I want to welcome you today to Drive Time Devotions on our look at Psalm 72.
This is one of the two Psalms of Solomon in the book of Psalms.
He wrote this Psalm and Psalm 127.
And when you read this Psalm, it seems like King Solomon is just bragging on himself.
But the truth is, he's telling the facts about his life.
He talks in this Psalm about ruling from C to C.
He did that.
He says that the kings of the earth brought him tribute.
That happened.
He talks about bringing down all his enemies.
That is something that occurred in his life.
When Solomon prayed the prayer that's in this Psalm, he was already the wealthiest man in
the world.
He was the most powerful man in the world.
He was the most influential person in the world, the wisest person in the world.
And he says in this Psalm, I want you to give me more, more wealth, more power, more influence.
It sounds pretty prideful when you look at it.
It sounds very selfish.
But when you take a closer look at this Psalm, you see why he wants these things.
In this Psalm, he says, I want you to bless me with more influence so that I can rescue
and defend the homeless and the hopeless, so I can reach out to those who are poor and
in need.
I can have pity on the weak.
Psalm 72 is a reminder that the purpose of influence is to speak up for those who have
no influence.
The purpose of power is to serve the powerless.
The purpose of strength is to help the weak.
Out of the great power and blessing that he had been given, Solomon writes about his desire
to help the needy, to bless the weak, to deal with those who faced injustice.
Out of what God had so abundantly given to him, he was able to give to others.
Now there is a deep principle here for you and I as followers of Christ.
Here's the principle.
It's only as we recognize the blessing of who we truly are in Christ that we are able
to truly bless others with the riches that Christ has given to us.
Let me say that again.
It is so important.
It's only as you recognize the blessing of who you really are in Christ that you're able
to truly bless others with the riches that Jesus has given to you.
This Psalm is a reminder of blessing others, but also recognizing our riches.
If you don't recognize your riches, you're always chasing after more.
Once you do recognize your riches, then you're able to share them with those who are in need.
So let's look at what Psalm 72 has to say about blessing others with the riches that
God has given to us.
First, it talks about those that we should have a heart to bless.
Solomon in this Psalm talks about four specific needs.
He talks about the afflicted.
In verse 2, "He will judge your people in righteousness, your afflicted ones, with justice."
God wants us to bless the afflicted.
He talks about the needy.
In verse 3, "The mountains will bring prosperity to the people, the hills the fruit of righteousness.
He will defend the afflicted among the people and save the children of the needy.
He will crush their oppressor."
And then in verse 12, "He will deliver the needy who cry out, the afflicted who have
no one to help."
Afflicted and needy, it comes up again and again.
There are people who their lives are filled with need, lives are filled with want.
God wants to use you to make a difference in their lives.
He talks about the oppressed in these verses.
Verse 4 and verse 14, verse 4 says, "He will defend the afflicted among the people and
save the children of the needy.
He will crush the oppressor."
And then verse 14, again, "He will rescue them from oppression and violence, for precious
is their blood in his sight."
God cares about those who are being oppressed in this world.
And he wants to meet their needs, but he wants to do it through you.
He says he wants to use you to meet the needs of the weak.
In verse 13, "He will take pity on the weak."
He's not talking, he's talking about the king here.
That we will take pity on the weak and the needy and save the needy from death.
So the question is, who do you know today who's afflicted, who's needy, who's oppressed,
who's weak?
The Lord wants to use you to make a difference in their life.
Now, if you think, who am I to do something like that?
Maybe somebody else with greater riches, greater power, greater influence could do it.
Who am I to be able to bless others?
I don't have the influence or riches of a Solomon.
Well, let's look at what this Psalm says about Solomon and let's let it remind us of who
we are in Christ.
In verses five to eight, "He," the king, "will endure as long as the sun, as long as the
moon through all generations."
Talking about himself in verse six, Solomon says, "He will be like rain falling on a mown
field, like showers watering the earth.
He will rule from sea to sea and from the river to the ends of the earth."
