Psalm 72 (1928 BCP)
Psalm 72 (1928 BCP) is the royal psalm, Deus, judicium, in the 1928 Book of Common Prayer Psalter. It begins by asking God to give the king God's own judgments and righteousness, then makes the character of that rule concrete: the poor are defended, the needy delivered, peace accompanies righteousness, and the closing doxology blesses God rather than any human ruler. In the Church's Christian reading, its royal and universal language is received in relation to Jesus Christ, without ceasing to hear the psalm's summons to just rule and care for the needy.
Prayer Book Text
GIVE the King thy judgments, O God, * and thy righteousness unto the King's son. 2 Then shall he judge thy people according unto right, * and defend the poor. 3 The mountains also shall bring peace, * and the little hills righteousness unto the people. 4 He shall keep the simple folk by their right, * defend the children of the poor, and punish the wrong doer. 5 They shall fear thee, as long as the sun and moon endureth, * from one generation to another. 6 He shall come down like the rain upon the mown grass, * even as the drops that water the earth. 7 In his time shall the righteous flourish; * yea, and abundance of peace, so long as the moon endureth. 8 His dominion shall be also from the one sea to the other, * and from the River unto the world's end. 9 They that dwell in the wilderness shall kneel before him; * his enemies shall lick the dust. 10 The kings of Tarshish and of the isles shall give presents; * the kings of Arabia and Saba shall bring gifts. 11 All kings shall fall down before him; * all nations shall do him service. 12 For he shall deliver the poor when he crieth; * the needy also, and him that hath no helper. 13 He shall be favourable to the simple and needy, * and shall preserve the souls of the poor. 14 He shall deliver their souls from falsehood and wrong; * and dear shall their blood be in his sight. 15 He shall live, and unto him shall be given of the gold of Arabia; * prayer shall be made ever unto him, and daily shall he be praised. 16 There shall be an heap of corn in the earth, high upon the hills; the fruit thereof shall shake like Lebanon: * and they of the city shall flourish like grass upon the earth. 17 His Name shall endure for ever; his Name shall remain under the sun among the posterities, which shall be blessed in him; * and all the nations shall praise him. 18 Blessed be the Lord God, even the God of Israel, * which only doeth wondrous things; 19 And blessed be the Name of his majesty for ever: * and all the earth shall be filled with his majesty. Amen, Amen.
The Psalm's first petition is not simply for a successful monarch. The king receives God's own “judgments” and “righteousness” in order to defend the poor and the person with no helper. Its peace is consequently moral and public: flourishing righteousness, rescue from falsehood and wrong, and a land filled with God's glory belong together.
Place in the 1928 Daily Office
The 1928 monthly Psalter appoints Psalm 72 after Psalm 71 at the Fourteenth Day's Morning Prayer. It is the final psalm before the source prints the heading for Book III and the Fourteenth Day's Evening Prayer.
The Fourteenth Day. Morning Prayer. Psalm 71. In te, Domine, speravi. … Psalm 72. Deus, judicium. … BOOK III. Evening Prayer. Psalm 73. Quam bonus Israel!
This placement lets the Office move from Psalm 71's prayer of lifelong dependence to a prayer for rule under God's righteousness. Read or sung corporately, the psalm keeps intercession for rulers from becoming flattery: the ruler's measure is not territorial reach alone, but the defence of the poor, the needy, and the person with no helper (vv. 12–14).
King, justice, and the poor
The New Testament's account of the Magi resonates with the psalm's picture of distant kings bringing gifts, while it directs Christian worship to the child whom they adore.
And when they were come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother, and fell down, and worshipped him: and when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto him gifts; gold, and frankincense, and myrrh.
Likewise, the angel's promise to Mary names an enduring Davidic reign. It helps explain why the Church has heard the psalm's royal scope in light of Christ, while the psalm itself insists that such kingship is recognisable by righteous judgment and mercy.
He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David: And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end.
Augustine explicitly treats the psalm's Solomon-title as pointing beyond Solomon. His reading is a historic Christian interpretation, not a replacement for the psalm's own concern that power be ordered to righteousness and peace.
For Salomon indeed this Psalm's title is fore-noted: but things are spoken of therein which could not apply to that Salomon king of Israel after the flesh … but they can most pertinently apply to the Lord Christ. Whence it is perceived, that the very word Salomon is used in a figurative sense, so that in him Christ is to be taken.
For Augustine, the psalm's “poor” is not a sentimental category. He connects it to humility before God, so that justice for the poor cannot be separated from the grace by which all people cease to boast.
