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Expositor's Bible Commentary Psalm 72:1 A Psalm for Solomon. Give the king thy judgments, O God, and thy righteousness unto the king's son. Psalm 72:1-20 RIGHTLY or wrongly, the superscription ascribes this psalm to Solomon. Its contents have led several commentators to take the superscription in a meaning for which there is no warrant, as designating the subject, not the author. Clearly, the whole is a prayer for the king; but why should not he be both suppliant and object of supplication? Modern critics reject this as incompatible with the "phraseological evidence," and adduce the difference between the historical Solomon and the ideal of the psalm as negativing reference to him. Psalm 72:8 is said by them to be quoted from Zechariah 9:10 , though Cheyne doubts whether there is borrowing. Psalm 72:17 b is said to be dependent on Genesis 22:18 and Genesis 26:4 , which are assumed to be later than the seventh century. Psalm 72:12 is taken to be a reminiscence of Job 29:12 , and Psalm 72:16 b of Job 5:25 . But these are too uncertain criteria to use as conclusive, -partly because coincidence does not necessarily imply quotation; partly because, quotation being admitted, the delicate question of priority remains, which can rarely be settled by comparison of the passages in question; and partly because, quotation and priority being admitted, the date of the original is still under discussion. The impossibility of Solomon’s praying thus for himself does not seem to the present writer so completely established that the hypothesis must be abandoned, especially if the alternative is to be, as Hitzig, followed by Olshausen and Cheyne, proposes, that the king in the psalm is Ptolemy Philadelphus, to whom Psalm 45:1-17 is fitted by the same authorities. Baethgen puts the objections which most will feel to such a theory with studied moderation when he says "that the promises given to the patriarchs in Genesis 22:18 ; Genesis 26:4 , should be transferred by a pious Israelite to a foreign king appears to me improbable." But another course is open-namely, to admit that the psalm gives no materials for defining its date, beyond the fact that a king of Davidic descent was reigning when it was composed. The authorship may be left uncertain, as may the name of the king for whom such far-reaching blessings were invoked: for he was but a partial embodiment of the kingly idea, and the very disproportion between the reality seen in any Jewish monarch and the lofty idealisms of the psalm compels us to regard the earthly ruler as but a shadow, and the true theme of the singer as being the Messianic King. We are not justified, however, in attempting to transfer every point of the psalmist’s prayer to the Messiah. The historical occasion of the psalm is to be kept in mind. A human monarch stands in the foreground; but the aspirations expressed are so far beyond anything that he is or can be, that they are either extravagant flattery, or reach out beyond their immediate occasion to the King Messiah. The psalm is not properly a prediction, but prayer. There is some divergence of opinion as to the proper rendering of the principal verbs, -some, as the A.V. and R.V. (text), taking them as uniformly futures, which is manifestly wrong; some taking them as expressions of wish throughout, which is also questionable; and others recognising pure futures intermingled with petitions, which seems best. The boundaries of the two are difficult to settle, just because the petitions are so confident that they are all but predictions, and the two melt into each other in the singer’s mind. The flow of thought is simple. The psalmist’s prayers are broadly massed. In Psalm 72:1-4 he prays for the foundation of the king’s reign in righteousness, which will bring peace; in Psalm 72:5-7 for its perpetuity, and in Psalm 72:8-11 for its universality; while in Psalm 72:12-15 the ground of both these characteristics is laid in the king’s becoming the champion of the oppressed. A final prayer for the increase of his people and the perpetuity and world wide glory of his name concludes the psalm, to which is appended in Psalm 72:18-20 a doxology, closing the Second Book of the Psalter. The first petitions of the psalm all ask for one thing for the king-namely, that he should give righteous judgment. They reflect the antique conception of a king as the fountain of justice, himself making and administering law and giving decisions. Thrice in these four verses does "righteousness" occur as the foundation attribute of an ideal king. Caprice, self-interest, and tyrannous injustice were rank in the world’s monarchies round the psalmist. Bitter experience and sad observation had taught him that the first condition of national prosperity was a righteous ruler. These petitions are also animated by the conception, which is as true in the modern as in the ancient world, that righteousness has its seat in the bosom of God, and that earthly judgments are righteous when they conform to and are the echo of His. "Righteousness" is the quality of mind, of which the several "judgments" are the expressions. This king sits on an ancestral throne. His people are God’s people. Since, then, he is God’s viceroy, the desire cannot be vain that in his heart there may be some reflection of God’s righteousness, and that his decisions may accord with God’s. One cannot but remember Solomon’s prayer for "an understanding heart," that he might judge this people; nor forget how darkly his later reign showed against its bright beginning. A righteous king makes a peaceful people, especially in a despotic monarchy. The sure results of such a reign-which are, likewise, the psalmist’s chief reason for his petitions-are set forth in the vivid metaphor of Psalm 72:3 , in which peace is regarded as the fruit which springs, by reason of the king’s righteousness, from mountains and hills. This psalmist has special fondness for that figure of vegetable growth ( Psalm 72:7 , Psalm 72:16-17 ); and it is especially suitable in this connection, as peace is frequently represented in Scripture as the fruit of righteousness, both in single souls and in a nation’s history. The mountains come into view here simply as being the most prominent features of the land, and not, as in Psalm 72:16 , with any reference to their barrenness, which would make abundant growth on them more wonderful, and indicative of yet greater abundance on the plains. A special manifestation of judicial righteousness is the vindication of the oppressed and the punishment of the oppressor ( Psalm 72:4 ). The word rendered "judge" in Psalm 72:4 differs from that in Psalm 72:2 , and is the same from which the name of the "Judges" in Israel is derived. Like them, this king is not only to pronounce decisions, as the word in Psalm 72:2 means, but is to execute justice by acts of deliverance, which smite in order to rescue. Functions which policy and dignity require to be kept apart in the case of earthly rulers arc united in the ideal monarch. He executes his own sentences. His acts are decisions. The psalmist has no thought of inferior officers by the king’s side. One figure fills his mind and his canvas. Surely such an ideal is either destined to remain forever a fair dream, or its fulfilment is to be recognised in the historical Person in whom God’s righteousness dwelt in higher fashion than psalmists knew, who was, "first, King of righteousness, and