So these verses talk about enduring and refreshing others and reigning.
And if you think, what does that have to do with me?
Let me remind you of who you are in Christ, enduring.
You will live for eternity as a child of God.
That's riches that God has poured upon your life, eternal life he has given to you.
And refreshing others, you've been given the Holy Spirit to bring refreshment to others.
The Holy Spirit refreshes your spirit, refreshes you so you can refresh and encourage others.
What a gift God has given to us.
What riches God has given to us.
And what about reigning?
Well, the Bible says, "Did you know this?
You're going to reign with Christ for all eternity.
You don't just hang around in heaven, you reign with Christ."
You may not have all the health or the resources that you want in this world, but you have
more than you could possibly imagine.
And once you see, you start to really see who you truly are, then you're empowered to
serve those who are in desperate need.
God wants to use you in their lives.
Now, our identity in Christ is not a matter of pride.
How could it be?
It's a gift of the grace of God.
So in the end, the greatest part of this story is that all the glory goes back to our gracious
and powerful God.
God gives us these riches.
We bless others with the riches out of the riches that God has given to us.
And guess what?
It's not us who are glorified, it's God who is glorified in the end.
Verse 17, "May his name endure forever.
May it continue as long as the sun.
All nations will be blessed through him, and they will call him blessed.
Praise be to the Lord God, the God of Israel, who alone does marvelous deeds.
Praise be to his glorious name forever.
May the whole earth be filled with his glory, amen and amen."
So Solomon talks about his name enduring forever, but then he says out of that, God's glorious
name is going to be shown forever.
May the whole earth be filled with his glory.
Now how will the earth be filled with God's glory?
In the Old Testament, God's glory was seen in a pillar of fire and a pillar of cloud.
God's glory was seen in the face of Moses when he'd been with God.
It was seen in the presence of God in the tabernacle.
In the New Testament, God's glory is seen in his people.
It's not in a place.
It's in his people.
It's not in a pillar.
It's in his people.
You are a living, breathing opportunity for people to glorify God because you are a temple
of God.
God's spirit has made you his temple.
And one of the ways that God does this, one of the greatest ways that God does this, brings
glory to himself, is when you allow him to bless others through you.
Now this takes serving the afflicted and the oppressed to an entirely different place.
It's not about charity.
Charity is what I can do to help a hurting person.
It's about God's glory.
It's about what God can do through me to love those that he has made.
Isaac Watts, long ago, wrote a hymn based on this psalm titled "Jesus Shall Reign."
In one of the stanzas he writes, "Blessings abound, where'er he reigns.
The prisoners leap to lose their chains.
The weary find eternal rest, and all who suffer want are blessed."
That's what God wants to do through your life.
Now you have to be honest and say there is a humbling truth as we come to the end of
this wonderful psalm of Solomon.
Solomon had the greatest wisdom.
He wrote these wise words and he had all these riches, but he did not bring that wisdom into
his own life.
In the end, he tried to be like the nations around him, rather than the unique people
of God.
He forgot who he really was, and this led him to try to amass riches to seem richer
than the other countries, to multiply wives and concubines, to show his power to others,
to lead his people to worship foreign false gods, to be like the other countries.
He forgot where the riches and the blessings came from.
He forgot who he really was.
I want to never forget who I really am in Christ.
I know you want the same, so let's pray today that we can remember who we are.
Father, in this moment of prayer, we ask you to remind us through these words, this example
of Solomon, of who we really are in Christ, of the riches you've given us in your grace
and your love, but also to remind us that we can forget who we really are.
We can get our eyes on the world around us or on the doubts within us and forget the
hope that you've given to us, the life that you've given to us.
So thank you for these words and this warning, and God, fill us with the sense of your riches
right now.
And out of that sense of your riches, I pray you would give us opportunities to bless others
today so that your name can be glorified.
We ask this in Jesus' name, amen.
Tomorrow we're going to look together at Psalm 73, it's a psalm about how to get through
a hurt.