O God, give your judgement to the king,
to a king’s son your justice,
that he may judge your people in justice
and your poor in right judgment.
May the mountains bring forth peace for the people
and the hills, justice.
May he defend the poor of the people
and save the children of the needy
(and crush the oppressor).
He shall endure like the sun and the moon
from age to age.
He shall descend like rain on the meadow,
like raindrops on the earth.
In his days justice shall flourish
and peace till the moon fails.
He shall rule from sea to sea,
from the Great River to earth’s bounds.
Before him his enemies shall fall,
his foes lick the dust.
The kings of Tarshish and the seacoasts
shall pay him tribute.
The kings of Sheba and Seba
shall bring him gifts.
Before him all kings shall fall prostrate,
all nations shall serve him.
For he shall save the poor when they cry
and the needy who are helpless.
He will have pity on the weak
and save the lives of the poor.
From oppression he will rescue their lives,
to him their blood is dear.
(Long may he live,
may the gold of Sheba be given him.)
They shall pray for him without ceasing
and bless him all the day.
May corn be abundant in the land
to the peaks of the mountains.
May its fruit rustle like Lebanon;
may people flourish in the cities
like grass on the earth.
May his name be blessed for ever
and endure like the sun.
Every tribe shall be blessed in him,
all nations bless his name.
Blessed be the Lord, God of Israel,
who alone works wonders,
ever blessed his glorious name.
Let his glory fill the earth.
Amen! Amen!
Reflection
This Psalm appears to veer alarmingly at times from the sycophantic to the pious and back again. “May he rule from sea to sea and from the River to the ends of the earth” combines to some modern ears both the nauseating ambitions of Rule Britannia! and the pro-Palestinian chant that is wrongly associated with anti-semitism. “May gold from Sheba be given him” sounds like a battle cry of expropriation and echoes the misalliance between Empires and the Jesus movement over many centuries. This appears to be a nationalist manifesto: one that wishes for power to be concentrated and not fairly distributed.
Except it isn’t quite.
The bedrock of the Psalm is actually to be found in verses 18 and 19. One wonders why these aren’t the first two. It seems almost the wrong way round. It is God, the creator of all who is underpinning everything. The calls for policy platforms emanate from an understanding of God’s goodness that is not confined to one person, time or nationality. As Western Christians we have acquiesced too easily with our ‘kings’ – monarchs, big business, the prevailing economic system and even billionaire ‘tech bros’. Sure, we apply the necessary pastoral care to the vulnerable in our communities, running our food banks for those utterly up against it financially, and striving to support communities to access life’s basics in poorer countries. But do we coherently challenge the rich and powerful who have created unfair societies?
In the past our non-conformist forebears had no such qualms, especially in the seventeenth century. Gerard Winstanley, a leader of one of these radical groups, the Diggers, said: “Freedom is the man that would turn the world upside down therefore no wonder he hath enemies” Another group, the Fifth Monarchists rallied to the slogan “No king but Jesus”
It’s time to invert this Psalm to get to its key truth, turn the world upside down and crown Jesus as Lord of all in our prayers, thoughts and actions.
Prayer
Lord of everything,
through the pressure to conform
and offer total fidelity to earthly leaders,
to false gods, questionable regimes,
and perverted value systems,
give us the strength to dwell on your deeds and glory
to be found in sacrifice and servanthood
in the guise of your Son, our Saviour,
Jesus Christ the only true King. Amen.