The Kingdom Presence: Old Testament (12)

Give the king Your judgments, O God,
And Your righteousness to the king’s Son...
He shall have dominion also from sea to sea...
And blessed be His glorious name forever!
And let the whole earth be filled with His glory. Psalm 72.1, 8, 19

All the ends of the world
Shall remember and turn to the LORD,
And all the families of the nations
Shall worship before You.
For the kingdom is the LORD’s,
And He rules over the nations. Psalm 22.27, 28

Heaven and earth
The psalms of David testify to the nature, importance, and power available through the communion God enjoys with and among His people. David understood that communion—that fellowship—in terms of a kingdom, and especially of a coming King and the Kingdom He would bring into the world.

As we read through these various psalms of David, we see that God speaks to His people and guides them in His way. They cry out to Him, and He hears and delivers them. He offers them precious and magnificent promises. They pursue those blessings by resolving to obey His Word. He delivers them from their enemies and hears their cries for renewal when they have drifted from Him. He spreads a banquet table for His people, in the very presence of their enemies, so that, as they feast with Him, none shall make them afraid, and none shall thwart the purposes of His divine economy.

All these blessings rest especially, and ultimately, with the King Whom God has chosen to set over His people (Pss. 2, 110). As the people love and serve their anointed King, they go forth and proclaim His rule and bring the blessings of it to all the nations of the earth.

And nowhere is the grand, all-ruling, eternal plan more fully developed than in Psalms 72 and 22, David’s prayers for God’s King and His Kingdom.

Solomon and beyond
While Psalm 72 is, first, a prayer for Solomon, who inherited David’s kingdom and led it to its greatest heights of glory, it is more than that. It’s not difficult to see that, in Psalm 72, David is seeing beyond Solomon down the far stretches of history, to the unfolding of a Kingdom under a King Who is God’s own Son, and Whose rule will bring blessing to the whole earth.

Let’s take a quick look through this glorious psalm.

David foresees the King and Son of God ruling according to His Law, bringing righteousness and justice to even the poorest and oppressed (vv. 1-4). His Kingdom is without end; He will rule as long as time continues (v. 5; cf. Is. 9.6, 7), and His reign will bring blessing like the dew and refreshment like a spring shower to all the earth (vv. 6, 7). Under His rule righteousness and peace will flourish (v. 7; cf. Rom. 14.17, 18). His enemies will fall at His feet and people from every nation will come to praise, honor, and serve Him (vv. 8-11). He will shepherd the poor, deliver the oppressed, and save the souls of the needy (vv. 12-14). He will live and reign continuously, and the wealth of nations will flow to Him, along with the praise and prayers of the peoples of the world (v. 15). The creation itself will blossom and bear abundant fruit, and those who dwell in cities will prosper with those who dwell in the countryside (v. 16). His Kingdom, once established, will endure forever, and all peoples are called to bless and praise His holy name (vv. 17-19).

Psalm 22 echoes these themes, except here we have the suffering Servant Himself, reflecting from within His suffering, on the promise of the Kingdom His suffering would achieve. Praise shall arise to God from His work (Ps. 22.25). The poor and those who seek the Lord will be satisfied (v. 26). People from all over the world will turn to the Lord and worship Him within His Kingdom (vv. 27, 28). God will make sure that, generation after generation, the righteousness of His King and Kingdom will be recounted and embraced (vv. 30, 31).

Thus the coming of the Kingdom with increasing fullness depends on the work of God’s Servant in bringing the power of heaven to bear on earth. He is the King for Whom this great Kingdom is intended, a Kingdom that will bring righteousness, peace, and joy to the world, mirroring the reality of God’s rule in heaven.

A framework for future development
Psalms 72 and 22 represent David’s clearest insight to the coming King and Kingdom of God. He brings forward all the thinking and hopes of the people of Israel and expands them into a horizon that reaches to the end of time and beyond.

These glorious psalms teach us, as they have taught God’s people for generations, to think, pray, and work for the promised Kingdom of God (Matt. 6.33).

David, like no one else before him, established a framework for thinking about the nature and purpose of God’s Kingdom, and for setting the hearts of God’s people to seek that Kingdom as their highest priority. The prominence of the Kingdom in David’s prayers makes for a Kingdom presence in the Old Testament that we must not ignore or minimize.

As we turn next to the prophets, then to the Lord Jesus and the apostles, we shall see, with increasing clarity, how the outline of the Kingdom which David described, becomes fuller and more complete as the history of God’s redemptive work continues.

For reflection or discussion
1. How would you describe the character of the Kingdom David foresaw in Psalms72 and 22?

2. Peace is the overall condition the Kingdom brings to those it reaches. How does David describe that peace in these psalms?

3. Joy is the consequence of the Kingdom’s coming. How should God’s Kingdom people express the joy they have in Him?

Next steps—Preparation: Meditate on Matthew 6.33. As you think about seeking the Kingdom as the highest priority of your life, how does David’s vision in Psalms 72 and 22 inform your prayers, planning, and practice?

T. M. Moore

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Except as indicated, all Scriptures are taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. For sources of all quotations, see the weekly PDF of this study.