Day 18 - Psalm 72
What makes a king? Often in history, a king was portrayed as someone who was power hungry, who demanded everything, and gave as little as possible, one thought that everyone else existed solely for his benefit.
This Psalm opens up with a petition to God that the character of the king would have the same love of justice and righteousness. It goes on asking that people would be judged right, the poor treated fairly and defended, the children of the needy being rescued, their oppressors being crushed.
Like David is praying for the king, we too are called to pray for everyone, including those in authority over us (I Timothy 2.1-2), there isn’t an opt out cause based upon whether we agree or not, it is a direct commandment. What a responsibility we have, to pray for our government, even when we might not like them so much. In a climate of increasingly polarised politics and BREXIT, how much more important it is to pray for our government. The next verse says that ‘this is the way that our Saviour God wants us to live.’ (MSG)
Psalm 72 speaks of the desire of a king who sounds pretty awesome even so much that the poor and humble having an advocate with the king (v4 TPT). The good news, the awesome news is that WE have an advocate (1 John 2.1) with the King in Jesus Christ. One that speaks on our behalf.
Imagine a court-room where all our wrongs, our sins, are laid out in front of us, in front of God as a judge. But, and it is a huge BUT, we have Jesus Christ on our side, not just as an awesome lawyer, but someone who has already paid the price, that we can be free. Incredible.
Think it over / Meditate on:
Pray for our nation, for our government. That strong Christian voices will be heard amongst the noise.
How can we in our daily lives, exhibit this sort of character spoken about in Psalm 72 to those around us?
What does it mean to you to be living a life of freedom, without condemnation? Thank Jesus today that He bought your freedom.
Tim
Tim Croxson, Senior Leader