Psalm 72:1-7

“May he defend the cause of the poor of the people, give deliverance to the children of the needy.” (Psalm 72:4)

Psalm 72 is a royal psalm headed “of Solomon,” and the editorial note at its end that the prayers of David are finished marks the close of the Psalter’s second book, so it functions as a hinge as well as a prayer. Every line of the appointed portion is petition, not description: the king possesses justice only as a gift, and the psalm asks for it rather than celebrating it. The measure of the reign is taken at the bottom of the society, among the poor, the needy and the crushed (vv. 2, 4), which is a different criterion from the military one royal poetry usually applies. The effects are then put in agricultural images, mountains bearing peace and rain falling on mown grass (vv. 3, 6), as though right rule were a climate rather than a policy. The selection stops before the tribute of distant kings in vv. 10-11, the verses that supplied Epiphany with its gifts, so what remains in Advent is the asking.

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