Latest / Reformed Thinking / From Sea to Sea: The Just and Everlasting Kingdom (Psalm 72) | Charles Spurgeon

Transcript

From Sea to Sea: The Just and Everlasting Kingdom (Psalm 72) | Charles Spurgeon · Reformed Thinking

• 0:00
  Welcome back to Reform thinking it is good to be back in the
• 0:03
  studio with you. It's good to be here.
• 0:05
  We have a very full table today. There is a stack of notes that
• 0:08
  looks like it might topple over, and we have a book that weighs
• 0:12
  about as much as a small anchor. We are looking at Psalm 72
• 0:15
  today, and I think this discussion is going to catch a
• 0:17
  few people off guard. It is a magnificent piece of
• 0:20
  scripture, and the heavy book you mentioned is naturally The
• 0:24
  Treasury of David by Charles Spurgeon.
• 0:26
  We are using his commentary as our primary guide through this
• 0:29
  text. For those who track with us
• 0:31
  regularly, you know we hold Spurgeon in high regard, not
• 0:35
  just as a preacher, but as a man who really understood the heart
• 0:38
  of the text. He's often called the Prince of
• 0:40
  Preachers. He was a Baptist, of course, but
• 0:43
  his theology was thoroughly reformed.
• 0:46
  He loved the Puritans. He loved the doctrines of grace
• 0:49
  and his work on the Psalms is just monumental.
• 0:52
  It's more than just a technical commentary.
• 0:54
  It's devotional, it's historical, and it is so
• 0:57
  centered on Christ. And that's what we need for
• 0:59
  Psalm 72. At first glance, you look at the
• 1:02
  title in your Bible and it probably says a Psalm for
• 1:05
  Solomon, right? And you might think, OK, this is
• 1:08
  a political document. This is a manifesto for the
• 1:11
  ancient monarchy of Israel. Yeah, a coronation hymn.
• 1:15
  Something to be read when the crown is being placed on the new
• 1:18
  King's head. That is the historical setting,
• 1:20
  yes, but as we view this through the lens of Reformed theology,
• 1:24
  and as Spurgeon argues so passionately, this is looking
• 1:28
  far beyond the immediate son of David.
• 1:30
  So it's bigger than Solomon? Much bigger.
• 1:32
  This is a royal Psalm, but the royalty here is too big for
• 1:35
  Solomon. The shadow is Solomon, but the
• 1:37
  substance, the antitych, is Christ.
• 1:40
  And that's the mission for this deep dive.
• 1:42
  We want to decode the typology within this Psalm.
• 1:45
  We want to understand how Solomon serves as that shadow
• 1:48
  and how Jesus is the reality. We'll be looking at the nature
• 1:51
  of this great King's reign, his justice, how far his Kingdom
• 1:55
  reaches, how long it lasts, and his heart for the needy.
• 1:58
  And there's some incredible imagery in here too.
• 2:00
  I mean mountains bringing peace, rain falling on mowing grass.
• 2:03
  That handful of corn that rustles like a cedar forest.
• 2:06
  I love that imagery. So let's unpack this.
• 2:09
  We have to start right at the top, literally with the title
• 2:11
  and the first verse. The title in our Bibles usually
• 2:14
  says a Psalm for Solomon, but Spurgeon points out there's a
• 2:18
  bit of a debate about that. There is the Hebrew preposition
• 2:21
  lamed can mean for Solomon, but the best linguist and Spurgeon
• 2:25
  sides with them here a firm. It should be rendered of or by
• 2:29
  Solomon. It implies authorship.
• 2:32
  So the claim is that Solomon wrote it himself.
• 2:34
  Well. Here's where it gets
• 2:35
  interesting. If you look at the very end of
• 2:37
  the Psalm, verse 20, it says the prayers of David the son of
• 2:41
  Jesse are ended, right? So if Solomon wrote it, why does
• 2:44
  the text say David's prayers are ended that.
• 2:47
  Sounds like a contradiction. How do you square that?
• 2:49
  On the surface, yes, but Spurgeon offers a beautiful
• 2:52
  resolution to this. He suggests that the Spirit and
• 2:55
  the matter of the Psalm are David's Imagine the dying king,
• 2:58
  the man after God's own heart, pouring out his final vision for
• 3:02
  the Kingdom. He is old.
