Series: Psalms
Title: The Righteous
King Reigns
Text: Ps 72: 1-9
Date: Jan 21, 2021
Place: SGBC, NJ
Subject: The Righteous King Reigns
Several things were used of God to give me this message. One, I was thinking about your burdens this
year, as well as the suffering of brethren in other places: personal
heartaches, heartaches over brethren you love who are suffering, a nation
divided, and so on. Two, having been
studying Psalm 72, yesterday’s inauguration made this Psalm speak to me in an
extra special way
Psalm 72: 1: «A Psalm for Solomon» Psalm 72 is a prayer of king David for the
king succeeding him, which was his son Solomon.
Psalm 72: 1: Give the king thy judgments, O
God, and thy righteousness unto the king’s son.
David knew God had chosen Solomon to be king
after him. David knew only God can make
a man a wise king. So David asked God to
bless Solomon with the heart to be a just king who ruled in righteousness.
Whether we agree with
any president’s politics or not, fact they are president means God put them in
that office. That means something. We
ought to pray that God would give them wisdom to rule with God’s judgment, in
righteousness.
But as I watched the inauguration of a new president, I thought on David
being replaced by Solomon as king. Old,
earthly Israel, like the government of this nation, was temporal. It was a temporary nation with temporary
kings and priest which had to be replaced due to death or due to God’s good
pleasure. So it is in our nation and
every earthly nation.
Solomon was a type of the son of David, Christ Jesus. For you and me born-again of God, we have
been born into his holy nation, our citizenship is above. We are citizens in a kingdom wherein dwelleth
righteousness by the righteousness of our King.
Christ is King of kings and Lord of lords. It means Christ’s kingdom is the kingdom of
kingdoms. Believer we belong to the
Kingdom of Kingdoms.
By creating his
kingdom—you and me—in his righteousness and holiness his kingdom shall
never end, his holy nation is for eternity.
Our King shall be our King forever!
We are birthed again into his kingdom—like we are born into this earthly
government—except, Christ has made us holy and righteous. We are sinless, king priests by his blood,
who shall never see death but right now have eternal life. The only reason God says we have eternal life
is because we are righteous and have no sin, that is fact! Therefore, we shall reign with our King
forever, without change. Brethren, do
not get caught up in the division in this earthly nation.
Philippians 3: 20: For our conversation [citizenship] is in heaven; from
whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ: 21 Who shall change our vile body, that it may
be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he
is able even to subdue all things unto himself.
Christ is King of kings and LORD of lords—he is ruling every king and
kingdom in this earth. He gives lesser
rulers for our good, as he says in Romans 13. Therefore, we submit to them as unto Christ
so long as they do not keep us from worshipping our King.
Proposition: Being in Christ’s
kingdom under Christ our King’s rule, we have the assurance of knowing that
Christ is ruling with perfect judgment in righteousness in this earth. He is working everything just for you and me
who are members of his heavenly kingdom and holy nation. He is doing so to keep us looking to Christ
our King. He is doing to to remind us
Christ is our righteousness alone. Everything
that comes to pass is for our good to make us know Christ alone is our All and
in all!
When we suffer trials,
when we disappoint ourselves, when our brethren disappoint us, when other
trials make us sorrowful, beholding Christ we have him who is the only comfort for
us in the midst of every trial. He is
our peace. He gives his Peace. Not as the world gives. He gives his peace in the heart. Beholding him, we remember Christ sent the
trial. We are reminded Christ rules the
trial in righteousness just for us personally.
And Christ shall make us experience the truth that his grace is
sufficient.
RULING IN RIGHTEOUSNESS
Psalm 72: 2: He shall
judge thy people with righteousness, and thy poor with judgment. 3: The
mountains shall bring peace to the people, and the little hills, by
righteousness. 4: He shall judge the poor of the people, he shall save the
children of the needy, and shall break in pieces the oppressor. 5: They shall
fear thee as long as the sun and moon endure, throughout all generations…12: For he shall deliver the needy when he crieth; the
poor also, and him that hath no helper. 13: He shall spare the poor and needy,
and shall save the souls of the needy. 14: He shall redeem their soul from
deceit and violence: and precious shall their blood be in his sight.
Who is Christ exercising judgment for in this earth, who makes up his
kingdom? David is praying to God, he
says, “He shall judge thy people.”
Christ is exercising perfect judgment for God’s people, God elect. He is ruling all things for those God chose by
his free grace in Christ from eternity not based on anything in us. He is ruling for those Christ redeemed by his
blood and made righteous. Christ our
King is ruling for you who he has proven to be his elect by giving you faith in
Christ through sanctification of the Spirit.
