Psalm 72 Feb. 9 A Psalm for Solomon.  1God, give the king Your justice; Your righteousness to the royal son. 2He will judge Your people with righteousness, and Your poor with justice. 3The mountains shall bring prosperity to the people, the hills will bring the fruit of righteousness. 4He will judge the poor of the people, he will save the children of the needy and will break the oppressor in pieces. 5They shall fear You while the sun endures; and as long as the moon, throughout all generations. 6He will come down like rain on the mown grass, as showers that water the earth. 7In his days, the righteous shall flourish, and abundance of peace, until the moon is no more. 8He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, from the River to the ends of the land. 9Those who dwell in the wilderness shall bow before him; his enemies shall lick the dust. 10The kings of Tarshish and of the islands will bring tribute, the kings of Sheba and Seba shall offer gifts. 11Yes, all kings shall fall down before him, all nations shall serve him. 12For he will deliver the needy when he cries; the poor, who has no helper. 13He will have pity on the poor and needy, he will save the needy persons. 14He will redeem their soul from oppression and violence, their blood will be precious in his sight. 15They shall live, and to him shall be given of the gold of Sheba. Men shall pray for him continually, they shall bless him all day long. 16Abundance of grain shall be throughout the land, its fruit sways like Lebanon. Let it flourish, thriving like the grass of the field! 17His name endures forever, his name continues as long as the sun. Men shall be blessed in him, all nations will call him blessed. 18Praise be to Yahweh God, the God of Israel, who alone does marvellous deeds. 19Blessed be His glorious name forever! Let the whole earth be filled with His glory! Amen and amen.  20This ends the prayers by David, the son of Jesse. 

Commentary

72 A Psalm for Solomon- These are David’s prophetic desires for his son, and yet clearly they have reference to the Kingdom of Christ rather than Solomon, even though the Psalm has a limited fulfilment in Solomon. The promises to David in 2 Sam. 7:12-16 stated that the son of David would also be son of God, and David would eternally live in the presence of his great descendant, who would reign eternally from David’s throne. It seems that David came to see these promises as having hope of fulfilment in his son Solomon, although the New Testament is clear that their main fulfilment is in Christ (Lk. 1:31-35). Thus David lost his focus upon the future Messiah because of his obsession with his son Solomon; and Solomon was damaged by this in that his spirituality and works for God were a living out of parental expectation, but at the end of his life he turned away to other gods and according to Ecclesiastes, lost all hope of a future Kingdom of God on earth. This Psalm however remains a wonderful prophecy of Christ’s future Kingdom, based around the land of Israel and His rulership in Jerusalem.
72:8 In Solomon’s time, the territory of Israel was larger than at any other time.
72:10 Fulfilled by the visit of the Queen of Sheba to Solomon (1 Kings 10).
72:13,14 Solomon perhaps consciously tried to fulfil this in his gracious judgment between the two prostitutes (1 Kings 3:16-28); but later in his reign, his bitterness and selfishness led him to abuse his people (1 Kings 12:4). Thus Solomon by his own behaviour disallowed himself from fulfilling this Kingdom prophecy.
72:17 Men shall be blessed in him- Fulfilled in how those baptized “in Christ” become Abraham’s seed and receive the blessing of God’s grace and forgiveness (Acts 3:25,26; Gal. 3:27-29).