• 3:04
  His body is failing. I can picture that.
• 3:06
  He was perhaps too near his end to hold the pen or to cast the
• 3:10
  words into perfect poetic form. I see where you're going.
• 3:13
  He has the vision but not the strength to, you know, craft it.
• 3:18
  So Solomon the son catches his dying father's song.
• 3:21
  He fashions it into the goodly verse we have now.
• 3:24
  So in that sense, it's David's prayer, but it is Solomon's
• 3:28
  Psalm. It is a collaboration across
• 3:30
  generations. That adds such a poignant layer
• 3:32
  to it. It's a passing of the torch.
• 3:35
  And that transition itself is theological, isn't it?
• 3:38
  I mean, David and Solomon represent 2 very different kinds
• 3:41
  of reigns. They do.
• 3:42
  This is where the typology begins.
• 3:44
  David was a man of war. His reign was characterized by
• 3:47
  wars and fightings. He had to subdue the enemies of
• 3:50
  God's people. He had to secure the borders.
• 3:52
  A lot of blood we shed a. Lot.
• 3:55
  But Solomon, his very name comes from Shalom.
• 3:58
  He is the man of peace. So David clears the ground and
• 4:02
  Solomon builds the temple. Correct.
• 4:04
  Spurgeon points out that this mirrors the dispensation of
• 4:06
  God's grace. We move from the wars typified
• 4:09
  by David to the Prince of Peace typified by Solomon.
• 4:12
  But both of them are just pointers.
• 4:14
  They are types of the one true King, Jesus.
• 4:16
  OK, let's look at verse one. Give the king thy judgement, O
• 4:20
  God, and thy righteousness under the King's son, Spurgeon notes
• 4:23
  something interesting about the phrasing there.
• 4:25
  The king and the King's son. It seems redundant, doesn't it?
• 4:28
  But it's not in the immediate context.
• 4:31
  Solomon was both. He was the reigning king, but he
• 4:33
  was also the King's son, the son of David.
• 4:36
  But now apply that to Christ. OK, so Christ is the Son of God.
• 4:39
  He is. He has power and authority in
• 4:42
  himself as King. He is God, but he also has royal
• 4:46
  dignity given to him by the Father.
• 4:48
  He is the King's son. He holds the throne by what we
• 4:52
  call Degracia, by the grace of God.
• 4:54
  Give the King thy judgements, O God, He rules by divine right.
• 4:58
  Yes, and unlike earthly kings who might claim divine right but
• 5:01
  then rule like tyrants, this prayer is asking that the king
• 5:04
  be endowed with God's own judgement.
• 5:06
  And that is a terrifying standard, if you think about it.
• 5:09
  Thy judgements, not human political maneuvering.
• 5:12
  Not, you know, a sliding scale of.
• 5:15
  No, God's absolute standard of right and wrong, Spurgeon says.
• 5:19
  Our glorious King in Zion has all judgement committed unto
• 5:22
  him. He is the Lord our
• 5:23
  righteousness. We are waiting for the day when
• 5:26
  that righteous judgement is fully manifested, but the
• 5:28
  authority is already his. So we've established the author
• 5:32
  David's heart, Solomon's pen, and the subject Christ.
• 5:35
  Now let's look at what this king actually does.
• 5:37
  Section two of our discussion covers verses 2 through 4.
• 5:41
  It starts with He shall judge thy people with righteousness.
• 5:44
  This is the vindication of the righteous in a corrupt world.
• 5:47
  And let's be honest, Spurgeon's 19th century London had plenty
• 5:50
  of corruption, just as we do today.
• 5:52
  People are often misjudged. They're slandered.
• 5:55
  If you stand for truth, you get attacked.
• 5:57
  Reputation is a fragile thing. It can be shattered in a moment.
• 6:00
  It is, but Spurgeon notes that under Christ, no one is
• 6:03
  misjudged. He sits on a great white throne
• 6:05
  that is unspotted by injustice. There's a safety in that.
