Psalm 72:1-7, 18-19 (NRSV)
Read Psalm 72:1-7, 18-19 on biblegateway.com
Verse 1Give the king your justice, O God, and your righteousness to a king's son.
Verse 2May he judge your people with righteousness, and your poor with justice.
Verse 3May the mountains yield prosperity for the people, and the hills, in righteousness.
Verse 4May he defend the cause of the poor of the people, give deliverance to the needy, and crush the oppressor.
Verse 5May he live while the sun endures, and as long as the moon, throughout all generations.
Verse 6May he be like rain that falls on the mown grass, like showers that water the earth.
Verse 7In his days may righteousness flourish and peace abound, until the moon is no more.
Verse 18Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, who alone does wondrous things.
Verse 19Blessed be his glorious name forever; may his glory fill the whole earth. Amen and Amen.
Devotion
For the Advent season we are looking back and reflecting on the previous week's readings.
The verses from Psalm 72 give a frame to our hope for the one who comes. Here we find justice and judgment linked together, something that does not always happen in our court and judicial systems. God's judgment, embodied in God's son, brings justice for all, righteousness, which is not morally-right living but economic and social parity for all people. The poor are named, those left out by systems that see wealth belonging to some and not others. All of creation and all of humanity belong together. The resources of the earth are not owned by some and bought by others. Righteousness is all encompassing. It touches the spiritual, the realm of the heart, and it touches the physical, the realm of the body so that everyone lives justly. Martin Luther comments in the Large Catechism that God's concern is a deeply physical concern for all human beings: that they all are fed and clothed.
Prayer
Blessed be the Lord our God who alone does wondrous things, who makes righteousness flourish and peace abound, until the moon is no more! Amen.