then, after that, also King of peace," and who, by His deed, has broken every yoke, and appeared as the defender of all the needy. The poet prayed that Israel’s king might perfectly discharge his office by Divine help: the Christian gives thanks that the King of men has been and done all which Israel’s monarchs failed to be and do. The perpetuity of the king’s reign and of his subjects’ peace is the psalmist’s second aspiration ( Psalm 72:5-7 ). The "Thee" of Psalm 72:5 presents a difficulty, as it is doubtful to whom it refers. Throughout the psalm the king is spoken of, and never to; and if it is further noticed that, in the preceding verses, God has been directly addressed, and "Thy" used thrice in regard to Him, it will appear more natural to take the reference in Psalm 72:5 to be to Him. The fear of God would be dig fused among the king’s subjects, as a consequence of his rule in righteousness. Hupfeld takes the word as referring to the king, and suggests changing the text to "him" instead of "Thee"; while others, among whom are Cheyne and Baethgen, follow the track of the LXX in adopting a reading which may be translated "May he live," or "Prolong his days." But the thought yielded by the existing text, if referred to God, is most natural and worthy. The king is, as it were, the shadow on earth of God’s righteousness, and consequently becomes an organ for the manifestation thereof, in such manner as to draw men to true devotion. The psalmist’s desires are for something higher than external prosperity, and his conceptions of the kingly office are very sacred. Not only peace and material well-being, but also the fear of Jehovah, are longed for by him to be diffused in Israel. And he prays that these blessings may be perpetual. The connection between the king’s righteousness and the fear of God requires that that permanence should belong to both. The cause is as lasting as its effect. Through generation after generation he desires that each shall abide. He uses peculiar expressions for continual duration "with the sun"- i.e. , contemporaneous with that unfading splendour; "before the face of the moon"- i.e ., as long as she shines. But could the singer anticipate such length of dominion for any human king? Psalm 21:1-13 has similar language in regard to the same person, and here, as there, it seems sufficiently accounted for by the consideration that, while the psalmist was speaking of an individual, he was thinking of the office rather than of the person, and that the perpetual continuance of the Davidic dynasty, not the undying life of anyone representative of it, was meant. The full light of the truth that there is a king whose royalty, like his priesthood, passes to no other is not to be forced upon the psalm. It stands as a witness that devout and inspired souls longed for the establishment of a kingdom, against which revolutions and enemies and mortality were powerless. They knew not that their desires could not be fulfilled by the longest succession of dying kings, but were to be more than accomplished by One, "of whom it is witnessed that He liveth." The psalmist turns for a moment from his prayer for the perpetuity of the king’s rule, to linger upon the thought of its blessedness as set forth in the lovely image of Psalm 72:6 . Rain upon mown grass is no blessing, as every farmer knows: but what is meant is, not the grass which has already been mown, but the naked meadow from which it has been taken. It needs drenching showers, in order to sprout again and produce an aftermath. The poet’s eye is caught by the contrast between the bare look of the field immediately after cutting and the rich growth that springs, as by magic, from the yellow roots after a plentiful shower. This king’s gracious influences shall fall upon even what seems dead, and charm forth hidden life that will flush the plain with greenness. The psalmist dwells on the picture, reiterating the comparison in Psalm 72:6 b, and using there an uncommon word, which seems best rendered as meaning a heavy rainfall. With such affluence of quickening powers will the righteous king bless his people. The "Mirror for Magistrates." which is held up in the lovely poem 2 Samuel 23:4 , has a remarkable parallel in its description of the just ruler as resembling a "morning without clouds, when the tender grass springeth out of the earth through clear shining after rain"; but the psalmist heightens the metaphor by the introduction of the mown meadow as stimulated to new growth. This image of the rain lingers with him and shapes his prayer in Psalm 72:7 a. A righteous king will insure prosperity to the righteous, and the number of such will increase. Both these ideas seem to be contained in the figure of their flourishing, which is literally bud or shoot. And, as the people become more and more prevailingly righteous, they receive more abundant and unbroken peace. The psalmist had seen deeply into the conditions of national prosperity, as well as those of individual tranquillity, when he based these on rectitude. With Psalm 72:8 the singer takes a still loftier flight, and prays for the universality of the king’s dominion. In that verse the form of the verb is that which expresses desire, but in Psalm 72:9 and following verses the verbs may be rendered as simple futures. Confident prayers insensibly melt into assurances of their own fulfilment. As the psalmist pours out his petitions, they glide into prophecies; for they are desires fashioned upon promises, and bear, in their very earnestness, the pledge of their realisation. As to the details of the form which the expectation of universal dominion here takes, it need only be noted that we have to do with a poet, not with a geographer. We are not to treat the expressions as if they were instructions to a boundary commission, and to be laid down upon a map. "The sea" is probably the Mediterranean; but what the other sea which makes the opposite boundary may be is hard to say. Commentators have thought of the Persian Gulf, or of an imaginary ocean encircling the flat earth, according to ancient ideas. But more probably the expression is as indeterminate as the parallel one, "the ends of the earth." In the first clause of the verse the psalmist starts from the Mediterranean, the western boundary, and his anticipations travel away into the unknown eastern regions; while, in the second clause, he begins with the Euphrates, which was the eastern boundary of the dominion promised to Israel, and, coming westward, he passes out in thought to the dim regions beyond. The very impossibility of defining the boundaries declares the boundlessness of the kingdom. The poet’s eyes have looked east and west, and in Psalm 72:9 he turns to the south, and sees the desert tribes, unconquered as they have hitherto been, grovelling before the king, and his enemies in abject submission at his feet. The word rendered "desert peoples" is that used in Psalm 74:14 for wild beasts inhabiting the desert, but here it can only mean wilderness tribes. There seems no need to alter the text, as has been proposed, and to read "adversaries." In Psalm 72:10 the psalmist again looks westward, across the mysterious ocean of which he, like all his nation, knew so little. The great city of Tarshish lay for him at the farthest bounds of the world; and between him and it, or perhaps still farther out in the waste unknown, were islands from which rich and strange things sometimes reached Judaea. These shall