• 6:09
  If you are in Christ, your reputation mutation is safe with
• 6:12
  Him. That's a huge comfort.
• 6:13
  The world might call you a fool or a bigot or weak, but his
• 6:17
  sentence puts the accusers to silence.
• 6:20
  That is comforting, but there's a specific group mentioned here
• 6:23
  that the king seems to have a bias toward.
• 6:26
  Verse 2 says And thy poor with judgement.
• 6:28
  Yes, the paradox of the poor. Earthly partiality, you know, it
• 6:32
  almost always favors the rich. Spurgeon in his commentary, is
• 6:35
  very blunt about this. He says fictitious wealth
• 6:39
  laborers to conceal real poverty.
• 6:42
  What does he mean by that? Well, the self-sufficient man,
• 6:45
  the wealthy man of the world often Cavilles, he argues or
• 6:49
  finds fault with the Lord. He doesn't believe he needs a
• 6:51
  savior. He's insulated by his wealth.
• 6:53
  But the poor, the poor in spirit.
• 6:55
  The monarchy of heaven delights in the poor and despised.
• 6:58
  A deep sense of spiritual need is what prepares the heart to
• 7:01
  worship the Redeemer King. It connects directly to the
• 7:04
  Beatitudes. Blessed are the poor in spirit,
• 7:07
  for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven.
• 7:08
  So when the Psalm says he judges the poor, it means he vindicates
• 7:14
  them. He stands up for them.
• 7:16
  He deals out even handed justice, which to a poor person
• 7:20
  used to being trampled by the system, feels like a massive
• 7:23
  victory. Spurgeon compares it to Joseph
• 7:26
  in Egypt. Ruling for the welfare of his
• 7:28
  brethren, the King uses all his power and wisdom on behalf of
• 7:31
  the contrite ones. No verse 3 has this imagery I
• 7:35
  mentioned earlier. The mountains shall bring peace
• 7:37
  to the people. I tried to visualize this.
• 7:41
  Usually in history, mountains are not peaceful.
• 7:44
  No, not at all. Historically, especially in that
• 7:46
  region, mountains were the haunts of robbers.
• 7:48
  They were where the enemy forts were.
• 7:50
  If you were traveling and you saw the mountains, you felt
• 7:52
  anxiety, not peace. Right, you'd worry about what
• 7:55
  was watching you from the Heights.
• 7:56
  So how did they bring peace? It's a picture of the King's
• 7:59
  total dominion. When the King's justice is
• 8:02
  established, he clears out the rubber bands.
• 8:05
  He garrisons the force with his own soldiers.
• 8:07
  The very places that used to be sources of terror become
• 8:10
  guardians of peace. That is a powerful change.
• 8:13
  The source of fear becomes the source of safety.
• 8:15
  And Spurgeon makes a fascinating connection here between justice
• 8:19
  and fertility. He looks at Palestine in his own
• 8:22
  day, under the Ottoman Turks and the wandering Bedouin tribes.
• 8:26
  He calls it a desert. Because there's no law and
• 8:28
  order. Right, He says injustice makes
• 8:31
  Palestine a desert. Why plant a harvest if a robber
• 8:34
  is just going to steal it? It kills all incentive.
• 8:36
  It kills industry. Precisely.
• 8:38
  But justice acts as fertilizer. When the king reigns and
• 8:43
  righteousness prevails, people are diligent to plow the land.
• 8:47
  Smiles again. And the spiritual application of
• 8:49
  that. Oh, it's huge.
• 8:51
  Think about the dark mountains in your own life.
• 8:53
  The mountain of death, the mountains of trial under Christ,
• 8:57
  even those things bring us peace, Spurgeon says.
• 8:59
  The little hills of anxiety are clothed with peace through the
• 9:02
  righteousness of Christ. That connects to verse 4 where
• 9:05
  it says he shall break in peace as the oppressor.
• 9:06
  That is strong language break in pieces.
• 9:09
  It is violent language, and rightly so.
• 9:10
  The oppressor is a breaker. They break the poor.
• 9:13
  They break the laws of God. So the King gives them a taste
• 9:16
  of their own medicine. The iron rod of King Jesus
• 9:19
  destroys the oppressor. And Spurgeon isn't just talking
• 9:22
  about, you know, corrupt politicians.
