Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
Episode 558: In this episode, we delve into Psalm 72, which we describe as a prayer for the perfect king. We discuss the context of the psalm, likely written by Solomon, reflecting on the prayers of his father, David. The psalm emphasizes the qualities we desire in our leaders—justice and righteousness—and we ponder how the world would change if leaders committed to these values.
Whether you’ve been following Jesus for years or you’re just starting to ask questions, there’s a seat for you here.
Join Jeff and Chris for honest conversations about Scripture, faith, and the everyday stuff we all navigate. With humor, personal stories, and plenty of back-and-forth, The Bible Guys explore what the Bible says and how it connects to your life.
Subscribe, bring your questions, and get to know the Bible one conversation at a time. Head over to TheBibleGuys.com for more information!
You're listening to The Bible Guys, a podcast where a couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun in practical ways. Hey, everybody, thanks for tuning in for another episode of The Bible Guys. Sing us a song, Chris, good Morning. I knew that's what you'd say, talk thrown nut through good morning. Good morning to you and you and you and you. Wow, well that's the end of You're saying it for all of us, not just one of us. That's correct. Wow, because I said. That's because it's all three listeners, is me and two others. Yeah, yeah, that's right. That's so funny. Oh that's great. Yes, well, hey, thanks Jeff for requesting me singing. That was magnificent. And people have been waiting. I mean we've we've gotten pretty deep into the week. Yes, well we're at Wednesday. I know, that's what I'm saying. And so this is this is uh yes. So hey, today we're going to start off with a brand new segment that I've never heard of. Desiree just decided to make something up called hypothetical Hilarity. Here are some wild and ridiculous hypothetical situations to discuss. They must decide on a course of action or solve the problem and in the most outlandish way possible. So is the assignment just to answer the question or is the assignment to answer the question in a crazy, unexpected way. I'm not sure, but let's just let's go for it, Chris. Okay, all right, let's go for it because the rules are are Yes, you want to read in the most outlandish way possible? Do you want to read the first one? If your pet suddenly grew to the size of a small car, would you let it drive you around or turn it into a social media influencer? Yes? Both depends is your petiphish because I. Don't know what what? What is your pet? It's your pet, Chris, Oh, my pets, it's literally says your pet. Oh so this isn't just the listeners pets. No, so since the listeners can't speak on the podcast, they just have to listen. Oh geez, ready to be fine. So this is a question for me. If your pet suddenly grew to the size of a small car. Yes, not a big car, a small car. I get it. Okay, okay, would you yes? Okay? Fine, Okay, Well then I wasn't receiving it that way, so you always see Jeff. That shows you how un selfish I am. I always think of others. Yes, I don't think of me. I think of others first. I think it's that you don't pay attention to the words. That's what I think. What a terrible response to that, What a terrible response. I think you wanted to take a credit where it doesn't belong this time. So uh okay. So if my cats, I have two cats, You have two cats currently, if they're. Looking for others, so if you can help them, no, I do, because they're down three. Now, if my cat, one. Of my cats rude to be the size of a car, would I let it drive me around? I think I would do both. I would definitely ride on that thing. It doesn't say would you ride on it? Well, drive me around? Oh wait a minute, are you saying that that question means? The way that it's worded is that it's actually going to be the driver instead of you. I know that's what I'm saying, but the wording, I think the intent is different than the wording. That's all I'm saying. Right, there's a there's a little lawyer that lives in my head and the words matter. Yeah, because what she was meaning was use it. Would you ride it around? Ride around on it? Like a YEA, Well, I'm going to go with the intent, Jeff, Okay, I'm not going to be you know, one of those guys. I'm just saying, desert needs to use words on purpose. And would you let it drive you around? Is a totally different picture across. That's a different word picture. We've already your size of a car now is in the driver's seat of your pickup truck driving down the road. That's what Hey, we already picked on desiret yesterday for the jokes. No, that's right, No, no, we picked on the people who sent them, sent those jokes. In ultimately we ended up doing that. Yet we're picking a lot of people this week. So if you haven't been offended yet, we have two more days. That's right. Just give us a that's right for this week? Okay, all right? So I would say yes for both, honestly. So you would you would you would let your cat drive you around? Yes, But you'd also be if you've got a cat the size of the car, you got to put it on the internet. Of course, Yeah, and you'd be rich. I'd have to quit my job. Just yeah, and what a noble what a noble cause look at the size of my cat as opposed to you know, twenty people to Jesus for eternity, that's. What it would be. Quit your job. Okay, that's really funny. If you had to be stuck in an elevator with one celebrity, yes, and you're more focused on celebrities than me, so this would be good. Yes, but you couldn't talk. Yes, who would it be? And why Bob Ross? Because I couldn't talk, which means right, and he would teach me and I would sit there for hours and as long as we had