Solomon is attributed with writing two Psalms, Psalm 72 and Psalm 127. Psalm 72 is about godly leadership. Do we have godly leadership today? Please read or listen to Psalm 72.
To help us through Psalm 72, I selected a couple of my personal Bible reading journals. One from 1997 and one from 2015. In 1997, I was reading multiple psalms per day, and on this day, read Psalms 69-72. Concerning Psalm 72, I just wrote one line, “Solomon seeks God’s help in being king. We should seek His help in what we do.” Eighteen years later, in 2015, when reading Psalm 72, I wrote, “Psalm 72 is a prayer for Solomon and Davidic kingship. We are to pray for our leaders continually. God blesses leadership, the people, and the land. He could also curse leadership, people, and the land.”
Let’s take a look at what Solomon had to say in Psalm 72 about leadership. As one of the kings over Israel, he knew something about leadership. Here is what he asks of leadership, “May he judge your people with righteousness, and your poor with justice!” (v. 2). He expects leaders to be righteous and just. Under good leadership, people will prosper, “Let the mountains bear prosperity for the people, and the hills in righteousness!” (v. 3). According to verse 4, a leader would “defend the cause of the poor and crush the oppressor!” Under good leadership, according to verse 7, the people would flourish, and peace would abound.
Solomon was speaking from experience. Most consider him a good leader, doing the things he is saying in this psalm. And truly, under his leadership for four decades, Israel prospered. Under Solomon, it was the glory days of Israel. There was much wealth, there was peace, there were no military interventions, so the people had it well under King Solomon. With that kind of leadership, the people probably had no problems praying for their king. Verse 15 says, “May prayer be made for him continually, and blessings invoked for him all the day!” Surely, we too would have no problems praying for leadership like this.
The result of good leadership and people praying for their leaders is evidenced in verse 16, “May there be abundance of grain in the land; on the tops of the mountains may it wave; may its fruit be like Lebanon; and my people blossom in the cities like the grass of the field!” Yes, under godly leadership, with prayer covering for the leadership, people prosper.
That is what we want today in all of our countries. We want godly leadership. We want biblical leadership. We want leaders who exude righteousness, justice, concern for the poor, and crush the oppressors. Yet, we know we do not have a lot of political leadership like that in our nations today.
What can we do about our political, our governmental, leadership today? This psalm reminds us to pray continually for our political leaders. Again, verse 15, “May prayer be made for him continually, and blessings invoked for him all the day!” Yes, we are instructed in the Word of God, to pray for our leaders.
What else can we do? We can try to hold our leaders accountable for right decisions, for treating the poor with justice, for delivering peace to those they govern, and to provide economic opportunity so we can flourish. How do we do that? We can register, we can exercise our right to vote, we can send emails or letters to those in elected office, we can support the candidates of our choice, and we can even get involved with the political process. Thank God many Christians run for political office.
As we close Psalm 72, let’s do as it instructs us to do and pray for our leaders.
Father, we lift up political leadership, we lift up governmental leadership at all levels; national, state, county, city, even school boards. We pray these people would lead with righteousness and justice. They would make decisions that would allow us, their people, to prosper. Lord, please bless our leaders each and every day they are in office.
And Lord, where we are not satisfied with our leaders, might we be involved in the process to elect godly leaders to rule over us. We thank You for those who take their Christianity into political leadership. We pray a special blessing on them. May they rub off on those around them. Lord, we thank You for godly leadership where it exists. We pray You replace those who are not with godly leadership in the future. We thank You for the words of King Solomon in this Psalm. In the name of Jesus. Amen.