God, give the king Your good judgment and the king's son Your goodness. Help him judge Your people fairly and decide what is right for the poor. Let there be peace on the mountains and goodness on the hills for the people. Help him be fair to the poor and save the needy and punish those who hurt them.
May they respect You as long as the sun shines and the moon glows. Let him be like rain on the grass, like showers that water the earth. Let goodness be plentiful while he lives. Let peace continue as long as there is a moon. (Verses 1-7)
A heart like His. Kings need it in order to reign in benevolence and wisdom. In praying for David and his offspring from Solomon to Christ, the Messiah, the temple worshippers sang this song. Jesus, of course, fulfilled all the hopes for a King Who is fair, powerful and in touch with the needs of those whom He rules. It is He to Whom this psalm looks in ultimate hope. It is He we now know to be its fulfillment. Today we just might march over the fiscal cliff here in the United States as our Congress tries to come to some agreement about our financial welfare. Politics as usual. No benevolent king. No Senate and House on their knees before the God of the Bible. Just everyone doing what is right in his or her own eyes, it seems. But what should we expect? The kingdom of this psalm is higher than our earthly political arena. It is everlasting, and God, Jahweh, is its ruler forever. It is to Him we look for equity, equanimity and justice.
Still I pray today for our president and Congress. They are not arbitrarily in Washington D.C. on this auspicous day. God wasn't surprised by the elections that placed these men and women over us. Whether they know it or not, our government officials need God. His intervention into their hearts as well as their minds is the only way His will can be done. And we, as Christians, must trust His will to be accomplished on earth as it is in heaven. Not just in higher government, but in the governing of our own lives.
Today, I want to be concerned about what matters to God in my life. In the governance of my will, my activities and my choices. My God cares about the poor and needy. So must I be. If I'm not giving away some of my wealth to them, I'm not using it the way He wants me to. I shouldn't depend upon the United States of America to do my giving for me. It's my responsibility to care for those with less. What I do with my thoughts matters to God. How I rule over my mind. What I let it think. Judging others without condemnation. Seeing their lives and wanting to make a difference because I know He loves them. Not looking at their shortcomings or addictions and casting people off because they aren't righteous.....like me....who is nothing without the grace of God. I need, like the king, to seek goodness. Not my own. Not much there to draw from. But to conform to Christ daily, asking Him to rain living water down on me like showers that water the earth. To grow me deep into the soil of His marvelous love so that I begin to think like Him, not like the religious or secular world. I want a heart like His to give me a life like His in a world gone amok. If I cannot govern my own life, how can I expect to impact the world?
It has never been God's best for us that we trust in our kings. There have been good ones and bad ones for centuries on centuries. But it is interesting Jesus is called the King of Kings. The ultimate Benevolent. He rules over the nations, but also directs the end of the ages just as He spoke the world into being in the first place. So, lest we go over the cliff with our government, thinking our lives will be permanently messed up by their decrees, we must remember Who knows the future and ultimately holds it in His hands. Jesus is still concerned about the same things that moved Him when He walked this earth. Government wasn't one of the biggies. People were. Touching lives one at a time was. Disciplining ourselves to walk a new way -- governing our own selves so we become proper citizens of heaven.
A new branch will grow from the stump of a tree; so a new king will come from the family of Jesse. The Spirit of the Lord will rest upon that king. The Spirit will give Him wisdom and understanding, guidance and power. The Spirit will teach Him to know and respect the Lord.
Isaiah 11
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