Endow the king with your justice, O God,
the royal son with your righteousness.
May he judge your people in righteousness,
your afflicted ones with justice.
May the mountains bring prosperity to the people,
the hills the fruit of righteousness.
May he defend the afflicted among the people
and save the children of the needy;
may he crush the oppressor.
May he endure as long as the sun,
as long as the moon, through all generations.
May he be like rain falling on a mown field,
like showers watering the earth.
In his days may the righteous flourish
and prosperity abound till the moon is no more.
May he rule from sea to sea
and from the River to the ends of the earth.
May the desert tribes bow before him
and his enemies lick the dust.
May the kings of Tarshish and of distant shores
bring tribute to him.
May the kings of Sheba and Seba
present him gifts.
May all kings bow down to him
and all nations serve him.
For he will deliver the needy who cry out,
the afflicted who have no one to help.
He will take pity on the weak and the needy
and save the needy from death.
He will rescue them from oppression and violence,
for precious is their blood in his sight.
Long may he live!
May gold from Sheba be given him.
May people ever pray for him
and bless him all day long.
May grain abound throughout the land;
on the tops of the hills may it sway.
May the crops flourish like Lebanon
and thrive like the grass of the field.
May his name endure forever;
may it continue as long as the sun.
Then all nations will be blessed through him,
and they will call him blessed.
Praise be to the Lord God, the God of Israel,
who alone does marvelous deeds.
Praise be to his glorious name forever;
may the whole earth be filled with his glory.
Amen and Amen.
This concludes the prayers of David son of Jesse.
My thoughts -
When we worship do we consider God's justice and righteousness? We love to sing of God's goodness. We love to sing of God's awesome power and might. We love even more to sing of God's love and of God's grace. But what about righteousness? What about justice? What about God's concern for the poor, the needy, and the oppressed?
I must confess that when I select songs for a worship service I often have an agenda. We Christians have a story to tell and I like for the music to help weave that narrative. And yet, though I claim to have concern for the poor this concern never seems to find its way into the music. When we tell the story of Jesus we are telling the story of our savior and also our lord. We sing songs in the contemporary service like King of Glory and You Are My King that help drive this home. Jesus is our king. He is lord over our lives. And we praise him for this because he is our Lord and he is good. But look and how David describes a good, godly king here:
For he will deliver the needy who cry out, the afflicted who have no one to help. He will take pity on the weak and the needy and save the needy from death. He will rescue them from oppression and violence, for precious is their blood in his sight.Do we praise Jesus for his concern for the needy when we worship? Do we share his concern? If we, the church, are the hands and feet of Jesus, our good king, do we do everything that we can to save the needy and the oppressed and seek God's justice for them? If not, do we still expect our good king to say "well done, my good and faithful servant" to us?
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