation, both visible and invisible, of Christ's kingdom. It will be said, according to Revelation 11, the kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever. And with Christ's universal reign comes the blessing of His gospel and His salvation is offered to all. All who come to Christ in repentance and faith will be received and will receive rest in Him. No matter what your age, your gender, your race, your ethnicity, your abilities, or even how vile your sin is or has been. Those of all nations can bow before Him, bring the offerings of their own life before Him, and serve Him if they would come in repentance and faith. And of course, every knee will bow, and every tongue will confess Jesus as Lord, according to Paul in Philippians 2. It seems much better to bow the knee and to confess with your tongue now than on that final day. And so we can sing the third stanza of Isaac Watt's interpretation of Psalm 72 where he writes, people and realms of every tongue dwell on his love with sweetest song and infant voices shall proclaim their early blessings on his name. So Christ's reign and rule is righteous, it's unending, it's universal. But in verses 12 through 14, we see Christ's benevolent reign. His compassionate, merciful, benevolent reign. Look at verses 12 through 14. For He will deliver the needy when He cries. When He hears the cries for help, He will deliver the needy. the poor, the afflicted, the humble also, and him who has no helper, those who cannot help themselves, he will spare or have compassion and pity on the poor and the needy and the weak, and he will save the souls of the needy. He will save the souls of the humble, afflicted, poor, and needy. He will redeem or rescue their life from oppression and violence. And precious, precious shall be their blood in His sight. I love that last phrase. Precious shall be their blood in His sight. Oh, considering the character of David's greater son, our Lord and King, Christ Jesus. It's not surprising that His kingdom is characterized by proactive mercy and compassion and benevolence. Deliverance, helps, forgiveness, salvation, redemption, and protection from an unendingly universally righteous Savior King and for an undeserving, helpless, poor, and needy people. Our benevolent Lord and Savior is compassionate and generous. He humbled Himself for the humble sinners. He was afflicted for our afflictions. He gave His precious blood to save and to redeem the souls of His people from the violence and oppression of sin and to Himself. And he considers their blood, our blood, precious in his sight. And so we can sing the fourth stanza of Isaac Watt's song that's based on Psalm 72. Blessings abound wherever he reigns. The prisoner leaps to lose his chains. The weary find eternal rest. And all the sons of want, that's us, are blessed. So finally, out of these five characteristics of the reign of Christ, we see in verses 15 through 17, Christ's blessed reign. And really, the rest of Psalm 72 from this point on, from verse 15 on, acts much like a summary of everything that we've seen before, with a doxology ending in praise, But the emphasis on verses 15-17 is the blessedness of Christ's kingly reign, both His deserved blessing and praise, and the blessings His people know now and will know in Him and under His rule forever. And so in verses 15-17 we see, and He shall live. That's a wonderful phrase, and He shall live. It's like saying, and thus, with everything we've seen of this King and His kingdom, long live the King! And He will. And He shall live. And the gold of Sheba, all of the gold, all of the blessings of all shall be given to Him. Because He deserves it. And also prayer will be made for Him continually and daily. He shall be praised or blessed. Because He deserves it. There will be an abundance of grain in the earth. Even on top of the mountains. Do you normally grow grain on top of the mountains? In Iowa, we didn't. Of course, we had no mountains in Iowa, but there'll be an abundance of grain in the earth. On top of the mountains, its fruit shall wave like Lebanon. And perhaps the idea is there, you always hear of the cedars of Lebanon, those firm, strong, hardy trees of Lebanon. Well, now the idea is that the grain on top of the mountains will be so blessed It'll be like Lebanon cedars growing firmly and flourishing on top of the mountains even. The fruit will wave like Lebanon. And those of the city shall flourish like grass of the earth. Even the people will blossom and flourish. And His name shall endure forever. His name shall continue as long as the sun And men shall be blessed in Him, and all nations shall call Him blessed. Both our King and His kingdom will be blessed unendingly and universally. All prayer and praise and glory and riches shall be given to Him, and such glory and riches will be abundantly available to those who are co-heirs to reign with Him in Christ Jesus. Because He, Christ, is eternal and reigns eternally, He will be blessed and praised eternally. And His people will be eternally blessed in Him. You can't help but think of Genesis 2, where even back in Genesis 2, God had promised that in Christ, all the families of the earth will be and shall be blessed. It also makes you think of Paul in Ephesians 1.3, where he tells us that we who are in Christ Jesus are blessed with every spiritual blessing in Christ as well. This eternal blessing is material and spiritual. It's a prosperity beyond any worldly value or measure. And so with gusto we can sing the