• 9:24
  He's talking about spiritual realities.
• 9:26
  Yes. This is not just about political
• 9:28
  liberation, though. It includes justice.
• 9:30
  He specifically mentions sin and Satan.
• 9:34
  It is about the total destruction of the spiritual
• 9:36
  forces that oppress God's people.
• 9:39
  The oppressor is broken. It's a promise of victory.
• 9:43
  So we have a king who is righteous, who loves the poor,
• 9:46
  and who crushes the oppressor. The next question is how long
• 9:49
  does this last? Because in history good kings
• 9:52
  die and bad kings usually replace them.
• 9:54
  It's a cycle. That is the tragedy of human
• 9:57
  history. You get a Marcus Aurelius, but
• 9:58
  he dies, and you get a Commodus. But here in Section 3, verses 5
• 10:02
  through 7, we see the perpetuity of this reign.
• 10:06
  They shall fear thee as long as the sun and moon endure.
• 10:08
  As long as there's a sun in the sky.
• 10:10
  Spurgeon lists some heavy hitters here to make a
• 10:12
  comparison. The Caesars.
• 10:14
  The Moguls. The Ottomans.
• 10:15
  Napoleon Charlemagne, he says they flit like shadows and are
• 10:19
  gone. The House of Habsburg or Hohen
• 10:21
  Zahn, they have their hour, but the son of David has all hours.
• 10:24
  I like the phrase he uses the true Phoenix.
• 10:27
  Yes, Christianity rises immortal from its own ashes.
• 10:32
  Infidelity and Spurgeon saw plenty of that in the 19th
• 10:35
  century with the rise of higher criticism and modernism.
• 10:38
  Infidelity tries to wither it, but it cannot.
• 10:40
  It can't. The Church, the Kingdom,
• 10:42
  regenerates generation to regeneration, he says.
• 10:47
  Instead of the fathers, there shall be the children.
• 10:49
  It's not a dynasty of blood that thins out over time, it's a
• 10:52
  dynasty of the spirit. Correct.
• 10:54
  And then we get this imagery in verse 6.
• 10:56
  This is maybe my favorite part of the whole Psalm.
• 10:59
  He shall come down like rain upon the moon grass.
• 11:02
  This is what I was waiting for. Rain on moan grass.
• 11:04
  It's so specific. Why moan grass?
• 11:06
  Why not just, you know, rain on the earth?
• 11:08
  It is such a delicate, specific image.
• 11:11
  Moan grass is grass that has been wounded.
• 11:14
  It has been shorn by the side or, as Spurgeon says, by the
• 11:17
  teeth of cattle. It is bleeding stems.
• 11:20
  That changes the feel of it completely.
• 11:22
  It's not just watering a healthy lawn.
• 11:23
  This is healing. No, it's about restoration for
• 11:26
  the wounded. The soul must be brought low.
• 11:29
  Moan down to receive the specific blessing.
• 11:32
  If you are standing tall in your pride, the rain might just run
• 11:35
  off you. But if you are cut down, if you
• 11:38
  are broken, Christ comes down like gentle rain.
• 11:41
  And the nature of this rain spurgeon unpacks that too.
• 11:43
  It does. It's a free gift.
• 11:45
  It costs nothing. You don't pay for rain.
• 11:47
  It's irresistible. Hard earth must yield to it
• 11:50
  eventually, and it's necessary. Spurgeon calls Christ the head
• 11:54
  of influences. Head of influences.
• 11:56
  As grass cannot grow without moisture, the soul cannot thrive
• 12:00
  without Christ. There was a note in the source
• 12:02
  material about Gideon's fleece here.
• 12:04
  The dew on the fleece, How does that connect?
• 12:07
  Yes, some translations or interpretations link this to the
• 12:10
  story in Judges. Do you remember Gideon puts out
• 12:13
  a fleece. First the fleece is wet and the
• 12:14
  ground is dry. Then the fleece is dry and the
• 12:17
  ground is wet. Right.
