Psalm 72:8

Psalm 72 is a royal psalm, a prayer for the king God has set over his people, and its title in the KJV is “A Psalm for Solomon.” It opens by asking God to give the king his judgments and his righteousness, so that he will judge the people rightly and defend the poor and the needy (Psalm 72:1–2). The blessings of a long and peaceful reign follow (Psalm 72:3–7). Our four verses then widen the view to the whole earth. After them the psalm returns to the king’s pity for the poor and needy (Psalm 72:12–14) and the lasting fame of his name (Psalm 72:17–19), and it ends with praise to God and the words “The prayers of David the son of Jesse are ended,” which close the second book of the Psalms.

That order shapes how we read these verses. The king’s wide rule comes after his justice, and the small word “also” in verse 8 ties them together: the king who judges rightly and rescues the poor is the one who “shall have dominion also” over the earth. His reach is God’s blessing on a righteous reign, and the homage of the nations in verse 11 grows out of his righteous character more than out of his armies.

Behind the prayer stand God’s promises. In Israel the king was God’s chosen representative, given to carry out God’s justice on earth, and God had promised David a son whose kingdom and throne he would establish for ever (2 Samuel 7:12–16). Long before that, God had promised Abraham that all nations would be blessed through his offspring. A king whose rule takes in the whole world is what those promises lead us to expect.

“He shall have dominion” translates râdâh, a verb that means to tread down or subdue. It is a strong word for rule that is firm and effective, and used of a righteous king it describes authority that brings order, peace and justice. It is the same verb God uses when he gives mankind dominion over the rest of creation (Genesis 1:26), so it carries the sense of rule received from God and exercised under him.

“From sea to sea” is miyyam ‘ad-yam in Hebrew, with the word yâm, sea, said twice. Yâm comes from a root meaning to roar, and it names a large body of water, most often the Mediterranean, and sometimes a great river or a man-made basin. The phrase is commonly taken to mean from the Mediterranean in the west to the Persian Gulf in the east, the breadth of the world Israel knew. “The river” is almost certainly the Euphrates, the great river that bounded the land promised to Abraham.

Then the verse leaves the map behind with “unto the ends of the earth.” The word for ends, ʼepheç, means a ceasing or end, the uttermost part of a thing, and joined to ha’arets, the earth, it names the farthest reaches of the inhabited world. The two halves of the verse say the same thing, and the second says it more widely, until the king’s rule has no border left.

Other Scriptures speak in the same terms of the King God promised. Zechariah says of him that his dominion shall be from sea to sea (Zechariah 9:10). In the second psalm God says to his anointed, “Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen” (Psalm 2:8). Daniel sees one like the Son of man given an everlasting dominion over all peoples (Daniel 7:14).

“They that dwell in the wilderness” is one Hebrew word, tsîyîy, a desert-dweller. It names the nomads of dry, desolate country, and it can also be used of the wild beasts that live there. Such people lived far beyond the reach of settled kingdoms, where a king’s armies and officials seldom went. When they bow before him, his rule has reached the most remote and untamed corners of the earth. To bow, kâraʻ, is to bend the knee or sink down, a posture of deep reverence and homage, and when it is offered to a king God has set up it comes close to worship. The desert peoples come willingly, drawn by the justice of his rule.

Beside them the verse sets a second group: “his enemies shall lick the dust.” The verb lâchak simply means to lick, and the whole phrase, yelahakhu aphar, was a well-known picture of utter defeat. A beaten enemy lies face down on the ground, so low that the dirt is in his mouth. Israel would have understood at once that every opponent of the king has been brought down and that his power and dignity are gone for good. So the verse shows two ways of coming to the king, some bowing in homage and others brought low, and in the end every one of them acknowledges him. The prophets hold the same hope of a King who judges with righteousness and puts down the wicked (Isaiah 11:4), and God says through Isaiah, “unto me every knee shall bow” (Isaiah 45:23).

Verse 10 names the places the gifts come from. Tarshish, Tarshîysh, is a distant port often identified with Tartessos in southern Spain, the far west of the world Israel knew, and Scripture links it with seafaring trade and wealth (Isaiah 23:1). “The isles,” ʼîy, are islands and also distant coastlands. Sheba was a wealthy kingdom, commonly placed in modern Yemen and known for its gold and spices, and its queen came to visit Solomon (1 Kings 10:1). Seba was likely in north-east Africa, in what is now Sudan or Ethiopia. So the rulers of lands across the sea and in the far south, rich and powerful in their own right, all come to this king.

