I don't think there's anywhere you can go where you can escape a commentary on society.

We hear it on the radio and like me, maybe you've gone through quite a number of radios because somehow you find yourself between nine and half ten in the morning on Radio Ulster, lifting your radio and throwing it out the window.

No harm to Stephen Nolan, but he does like to stir the pot.

We see it on our televisions, we're bombarded by it.

And now we see increasing stations wanting to counter what they believe is factually incorrect or that there's another story to tell.

We read opinion pieces in the newspaper and we're bombarded with opinion on social media.

And we must remember social media, that's what it is, opinion.

And if someone doesn't like something, then we hear about it.

And if the government, either in Westminster or Stormont, does something that we don't like, then it's not only an opinion that's given to us, there's also normally a solution offered about how it could be done better by the person who's talking to us.

And we often hear phrases of those politicians.

Then, after a bit of commentary, we hear the person saying, if only.

Now, there's nothing wrong with having an opinion, nor is it wrong to have a political conviction, but we must always be aware that there will be people that will disagree with us as well as those who will agree.

And if we were in charge of the country for a day, a whole day, well, maybe even a whole week, what would you do first to fix it?

If I were to give you all a postcard and write down what you do to fix the things that you think are broken, where would you start?

Would it be health?

Would it be education?

Would it be infrastructure?

Would it be the economy?

You see, whenever you actually drill it down and you try to think, there's no one thing we can fix because they're all dependent on each other.

You see, we all have a plethora of answers to how we might fix the country if we were in charge.

But each of us here will have different priorities on how to lead a country based on what we think is broken.

But if we were to start with a blank page and make a country from scratch, what would it look like?

And, of course, that's what happened 250 years ago, because you cannot have ignored the celebration of treason.

Sorry, I mean freedom.

That America is celebrating this weekend, Independence Day.

But more importantly, 250 years.

I did think about this.

If I live another 50 years and America celebrates its 300th anniversary, I will have been alive for a third of the history of America.

And as King Charles said when he spoke to the House of Representatives, for us, that's just yesterday.

But they had the opportunity 250 years to rip up what was society, to begin something new.

And that's exactly what they did.

And although the names are not very familiar to us, there were many Irish Presbyterians who worked on constructing what a new nation would look like based on the Presbyterian form of church government.

So if you have American relatives and they want to know why it's all gone wrong, you blame the Irish Presbyterians.

We couldn't worship in buildings.

We couldn't worship in freedom.

We had to go and hide under trees and in forest and fields.

So for the opportunity to put in place religious freedom was a key part of the constitutional documents of the United States of America.

Now, you may wonder, why is he going on about this?

Is he really wanting us to celebrate America?

250 Well, that's your own choice.

But the reason why I said is because whenever we come to Psalm 72, we see exactly a blueprint of what a society should be like.

It is the last of the psalms of book two, as I said.

And as verse 20 tells us in the last of these, it's the last prayers of David, son of Jesse.

But this psalm presents to us what a good country is to be like.

And it is about the one who leads the people.

This is a prayer for the king, whoever will rule on David's throne.

Well, they are the earthly regent over God's people.

And as this psalm is written, it's Solomon who's on the throne.

And it may have been used even at his coronation as a prayer for godly rule over Israel.

And although it is a prayer that reflects the ideal concept of the king and the glorious effects of that king's reign under God, it also points us to the Messiah's righteous rule.

For no human king could, and by the way, no human king ever did live up to this standard.

And in the world in which we live today, no king or president or prime minister has ever been able to do that.

So the first thing we see in this psalm is that the king of God's people is to be a righteous king.

And we all want good leaders who rule well and do what is right for all people.

I have to say that's one of the things we can admire about the United States Constitution in its very foundational documents.

It was the right of all, whoever they may be.

But that's no easy task to balance the right for all.

Paul writes in Romans 3:10, 11, quoting Psalm 14:1 3, as it is written, there is no one righteous, not even one.

There is no one who understands, no one who seeks God.

You see, even if you want a righteous king, it's difficult because Paul is quoting to us here what the psalmist has already said and what the psalmist already is, no, there's none righteous.

No, not one.

So this prayer is a sincere prayer that it's not an answer of human workings.