• 12:18
  A sign from God. Spurgeon and the older divine
• 12:20
  saw a historical inversion here. Originally Judea was the fleece,
• 12:24
  wet with the dew of God's grace, while the nation's the ground
• 12:28
  were dry. But now.
• 12:30
  The situation is flipped. Judea is often seen as dry, and
• 12:33
  the gospel has gone out to the Gentiles.
• 12:35
  The ground is wet with dew. It's another sign of that
• 12:39
  dispensational shift. That is a fascinating
• 12:42
  typological connection. It shows the dispensational
• 12:44
  shift again, and the result of this reign is in verse 7.
• 12:49
  In his days shall the righteous flourish.
• 12:51
  Spurgeon Contrast this with the reign of a tyrant like Nero
• 12:55
  under Nero, who flourishes. People like Nero monsters.
• 12:59
  Sick of hints? That's right, under a corrupt
• 13:01
  system, corrupt people rise to the top.
• 13:04
  But under Christ, the righteous flourish and there is an
• 13:07
  abundance of peace. Spurgeon calls it the Great
• 13:09
  Truths of God. He takes a jab at political
• 13:12
  alliances there too. He mentions holy alliances based
• 13:14
  on craft or perjury. He was a keen observer of
• 13:17
  politics. He saw these grand treaties
• 13:19
  signed and he knew they were built on sand.
• 13:21
  He knew that treaties based on lies don't last.
• 13:24
  But this peace, the peace of Christ, lasts as long as the
• 13:27
  moon endures. It's structural, eternal peace.
• 13:30
  So the Kingdom is righteous and it's eternal.
• 13:33
  Now let's talk about the scope. How big is this Kingdom?
• 13:35
  Section 4. Verses 8 through 11.
• 13:37
  You shall have dominion also from sea to sea.
• 13:39
  This is the universal dominion, and again we have to look past
• 13:43
  Solomon. Solomon's Kingdom was impressive
• 13:45
  for its time, but it had borders.
• 13:47
  It went to the Euphrates. Which is what it means by from
• 13:50
  the river. Yes, but the prophecy here uses
• 13:53
  the river as a starting point, not a boundary.
• 13:55
  It's saying starting from there, his Kingdom reaches to the
• 13:58
  Ultima Fool, the ends of the earth.
• 14:01
  And Spurgeon gets very specific. He mentions the Isles, Britain,
• 14:05
  the Southern Sea, Iceland, Madagascar.
• 14:07
  He loves to point out how the gospel reached the islands in
• 14:10
  the Hebrew mine. The Isles represented the
• 14:13
  furthest, most mysterious places across the water.
• 14:16
  Spurgeon sees the fulfillment of this in the missionary expansion
• 14:19
  of the church from the Atlantic to the Pacific.
• 14:22
  It's a global vision, Yeah, and it involves the conquest of
• 14:25
  enemies, Verse 9. They that dwell in the
• 14:28
  wilderness shall bow before him, and his enemies shall lick the
• 14:31
  dust. There are two groups there.
• 14:33
  First, the wilderness dwellers. Think of the wild Bedouin
• 14:36
  tribes, the wild Arabs, as the text calls them.
• 14:39
  These are people unconquered by arms.
• 14:41
  Rome couldn't really tame them. But Christ subdues them how?
• 14:45
  Not with legions I assume. By Love, they bow willingly.
• 14:49
  But then there's the second group, the obstinate enemies.
• 14:52
  They don't bow willingly, they lick the dust.
• 14:54
  That is a humiliating image. It's so visceral.
• 14:56
  It is meant to be. That is total subjugation.
• 14:59
  Spurgeon reminds us that the serpents meat is dust.
• 15:03
  On thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat.
• 15:07
  So those who side with the serpent share his.
• 15:09
  Diet. That's the implication.
• 15:11
  If you oppose this king, you end up in the lowest possible
• 15:14
  position. But then, immediately, the tone
• 15:16
  shifts. We go from enemies licking dust
• 15:19
  to the economics of the Kingdom. The kings of Tarshishin of the
• 15:23
  Isles shall bring presents. Yes, Tarshish represents the
• 15:26
  extreme W wealth, commerce, the Phoenician colonies, maybe
• 15:30
  Spain, Shiba and Saba represent the South Arabia, Africa,
• 15:33
  spices, gold. Unexplored regions.