bring their wealth in token of fealty. Again he looks southward to Sheba in Arabia, and Seba far south below Egypt, and foresees their submission. His knowledge of distant lands is exhausted, and therefore he ceases enumeration, and falls back on comprehensiveness. How little he knew, and how much he believed! His conceptions of the sweep of that "all" were childish; his faith that, however many these unknown kings and nations were, God’s anointed was their king was either extravagant exaggeration, or it was nurtured in him by God, and meant to be fulfilled when a world, wide beyond his dreams and needy beyond his imagination, should own the sway of a King, endowed with God’s righteousness and communicative of God’s peace, in a manner and measure beyond his desires. The triumphant swell of these anticipations passes with wonderful pathos into gentler music, as if the softer tones of flutes should follow trumpet blasts. How tenderly and profoundly the psalm bases the universality of the dominion on the pitying care and delivering power of the King! The whole secret of sway over men lies in that "For," which ushers in the gracious picture of the beneficent and tender-hearted Monarch. The world is so full of sorrow, and men are so miserable and needy, that he who can stanch their wounds, solace their griefs, and shelter their lives will win their hearts and be crowned their king. Thrones based on force are as if set on an iceberg which melts away. There is no solid foundation for rule except helpfulness. In the world and for a little while "they that exercise authority are called benefactors"; but in the long run the terms of the sentence are inverted, and they that are rightly called benefactors exercise authority. The more earthly rulers approximate to this ideal portrait, the more "broad based upon their people’s will" and love will their thrones stand. If Israel’s kings had adhered to it, their throne would have endured. But their failures point to Him in whom the principle declared by the psalmist receives its most tender illustration. The universal dominion of Jesus Christ is based upon the fact that He "tasted death for every man." In the Divine purpose, He has won the right to rule men because He has died for them. In historical realisation, He wins men’s submission because He has given Himself for them. Therefore does He command with absolute authority; therefore do we obey with entire submission. His sway not only reaches out over all the earth, inasmuch as the power of His cross extends to all men, but it lays hold of the inmost will and makes submission a delight. The king is represented in Psalm 72:14 as taking on himself the office of Goel, or Kinsman-Redeemer, and ransoming his subjects’ lives from "deceit and violence." That "their blood is precious in his eyes" is another way of saying that they are too dear to him to be suffered to perish. This king’s treasure is the life of his subjects. Therefore he will put forth his power to preserve them and deliver them. The result of such tender care and delivering love is set forth in Psalm 72:15 , but in obscure language. The ambiguity arises from the absence of expressed subjects for the four verbs in the verse. Who is he who "lives"? Is the same person the giver of the gold of Sheba, and to whom is it given? Who prays, and for whom? And who blesses, and whom does he bless? The plain way of understanding the verse is to suppose that the person spoken of in all the clauses is the same; and then the question comes whether he is the king or the ransomed man. Difficulties arise in carrying out either reference through all the clauses; and hence attempts have been made to vary the subject of the verbs. Delitzsch, for instance, supposes that it is the ransomed man who "lives," the king who gives to the ransomed man gold, and the man who prays for and blesses the king. But such an arbitrary shuttling about of the reference of "he" and "him" is impossible. Other attempts of a similar kind need not be noticed here. The only satisfactory course is to take one person as spoken of by all the verbs. But then the question comes, Who is he? There is much to be said in favour of either hypothesis as answering that question. The phrase which is rendered above "So that he lives," is so like the common invocation "May the king live," that it strongly favours taking the whole verse as a continuance of the petitions for the monarch. But if so, the verb in the second clause (he shall give) must be taken impersonally, as equivalent to "one will give" or "there shall be given," and those in the remaining clauses must be similarly dealt with, or the text altered so as to make them plurals, reading, "They shall pray for him (the king), and shall bless him." On the whole; it is best to suppose that the ransomed man is the subject throughout, and that the verse describes his glad tribute, and continual thankfulness. Ransomed from death, he brings offerings to his deliverer. It seems singular that he should be conceived of both as "needy" and as owning "gold" which he can offer; but in the literal application the incongruity is not sufficient to prevent the adoption of this view of the clause; and in the higher application of the words to Christ and His subjects, which we conceive to be warranted, the incongruity becomes fine and deep truth; for the poorest soul, delivered by Him, can bring tribute, which He esteems as precious beyond all earthly treasure. Nor need the remaining clauses militate against the view that the ransomed man is the subject in them, The psalm had, a historical basis, and all its points cannot be introduced into the Messianic interpretation. This one of praying for the king cannot be; notwithstanding the attempts of some commentators to find a meaning for it in Christian prayers for the spread of Christ’s kingdom. That explanation does violence to the language, mistakes the nature of Messianic prophecy, and brings discredit on the view that the psalm has a Messianic character. The last part of the psalm ( Psalm 72:16-17 ) recurs to petitions for the growth of the nation and the perpetual flourishing of the king’s name. The fertility of the land and the increase of its people are the psalmist’s desires, which are also certainties, as expressed in Psalm 72:16 . He sees in imagination the whole land waving with abundant harvests, which reach even to the tops of the mountains, and rustle in the summer air, with a sound like the cedars of Lebanon, when they move their layers of greenness to the breeze. The word rendered above "abundance" is doubtful; but there does not seem to be in the psalmist’s mind the contrast which he is often supposed to be expressing, beautiful and true as it is, between the small beginnings and the magnificent end of the kingdom on earth. The mountains are here thought of as lofty and barren. If waving harvests clothe their gaunt sides, how will the vales laugh in plentiful crops! As the earth yields her increase, so the people of the king shall be multiplied, and from all his cities they shall spring forth abundant as grass. That figure would bear much expansion; for what could more beautifully set forth rapidity of growth, close-knit community, multiplication of units, and absorption of these in a lovely whole, than the picture of a meadow clothed with its grassy carpet? Such hopes had only partial fulfilment in Israel. Nor have they had adequate fulfilment up till now. But they lie on the