Psalms 72:1-20

Psalms 42:72

Gordon Churchyard

Words in boxes are from the Bible.

Words marked with a *star are described in the word list at the end.

The translated Bible text has yet to go through Advanced Checking.

The Good, Great King of *Glory

Psalms 72

Psalms 72:1-7 ~ The Good King

(This psalm is) for or by Solomon.

v1 God, give your *justice to the king
and your *righteousness to the king’s son.

v2 He will rule your people with *righteousness
and the poor people with *justice.

v3 With *righteousness will the mountains
and the hills bring *peace to the people.

v4 He will *defend the poor people
and save the children of those that are in need.
He will destroy *cruel people

v5 and they will be afraid of him
as long as there is a sun and a moon.

v6 He will be *like rain that falls on grass that people have just cut.
He will be *like showers that bring water to the earth.

v7 When he is king, a *righteous person will do well.
There will be *peace until there is no moon!

The Story of Psalms 72

This psalm is about the best king that there can ever be! Maybe David wrote it for (or about) his son, Solomon; or maybe it is by Solomon. Christians have always believed that there is only one king it can really be about: Jesus!

What Psalms 72:1-7 means

There are three important words in this part of the psalm:

• righteousness means goodness, or being very, very good (verses 1, 2, 3). In verse 1 we see that it is God's righteousness that the king has. In verse 7 the good people he rules will have it, and also be *righteous.

• *justice means fairness, or being fair (verses 1, 2).

• *peace (verses 3, 7) means more than "no fighting". Here it also means health and wealth (plenty of money and things). "The mountains and the hills" (verse 3) mean all the land where they live.

In verse 1 the king and the king’s son are the same person.

In verse 4 the good king will *defend (stop others hurting) the poor people. The *cruel people (that hurt the poor) will always be afraid of the good king. He will be as showers of rain that bring life to the dead earth! He will always do this while the sun and moon both shine (verses 5 and 7). This means always.

Psalms 72:8-14 ~ The Great King

v8 He will rule from sea to sea
and from the river to the ends of the earth.

v9 People that live in wild places will kneel in front of him
and his enemies will eat the dirt.

v10 Kings from Spain and other far places will give him money
and kings from Arabia and Africa will bring him gifts.

v11 All the kings will fall down in front of him
and people in every land will become his servants.

v12 For he will save the person in need that is crying for help.
And he will save the poor that nobody is giving help to.

v13 He will be kind to people that are weak and in need.
He will save the lives of the people in need.

v14 He will buy back their lives from *cruel people that hurt them.
Their blood is of great value in his eyes.

What Psalms 72:8-14 means

There are three important words in this part of the psalm also:

• the person in need (verses 12, 13). "In need" is an English way (or idiom) to say people that need money, food, clothes or a home.

• the poor (verse 12, also verses 2 and 4). This means more than people with not much money. It also means people that rich and powerful people oppress. Oppress means that they are *cruel (very *unkind) to them. They make them work so that the rich and powerful people get more money and the poor get very little money.

• save (verses 12, 13, also verse 4). These words are not all the same in Hebrew, but all mean "save" or "rescue" ("take you away from someone hurting you") One of the Hebrew words is YOSHEA, which in Greek became JESUS!

In verse 8 the river is the Euphrates. The verse means that the king will be so great that he will rule all the world. In verse 9 "kneel" means "fall to your knees"; and "eat the dirt" means "your faces are on the ground". This is what happened to the enemies of a king many years ago when he caught them. In verse 10 one of the places is Sheba in Hebrew, whose *Queen brought Solomon gifts.

Psalms 72:15-20 ~ The King Of *Glory

v15 I pray that he will always be alive and that:
• people will give him gold from Arabia (Sheba)
• people will always pray for him
• people will *bless him all the day.

v16 There will be plenty of *grain in the land.
It will blow (in the wind) even on the top of the mountains.
Its fruit will grow as well as (in) Lebanon.
Even people in the towns will be as grass in a field.

v17 His name will remain *for ever.
It will continue as long as the sun (shines).
All people will *bless themselves by him
and people in every country will say that he is happy.

v18 *Bless the *LORD God, the God of Israel.
Only he does wonderful things.

v19 *Bless his glorious name *for ever.
Fill all the earth with his *glory.

v20 This is the end of the *prayers of David, son of Jesse.

What Psalms 72:15-20 means

There is a special word that comes 4 times in this part of the psalm: *bless (verses 15, 17, 18 and 19). There is no English word that means the same as the Hebrew "bless" (baruch). It means more than "say and do good things to". Also, it does not have the same meaning when:

• God *blesses us (which means we will have many children, so will our animals, our plants will grow well and we will have much money, houses and fields)

• We *bless God (which means we say how good, great and glorious he is, in other words, we *praise him). "Glorious" is the adjective (a word that describes) from "glory". "Glory" means "shining as the sun".

In verse 16 *grain is what we make bread with. In Lebanon, all the plants grew well. In verse 17 "*for ever" means "always" … even after we die! Verse 20 tells us that Psalms 72 finishes the Second Book of Psalms.

Something to do

Read Psalms 72. Find as many things as you can that make you think about Jesus.

This publication is written in EasyEnglish Level A (1200 words)

July 2001

glory ~ (of God) a very bright light that shines from inside him.
glory ~ (of men) what makes somebody important (of God) a very bright light that shines from inside him.
justice ~ what is fair and right.
righteousness ~ being very good.
peace ~ when we are friends with God and with other people; no war.
defend ~ stop an enemy attacking and hurting someone.
cruel ~ not kind, hurting people.
like ~ another word for ‘as’.
righteous ~ very very good; only God is very righteous (or has righteousness); doing what is right.
unkind ~ not kind.
queen ~ the wife of a king.
bless ~ say good things about, or do good things to.
grain ~ seed of a tall grass-like plant, that we use to make bread.
like ~ another word for ‘as’.
bless ~ say good things about, or do good things to.
LORD ~ a special name for God; only his people use it (look after Psalm 25 in Psalms 1-41).
lord ~ someone with authority (with a capital L a name for God, look after Psalm 25 in Psalms 1-41).
glory ~ (of God) a very bright light that shines from inside him.
glory ~ (of men) what makes somebody important (of God) a very bright light that shines from inside him.
prayer ~ words that you say when you *pray.
praise ~ (noun, or being something) words that say that someone or something is very good.
praise ~ (verb, or doing something) say that someone or something is very good.'