Here is the most detailed prophecy – 900 years before the event – of Christ’s work and of the way He would capture the hearts of billions until the final day of earth’s history. This is the message of eternal life.
‘Give the King thy judgments, O God, and thy righteousness unto the King’s Son.
And I’ve given this little address, the title, God’s Plan for the World, because that’s just about what this Psalm is. If Isaiah, chapter 53, is the greatest prophecy of the Bible of the Old Testament about Christ’s work on Calvary, then this Psalm 72 is the greatest prophecy about the whole of Christ’s work and what he would accomplish and what he would do for lost souls.
It is an astonishing prophecy, a most remarkable one, certainly about the most remarkable person, the man Christ Jesus, who was the eternal Son of God, God and man. It is about the greatest accomplishment ever in the history of the world and the universe, that suffering and death of Christ on Calvary which atoned for the sins of billions and purchased salvation for them and reconciled men and women of every land and nation, every day and age, who believed in Christ to him.
It’s about the most enduring work because what Christ has done in coming to earth secures the salvation of souls for all eternity. Certainly the most important subject, the most important work, the most important phase of earth’s history, the Gospel age is all in this Psalm.
It is amazing. Now right at the top of the Psalm, it says in our King James Version, a Psalm for Solomon. Now that can equally well be translated and most people do translate it this way, a Psalm of Solomon or a Psalm by Solomon.
It is thought that the King James Translators chose a Psalm for Solomon. The original can go either way because of the last verse of the Psalm, the prayers of David, the son of Jesse are ended. And we assume that so as not to contradict that last verse, they called it a Psalm for Solomon, a valid translation rather than a Psalm of Solomon. But the more natural sense is a Psalm of Solomon. And so for centuries it has been thought that this was in fact set to writing by Solomon.
John Calvin’s assumption was that these are the dying words of King David. They are his words. It is his prophecy put into Hebrew poetry by his son King Solomon. So it was always called for many years the Psalm of two kings. It’s not about Solomon. It’s not for Solomon. It’s about someone far greater than Solomon.’
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