It's an answer by God to make God's king righteous before the people.

There's never going to be a ruler who will truly be great nor righteous.

Trace the story of history and all.

They've been good leaders, but there's always been decisions that they've made that have been for personal gain or party politics and the pressure that the party has where it's about the party's good rather than the nation's good.

No one has ever governed truly for the good of all.

That's why verse one prays, endow the king with your justice, O God, the royal son, with your righteousness.

Righteousness and the ability to lead God's people well can't come from human practice, but only from God himself.

It's only the Lord's righteousness that will enable a leader of his people to rule his way.

And I know that the Psalms are to be sung, but this one is to be sung as a prayer.

And so as we go through each of these, as we think of a righteous king, I wonder, do you pray for people in power over us that they will be righteous under God, not by their own practice and making, but by God?

Because we cannot complain about them if we're not bringing them before the Lord.

And so it is to him that we must look.

Well, the second mark that Psalm 72 gives us is about a defending king, a king who will defend the cause of the needy.

And every society has both its rich and its poor, and it's needy.

And by the standard of this psalm, a good ruler will be judged on how well they look after the needy in their land.

Verse 3 tells us of the prosperity of the land, how it has become wealthy because of God's blessing.

And because of this, the expectation is given to us in verse four of what will happen because of the wealth of the nation.

We read there, he will defend the afflicted among the people and save the children of the needy.

He will crush the oppressor.

So rather than being exclusively on the side of the wealthy, who can flatter and who can influence the king and take advantage of those who are poor, he will take a stand to protect the needy from exploitation.

He will feed them, he will clothe them, he will give them shelter, all of which has been provided by God's blessing upon the abundance of the land.

And his protection is not simply financial, but he will crush the oppressor.

Therefore, it's legal, a legality that will ensure that their exploiters are punished, because he will truly crush them.

So this is a king whom all people want for in his rule, because he will ensure that everyone is cared for by the abundant blessing of God upon the land.

This will then lead to the Lord's blessing on his reign.

As verse five tells us, he will reign as long as the sun, as long as the moon, through all generations.

And so, as we look to a king who will reign well, we must pray that indeed our rulers will defend the needy, that we will follow their example to defend the needy.

Likewise, that as our God of justice, as he has wrought out his justice, so we will stand for the justice of the peoples all around us.

We will do what is biblically right and ignore the opinion of the world.

Because as this king defends the needy, he is also a reigning king, giving us his authority to do so.

Because these next verses pray for a blessed reign while the sun endures until the moon be no more, meaning always.

And this extension of time beyond the lifespan of a mere mortal ultimately leads us to the conclusion that this psalm looks past Solomon and his immediate heirs, and ultimately to the Messiah, Jesus Christ.

Because the heir of David serves as God's representative to the people and so is to be feared, that is to be honored and to be obeyed.

Along with verse 11, where we're told that all kings will bow down to him and all nations will serve him.

This implies to us that the ultimate Davidic king is more than a man.

And of course, this should help David's heirs to love being honourable, to be kind, the kind of person who is an unmitigated blessing and refreshment to God's people.

Just like rain and Shars were in ancient Israel, their goal is to be the flourishing of the righteous those who love God and their neighbor faithfully, as the commandments directed the people to live.

But sadly, as we know, the kings of Israel could never live up to this.

They listened to the opinions of the world, and it was their downfall.

You see, we are told to look to a king who reigns forever.

That's no earthly nation.

That's no earthly king or queen present or prime minister.

It is only the sovereign Lord Jesus Christ.

And so it is to him that we must pray that his reign and rule will be established among the nations that we will see a harvest of blessing.

Because people turn to him because of his justice and because of his salvation, because that's where we head next about his sovereignty.

Because the blessed reign of the king will extend beyond their borders, as verse 8 turns us to the realms of the king's rule.

As he enjoys dominion from sea to sea, so he is a sovereign king.

When we think of sovereignty, it's hard to go beyond who was our reigning monarch and the full extent of the empire of the British crown, Queen Victoria.

And the statement was always made, the sun never set on Queen Victoria's empire.

In other words, at some point in the day, the sun was shining on the realms of that empire.

