Psalm 72 is entitled ‘of Solomon’. It no doubt is a prayer that relates to the reign of Solomon, son of David, King of Israel. God’s people always looked back to the time of David and Solomon as a very special time. It was a time of great aspirations; the time when God’s temple was first built in Jerusalem. It was, perhaps, the time when they really had possessed the promised land of Israel.

In many ways the people thought wistfully that it was a time when things were as they should be. Now it can be big mistake to continually look back to the past, longing for the ‘good old days’, we can look back with rose tinted spectacles forgetting the negative things that were there. There were negative things in the reign of Solomon.

But it’s right and appropriate to look back at times, to ponder our history and learn the lessons it teaches. Above all it is good to look back to meditate on God’s activity in history, and the way he has revealed his truth to us through his people of old. The time of Solomon was a time of great aspirations, a time when many of the Psalms were written; and as scripture, inspired by the Holy Spirit the Psalms speak powerfully to people of every age.

Lets look then at this Psalm and see what lessons are there for our world today. The Psalm is a prayer for God to help the king. In fact it is a prayer for God to give the king the qualities that God himself has. A lot of prayer can consist of asking God to provide us with external things. The most vital prayer though, is prayer that asks God to put something of his nature and qualities into us.

Because God made us in his image, for things to be again as they should be our prayer should be that we should have the qualities of character of God himself. So the Psalmist prays that God will give the king an inherent sense of God’s justice and righteousness.

Our world needs Godly rulers. It’s important that we pray today for those who govern our nations; the New Testament tells us that we should do this. The psalmist has great hopes and aspirations for the king. He will administer justice; he will help the poor and needy; he will defeat the oppressor, the thugs and exploiters will get their come-uppance. The King will enable the righteous to flourish; there will be prosperity for his subjects. He will also be respected by all; foreign monarchs will pay him homage, all nations will serve him.

There is also a sense of the king being in harmony with nature. The psalmist speaks of the mountains bringing prosperity, and corn abounding throughout the land. In present day language we would say he would be a good environmentalist. So here we have a picture of an ideal prime minister or president. The issues, the important things in the days of Solomon are still the important things in our world today.

God has made the world and entrusted it to mankind, and nations and rulers need those godly qualities, so that they can work in partnership with God to bring blessing to their people. The world functions well when governments work in harmony with God.

This is taught consistently in the scriptures. God is active in his world, sustaining and caring for it and doing it in co-operation with mankind. Sometimes people blame God for the tragedies that strike, the famines and disasters that we see on the news; but I believe that God in his love and mercy is still at work to bring help and justice.

Think about the story of Joseph in Egypt. A famine was going to take place there. God gave pharaoh a dream to warn him of the danger. He also gave him Joseph to interpret that dream and counsel him to make provision for that famine. Pharaoh was a wise ruler, he listened to God, and his country was able to live through the famine.

Those who rule us, those in authority at the United Nations need to sometimes pay more attention to what God is saying to them through his messengers. For example this year, for months, aid workers have been warning of the crop failure in Niger. There was ample time to take in the food needed to enable the people to survive. Those with the authority to help do not listen. It is only when we see babies dying of starvation on our televisions that anything happens, food is airlifted in at far greater expense than if it had been sent at the right time. For thousands it is too late.

Sadly in our world, our rulers often do not listen to God or give priority to his values of justice and compassion, they are sometimes more concerned with projecting an image that will please the voters than engaging with the issues that really matter, and showing true, godly statesmanship.

We have seen the tragedy of the hurricanes in the USA. Our prayers and compassion should be with the victims; at least for hurricane Rita a bit more warning and preparation for the consequences has taken place. Some people may blame God for what has happened. The reason why hurricanes are becoming more severe is because the ocean is becoming warmer.

For years, the danger of global warming has been known about; but those who should have taken notice have not been listening, or making any effort to cut down on carbon emissions. God is a God of love, he wants to bless his world, ‘he has shown kindness by giving us rain from heaven and the crops in their seasons, he provides us with plenty of food and fills our hearts with joy’; but so often we do not accept his wisdom or live by his values of justice and compassion, we ignore what he has to say.

When nations persist in ignoring God, they bring trouble on themselves. We could look at instances from scripture where that happened time and again. We would not have to look too far in our contemporary world to find that principal still applies. Rulers or nations ignore God; instead of making choices based on love, decisions are motivated by selfishness. Trouble or disaster are the result.

Yet we cannot ignore the fact that many innocent people are inadvertently caught up in the world’s tragedies, and disasters. What hope is there for them? The reality is that our world is not the just, compassionate prosperous place aspired to in Psalm 72. Or at a personal level in our lives, aren’t we often surrounded by wreckage that is the result of our mistakes or sometimes the folly of others?

Solomon’s reign turned out to be good in parts; some of the aspirations of the prayer were fulfilled. God gave Solomon wisdom. He was widely respected by the surrounding nations. But he also had feet of clay. He married foreign wives and they turned his heart away from God. He oppressed certain segment of society by using people as forced labour on his building projects. As you follow the history of Israel you find it turns out to be quite disastrous. But yet you find God’s faithful people living in hope. Take Jeremiah for example. He is often referred to as the weeping prophet. God called him to be his messenger to the people of Jerusalem. Jeremiah spoke the word of God for 30 years, but he was just ignored and mocked. Because the nation had refused to listen to God, King Nebuchadnezzar conquered them and many of Jerusalem’s inhabitants were taken into captivity in Babylon.

The book of Lamentations that follows the book of Jeremiah reflects the situation in the fallen city of Jerusalem. With devastation and disaster all around, Jeremiah pens these words. ‘Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.’ God’s love and compassion do not fail. There is hope in the midst of the world’s folly and suffering.

But yet if you look closely at Psalm 72 you find that inspired by the Holy Spirit the psalmist is really looking beyond what any earthly ruler could do or be. He speaks about one who will endure through all generations; one who will rule to the ends of the earth. He speaks of one through whom all nations shall be blessed.

You see this psalm is not just about Solomon. At a deeper level the Psalm is prophetic. It speaks about the messiah, the one who will bring God’s salvation for all mankind. We know that these aspirations have their ultimate fulfilment in Jesus.

We know that ultimately hope and blessing can only come to our world through Jesus. Sometimes in the name of Jesus the church, or kings have done very destructive and ungodly things. But where faith and commitment have been alive and vital, transformation and blessing have come to communities and nations. God wants to bless his world. But the instruments of that blessing are to be individuals whose live are not controlled by self interest. Transformation comes through hearts and lives that know the transforming power of Christ in their own lives.

May God enable his people everywhere to be bringers of hope. May we in the west that have for centuries had the blessing or the gospel at work among us, not become so dominated by godless materialism that we are deaf to God’s voice. Instead may we be renewed in faith and love to respond to God’s call on our lives to make the world a more just and compassionate place for all.

Amen.

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