Two words describe what they bring. “Presents” is minchâh, from a root meaning to apportion or bestow. It means a gift or tribute, and it is also the word for an offering brought to God, usually a bloodless and voluntary one. “Gifts” is ʼeshkâr, a gratuity or present, often given to win favour or as tribute. Among the kingdoms of that day, a foreign king’s gifts were the usual way to show submission, alliance and recognition of a greater sovereign, and Solomon received such gifts (1 Kings 10:25). Putting the two words side by side stresses how rich and how willing the tribute is. Since minchâh also names an offering to God, these gifts carry an honour that comes close to worship.

Verse 11 is the climax of the four verses, and the KJV marks it with “Yea.” The kings of verse 10 were a few named rulers, and now every king is included. To fall down, shâchâh, is to bow low or lie prostrate, the posture of deep reverence and submission, and often of worship. It means giving up one’s own rank before a greater authority. The second line widens from kings to whole peoples: “all nations shall serve him.” The verb ʻâbad means to work, labour or serve, and it describes active allegiance, the work of a loyal subject, and elsewhere the service rendered to God himself.

Daniel’s vision says the same of the Son of man, “that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him” (Daniel 7:14), and Zechariah says, “the LORD shall be king over all the earth” (Zechariah 14:9). Isaiah describes the government of the Prince of Peace, established with judgment and with justice for ever (Isaiah 9:6–7). In each place, the King whom all the nations serve is a King of righteousness.

Every line of these verses is true of Jesus, the Son of David. After his resurrection he said, “All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth” (Matthew 28:18), and God has set him at his own right hand, far above all principality and power (Ephesians 1:20–23). Paul takes up the bowing of Isaiah: “at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:10–11). At the end, loud voices in heaven say, “The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever” (Revelation 11:15).

His kingdom differs from the empires of the earth. They are built on conquest and force, they are often cruel, and they rise and fall. Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world” (John 18:36). He won his throne by his work on the cross, where he conquered sin and death, and he rules by truth, love and sacrificial service. His authority is moral and spiritual as well as worldwide, and it changes hearts and whole societies from within. Daniel calls it a kingdom “which shall never be destroyed” (Daniel 2:44).

The psalm’s two groups in verse 9 meet us in the gospel. The desert peoples who bow are a picture of the Gentiles, people of every tribe and tongue who come to faith and own Jesus as Lord. God made his Servant a light to the Gentiles and his salvation to the end of the earth (Isaiah 49:6), John sees a great multitude of all nations standing before the throne (Revelation 7:9), and the Lamb has redeemed people out of every kindred, tongue, people and nation by his blood (Revelation 5:9–10). These are the nations who serve him willingly. The enemies who lick the dust are all who set themselves against his righteous rule, and with them sin, death and the powers of darkness. Their final defeat comes with his return (Revelation 19:11–21), when he brings in the new heavens and new earth where righteousness dwells.

The nations are coming to him now. Jesus sends his disciples to make disciples of all nations (Matthew 28:19–20), and every person who turns to him is one more from the ends of the earth bowing before the King. The day of his return will complete what the gospel has begun.

Because this King’s rule is righteous, the news that it reaches the whole earth is good news, above all for the poor and the oppressed, whose cause the psalm puts first. When the nations rage and rulers fail, you can hold to this: Christ’s authority is over all of them, his victory is certain, and his justice and peace will cover the earth. That gives peace in a troubled world and courage to do justice and show mercy where you live, as people who already belong to his kingdom.

The psalm shows two ways to meet this King, and the way of the desert peoples is open to everyone. They bow before him willingly and find a place in his kingdom. To bow before Christ now, in every part of life, is to come to him as they did, and our worship and service today are a foretaste of the homage the whole world will give him.

The kings of Tarshish and Sheba came with their best, and we can bring him ours: our time, our talents, our resources and our worship. And since all nations will serve him, we have every reason to tell the nations about him, knowing how the story ends.