horizon of the future, and they shall one day be reached. Much that is dim is treasured in them. There may be a renovated world, from which the curse of barrenness has been banished. There shall be a swift increase of the subjects of the King, until the earlier hope of the psalm is fulfilled, and all nations shall serve him. But bright as are the poet’s visions concerning the kingdom, his last gaze is fastened on its king, and he prays that his name may last forever, and may send forth shoots as long as the sun shines in the sky. He probably meant no more than a prayer for the continual duration of the dynasty, and his conception of the name as sending forth shoots was probably that of its being perpetuated in descendants. But, as has been already noticed, the perpetuity, which he conceived of as belonging to a family and an office, really belongs to the One King, Jesus Christ, whose Name is above every name, and will blossom anew in fresh revelations of its infinite contents, not only while the sun shines, but when its fires are cold and its light quenched. The psalmist’s last desire is that the ancient promise to the fathers may be fulfilled in the King, their descendant, in whom men shall bless themselves. So full of blessedness may He seem to all men, that they shall take Him for the very type of felicity, and desire to be even as He is! In men’s relation to Christ the phrase assumes a deeper meaning still: and though that is not intended by the psalmist, and is not the exposition of his words, it still is true that in Christ all blessings for humanity are stored, and that therefore if men are to be truly blessed they must plunge themselves into Him, and in Him find all that they need for blessedness and nobility of life and character. If He is our supreme type of whatsoever things are fair and of good report, and if we have bowed ourselves to Him because He has delivered us from death, then we share in His life, and all His blessings are parted among us. The Expositor's Bible Text Courtesy of BibleSupport.com . Used by Permission.

Give the king Thy judgments, O God, and Thy righteousness unto the king's son. Psalm 72 The world-wanted king Homilist. Society cannot exist without laws: these laws require to be expressed and enforced, and whoever does this is ruler. Again, whilst the millions have the instinct of obedience, and lack the faculty to rule, there are always some, on the other hand, in whom there is the tendency and the power to govern. Let us look at the reign of this ideal king as here sketched. I. It is characterized by RIGHTEOUSNESS AND COMPASSION (vers. 1-4). This compassion, this tender, practical sympathy for the woes of the indigent and oppressed, is not something opposed to righteousness. It is but a modification of righteousness, or rather, another phase of righteousness. Justice is but love sternly opposing all that is injurious to the universe, and benevolently encouraging all that is promotive of happiness. Justice is like some Alpine hill, when the sun is descending in the West" on one side it is dark, frowning, terrific, on the other side it glows in brightness, disports in beauty. This compassion, this mercy, "becomes the throned monarch better than his crown." II. It is characterized by the HIGHEST NATIONAL BLESSINGS (vers. 3, 7). 1. General peace. The prevalence of universal good-will is essential to universal peace. Men not seeking their own as the grand end, but seeking the good of each other. 2. Spiritual vitality. 3. The prosperity of the righteous. Men will be considered great, useful, and honourable in proportion to the amount of rectitude that lives in their hearts and comes out in their daily life. III. It is characterized by its MORAL COMMAND OVER ALL PEOPLES (vers. 9-11). Moral worth is always mighty; like the sun, no man can ignore it, no man can disregard its influence, or deny its value. But moral worth in a king is especially mighty, it is seen, and wherever seen is felt. Moral worth is moral sovereignty. IV. It is characterized by its EXPANSIBILITY AND DURATION (vers. 8, 16, 17). The language does not mean that the king himself is to live and reign for ever, but that his name, his moral character, will be held in everlasting remembrance and will work on the earth for good as long as the sun and moon shall last. V. It is characterized by its DIVINE ESTABLISHMENT (vers. 18, 19). For such a king as this the mighty Sovereign of the universe deserves the devoutest praises of men. He alone can form the character of such a king. ( Homilist. ) Messiah's reign G. F. Pentecost, D. D. I. CHARACTERISTICS. 1. Righteousness (ver 2). ( Isaiah 11:1-5 ; Isaiah 32:1, 17 ). Not till He comes whose right it is to reign will there be on earth a king whose judgments shall be based on an absolute knowledge of men, independent of the sensual judgment of sight and hearing. Then, and then only, will the people have righteousness meted out to them; then only will the poor be perfectly defended from the oppression of the rich. 2. Strength ( Revelation 12:10 ). In the day of Christ's reign oppression shall not only come to an end, but the saints shall inherit the kingdom and the oppressor shall be cast out of power. 3. Gentleness (ver. 6). Not with the sword does Christ win His kingdom, nor by such means will He execute righteousness in the deliverance of His poor and in the breaking of the tyrant's power, but by the almighty strength of truth itself. 4. Peace and prosperity (vers. 8, 10, 16). This can only indicate an abundance of every supply, both for the people in country and city, and for all purposes of state and kingdom. II. EXTENT. 1. Duration. An everlasting reign (vers. 15, 17). His Kingship, as well as His Priesthood, is in the power of an endless life ( Psalm 21:4 ; Psalm 61:6, 7 ). 2. Subjects. Not only of all nations, but of every class of men in all nations. 3. Territory (ver. 8). What a heaven this earth will be with the curse removed, all wickedness and evil taken out of the hearts and lives of all people; waters shall break out in the desert, and the very beasts of the field and the forest shall rest at peace each side with the others. III. UNIVERSAL ADORATION. 1. Prayer. "Prayer shall be made to Him continually." Every want shall be presented to Him, in the spirit of constant and humble, yet confident supplication, and no good thing will be witheld from those who pray. 2. Praise. "And daily shall He be praised." Eternity will not be too long wherein to praise Him who shall have delivered our souls from death, from the deceit and oppression of the wicked, especially from the power of our great enemy, the devil; to praise Him for the unspeakable blessings of forgiveness, justification, regeneration, sanctification. 