• 15:35
  Yes, the idea is that the wealth of the world eventually flows to
• 15:39
  Christ. But notice the nature of the
• 15:40
  tribute. Spurgeon's very specific here.
• 15:42
  These are not forced levees. This is not the tax collector
• 15:45
  coming to your door with a sword.
• 15:47
  It says bring presents and offer gifts.
• 15:49
  They are free will offerings. It's the kings doing it.
• 15:52
  The source mentions Agatharchaidis, a Greek
• 15:55
  historian, describing the wealth of the Sabians.
• 15:58
  Gold encrusted doors, silver tripods, incredible opulence.
• 16:03
  And the Psalm says all of that will be laid at Jesus feet.
• 16:06
  Not because he demands it with a sword, but because they want to
• 16:09
  give it. It's a complete reordering of
• 16:10
  the world's priorities. It turns everything on its head.
• 16:13
  It does, and it begs the question, why?
• 16:16
  Why do the kings of the earth and the wild men of the
• 16:19
  wilderness submit to this king? What is the logic of submission?
• 16:23
  That leads us perfectly into Section 5, verses 12 through 14.
• 16:27
  And the answer is right there in the first word, For He shall
• 16:30
  deliver the needy when he crieth.
• 16:31
  That is the for the reason they submit because he delivers.
• 16:35
  They don't submit out of dread, but out of gratitude.
• 16:38
  Spurgeon talks about the cry here.
• 16:40
  He says it's the native language of the spiritually needy.
• 16:43
  That is a beautiful thought. God doesn't wait for a perfectly
• 16:46
  formulated prayer. He doesn't need, you know,
• 16:48
  eloquent phrases. He hears the SOB.
• 16:50
  When fine phrases fail, the cry remains.
• 16:53
  And the text adds and him that hath no helper.
• 16:56
  This is critical. Spurgeon takes on a very popular
• 16:59
  proverb here. We have all heard God helps
• 17:02
  those who help themselves. Which is not in the Bible, by
• 17:05
  the way. Not at all.
• 17:06
  It's the opposite of the gospel, Spurgeon says.
• 17:09
  Christ helps those who cannot help themselves.
• 17:11
  That's the no helper clause. If you can help yourself, you
• 17:15
  don't need a savior. It is the acknowledgement of
• 17:18
  total helplessness that qualifies you for this King's
• 17:21
  help. And then we get to verse 14.
• 17:23
  And precious shall their blood be in his sight.
• 17:26
  This is where the contrast with earthly conquerors is starkest.
• 17:29
  Spurgeon uses some very graphic historical examples.
• 17:32
  He talks about how conquerors view soldiers as manure for
• 17:36
  harvests, just bodies to be thrown into the grinder to
• 17:39
  achieve a goal. He mentions Roman masters
• 17:41
  casting slaves to Eel's Marina just for breaking a goblet.
• 17:45
  Or the Angolani Trading 22 two slaves for one hunting dog.
• 17:48
  One dog. That is the value of human life
• 17:51
  in a fallen world without God. Cheap, disposable.
• 17:54
  But to this king. Precious shall their blood be.
• 17:57
  He spares the poor. He doesn't throw away lives and
• 17:59
  needless wars. He redeems them from deceit and
• 18:01
  violence. Deceit and violence.
• 18:04
  Spurgeon calls those the two weapons used to fleece the poor.
• 18:06
  The fox and the lion, Law and no law.
• 18:10
  Sometimes the poor are destroyed by the legal system deceit,
• 18:13
  other times by brute force violence.
• 18:15
  Christ redeems them from both. It's amazing to see how relevant
• 18:18
  this 19th century commentary at an ancient Psalm is to the world
• 18:22
  we live in now. Deceit and violence are still
• 18:25
  the tools of the trade for oppressors.
• 18:27
  Human nature has not changed. The fall is still the fall, and
• 18:30
  that is why this king is still the only hope.
• 18:33
  So because he is this kind of king, saving, redeeming, sparing
• 18:37
  blood, the result is vitality. Section 6, verses 15 through 17.