We are poor—"He shall judge thy people with righteousness, and thy
poor with judgment.” I listened to
the speakers yesterday talk of the greatness of our nation and how good the
people are. “God says there is none
good, no not one.” Christ said, “there is none good but God.” In ourselves, we are poor. Every child of Adam is bankrupt of
righteousness and holiness. In ourselves
we are poor in poverty of spirit, in the poverty of sin and inability. But notice, we are God’s poor. Christ “shall judge thy people with
righteousness and THY POOR with judgment.”
Being poor, we are
needy—"he shall save the children of the needy, and shall break in
pieces the oppressor…For he shall deliver the needy when he crieth; the poor
also, and him that hath no helper. He shall spare the poor and needy, and shall
save the souls of the needy. He shall redeem their soul from deceit and
violence: and precious shall their blood be in his sight.” He is shown us we are the needy. We need everything spiritual and everything
temporal. We have no helper but Christ. As John the Baptist declares, “a man can
receive nothing except it be given him from above.” The devil is the oppressor. Also, our sinful flesh is the oppressor. So we are the needy. Christ only can provide!
But in his righteous
judgment he has provided for his poor and needy people. David was looking forward to it, we now know
he has done it—"He shall judge thy people with righteousness, and thy
poor with judgment.” To judge in
righteousness requires a heart of love, a heart of compassion and mercy for the
poor and needy. That is the heart of our
Redeemer. No one has the perfect heart
of love that Christ has!
Therefore, our King
judged us with righteousness on the cross.
His judgment was that we could not make ourselves the righteousness he
requires. His judgment was to bring
glory to his name by making us righteous himself. So he answered his own judgment for us. He took our place. He suffered in our stead. So by satisfying justice for us, he made us righteousness
in him. Doing so he fulfilled the
prophecy in our text. “He broke in
pieces the oppressor….He spared the poor and needy, and saved the souls of the
needy. He redeemed their soul from deceit and violence.”
Child of God we are
already saved by Christ our King. His
righteousness will not permit us to perish.
He already broke to pieces the oppressor: the devil, our body of sin,
death and hell. Brethren, beholding how
he already judged us in his righteousness, we are assured he shall do so for us
in this earth against every enemy. It is
who our King is!
WHERE DOES HE GIVE
HIS PEACE?
Psalm 72: 3: The mountains shall bring peace to the
people, and the little hills, by righteousness…16: There shall be an handful of
corn in the earth upon the top of the mountains; the fruit thereof shall shake
like Lebanon: and they of the city shall flourish like grass of the
earth.
Christ gives us
spiritual discernment and peace in believing through the gospel as we assemble
with his people. THE Mountain is Mt
Zion, heavenly Jerusalem, where Christ dwells.
And the mountains and little hills in the earth are his churches where
he sends his gospel declaring that he alone is our King and our Righteousness. Christ is in the High Mountain—heavenly
Jerusalem—that mountain the Hebrew writer tells us every believer has come to, from
where Christ speaks to us through the preaching of the gospel that glorifies
him alone!
Isaiah 2: 2 And it shall come to
pass in the last days, that the mountain of the LORD’S house shall be
established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills;
and all nations shall flow unto it. 3: And many people shall go and say, Come
ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of
Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out
of Zion shall go forth the law, the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. 4: And he
shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall
beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation
shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.
5: O house of Jacob, come ye, and let us walk in the light of the LORD.
The churches he
establishes in this earth are the mountains and hills were he brings peace to
his people through the gospel. From THE
high mountain, Christ feeds us in these earthly mountains which are all little
hills—"There shall be an handful of corn in the earth upon the top of
the mountains; the fruit thereof shall shake like Lebanon: and they of the city
shall flourish like grass of the earth.”
Ezekiel 34:13: And I will bring them out from the people, and gather
them from the countries, and will bring them to their own land, and feed them
upon the mountains of Israel by the rivers, and in all the inhabited places of
the country. 14: I will feed them in a good pasture, and upon the high
mountains of Israel shall their fold be: there shall they lie in a good fold,
and in a fat pasture shall they feed upon the mountains of Israel.
Joel 3:18: And it shall come to pass in that day, that the
mountains shall drop down new wine, and the hills shall flow with milk, and all
the rivers of Judah shall flow with waters, and a fountain shall come forth of
the house of the LORD, and shall water the valley of Shittim.