3. Gifts. "To Him shall be given the gold of Sheba." The people will themselves be a free-will offering to their Lord and King; all that they are and have shall be laid at His feet as being worth nothing apart from Him and His blessing. Who shall say that in the age of glory there shall not be vast fields and unknown opportunities for the employment of all the redeemed and sanctified powers of man? ( G. F. Pentecost, D. D. ) Jesus both King and King's Son George Phillips. "The king — the king's son." We see that our Lord is here termed both "king" and "the king's son"; both as respect to His human nature and also as to His Divine origin; for the Father of the universe may, of course, be properly denominated King. Agreeably to this designation we find on Turkish coins the inscription, "Sultan, son of Sultan." ( George Phillips. ) The mountains shall bring peace to the people, and the little hills, by righteousness. Psalm 72:3 Mountain peace Hugh Macmillan, D. D. Sympathy between the moral and physical worlds pervades the whole of Scripture and especially this seventy-second psalm. The beauty of the redeemed soul will be reflected, as it was at the first, in the beauty of a regenerated earth. Man will be then like another Adam in another Eden. Through the righteous rule of the new King of Israel, the physical features of the land of promise are pictured as contributing to the tranquillity and happiness of its people. Mountains in olden times were associated with gloom and terror. Imagination saw in them shapes of evil, and they seemed to belong to an alien, accursed land. Scenes of grandeur which the traveller will traverse half the globe to gaze upon with rapture were of old avoided altogether, or passed quickly through with shuddering dread. But we do not feel so now. The causes of this are varied. Increase of population, facility for travel, the pressure of crowded city life making us long for the quiet and grandeur of nature, increase of knowledge, etc. Now, in our text the security which mountains give is mainly referred to. Hence we learn — I. THE PEACE WHICH THEY GIVE IS THE PEACE OF SAFETY. In the plains man is exposed to attack on all sides, but amongst the mountains nature is his defence. See the Waldenses, Covenanters, Jews. For Palestine is an alpine land; hence in Babylon the exiles thought of their mountains as they sang, "I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help." II. AND OF ELEVATION. It is in the heights of the soul that we can get true and lasting peace. On the low levels of sense life we are as was he who went down to Jericho — stripped and wounded by the evils of life. Man's moral career has run parallel with his physical. He descended from the mountain ranges of Asia to her level plains, and to Egypt; and so has it been spiritually. But we cannot be satisfied there. We must ascend again, cost what it will. Then we regain peace to our souls. If the strain of the ascent be great, so is the peace likewise. For on the height we are above the changes of this world. The soul that dwells ever on high has perpetual sunshine. III. AND IT IS THE PEACE OF COMPENSATION. The heavens come near and expand as the earth recedes and lessens. The men who saw most of heaven were they who possessed the least of earth. See Moses. IV. UNIFICATION. From the mountain top we see the whole landscape, not merely isolated portions. And so to ascend into the hill of the Lord is to see our life as a whole, and how parts of it that have distressed us belong to the goodly whole. V. ISOLATION. Mountains are as retreats from the fevered conventional life of cities. We can be alone with God, as in the secret chamber. So has it been wit, h all God's great saints, they ascended often where the noisy echoes of the world did not penetrate, and where only the still small voices of the sanctuary were heard. As we rise in spiritual life, the more lonely do we become. Our citizenship is in heaven. ( Hugh Macmillan, D. D. ) The use of great men A. Mackennal, D. D. The king is as a mountain. It is the meaning and the vindication of all greatness — of position, intellect, or character — that the great should live for the humble. I. THE USE OF GREAT MEN. Consider the uses of mountains. Besides their value as the bulwarks of a country, their services in kindling patriotism and educating feeling, they have very homely uses. They catch for us the sunshine, at once radiating and tempering the light and heat; the dews of heaven rest on them; underneath their mosses the rain lingers, filling the springs, trickling in runlets that supply the rivers; they bear the snows that all through the early summer refresh the heated land, and when autumn comes they precipitate the thunder showers and draw the passing wealth of storms; they bear the fury of the tempest, and shield the valleys from hurricane and hail; the lightning smites them harmless, which else might shiver homesteads and destroy the beasts; their waste supplies the lack of the lowlands; rich vegetable soil is washed from them over the hungry fields; the sands which descend from them bank in the rivers; of their stones the husbandman makes his fences, and from their forests he makes his tools. Mighty mountains — useful as mighty, benignant as strong; useful because so mighty, peaceful because so strong. I am not going to draw out these analogies at length, though every one of them is capable of copious exposition; t would simply say we need great men. There are many things the world wants done which only a few can do. We rest under the shadow of a truly great man as shepherds underneath a friendly mountain. If great men will only help the lowly, they may be sure of trusting friends. The strong is sure to be followed by the weaker. We want the tender to soothe troubled hearts; the saint to help us with his prayers. Both in their privileges and their trials great men are not inaptly symbolized by mountains. It is not that God does not care for the lowly; it is not that, like the blossoms on a fruit tree, only a few are reserved for ripening, and it matters not what becomes of the rest. God has not given the many to the few. He has given the few to and for the many. And if a great man does not care to learn the lesson, he is great no longer. There is no enduring greatness save in righteousness. But if it is idle to deny the advantages of greatness, it is unthankful to forget its trials. Freedom from meaner cares means exposure to strong temptations. The wind sweeps round the mountain top when the valley below is still; and humbler souls know nothing of the struggles that shake the lofty. Two distinct elements of character must meet in every one who shall be great with this protecting, helping greatness — courage of Soul enough to bear the tribulation — graciousness of character enough to count their anguish light, and remember it no more in readiness to be made helpful. Many a sour man is a great man marred in the making; the truly great must have not only ready courage and triumphant patience, they must have also unfaltering faith, unchanging love. II. THE SOURCES OF GREATNESS in a man. They are two — righteousness and tenderness. The office of a judge is here set before us as the noblest human office; protective justice is the thing which makes a man like the great mountains ( A. Mackennal, D. D. ) Peace by power F. D. Huntington, D. D. This an unusual view of the conditions of peace. We expect impressions of tranquillity in the lowlier, not the loftier places of a landscape. The doctrine of the text is, that the quiet of the human soul is to be found not in descending to its lower and feebler states, but in the freedom of its highest qualities, and through its stronger exercises; or, that Christian peace is an attainment of the spiritual energies, and not a mere acquiescence in inferiority. See the Saviour's promise, "My peace I give unto you." But how did He obtain this peace? Was it not by way of the Cross? Power of character is before happiness. We are to be suspicious of effeminate contentments. Look again at the image of our text. The three obvious attributes of mountains are elevation, magnitude, permanency. Now, in just such attributes of human