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Tuesday, December 11, 2007 Give the king your justice, O God… This psalm is a prayer for a Jewish king, that he might rule in peace with justice. So may it be! This psalm is also a declaration of God’s intent for all earthly rulers, a reign of righteousness. Some also see this psalm as a foreshadowing of the Messianic Age, for our kings and queens, presidents and prime ministers, and other rulers hardly measure up to this ideal. When we were a young couple, Ginny and I were so influenced by the magazine motive that we decided we would try to purchase art for our home from live artists. We obtained a 2x3 foot abstract painting by Jim Crane entitled “Saul the King.” At first glance, this painting seems to be a smattering of small patches of color. Slowly one can discern the form of a crowned head. Saul was Israel’s first king. Saul was chosen, anointed and crowned to provide righteous leadership to this new nation, but he fell apart emotionally, exhibiting a trait of many later kings and rulers. Crane’s painting expresses the disintegration of Saul. King Saul was replaced by David, son of Jesse. His was a good reign. While not always righteous, David was repentant, and he sought to represent God’s Shalom. Psalms of praise were dedicated to King David. Israel prospered. From then on Israel hoped for another glorious reign of peace and justice from a Messiah in the lineage of David. Isaac Watts wanted to provide the church with a more lively and expressive hymnody in which the Jewish psalms would be re-formed into Christian songs of praise. He called his hymnal Psalms of David, Imitated in the Languages of the New Testament (1719). In the hymn written by Watts, Psalm 72 becomes “Jesus Shall Reign where’er the sun does his successive journeys run.” Thus God’s reign through a king becomes the reign of Jesus as Messiah. This hymn is too often sung triumphantly, implying that, as with the former British Empire, the sun shall never set on Christendom. But all earthly empires, whether nations or churches, do fall. Jesus taught us to pray for God’s reign on earth. Jesus also taught, or at least hinted, that God’s reign is within; and that it is now. So we can adapt Psalm 72 and pray,
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