Of course, that empire came and it went.

And so whenever we think of the sovereignty of a king, we're thinking of the extent of their rule.

And in these next verses, the psalm explicitly looks beyond the borders of Israel to all the Gentile peoples.

And this is a theme we see in Scripture again and again, particularly in Psalm 2, 10, 12.

They reflect this sense of going into all the world, going to the Gentile nations.

And we're told that by submitting to the Davidic king of God's choosing, the Gentile kings bring themselves and their people under God's own rule and therefore his blessing.

And so these verses give examples of places in the world as the ancient Israelites knew it, with parts of the world standing for the whole of the world.

Verse 8 tells us he will rule from sea to sea, and from the river to the ends of the earth.

From sea to sea is as far as the land extends.

The river is the Euphrates, that great eastern border of Israel, while the ends of the earth stretch out as widely as the world goes.

And although in light of references to Tarshish and the distant shores in verse 10, the Israelite will naturally envision the stretches of the Mediterranean before them.

And in speaking of desert tribes in verse nine and Sheba and Seba in verse 10, we're being pointed to inhabitants of the Arabian peninsula to the Horn of Africa.

Beyond that land mass of Israel, the people are to look.

And so this psalm allows the possibility that the kings of these lands might resist and be enemies.

And therefore it prays that they would lick the dust.

Verse 9 submitting themselves to the Lord's anointed in defeat and acknowledging him as the Lord's anointed king.

You see, God's people were never to be an isolated people.

The sovereign rule and reign of God is so that we may bring the Gospel to the corners of the earth, from sea to sea, to the river and to the land that stretches Beyond.

And verse 8 is almost identical to the second part of Zechariah 9, verse 10, which belongs to a passage that is explicitly Messianic.

And since the psalm prays for the great Davidic king, it predicts the post exile prophet Zechariah.

And so the prophet uses the words of this psalm pointing us to the rule and reign of the Lord Jesus Christ, so that his good news of the gospel will spread just as God's people were to take it throughout every generation.

And so do we pray for the spread of the gospel?

Do we pray for it in this area or whatever area is close to our heart?

Are we actively praying for it daily?

And you're welcome to join us at half seven on Friday morning, on Tuesday morning down in the fellowship room that we can pray for this village and the surrounding areas, that they will continue to respond to Christ.

It's good to do this together.

But please, please pray for gospel witness.

Take our Pray Without Ceasing booklet and pray that back page over and over so that we will see a true harvest for the kingdom.

Well, verses 10 to 12 return to what was mentioned in verse 4 again, but give us fuller meaning as to this king who brings justice to the poor and the needy.

In other words, he's a king of blessing.

And we all like justice, but we all like justice on our own terms because we like it when we are being justified.

In other words, when we are right and someone else is wrong and being punished.

That's how we like our justice.

And we're quite quick to crow about it.

Oh, I always knew.

Oh, I always knew this was going to happen.

And so we're very quick to justify ourselves rather than to understand a king of blessing.

See, we here have a king who's ruling over God's people, who will execute perfect justice.

Verses 13 to 14 tell us that as the king hears the cries of the needy, he will take pity on the weak and the needy and save the needy from death.

He will rescue them from oppression and violence, for precious is their blood in his sight.

This is a king who cares.

This is a king who is concerned about his people, not so that his name may be made great, but that indeed he will be the king that the needy need.

And these verses describe first the people in society who are the most easily subjected to oppression and violence on the part of powerful nobles or regional lords.

And the focus on these subjects of the king's rule finishes in verse 14 with the wish that the king would redeem the life of such vulnerable people to rescue them from harm so that they can live faithfully.

And further.

This great congregation of God's people is to pray that the king would hold the blood of these people to be precious and therefore not allow the powerful to shed it.

You see, we perhaps can pray this for the rulers of this world, but we maybe need to pray it more for ourselves.

That as this gives us the picture of Jesus who shed his very own blood to so that we can be saved, we will know his atoning work day and daily in our lives.

As we look only ever to the Savior.

And as this psalm begins its conclusion, in verses 17 to 15, we see that this king will be a blessing to the people.

That leads to praise to the Lord.