canvases. Right, uh, you know in the elevator. Once again, the words say, but you couldn't talk, correct, he could write, which means like I could listen even if he didn't, even if he didn't have a canvas. He could just talk and just teach me how to paint, which would be great. I'd love to listen to that guy. I think it would be. I don't know he's not TV anymore, but I think he's dead actually, okay, well. Old as Bob Ross. I didn't get Siri. How old is Ross died? July fourth. Uh huh, he died. They're interrupted. Yeah, he died. You were talking, that's the problem. Chris and Siri were interrupting each other. That's pretty amazing. You were talking when I was talking. Yeah, I'm sorry. So so he died. So can I still choose him? Sure? All right? Yeah? Yeah, because it said any celebrity, right, one celebrity? Okay, okay, I would pick maybe Da Vinci. Oh that's why you said I can choose Bob Ross because you wanted to go back into the archives. Yeah. Yeah, well he's the original renaissance man and I'm very intrigued by that. Okay, yeah, yeah. Or the other one that was thinking is Mark Twain. Oh I think Mark Twain to be a neat one. He'd be a jerk though, Why he's hysterically funny he was. Yeah, but in your opinion, Mark Twain to be a jerk. Can you pick up a skeleton hand and move it? Yeah? Yeah? Yeah, Well I mean you picked up Bob Ross. Hey listen, Uh. Why would Mark Twain be a jerk? Well, because he's an American treasure. To be honest, you're not going to like this answer. Actually probably, I am not none of my listeners are gonna like this answer. I don't think so, maybe you shouldn't give it. In an episode of Star Trek The Next Generation, Captain Picard and Data, we're in the holiday, yes, and they decided to create Mark Twain who ended up being a jerk. Okay, well, but they were basing off his character, like his personality and it's like being snippy, right and uh and so I in mind, I see I see Mark Twain in my mind played out. By this actor. All right, now we have to ask, because you just took it to the space age. Everything. All I did was tell you the reason why was Mark Twain a jerk? Oh? That's so subjective, check gipt. He's not going to answer that. Mark Twain was famously witty and known for for his biting humor. Oh sarcasm. But but opinions on whether he was a jerk are mixed and widely subjective. He was humorous and sarcastic. He critiqued authority, and he was very demanding, in particular with his family and friends. He's he struggled with financial issues and put stress on relationships or sometimes intense personality and wow, he had complexity. I think and compassion. I think if you looked up Webster's definition for a jerk. It sounds like me. This sounds like me. Complexity and compassion. Hey, you said nobody else said he's. A little stressful on everybody else, constantly critiquing authority with humor and sarcasm. That's I think he'd be great to. Hang out with, you know, Forrest Gump when he says and that's all I have to say about that. There you go, Okaye, Betinos, everything that's so funny. Okay, well we should move on from here. This next thing for those of you who hung on this long and we're waiting for us to get to the Bible, so that Hey, that segment wound up being more interesting. I thought it was gonna be Yeah, me too, Yeah yeah, okay. You know, speaking of segments being better than you thought they were going to be, this is a psalm about a king that is the best king. In fact, it actually says the perfect king. So that segment was almost perfect, but this psalm. Is more perfect, is more perfect? Wow? Okay, it was the worst cheese segment so so far. If you if you're new, we've been trying to have cheesy segues from our goofy segment. I'm sorry, I said segment. From our goofy segments into our thing. And that was That was about as cheesy as it gets. So we were reading Psalm seventy two and this is Most of the psalms were written by David, Solomon's father, who was a great king, but a few of them were written by Solomon. And this one, Psalm seventy two, is it will. Read the theme because because it supports my cheesy segue, it says the perfect King. I was going to read it. Okay, good, Yes, it was written as a prayer and this is the end of the Book of Psalms was divided into five books, and this is the end of I think book two. And David had prayed these prayers and so either this is Solomon praying about the king or it's more likely that Solomon is recounting a prayer that David prayed for his son. Is what it seems like. He Do you think this had music to it? Oh? Absolutely all of the psalms did because they were singable. Okay, yeah, yeah. So anyways, we know Solomon wrote it. We think it's likely that he was writing what his dad prayed for him. But it says here the theme is the perfect King. In this psalm, a king asks God to help his son rule the nation justly and wisely. It looks forward to the endless reign of the Messiah, who alone can rule with perfect justice, and whose citizens will enjoy perfect peace. Which is pretty awesome. The perfect King, the perfect. King, so he go. Psalm seventy two says, give your love of justice to the King, Oh God, help him judge your people in the right way. Let the poor always be treated fairly. May the mountains yield prosperity for all, and may the hills be fruitful. Help him to defend the poor, to rescue the children of the needy, and to crush their oppressors. May they fear you as long as the sun shines, as long as the moon remains in the sky. Yes, forever, May the King's rule be refreshing, like spring rain on freshly cut grass, like the showers that water the earth. May all the godly flourish during his reign. May there be abundant prosperity until the moon is no more. May he rain from sea to sea, and from the Euphrates River to the ends of the