character are we to find real peace. Spiritual serenity is spiritual strength. The most intrepid are the most pacific. Magnanimity makes no quarrels. ( F. D. Huntington, D. D. ) Peace on the mountain Arthur Ritchie. The reason for choosing the mountain for prayer is poetic, but it is more than poetic, it is also practical. There one can be alone and quite still; the sights and sounds of earth are far down below in the valley. And as one is quite still one gets closer to God. Instinctively we think of our heavenly Father as in the sky above us; and so far as we may we approach His kingdom more closely by getting up into the mountain. This you may say is simply poetic, imaginative, but it has a spiritual aspect too, inasmuch as the lifting up of the nature in spirit to heavenly things disposes it to pray with greater realization of the Divine presence, and less of distraction from earthly anxieties. It suggests a beautiful thought that our Lord should thus choose the most retired and ideal spots for His prayers. Because He needed no accessories of this kind. He could without difficulty withdraw Himself from the sights and sounds of earth which would be distracting to others. His devotions could not really be hindered by these things; yet inasmuch as He had taken upon Him the form of a servant, He willed to use all the helps to spiritual living which the Father has provided for His servants. It is the mountain considered as the place of prayer, which is to bring us peace in this world. The outer life is not likely to be peaceful, so far as temporal conditions are concerned. The sphere of human existence is almost invariably a troubled one. The peace is to be found within. And how can one secure it for himself? I know of no way except that of prayer. The thought of the mountains may suggest to us characteristics of genuine prayer, too little accented by us generally. The heart must be still to speak with God, all alone with Him, and pervaded with a sense of the nearness and the solemnity of His presence. When we pray after this sort the peace of God steals gradually over one's whole nature. The tribulations of life do not vanish, the anxieties are still there, but in the transfiguring light of the sense of the Divine nearness they no longer seem unbearable, no longer hopeless. If one really can feel that God cares, and is watching over him, he cannot be greatly disturbed by anything which happens in this present world. No evil spirit or wicked man, no blow of fate can take God from him or him from God, and one needs no more than that. Prayer rightly used throws all about this common weary life of ours a heavenly atmosphere, a halo of the eternal love and goodness. Everything in that celestial haze assumes its true relation to the immortal creature; the temporal things become the dreams, the illusions of a moment; the eternal things are the verities, and in them nought dwells but peace. ( Arthur Ritchie. ) He shall judge the poor of the people, He shall save the children of the needy, and shall break in pieces the oppressor. Psalm 72:4 On the education of the children of the poor A. Brunton, D. D. I. Look to THE PRESENT SITUATION OF THE CHILDREN OF THE NEEDY, and compassion will urge you to befriend them. Look especially to the moral disadvantages and trials to which it subjects them; and you will think it little to relieve their bodily wants, while you leave the mind and the soul in bondage. II. Consider THE DESTINY WHICH AWAITS THESE CHILDREN OF THE NEEDY; — and the relief which before was prompted by compassion, will be felt as the dictate of imperious duty. 1. Let not the prosperous man despise the children of the needy. They in many ways minister towards the supply of his wants. Their labour furnishes the indulgence of his luxury. Their courage defends the interests of his country. They reside, perhaps, under his own roof. His property must be under their charge. His reputation must be in their keeping. 2. The children of the needy are destined for immortality. As surely as the lineaments of the human countenance are found in them, so surely may be found in them also the traces of a mind which thinks, not only for time but for eternity; — the traces of a soul which feels, not only for time but for eternity. ( A. Brunton, D. D. ) God's care for the poor J. Guthrie, D. D. God represents Himself to us as having a peculiar and tender care of the poor. It is not the robust, but delicate, child of the family around whom a father's and mother's affections cluster thickest. The boy or girl whom feebleness of body or mind makes least fit to bear the world's rough usage, and most dependent on others' kindness, is like those tendrils that, winding themselves around the tree they spangle with flowers, bind it more closely in their embraces, and bury their pliant arms deep in its bark. And what a blessed and beautiful arrangement of Providence it is that they who cost most care and lie with greatest weight on parents' arms and hearts are commonly most loved. ( J. Guthrie, D. D. ) They shall fear Thee as long as the sun and moon endure, throughout all generations. Psalm 72:5 The perpetuity and imperishable nature of the religion of Christ James Smith, M. A. The grand doctrine brought before us in these words is the perpetuity of the Church of Christ upon the earth; or the imperishable and indestructible character of His religion. We conceive that the same doctrine that is taught in this text is taught in such passages of Scripture as the following: "The gates of hell shall not prevail against the Church — one generation shall praise thy works to another, and shall declare thy mighty acts — of the increase of the government of the Messiah there shall be no end; my salvation shall be from generation to generation." And notwithstanding all the vicissitudes of the Church of Christ, that Church has been preserved through them all. In the reign of Solomon the Church in Israel seemed likely that men would always fear the Lord. But we know what apostasy began in his reign, and went on with scarcely an interruption till the days of the captivity. And then from the time of our Lord there have been seasons of decay, but revival has ever followed. All attempts to efface Christianity have failed, numerous, varied, and severe though they have been. We conclude, therefore, that the Church can never perish so long as time shall endure. ( James Smith, M. A. ) The perpetuity and beneficence of Christ's reign T. L. Cuyler, D. D. Like the treacherous signal-boats that are sometimes stationed by the wreckers off an iron-bound coast, the shifting systems of false religion are continually changing their places. Like them, they attract only to bewilder, and allure only to destroy. The unwary mariner follows them with a trembling uncertainty, and only finds out where he is when he feels his ill-fated vessel crashing into a thousand fragments on the beach. But how different to these floating and delusive systems is that unchanging Gospel of Christ, which stands forth like the towering lighthouse of Eddystone, with its beacon blaze streaming far out over the midnight sea. It moves not, it trembles not, for it is founded upon a rock. Year by year the storm-stricken mariner looks out for its star-like light as he sweeps in through the British Channel. It is the first object that meets his eye as he returns on his homeward voyage; it is the last he beholds long after his native land has sunk beneath the evening