Whereby indeed he shows, that the people of God ought to be poor, that is, not proud, but humble. For, “blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of Heaven.”
His reading of verse 4 also gives a theological account of judgment as saving deliverance rather than arbitrary domination.
For to this end He shall judge, that He may save, that is, may sever from those that are to be destroyed and condemned, those to whom He gives “salvation ready to be revealed” at the last time.
A kingdom measured by mercy
Charles H. Spurgeon similarly places the psalm's royal language under the practical sign of Christ's care for the poor. His nineteenth-century exposition makes the point sharply: a Christian reading of kingship must not detach universal dominion from verses 1–4.
It is the distinguishing mark of Christ's Kingdom that He cares so much for the poor—whereas in other kingdoms they are generally pushed to the wall—and men of great estate and consequence get all the good positions. In Christ's Kingdom the poor are exalted!
Spurgeon also connects the rain on mown grass to the psalm's promise of gentle, life-giving rule. The image guards against imagining the reign of Christ merely as coercive power: the king's blessing refreshes the wounded and makes life fruitful.
Never does rain seem so refreshing to the grass as just after the mowing! So is it in Christ's Kingdom. Upon you whose broken hearts are like mown grass … Jesus shall come on gently like rain upon the mown grass.
The doxology at the end prevents devotion to the king from becoming devotion to human rule. The Psalm blesses “the Lord God, even the God of Israel,” who alone does wondrous things. In Anglican public prayer, Psalm 72 therefore forms worshippers to pray for lawful authority, to seek peace grounded in righteousness, and to trust the ultimate king whose dominion is joined to mercy.
See Also
External Links
- The 1928 BCP Psalter: Psalms 51–100
- Augustine, Exposition on Psalm 72
- Spurgeon, “The Sequel to Divine Sovereignty”
References
- ↑ The Protestant Episcopal Church, The Book of Common Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments and Other Rites and Ceremonies of the Church (New York: The Church Pension Fund, 1928), Psalter, “Psalm 72. Deus, judicium”; Justus Anglican, The 1928 Book of Common Prayer, “Psalms 51–100”. The text, verse numbering, and punctuation were compared word for word with the local transcription at
sources/justus1928/Psalms2.htm. - ↑ The Protestant Episcopal Church, The Book of Common Prayer (New York: The Church Pension Fund, 1928), Psalter, Fourteenth Day, Morning Prayer; Justus Anglican, The 1928 Book of Common Prayer, “Psalms 51–100”. The office heading and sequence were checked against
sources/justus1928/Psalms2.htm. - ↑ The Holy Bible, Containing the Old and New Testaments: Translated out of the Original Tongues (Authorized Version, 1611), St. Matthew 2:11; Bible Gateway, “Matthew 2:11 (KJV)”.
- ↑ The Holy Bible, Containing the Old and New Testaments: Translated out of the Original Tongues (Authorized Version, 1611), St. Luke 1:32–33; Bible Gateway, “Luke 1:32–33 (KJV)”.
- ↑ Augustine of Hippo, “Exposition on Psalm 72,” §1, trans. J. E. Tweed, in A Select Library of the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church, First Series, vol. 8, ed. Philip Schaff (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1888); New Advent, “Exposition on Psalm 72”.
- ↑ Augustine of Hippo, “Exposition on Psalm 72,” §3, trans. J. E. Tweed, in Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, vol. 8, ed. Philip Schaff (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1888); New Advent, “Exposition on Psalm 72”.
- ↑ Augustine of Hippo, “Exposition on Psalm 72,” §7, trans. J. E. Tweed, in Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, vol. 8, ed. Philip Schaff (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1888); New Advent, “Exposition on Psalm 72”.
- ↑ Charles H. Spurgeon, “The Sequel to Divine Sovereignty,” Sermon 3284 (delivered at the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington, 4 February 1866; published 11 January 1912), exposition of Psalm 72:1–2, in Spurgeon's Sermons, vol. 58 (1912); Christian Classics Ethereal Library, “The Sequel to Divine Sovereignty”.
- ↑ Charles H. Spurgeon, “The Sequel to Divine Sovereignty,” Sermon 3284 (delivered at the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington, 4 February 1866; published 11 January 1912), exposition of Psalm 72:4–6, in Spurgeon's Sermons, vol. 58 (1912); Christian Classics Ethereal Library, “The Sequel to Divine Sovereignty”.