• 18:41
  It starts with and he shall live Vive.
• 18:43
  Laura, Long live the king. But with earthly kings, it's a
• 18:46
  wish that eventually fails. Alexander the Great died.
• 18:49
  He had to admit he wasn't a God, but Christ.
• 18:52
  He conquered death. He shall live is a statement of
• 18:54
  fact. Spurgeon mentions the comfort
• 18:56
  this brings to a dying soldier. My king lives.
• 18:59
  Yes, even if I die, the cause survives.
• 19:01
  Because the King is alive, my death is not the end of the
• 19:04
  story. And because he lives, there is
• 19:06
  the cycle of prayer and praise. Let's talk about that.
• 19:09
  Prayer also should be made for Him continually.
• 19:13
  That confused me a bit. Why do we pray for Christ?
• 19:17
  Doesn't he have everything? It's a good question.
• 19:19
  Spurgeon distinguishes 2 things. First, we pray through him as
• 19:23
  mediator. That standard theology.
• 19:25
  We pray to the Father in Jesus name.
• 19:27
  OK, that makes sense. But praying for Him means
• 19:29
  praying for the success of His 'cause when we pray thy Kingdom
• 19:33
  come, we are praying for Him. We are praying for His glory to
• 19:37
  be extended, for His enemies to be made His footstool.
• 19:40
  OK, so we're praying for the advancement of His Kingdom, and
• 19:44
  the praise is daily. Daily shall he be praised.
• 19:47
  It is the constant revenue of glory that is due to his name.
• 19:50
  Now we come to one of the most mysterious and beautiful images
• 19:53
  in the whole Psalm, verse 16. There shall be a handful of corn
• 19:57
  in the earth upon the top of the mountains.
• 19:59
  The fruit thereof shall shake like Lebanon.
• 20:01
  This is the miracle of the Kingdom.
• 20:02
  Let's break it down. Look at the setting first.
• 20:04
  Top of the mountains. That is not where you plant
• 20:06
  corn. It is bleak.
• 20:07
  It is rocky. It's ungenial.
• 20:09
  As Spurgeon says, it's the last place you expect to harvest.
• 20:12
  Exactly. It's the worst possible place
• 20:15
  for agriculture. And look at the quantity A
• 20:18
  handful. Not a silo, not a barn.
• 20:21
  A handful. So you have a tiny amount of
• 20:23
  seed in a hostile, barren environment.
• 20:25
  And what is the result? The fruit shakes.
• 20:28
  Like Lebanon, the Cedars of Lebanon were massive, thundering
• 20:32
  forests. The image is that this tiny
• 20:35
  handful of seed produces a harvest so thick, so tall, and
• 20:39
  so robust that when the wind blows through it, it sounds like
• 20:42
  a cedar for us. That is the story of the church,
• 20:44
  isn't it? From a mustard seed to a Gray
• 20:46
  tree. It is 12 fishermen, a handful in
• 20:49
  a hostile world, and now it covers the globe.
• 20:52
  Spurgeon points out the industry required here to terrace
• 20:55
  agriculture. You have to work to make a
• 20:57
  mountain yield fruit. But the increase is miraculous.
• 21:00
  It reminds us not to despise the day of small things, that little
• 21:03
  bit of faith, that small active service.
• 21:05
  It connects back to the rain on mown grass.
• 21:07
  God works with the small, the broken, the unlikely.
• 21:10
  That's where his glory is shown. And verse 17 says His name shall
• 21:13
  be continued. The Hebrew word there is
• 21:15
  interesting yinon. It implies producing fresh
• 21:19
  progeny or shoots. It's generative.
• 21:21
  His name isn't just preserved like a name on a statue, it
• 21:25
  creates new life. It keeps going.
• 21:27
  Spurgeon says the gospel begets children before the sun.
• 21:30
  It has a life of its own. It doesn't just endure like a
• 21:33
  stone. It continues like a living
• 21:36
  family tree. And men shall be blessed in him.
• 21:39
  That goes right back to the promise to Abraham, doesn't it?
• 21:41
  In you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.
• 21:44
  The universal benediction. It's not just that they will be
• 21:47
  blessed by him, but they will bless themselves in him.