See, God's king is not just for the people of Israel, just as the covenant was with Abraham in Genesis, he is to be a blessing to all peoples.

Verses 15 and 16 speak of tribute that is brought to him by Sheba and the abundant blessing of the Lord through the annual harvest, telling us that not only will he receive good, but that the bountiful harvest will remain plenty for Israel and her neighbors.

But it's in verse 17 that speaks of the blessing extended through his reign.

I seem to have lost verse 17 somewhere.

Is that it now?

May his name endure forever.

May it continue as long as the sun.

All nations will be blessed through him, and they will call him blessed.

Words that we've sung because here we're seeing the Messiah as the final heir in the line of David, who will lead the people of Israel into completing the great task of bringing the light of of the Gospel to all nations.

And ideally the fruitful Israelite will yearn for the day and seek to let his or her own light shine for the sake of the world, just as Jesus lays out for his followers in Matthew, chapter 5 and verses 14 and 16.

You're the light of the world, says Jesus.

A city on a hill cannot be Hidden.

Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl.

Instead, they put it on its stand and it gives light to everyone in the house.

And in the same way, let your light shine before men that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.

This psalm tells us who we as God's people are exactly to be.

We are to be people who display his goodness and to display his love to the world.

The children of Israel didn't always get it right.

And in fact, as you read on further in the history, they got it wrong most of the time.

And you know, the truth is, we as believers today don't always get it right either.

But this does not mean that we don't keep displaying in our lives Christ and pointing people to him rather than any righteousness of ourselves.

Because this psalm is about lifting us beyond what people may accuse us of.

It's lifting us beyond what people might say about us so that they will look to the only true King of kings and Lord of Lords, the ruling and reigning Lord Jesus Christ.

And so a crescendo ends this psalm.

It's a psalm of praise to God because it's outlined what a true king of Israel is to be like.

And many of her kings failed.

So there is only one king for her to look to, and that is the Messianic King of the Lord.

This means for us today to know what true goodness and rule is like.

And to do that we must look to Jesus.

He is the only king who ever lived up to this lofty prayer that God's people prayed for hundreds and thousands of years.

In him we see the supreme promises of God come to what is known as a climactic realization.

He is the one greater than the Solomon to whom we believe.

This psalm was first prayed over.

He is the King that you and I need.

So we may have our opinion about how this country should be run.

Indeed, we may even idolize nations that have had the opportunity to start on a blank page and now celebrate 250 years of existence.

But America, along with our ideas of what a country should be like, will ultimately fail and disappoint, because the only true leader we are to look to is Jesus.

Psalm 72 points us to the one who will endure forever last like the sun, he shall and will be the salvation blessing to all nations.

And so today we are to look to him to know him as our Savior and Lord, so that we will live by his rule and know his reign as our assurance of an eternal home in heaven.

Whichever kingdom you support, whichever kingdom you're loyal to, we must remember there is a greater one that we must seek for.

True worship of God for the eternal kingdom to come means to love Jesus now and follow his ways.

We may admire the kingdoms of this world.

We may think the grass is always greener on the other side.

We may think that we could do a better job in ruling this country.

But any decisions we would make or any of our opinions will all pass away.

And the only one that will remain is the truth of the gospel in Christ.

We have received a kingdom that cannot be shaken.

So let's put our trust in him.

Let's block out the noise and let's live to his royal standard that he calls us to everlasting praise, hope and trust in Him.

Come onto the Savior and celebrate life eternal today, in that we will receive a kingdom that is truly ours and will never be taken away from us.

Let's pray.

Our Father God, we thank you that as we read this ancient song of your people, it points us to what a true kingdom under God is.

It points us to what it means to live well for Christ, to look to him and to block out what may distract us.

But Father, we need to be vigilant of the times as well.

We need to be mindful of what's going on so that we can respond in a biblical way.

So help us to discern your word.

Help us to be ever in prayer for the leaders of our nations as well as for our own lives and the lives of your people.

That we will be faithful to you unto the end, and that we will know a true kingdom that will never be shaken.

For that is your kingdom.

And Father, thank you that you are making ready homes for us as your people who respond to Christ this day.

So may we have that everlasting praise in our hearts and we ask it in Jesus name.

Amen.