Give the king your justice, O God, and your righteousness to the royal son. May he judge your people with righteousness and your poor with justice. Let the mountains bear prosperity for the people and the hills in righteousness. May he defend the cause of the poor of the people, give deliverance to the children of the needy, and crush the oppressor.
– Psalm 72:1–4
I want you to get a picture of what this Psalm is all about. It’s a prayer for the king among God’s people to lead with justice and righteousness. You hear those words over and over again and just those four verses. “Give the king your justice, your righteousness to him. May he judge your people with righteousness, your poor with justice. Let the mountains bear prosperity for the people in righteousness.”
Psalm 72:1–4 portrays a desire for godly leadership.
The whole picture is a desire for godly leadership in a nation for the right leadership of people. And specifically on behalf of the poor and the needy and the oppressed. This is a prayer, it’s a longing for leaders who will not oppress the needy. But who will help the oppressed, who will work on behalf of the poor. You see it all throughout the Psalm later in verse 12. “For he delivers the needy when he calls, the poor and him who has no helper. He has pity on the weak and the needy and saves the lives of the needy from oppression and violence. He redeems their life. Here is a leader who works on behalf of those in need.”
When we read this in Psalm 72, which is obviously written in a very unique context… The king among God’s people in a monarchy where the king was set up to be a reflection of God’s rule among his people, Israel. We live in very different governmental setups today, all around the world, and none of us lives in a context like the people of Israel in Psalm 72 in the Old Testament, but we still desire to be led by these kinds of people, don’t we? We have a responsibility to pray for leaders in our country, wherever we live, and in other countries among the nations who lead with justice and righteousness, who do what is right, who do justice for the poor, who defend the cause of the poor of the people, and give deliverance to the children of the needy and crush oppressors.
Psalm 72:1–4 encourages us to pray for our civic leaders.
This is what the people of God longed for in Psalm 72, and it’s what the people of God long for today. Let’s pray for leaders like this according to Psalm 72. God, in whatever country we live in right now, we pray for our presidents, our, in some cases, kings or princes, prime ministers, leaders of countries and states, governors in provinces, territories. We pray for our civic leaders. God, please raise up leaders who will do justice, who will judge people with righteousness. We pray this for judges specifically, but God, for all of our leaders, we intercede for them right now.
For those who know you through faith in Jesus, we pray that you would help them amidst corrupt political systems all around the world to live and lead with integrity and righteousness and to do justice in salt and light. We pray for legislators and leaders in all kinds of different spheres who know you to flourish in their leadership for others good. God, we pray for those who don’t know you, please, God, draw them to faith in you. We pray for humble hearts before you. We pray that you would bring them to the end of themselves to repentance for sin. You draw them to faith in Jesus. God, we pray that over presidents and leaders in all kinds of different arenas, judges, legislators, please, O God, cause salvation to come to the leaders who are coming to our mind.
This verse teaches us to pray for godly leadership on behalf of the poor and oppressed.
God, we pray that even if they don’t follow you, Jesus, that you would grant them common grace, wisdom to lead rightly as you describe in Romans 13, to lead government in a way that is good for the people who are governed in a way that leads to justice for the poor in particular, God. May our leaders defend the cause of the poor of the people and give deliverance to the children of the needy, and work against, bring down oppression.
God, we pray for this in our country, we pray for this in countries around the world. We think about in particular places where Christians are persecuted. God, we pray for just governments that allow freedom of faith and expression of faith.
Prayer for the Bangui People
God, we pray specifically today for the Bangui people of Nigeria. No known followers of Jesus among them. God, we pray that the good news of King Jesus would spread to the Bangui people of Nigeria. As we pray for them, God, we pray for this over all the nations, over all the peoples. Jesus, you are the king we need. You are the perfectly just and righteous king we long for.
God, we pray. Help us to spread the name and the truth and the justice and the mercy of Jesus to all the nations of the world. Jesus, we cannot wait. We long for the day when you’ll return and your just rule and reign will be fully and finally established on the earth. You are hope. We pray, God, that you would help us to proclaim the name of Jesus, spread the truth, the justice and the love and the righteousness of Jesus through our lives, however you lead us until he returns. We pray all this according to your Word in Psalm 72:1–4 in Jesus’ name. Amen.
David Platt serves as a Lead Pastor for McLean Bible Church. He is also the Founder and Chairman of Radical, an organization that helps people follow Jesus and make him known in their neighborhood and all nations.
David received his B.A. from the University of Georgia and M.Div., Th.M., and Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. Some of his published works include Radical, Radical Together, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, and Don’t Hold Back.
He lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area with his wife and children.