earth. Desert nomads will bow before him. His enemies will fall before him in the dust. The western kings of Tarsish and other distant lands will bring him tribute. The eastern kings of Sheba and Siba will bring him gifts. All kings will bow before him, and all nations will serve him. He will rescue the poor when they cry to him. He will help the oppressed who have no one to defend him. He feels pity for the weak and the needy, and he will rescue them. He will redeem them from oppression and violence, for their lives are precious to him. Long live the King. May the gold of Sheba be given to him. May the people always pray for him and bless him all day long. May there be abundant grain throughout the land, flourishing even on the hilltops. May the fruit trees flourish like the trees of Lebanon, and may the people thrive like grass in a field. May the King's name endure forever. May it continue as long as the sun shines. May all nations be blessed through him and bring him praise. Praise the Lord God, the God of Israel, who alone does such wonderful things. Praise his glorious name forever. Let the whole earth be filled with His glory. Amen and Amen. And then it wils and then it says this ends the prayers of David's son of Jesse. That's correct. Wow. So there's a note here in our life application study Bible, which is a Bible that we recommend. Oh yeah, we love it. We love it. Get yourself a good study Bible. Yes, And it says, what qualities do we want most in our leaders? God desires all who rule under him to be just and righteous. Think of how the world will. Change if leaders would commit That's the thought, isn't it themselves to these two qualities? Pray fore and righteousness? Right, Pray for. Leaders that you hear about them on the news. Ask God to help them see and then it just blah blah blah blah. Help them see their need for him. Yeah, ask God to help them lead with justice and righteousness. Yeah, which is really great. Yeah. Yeah, So that's what Paul tells us in on Timothy. There's a note there, right, pray for our kings, Pray for our leaders. Yeah. By the way, as you were reading through this, I mean Obviously I've read the Bible before, I've read Psalm seventy two before, but I think it's been a while since I've paid attention specifically to this particular psalm, And my thinking was sort of wandering, thinking, I wonder if he wrote this when he before he was king, or do you think that it's we're addressing this now because chronologically it's supposed to be after he was king. Yeah, so I think this is he wrote it after he was king, I think. But what I understand it Psalm seventy two is it seems like he's remembering the prayer that his father prayed for him. He's realizing that God gave him all that his father prayed for. It prays for wisdom. He prays that his son will care for the poor, that the whole nation will prosper before him, that the world will will, that the enemies will submit, that the rest of the world will bring him tribute. Even it mentioned Sheba a couple times, what the queen Sheba does. I think a lot of theologians believe that Psalm seventy two is Solomon realizing the blessing in his life was passed to him from his father. And the prayers of his father, and that he has realized these things to be true. So if that's the case, then that means that David. Would have spoken this into his son prophetically, prophetically and saying, like. One day, pray over his son this way. The Queen of Sheba will give you gold. Yeah. And so he's remembering as the Queen of Sheba, which we read and yes Day's podcast comes and gives him were two podcasts ago where the Queen of Sheba comes and gives him what was it five hundred. Yeah, three and three hundred and something billion dollars? Yeah, or a million million dollars. She gave me nine thousand tons of gold, yeah, And I looked that up. Let me let me find out nine billion or something. No, no, no, this was three hundred and something. Yeah. Well, whatever it was, I made a joke and three. Hundred and forty three million dollars. Yeah. So the bottom line is is, you know, it could be that here he's finally seeing it all come to fruition, and then he's going back and saying, son of a gun, my father prayed this over. I remember when I was nine years old. I remember when he spoke over me, and he said, one day this is going to happen, and it. Could be maybe the catalyst. If this is true, If this is Solomon who's praying and remembering a prayer that his father prayed for him with so many specifics, then that would be an incredible thing, right. You know, we pray over our kids all the time, and when God answers the prayers and it actually comes to fruition, it's like there's nothing better, is it, right, There's nothing better. I've had conversations with my mom and my dad about how they prayed over me, and I'm not going to get into specifics, but so many of those things have come true in my life. You know, I'm fifty three now, but my mom and dad you know, began praying over me when I was eight, and they pray for me often, and many of those things have come true, and not long ago, I don't know, a year or two ago. My mom and I were talking about that and how God. She feels like God has answered so many of her prayers in that. So it's a really humbling thing. So I think that you kind of pick it up because he is saying, you know, as you read it made the King's name never passed from the earth and all these things. It sounds like a big deal, But that's him remembering that's what his father prayed for him. But then Solomon seems to have written these last verses, praise the Lord God of Israel, who alone does such wonderful things. Right, right, So this is Solomon at his very best, saying, my dad prayed these things over me, But praise God, right, the Lord