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72. Psalm 72

¹ Endow the king with your justice, O God,
the royal son with your righteousness.
² May he judge your people in righteousness,
your afflicted ones with justice.

    ³ May the mountains bring prosperity to the people,
   the hills the fruit of righteousness.
⁴ May he defend the afflicted among the people
   and save the children of the needy;
   may he crush the oppressor.
⁵ May he endure Septuagint; Hebrew You will be feared as long as the sun,
   as long as the moon, through all generations.
⁶ May he be like rain falling on a mown field,
   like showers watering the earth.
⁷ In his days may the righteous flourish
   and prosperity abound till the moon is no more.

    ⁸ May he rule from sea to sea
   and from the River That is, the Euphrates to the ends of the earth.
⁹ May the desert tribes bow before him
   and his enemies lick the dust.
¹⁰ May the kings of Tarshish and of distant shores
   bring tribute to him.
May the kings of Sheba and Seba
   present him gifts.
¹¹ May all kings bow down to him
   and all nations serve him.

    ¹² For he will deliver the needy who cry out,
   the afflicted who have no one to help.
¹³ He will take pity on the weak and the needy
   and save the needy from death.
¹⁴ He will rescue them from oppression and violence,
   for precious is their blood in his sight.

    ¹⁵ Long may he live!
   May gold from Sheba be given him.
May people ever pray for him
   and bless him all day long.
¹⁶ May grain abound throughout the land;
   on the tops of the hills may it sway.
May the crops flourish like Lebanon
   and thrive Probable reading of the original Hebrew text; Masoretic Text Lebanon, / from the city like the grass of the field.
¹⁷ May his name endure forever;
   may it continue as long as the sun.

Then all nations will be blessed through him, Or will use his name in blessings (see Gen. 48:20)
and they will call him blessed.

    ¹⁸ Praise be to the LORD God, the God of Israel,
   who alone does marvelous deeds.
¹⁹ Praise be to his glorious name forever;
   may the whole earth be filled with his glory. Amen and Amen.

²⁰ This concludes the prayers of David son of Jesse.

18. Blessed be Jehovah God! the God of Israel. ¹⁴⁷¹⁴⁷ This psalm concludes the second book of the Psalms, and this and the following verse are a doxology similar to that with which the first book and the other three are concluded. See volume 2, p. 126, note. David, after having prayed for prosperity to his successors, breaks forth in praising God, because he was assured by the divine oracle that his prayers would not be in vain. Had he not with the eyes of faith beheld those things which we have seen above, his rejoicing would have been less free and lively. When he says that God alone doeth wonderful things, this, no doubt, is spoken in reference to the subject of which he is presently treating, with the view not only of commending the excellence of the kingdom, but also to admonish himself and others of the need which there is that God should display his wonderful and stupendous power for its preservation. And certainly it was not owing to any of David’s successors, a few excepted, that the royal throne did not fall a hundred times, yea, was not even completely ruined. To go no farther, was not Solomon’s most disgraceful apostasy deserving of utter destruction? And as to the rest of his successors, with the exception of Josias, Hezekiah, Jehoshaphat, and a few others, did they not fall from evil to worse, as if each strove to outstrip his predecessor, and thus so provoked the wrath of God, as it were deliberately, that it is wonderful that he did not immediately launch the thunderbolts of his vengeance upon the whole race utterly to destroy them? Moreover, as David, being endued with the Spirit of prophecy, was not ignorant that Satan would always continue to be a cruel enemy of the Church’s welfare, he doubtless knew that the grace of God, of which he presently speaks, would have great and arduous difficulties to overcome in order to continue for ever in his own nation. And the event afterwards unquestionably showed by how many miracles God accomplished his promises, whether we consider the return of his people from the captivity of Babylon, or the astonishing deliverances which followed until Christ as a tender branch sprung out of a dead tree. David, therefore, with good reason prays that the glory of the divine name may fill the whole earth, since that kingdom was to be extended even to the uttermost boundaries of the globe, And that all the godly, with earnest and ardent affection of heart, may unite with him in the same prayers, there is added a confirmation in the words, Amen, and Amen