• 21:50
  They will see him as the standard of happiness.
• 21:53
  To be like Christ will be the definition of a blessed life.
• 21:56
  We're nearing the end of the text.
• 21:58
  Section 7 covers the doxology and the conclusion.
• 22:01
  Verse 18 and 19 give us the Amen.
• 22:03
  A double Amen actually. Amen and Amen.
• 22:06
  And Spurgeon quotes Rabbi Jehuda suggesting this means it belongs
• 22:09
  to this world and the world to come.
• 22:11
  It's a comprehensive So be it. It's a seal.
• 22:15
  It means faithful nurse or verily.
• 22:17
  But I love the Luther and sibs view that Spurgeon brings in.
• 22:21
  They say it requires almighty power to make the rebellious
• 22:25
  human heart say Amen to God. Because Amen means, so let it
• 22:29
  be. It means submission.
• 22:30
  It's yielding your own will. Right to look at God's will and
• 22:33
  say yes, I agree with this. Let this happen requires the
• 22:37
  death of the ego. It requires grace.
• 22:39
  It's a miracle every time a Sinner says it.
• 22:41
  And then the final note, verse 20, the prayers of David the son
• 22:46
  of Jesse are ended. It feels like a postscript.
• 22:49
  It is the numctemides of the Old Testament Lord.
• 22:51
  Now let your servant depart in peace.
• 22:54
  It's the final curtain on David's hopes and dreams.
• 22:57
  Why does he call himself son of Jesse?
• 22:59
  Here he was, the great King, David the Giant Slayer.
• 23:02
  Spurgeon notes that humility. He is returning to his humble
• 23:06
  root. He is stripping off his royalty
• 23:08
  before the greater king. He's not David the Conqueror or
• 23:11
  David the king. He is just David, the son of the
• 23:14
  farmer Jesse. And he says his prayers are
• 23:16
  ended. Does that mean he never prayed
• 23:17
  again? That can't be right.
• 23:19
  No, Spurgeon interprets it to mean that he has reached the
• 23:21
  summit. He has seen the salvation of the
• 23:23
  future king. He has nothing left to ask for.
• 23:26
  If you see Christ in his glory, what else is there?
• 23:29
  The limit of desire is reached. It's the perfection of his
• 23:32
  prayers. This is the ultimate thing he
• 23:34
  could ever ask for, and he has seen it.
• 23:36
  He has climbed the mountain, he has seen the sunrise and he is
• 23:39
  content. What a study this Psalm is.
• 23:42
  We started with a title that confused us, moved to the
• 23:45
  justice for the poor, the rain on the mown grass, the handful
• 23:48
  of corn on the mountain, and ended with an old king laying
• 23:51
  down his crown. It's a comprehensive vision of
• 23:53
  the gospel. It shows us a king who is
• 23:57
  righteous, eternal, universal and merciful.
• 24:01
  And for the listener, especially those who might feel like mown
• 24:04
  grass today, cut down, vulnerable, this is a message of
• 24:07
  hope. It is the king comes to you not
• 24:09
  as a storm, but as rain. He values your blood.
• 24:13
  He hears your cry when you have no other helper.
• 24:15
  Before we go, I want to leave you with a thought to Mull over.
• 24:19
  We talked about that handful of corn on the top of the Bleak
• 24:21
  Mountain. The unlikely harvest.
• 24:24
  Right. If the Kingdom of Christ began
• 24:26
  with such a small isolated handful in a hostile environment
• 24:30
  and has grown to shake like Lebanon, I want you to look at
• 24:33
  the barren areas of your own life.
• 24:35
  Or maybe the world today, where it seems like the soil is rocky
• 24:39
  and nothing can grow. That's a good challenge.
• 24:41
  Perhaps that bleakest spot is simply the designated place for
• 24:44
  the next miraculous harvest. Maybe the handful is just
• 24:47
  waiting for the rain. And the God of the harvest is
• 24:49
  faithful. Thank you for joining us for
• 24:52
  this deep dive into Psalm 72 and the mind of Spurgeon.
• 24:55
  It has been a pleasure. This has been reformed thinking.
• 24:58
  Until next time.