wave. So is it with the unchanging Gospel of Christ. While other systems rise and fall, and pass into nothingness, this Gospel, like its immutable Author, is the same "yesterday, to-day, and for ever." While other false and flashing lights are extinguished, this, the true light, ever shineth. ( T. L. Cuyler, D. D. ) Christ's perpetuity Leslie Stephen says, "It takes a very powerful voice and a very clear utterance to make a man audible to the fourth generation." That is very true, yet there is quite a galaxy of men who have spoken the clear utterance with a powerful voice, and have been heard through many centuries; but there is but one man, the man Christ Jesus, concerning whom it could be said, "They shall fear Thee as long as the sun and moon endure, throughout all generations." He shall come down like rain upon the mown grass; as showers that water the earth. Psalm 72:6 Rain upon the mown grass S. Martin, D. D. Some men say that Christianity is not genial, that the Christian scheme exhibits God in a most unlovely aspect, that the doctrines of Christ are dark with awful mysteries, that the promises of the Christian dispensation offer but little of present benefit, that its precepts demand conduct which is too high and self-sacrificing, that its ordinances are depressing rather than elevating, and that, as a whole, Christianity promotes narrow minds and feeble judgment, morbid and morose feelings, an enslaved will, a too sensitive conscience, an unmanly bearing, and a character which is intellectually low, and unsocial, and melancholy. This charge against the religion of Jesus Christ is most unjust, and cannot be maintained; it rests not upon truth, but upon prejudice. The Gospel is a device to seek and save the lost: not to judge but to justify, not to scathe and waste, but to sanctify and save. And it is a Divine device, planned and carried out by God our Father. We see love going after the lost. Now, if this be the Christian scheme; if it be a plan of redemption designed by the grace of God, and if it be executed, so far as its general provisions are concerned, by the Son of God, and if it be revealed and applied by the Holy Ghost the Comforter; if its morality be based upon love, and if it be spread by moral and spiritual forces; if it is received by faith, if it give not the spirit of fear, but of power and love and a sound mind; if it bring good out of evil, and be consummated in the restoration of God's image to man, and of all saved men to the paradise regained; if it bring knowledge, and wisdom, and pardon, and purity, and patience, and love, and victory, and life; then we ask, Can this scheme be other than genial, and ought not its effect upon its disciples to be the nourishing within them of all goodness, and the production of genuine and habitual cheerfulness ? Not genial? Then there is nothing genial. Soft morning light is not genial. Balmy evening air is not genial. Gentle and warm rain is not genial. Spring sunshine is not genial. The mother's bosom is not genial. There is nothing genial on this earth. I had almost said, there can be nothing genial in heaven. ( S. Martin, D. D. ) Rain upon the mown grass L. Hebditch. The psalm tells of One greater than Solomon — Christ. These words teach that God will see to it that, by some means, Christ shall be made known to all mankind. I. CHRIST IS OF UNSPEAKABLE VALUE TO MEN. Language is inadequate to set this preciousness forth. Our present estimate is low and feeble, even in our holiest moments. But it is a happy thing when an author illustrates his own book. Now, God has done this. Nature illustrates Grace: that is, God illustrates God; for in nature we have the best resemblances to God's dealings in the kingdom of His Son. As the sleeping, frozen earth needs, in order to make up to beauty and fruitfulness, the sun and the rain, so the soul of man needs Christ. For what is the human spirit without the Saviour? A clod of earth hardened into stone. See the condition of those peoples who know not Christ. And remember, Christ does not merely prevent our dying: He comes with a blessed quickening upon the human spirit. The simile of the text fails, for the rain does not give life, but only quickens seeds already in the earth. But Christ acts upon the latent powers of the mind, wakes up all its faculties, makes the man worthy to be called a child of God. When Christ comes to. us we become conscious of a new life. II. AND AS THE RAIN COMES SO DOES CHRIST COME. When God gave Christ to man it was a question how He should bring Him home to human hearts. And it is a problem which ought to stir all Christian people, how to make Christ known to men. But here again nature helps us. What a beautiful paradise God has constructed, "watering the hills from His chambers." There is the great ocean I more than three-fourths of the world's surface is water. But in vain would that water lie all round the land and lave its shores. All vegetation would die if the water lay there; and so the great God has set in operation a wonderful mechanism. The sun daily, hourly, every moment, draws that water up into the air by evaporation; currents created by the sun float that vapour thousands of miles inland; and then the alternating strata of warm and cold air effects its condensation, and all over the earth it falls wherever it is needed, and waters the earth. The icy mountain peaks amongst the Alps are continual cloud factories. The invisible vapour rising one side of the mountain is condensed by the cold air of the summit, and formed into a cloud. It is ever producing clouds and sending them away over the land. And how seasonably the rain comes, and silently and freely. So Christ comes to men. ( L. Hebditch. ) Rain upon the mown grass Hugh Macmillan, D. D. No more tender and beautiful image than this can be found in the whole range of sacred poetry. It is full of precious significance The memories and associations which it suggests are very sweet. We all know the summer harvest of the hay-makers, whose pleasant toils seem to anticipate those of the autumn harvest of the corn. How different is the aspect of the hay-field before the grass is cut, and after it is mown and the hay removed! A meadow covered from end to end with tall ripe grass crowned with rich dark-purple heads of blossom and seed, and rippling in light and shadow like the waves of the sea, as the sun and the wind chase each other over them, is one of the most beautiful of rural sights. Myriads of wild flowers add the glory of their colour and the fragrance of their perfume to the blades of grass among which they grow. The eye is never weary of gazing upon the bright and living mosaic. But how different the aspect when the scythe has done its work. All the beauty has vanished; the fragrance that loaded the air is gone, and nothing remains but the stubble, a short, pale, sickly-yellow sward, without grace of form, beauty or colour. And this desolation of aspect is greatly aggravated during a season of drought, when the sky is as brass, and, the earth is as iron, and the pitiless sun scorches the field. But how striking the change when a shower of rain comes; if it continues, what a healing process goes on, until at last an aftermath is formed which may be even more luxuriant than was the field in its first fresh strong growth. The rain upon the mown grass is thus the harbinger of new beauties and of a richer fragrance and fulness of life. And this is especially so in the arid