second stanza of Isaac Watt's hymn. For him shall endless prayer be made, and praise is thronged to crown His head. His name, like sweet perfume, shall rise with every morning sacrifice." So we've seen the righteous, the unending, the universal, the benevolent, the blessed reign of Christ. So Psalm 72's painting and praise of Christ's messianic reign naturally ends with a doxology In verses 18 and 19, a hymn of glory to God that longs for Christ to be glorified and His name to be hallowed in all things and everywhere. Oh, the blessedness, the wonder, the glory of our God and King in His reign. And so we read in this doxology in verses 18 and 19, Blessed be the Lord God, the God of Israel, who only or who alone does such wondrous things. There is no other. And blessed be His glorious name forever. And let the whole earth be filled with His glory. Amen and amen. You know, it's important if there's a double amen at the end. Well, may we desire the whole earth, in fact, the whole universe to be filled with His glory, and to seek His kingdom to come, His will to be done on earth as it is in heaven. We've been up in the clouds and the heavens through this whole psalm, but a very practical and earthy application of our hopeful response to this psalm is found in our church covenant that we read last week and reminded ourselves of it. In items 5 and 12, perhaps all of the church covenant reflects, how then do we glorify such a God and King? But in items 5 and 12 we see this, in item 5, we will contribute cheerfully and regularly to this church for its general ministry and expenses, the relief of the poor, the cause of reformation and revival, and the spread of the gospel throughout all nations. That's how we look to see Christ reign Everywhere, certainly it points to missions and praying for and supporting missions. And in item 12, we resolve to practice personal and family worship. The reign of Christ needs to be personal in our lives, in our homes as well. We resolve to practice personal and family worship to train our children in the discipline and instruction of the Lord and to seek the salvation of our family, friends, neighbors, coworkers, acquaintances, and of all the world. And we can sing the last stanza of Isaac Watt's song on Psalm 72. Seems more fitting to quit right there, but we have this verse 20 tacked on at the end. And it very well may have been tacked on the end by someone other than the writer of Psalm 72. The prayers of David, the son of Jesse, are ended. Each of the five books of the Psalms, if you didn't know that, the Psalms are split into five books. Books 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5, they're labeled that way. And Book 1 ends with Psalm 41, and then Psalm 72, and Psalm 89, and 106, and then 50, obviously at the end. But each of the five books of the Psalms end with a doxology, with a praise to God. But none of the doxologies at the end of a book of the Psalms are as grand as the end of Book 2 in verses 18-19 of Psalm 72. And it seems fitting, considering the importance and the grandeur of the Son's reign described and prophesied in Psalm 72. But verse 20, gives another unique ending to one of the five books of the psalm. In Psalm 72, verse 20, there's another mention to remind us of sons. It says, the prayers of David the son of Jesse are ended. And the mention of the son, David being a son himself, reminds us again of the greatest son, in the line of David, greater than David or Solomon, of whom Psalm 72 praised and promised. But I think as well, in this line in verse 20, it also could mean completed or fulfilled. That word ended can mean completed or fulfilled. And so verse 20 has a flavor of saying, all David's prayers are fulfilled. In the fulfillment of the prophecy of David's greater son's redeeming work and righteous return. In this that was stated in Psalm 72, and all of David's prayers were fulfilled and made complete. To which Christ has said, it is finished. And then in Revelation 22, he has said, yes, I am coming quickly. To which we should respond, amen, even so come Lord Jesus. Let us pray. Dear Heavenly Father, what a glorious psalm to take us from our earthly thoughts and worldly pursuits that so drag us down, even our own sin and our tendency to sin, to peer into the righteous, the unending, the universal, the benevolent, the blessed reign of our Lord and Savior and King, Jesus Christ. Oh Lord, may you use your word by your spirit to tune our hearts to sing praises to you and the praises in Christ. May we love him more and all the more desire to bow the knee before him, to love and to serve him and reflect his righteousness in our life by his grace, through his word and spirits. And may we have a heart a true and sincere heart, Lord, to love one another, but then to love our neighbor and to love Christ enough then to be prayerfully and actively pursuing the advancement of his reign even now as we long for his coming at the conclusion, the culmination of all things. And Lord, I do pray that those who do not know this Christ, this King who reigns in righteousness, Oh, that today would be the day of salvation. They'd come to him in repentance and faith and bow the knee before him because it's he and only he who offers rest to the sinner. And it's he and only he who can give rest to the sinner through his perfect life and his perfect death. Oh, may there be salvation in our midst even today for those who would come to Christ on this day. And it's in Jesus' name we pray these things. Amen.