Psalm 72:1-7, 18-19 Commentary

In too many places all over the world it has long been the case that some who come into power as kings, presidents, prime ministers, and the like seem to see their power as principally an avenue by which to enrich themselves.  Power corrupts, they say, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.  And all too often a despot’s use of power to bring them more wealth is done at the expense of the poor of the earth.  Some international aid agency sends money to a given country to feed the hungry but somehow the money disappears and no hungry person receives any food.  Whether or not Marie Antoinette ever actually said this, the famous line associated with her displays a callous disregard for the underprivileged on the part of the elite: “Let them eat cake!”

Psalm 72 paints a very different picture and since we are reading this on the Second Sunday in Advent in the Year A Lectionary, we can rightly take this psalm’s portrait of the ideal king and apply it to the Child born in Bethlehem.  Because the psalmist talks a good deal about a king who would have a sharp eye to see those living on the margins of society.  The Lectionary would have us skip the shank of the psalm but if we read also verses 8-17, we will see even more of the psalm’s theme of a king who helps the needy.

Verse 4 tells us that this king will be a champion for the afflicted and that he will save the children of the needy.  Verse 12 tells us he will hear the cries of the afflicted and of all those who are needy but who have no one else to help them.  Verses 13 and 14 go on to say he will take pity on the weak and needy, he will rescue people who are being oppressed and will save them because their blood is precious to the king.

Reading such words about an ideal ruler can almost bring tears to your eyes.  Not only are these sentiments lyric in their own right but to read them in the context of a world where the cries of the needy so often go unheard is heartbreaking.  But that is often because those in power cannot see past their own noses.  They are blind to people’s suffering in poverty, they are deaf to their cries for help.

True, just seeing the poor is no guarantee that a king or other person in power will do anything to help them.  But for certain nothing will happen if the invisible people of society actually remain invisible to a leader.  And this then now leads us to Jesus as the ultimate King of kings, the ultimate Son of David.  How often in the New Testament don’t we read something to the effect that Jesus “lifted up his eyes” and once he does so, he sees people.  He seems a huge crowd of people as being harried and helpless like sheep without a shepherd.  Such seeing then becomes the engine of compassion.  He hears the cries of beggars and the blind and the lame and even if the disciples or others try to hush up such people, Jesus always beckons them to come over or he goes to where they are.  He sees the little children whom adults often brush aside as not yet being of much account and what’s more, Jesus elevates those kids into kingdom role models for the rest of us to emulate.

This can also remind us of the Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus.  If I were to ask you what is the single most unique feature of that parable in Luke 18, what would you say?  Hopefully you’d say that this is the only one of Jesus’s three dozen or so parables in which a parabolic character is given a name: Lazarus.  This seems to be Luke’s and Jesus’s way of reminding us that “the poor” are not finally some anonymous mass grouping of people.  The poor are not faceless and nameless.  The poor man here is Lazarus.  A man who got named by a mother and father once upon a time.  A man with a story, with a beating heart, with hopes and dreams.  This poor man Lazarus should be the target of love and compassion.  In his life the rich man in the parable seemed not to be aware of the beggar at the gates of his gilded mansion.  But after he dies and sees Lazarus in the bosom of Abraham, the rich man does say the name.  He knew of him.  He just never really saw him.

Of all the things we in the church may ponder, reflect upon, or celebrate in Advent and then in the Christmas Season, justice for the poor, weak, and needy of the earth probably is not among those things.  Our Christmas carols do not typically focus on helping the impoverished or seeing and hearing the marginalized of society.  But Psalm 72 reminds us that the ultimate King will be a person whose heart is with the needy and whose hands swing into action to help them.  In a season that has become altogether too materialistic, of giving gifts to people who don’t actually need a thing more, we need this focus on what King Jesus is all about.

Psalm 72 concludes with the wish that the whole earth will be full of the glory of this ideal King.  The New Testament promises that just this will happen one day.  When that day arrives, that earth-filling glory of our great King will mean many things but chief among them will be the elimination of poverty and the coming of justice for all who are oppressed in any way.  If we wish to articulate some kind of “Christmas wish,” then wishing for the coming of that day ought to be at the top of our wish list.

Note: In addition to our weekly sermon commentaries each Monday, check out our special Advent and Christmas Resource page for more sermon ideas and other Advent/Christmas resources. 

Illustration Idea

When he was running for re-election in 1992, President George H.W. Bush encountered some political headwinds when someone asked him how much a gallon of milk cost and he didn’t know.  This of course made him look to be out of touch with ordinary Americans or with those struggling to make ends meet.  To rectify that situation Bush’s campaign arranged for him to visit a supermarket.  That move may not have helped however because while there, Bush marveled over something he’d never seen before: a barcode scanner.  But since such scanners had been in use for many years by that time, this only made matters worse.

It is probably an occupational hazard for presidents and others who have high political positions of power that they lose touch with the fabric of ordinary life.  But the fact that many people long to be seen by their leaders speaks to a deep-seated conviction that those in power should work toward justice and fairness for all people and certainly such work must begin by a leader’s ability to see and understand all people, which is a key theme in Psalm 72 as well.