soil and climate of Bible lands. The grass there, when cut, seems to dry up completely, and a brown naked waste remains. But when the rain comes it seems to spring up as if by magic, and renews with wonderful rapidity its former freshness and fairness ( Deuteronomy 32:2 ; 2 Samuel 23:4 ). Now, notwithstanding the title, the internal evidence of the psalm points to a far later date, when the Jewish kingdom was reduced to the lowest straits; when the nation was like the mown grass, shorn of their power and glory, blighted, withered and trampled under foot. But in this condition they looked for the advent of a new King who should restore them, and be to them like "rain upon the mown grass." Thus, against the dark background of Jewish calamities arose the bright vision of the Messiah. But the Jews were the representatives of the human race, and therefore the image has a wider application. Through the fall all flesh became grass and his glory as the flower of the field. Everything became adverse to him who was afflicted with the great adversity of sin. But to man thus ruined the Lord Jesus Christ came to save him from his sin. How tender was the dealing of God with man. Like as He came to Adam and Eve after they had sinned, "in the cool of the day" — not suddenly, hastily, or angrily. And though His voice was stern there was a tone of tenderness and pity in it. And a higher life for man, a richer glory for God, is to be the aftermath which shall spring up in the wilderness through the rain of God's grace to sinners. And throughout the whole course of our Lord's life on earth, how wonderfully does He manifest the gentleness and tenderness of God. His works were these of healing and restoration, and are so still. And let the sufferer take the comfort of the text. How bare, scorched, shorn, many a life appears; all beauty, fragrance gone. But though He has mown down so much that we rejoiced in, His purpose is the aftermath which shall be more precious still. The rain of His grace comes down upon the poor, bruised, broken life, and the affliction that is not joyous but grievous afterwards yieldeth the peaceable fruits of righteousness. ( Hugh Macmillan, D. D. ) Rain on the mown grass H. Bevis. The text presents to us — I. A SCENE WHERE ONLY GENIAL AND QUIET INFLUENCES ARE AT WORK. The gentle showers water the earth. God does not rend the heavens and come down. Nor does He come in the storm; but in all gentleness. II. A SCENE OF TRANSFORMATION. See the changes of spring. So in the Church God gives revivals. III. A SCENE OF FERTILITY. Life is seen in its gentleness, strength, beauty and fragrance. IV. OF REVIVAL. V. RENOVATION. Life with some of you seems bare and desolate, shorn of its glory; still its autumn may be green, and the rain may weave new garlands for the brow of age. Your circumstances are changed. Your health is gone; or your property is lost. The fleece of life has been removed, so that it is stripped and bare of its covering; but, He shall come down like rain upon the mown grass. You have had bereavements. The widow says, I have lost my husband, and am desolate and alone in the world. The mother says, I have lost my child, and "my heart is smitten and withered like grass." The friend says, I have lost my companion, and henceforth my life is divested of interest. But He will come down like rain upon the mown grass. You think your heart is bare and burnt up as the field. The mower has come into your enclosure, and life has fallen before him; but God can pour out on you all quiet and blessed influences, and put new beauty upon life. ( H. Bevis. ) The blessings of Christ's reign Anon. The Holy Spirit has chosen to set forth these by an instructive and beautiful simile. Divine grace resembles the rain. I. AS TO THE SOURCE WHENCE IT PROCEEDS. Rain is the gift of God: a promised blessing, and its needed and seasonable showers may be sought by prayer. II. AS TO THE MANNER IN WHICH IT DESCENDS. 1. Sometimes violently, it falls in torrents. 2. Sometimes gently. 3. Frequently. 4. Unexpectedly. III. AS TO THE BENEFITS WHICH IT CONFERS. 1. It presents great evils. 2. It makes the labour of the husbandman easy and successful. 3. Causes plentifulness, and — 4. Beauty. IV. CONCLUSION. 1. Acknowledge with deep humility our great need of the Spirit. 2. Honour and study the Word of God as the instrument by which the Spirit delights to work out our salvation. ( Anon. ) On the Nativity A. Farindon, B. D. I. CONSIDER THE INCARNATION OF THE SON OF GOD AS A DESCENT or coming down. II. THE MANNER OF THIS DESCENT. It was "sweet and peaceable, without trouble, without noise, scarcely to be perceived"; not in the strong wind, to rend us to pieces; not in the earthquake, to shake us; not in the fire, to consume us; but in

72:1 This psalm belongs to Solomon in part, but to Christ more fully and clearly. Solomon was both the king and the king's son, and his pious father desired that the wisdom of God might be in him, that his reign might be a remembrance of the kingdom of the Messiah. It is the prayer of a father for his child; a dying blessing. The best we can ask of God for our children is, that God would give them wisdom and grace to know and to do their duty. 72:2-17 This is a prophecy of the kingdom of Christ; many passages in it cannot be applied to the reign of Solomon. There were righteousness and peace at first in the administration of his government; but, before the end of his reign, there were troubles and unrighteousness. The kingdom here spoken of is to last as long as the sun, but Solomon's was soon at an end. Even the Jewish expositors understood it of the kingdom of the Messiah. Observe many great and precious promises here made, which were to have full accomplishment only in the kingdom of Christ. As far as his kingdom is set up, discord and contentions cease, in families, churches, and nations. The law of Christ, written in the heart, disposes men to be honest and just, and to render to all their due; it likewise disposes men to live in love, and so produces abundance of peace. Holiness and love shall be lasting in Christ's kingdom. Through all the changes of the world, and all the changes of life, Christ's kingdom will support itself. And he shall, by the graces and comforts of his Spirit, come down like rain upon the mown grass; not on that cut down, but that which is left growing, that it may spring again. His gospel has been, or shall be, preached to all nations. Though he needs not the services of any, yet he must be served with the best. Those that have the wealth of this world, must serve Christ with it, do good with it. Prayer shall be made through him, or for his sake; whatever we ask of the Father, should be in his name. Praises shall be offered to him: we are under the highest obligations to him. Christ only shall be feared throughout all generations. To the end of time, and to eternity, his name shall be praised. All nations shall call HIM blessed. 72:18-20 We are taught to bless God in Christ, for all he has done for us by him. David is earnest in prayer for the fulfilment of this prophecy and promise. It is sad to think how empty the earth is of the glory of God, how little service and honour he has from a world to which he is so bountiful. May we, like David, submit to Christ's authority, and partake of his righteousness and peace. May we bless him for the wonders of redeeming love. May we spend our days, and end our lives, praying for the spread of his gospel.