God, the God of Israel, who alone does such wonderful They praise his glorious name forever. But the whole earth be filled with his glory, right, amen and amen. And so there there's a humility that Solomon is expressing here that my dad praied these things, and look, God gave us this. Yeah, and really, God's the one that should get all the glory. So my daughter is married and she lives in Saint Pete, Florida. And a few years back, five years ago or so, my son in law took me out to a restaurant to ask my permission for him to ask Sarah to marry him. So, you know, and gosh, that moment was pretty surreal. You know. I remember what we ordered, I remember where we sat, I remember what restaurant it was, and he sat there and just talked about you know, he just had his speech all prepared, and he was crying, and afterwards he sort of said, hey, I love your daughter all these different things. And then when he get done, he says, Okay, I'm done crying. I promise no more crying. And then I said, let me tell you a story, because it was my turn to respond and say yes, right, And I said, the day that Sarah was born, nineteen ninety four, this is how long ago it was. I said, we brought her home from the hospital, and I described the nursery and I said, and my wife and I later in her crib. I said, and that in that very moment, we got our knees and we prayed, and we went through this laundry list of things that we prayed for her. In her life. Among them was the very first time that we prayed for her future husband, and we prayed for her future husband her entire life, and we prayed that God would send her somebody who and we just listed all these different things. And I explained all this to him and I said, so, I said, this moment is the answer, and I believe that God has sent you to her. I believe you have the answer to these prayers. I said, We've been praying for for you before you, before we met you, your whole life. And then he started crying and he goes, dang it, he said, I said, that was the end of my crime. And but you know, obviously it's a pretty emotional story for me. But but here's the point. The point is is that there is power and a parent's prayer. Yeah, right, So think about this. Think about him Solomon looking back and saying, I never understood. I never I'm marveling at the fact that this is what my father prayed and this is what God has done. And I believe that that's something that definitely Sarah and Brandon can say powerful. Yeah, that's powerful. So I mentioned I know the prayers my mom and dad prayed for me, and I'm living out I think the benefit of those prayers. Yeah, you mentioned the prayers you prayed for your daughter, and your daughter's living those out. For some of our listeners, you're praying for your kids and you're wondering. So let me tell you. The story of my dad is. You know, my dad adopted me when I was eight but his mother prayed for him for forty years before he became a Christian. So we have some listeners that are frustrated that God hasn't yet answered their prayers. And they'll often say God hasn't answered my prayers, and I always say, not yet. Right, He's in the process of answering your prayer, and you're praying a prayer that glorifies him. Right, if your child is far from God, don't give up. My grandmother told me because eventually after her my dad's dad died when my dad was a teenager, and she remarried when her second husband died. We had a little house behind us. We had a little homestead, and there was a little house that the original owner had for like a rental house. But after her husband died, she moved into that little rental house, and so she lived one hundred feet behind me. We worked out in the same garden, we picked the same apples, we did all the same stuff. So ited always hanging out with my grandmother's house. And she told me one time she just couldn't believe the change of my dad's life. You know, I'm fourteen years old, probably fifteen years old at the time, and So this was a six or seven years after he became a Christian. And she said, for forty years, I thought there was no hope, but I never gave up. She said, two things I've always done. She always was listening to Christian music on a radio. Her church had a radio station, so she always listened to it. Am twelve thirty and I'll appear. And so she's always listening to Christian music and praying for my dad all day, every day for forty years. And she said, I never thought it was going to happen, and now thank God for it. So my dad now is eighty six, so he's now been a believer six years longer than he was a full on pig. And you know, so this this so I've lived it. You've prayed over your daughter, she's lived it my dad. You know, my grandmother prayed for my dad. And so you may feel like, in this microwave popcorn kind of a world that you prayed a couple times and it just didn't happen. And I would say, it hasn't happened yet. Don't give up. And James says that the fervent prayers of a righteous man accomplishes much that's right, So you know, stick with it. God's on your side and he's for you. And so David this prayer. There's similar wording to this in that prayer that David prayed over his son right towards the end of his life, very similar words to this. This may be Solomon's recounting of that prayer we read a few weeks ago. If that's the case, David had lived his life. He wasn't a perfect guy, but he knew who God was and he believed God would answer prayers. Yeah, and then Solomon isn't a perfect guy, but man, Solomon really did see all of the things that David prayed over him for. Solomon sees these things happen in his life. So pray for the people you love and God hears those prayers. That's great. All right. Well, hey, that's our time, so hopefully we will see you tomorrow on the Bible Gush