Knowing it is Christ
speaking to us through the gospel, we say,
Isaiah 52:7: How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that
bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace; that bringeth good tidings of
good, that publisheth salvation; that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth!
Believer do you want
strength in the trial? Assemble with his
people in one of his mountain-hills and hear the gospel of Christ. Christ alone is our Strength and he
strengthens us through the preaching of his gospel. Do you want peace knowing the Righteous King
reigns in the midst of so much corruption in governments below. Then assemble with his people in one of his mountain-hills
where the gospel is preached in truth and he shall make his child know he is
the King of kings. There is no peace except
Christ from above, given in one of his mountain-hills through the gospel which
gives him all the glory
THE PEACE WE WALK IN
Psalm 72: 4:…and shall break in pieces the oppressor. 5: They shall fear thee as long as the sun and moon
endure, throughout all generations. 6:
He shall come down like rain upon the mown grass: as showers that water
the earth. 7: In his days shall the righteous flourish; and abundance of peace
so long as the moon endureth. 8: He
shall have dominion also from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the
earth. 9: They that dwell in the wilderness shall bow before
him; and his enemies shall lick the dust.
The light and peace that Christ gives us is knowing
that Christ our King alone breaks the oppressor. He has broken the devil. And he subdues the oppressor of your flesh and mine,
and every other enemy. He does it
through this gospel. So we speak the
gospel of peace to one another. For my sorrowing
brethren, when your flesh just will not let you find any comfort, he will make
you know his grace is sufficient! He has
given this trial to make you experience it and know it!
The result he makes us
walk in is his peace by faith—"They shall fear thee
as long as the sun and moon endure, throughout all generations.” He creates reverence for him—fear for him—in our
hearts. After every trial he grows us in
fear of him. He shall do so as
long as the sun and moon endure.
Our fruit and our
peace is Christ himself who comes down through his gospel and revives our
inward man so that we flourish—"He shall come down like rain upon the
mown grass: as showers that water the earth. In his days shall the righteous
flourish; and abundance of peace so long as the moon endureth.” He comes down in the gospel like
rain. He told Moses his doctrine will
distill as the rain and showers on the fresh cut grass. He first cuts down our flesh which is grass so
that we cease trying to effect this by our hand. Then he makes us know he is our peace so that
we flourish in his righteousness and peace endures.
This dominion of our
King is all over the world. Wherever his
child is, he is there—"He shall have
dominion also from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth.”
Now here is what we
must remember, Christ is doing all this, not by giving us ease in this world. He does this not by freeing us from the sinful
body of this death while in this earth.
He will not give us perfect freedom from the oppressors in this earth so
long as we abide here below. He is not sparing
us the sorrow of trials in this earth.
But Christ uses our sin,
our inability, our falls, and the power of all ungodly oppressors to teach us
to look to Christ our King. He is teaching
us that Christ alone judges in righteousness for us. Christ alone saves his needy people. Christ alone is the riches that overcomes our
poverty. Christ alone has power to break
the oppressor in us and in our enemies.
He does this in our
hearts without removing the troubles so that we know Christ is our Peace. Our Righteousness is Christ our King. He makes us adorn the gospel, not by adding
to it, but with that which the gospel has adorned us. He makes us walk in his light in holiness. When a brother falls we have to be merciful
and gracious and forgiving. And if we
are not gracious and forgiving be thankful he works in our brethren to be
gracious and forgiving to us until Christ restores us.
We want that from our
brethren because the grace he has given us at this point in our lives will not
be as mature as our elder brethren. We
could not see we were teenagers when we were teenagers. But now we see how wise our parents
were. He has provided elder brethren who
recognize our sin and pride. But they are
so merciful and gracious and forgiving to us because they know only Christ can
grow us and he does it through this gospel.
As Christ grows us in grace and knowledge that he alone is our King ruling
in our midst, he matures us the same way so that we learn to be more gracious
and merciful to those younger in the faith.
He works this by
continually making us see that by Christ alone, the mountains shall bring peace
to the people, and the little hills, by righteousness. He shall judge the poor
of the people, he shall save the children of the needy, and shall break in
pieces the oppressor. He makes us fear him
as long as the sun and moon endure, throughout all generations. He does it by coming down in the gospel like
rain upon the mown grass: as showers that water the earth. By him, in his days shall the righteous
flourish; and abundance of peace so long as the moon endureth. He shall have dominion also from sea to sea,
and from the river unto the ends of the earth. They that dwell in the wilderness
shall bow before him; and his enemies shall lick the dust.
Amen!