Psalm 72:8-11

[Personal Note to "Blogees"--I have not done a blog for a couple of weeks because my wife and I have moved to Oxford, England to teach in the ACU Study Abroad Program this fall. At present, I am at a loss for the New Revised Standard Version because it is in one of our bags which we have not yet retrieved as a result of the British Air Lines workers strike about a week ago--so please bear with me].

The second paragraph in Psalm 72 is a prayer that God will bless Zion's king in his interrelationships with other nations. The composer says in verses 8-11:

"May he [the king on Zion] rule from sea to sea
and from the River to the ends of the earth.
May the desert tribes bow before him
and may his enemies lick the dust.
May the kings of Tarshish and of the isles bring tribute to him;
may the kings of Sheba and Seba offer him gifts.
May all kings bow down to him,
may all nations serve him."

Three specific ideas stand out in this prayer:
1. There is a progression from a smaller to a larger geographical range in these verses.
a. Verse 8 describes the "ideal" borders of Israel--from the Dead Sea to the Mediterranean Sea, and from the Euphrates River to the Brook of the Arabah (here called "the ends of the earth," meaning "the end of the land [of Canaan]," as the note in the NIV recognizes)(see Genesis 15:18-21; Deuteronomy 1:7; Joshua 1:4), which became a reality only in the reigns of Solomon (1 Kings 4:21, 24) and Jeroboam II of North Israel (2 Kings 14:25; Amos 6:14).
b. Verse 9 envisions a slight expansion beyond these borders to include desert tribes to the south and east of Canaan, like the Ammonites, Edomites, and Moabites.
c. Verse 10 broadens the territory even more to include Sheba and Seba to the south in Arabia (see 1 Kings 10) and Tarshish to the west on the southern tip of what is today Spain (see Psalm 48:7; Jonah 1:3).
d. Finally, verse 11 includes all nations and peoples ("all kings").
2. Verse 8 brings out the disparity between what God intended for his people and his people's own vision. God intended to give them much more territory than they usually had, because their dreams were much smaller than God's willingness and ability to provide for them.
3. The reason the psalmist can pray that Israel's king might be ruler of all nations (verse 11) is because the God whom Israel's king serves is the universal God: the God who created all nations, and who is in control of all nations. How would it change our lives if we really believed our God is in control of all nations and all peoples?

John Willis