My wife and I are reading through the Psalms in our evening reading and occasionally a nugget of the Psalms jumps out of the page. Don’t you love it when, after years of reading the “Old Book” passages become alive, reinforcing old teachings or simply warming your heart.

This is the book of Psalms, and it is rich.

I pray I can communicate a portion of the blessing we receive from this wonderful book.

Before we begin this psalm that refers of the true king, pictures the Messiah, and describes the ultimate kingdom, it may be good to mention there is some discussion on the author. Per the ESV, verse 1 seems to speak of this psalm as originating (humanly) from Solomon, David’s son. There is an argument that the psalm was written by David himself (see the last verse) and he wrote it “of Solomon” in his reign, as David looked into the future potential of his son.

Although I am of the opinion David wrote this psalm, no matter how you see this topic, let us delve into this psalm that speaks over and over again of the greater Son of David, the true King of all.

Psalm 72:18  Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, who alone does wondrous things.
Psalm 72:19  Blessed be his glorious name forever; may the whole earth be filled with his glory! Amen and Amen!
Psalm 72:20  The prayers of David, the son of Jesse, are ended.

This last few verses contain the doxology of the second book of the Psalms. This idea of the psalms being comprised of “books” was not mentioned before in our studies, but it is an interesting concept to consider.

For my readers interest, I have provided a simple table to describe the concept and for your consideration.

Prior to digging into the doxology, it is good to remember that when David ends this psalm, he refers to it being the end of the prayers of David. So an obvious question I can hear my reader offer is – How can that be, if we find David’s writings in later psalms, such as 86, 101, 103, 108-110, 122, 124, 121, 133, and 138-145. There are a number of possible explanations.

The author may simply be speaking of the end of his prayers in Psalm 72. He may also be referring to the end of a collection of David’s psalms. Psalms added to the book of Psalms may not be in the authors mind at the time of writing.

Nevertheless, David has provided us a Psalm that includes his hopes and prayers for the Solomonic kingdom, and in so doing has given us a Psalm that shows us Jesus Christ as King.

In the final doxology, the author expresses his desire and hope for not only his son, but that the name of the Lord God of Israel be blessed forever, and that the whole earth be filled with His glory.

David knew the end game, for he expressed God’s will perfectly in this last passage, even as Moses and Habakkuk spoke of their desire.

Numbers 14:21 But truly, as I live, and as all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the LORD,

Habakkuk 2:14 For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD as the waters cover the sea.

My question for my reader to consider this morning is this.

While David, and the other prophets were expressing this great desire of the saints, would they have understood it included the death of the Son of God to accomplish the will of God?

My friends, we know how serious God is in completing Hios plan for all of creation, for it took the death of His Son to seal the deal. We have this truth, and we have this confidence, that as the Father brought the Son out of the grave, He also will accomplish His will in spreading the glory of God throughout the whole earth.

May the whole earth be filled with His Glory.

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