Justin Appel

Dear Friends,

Today’s readings incorporate Psalm 72, one of the so-called “royal psalms.”

In this case, Psalm 72 seems to be specifically about King Solomon, being a “Psalm of David the son of Jesse,” suggesting a specific historical quality. This notion sits well with the text’s opening invocation for God to “give Your judgement to the King, And Your righteousness to the King’s Son.” Certainly, Solomon’s fame and reputation also match the psalm’s insistence that “he shall rule from sea to sea, And from the river to the ends of the inhabited earth.”

Indeed, the psalmist’s description of “the king” is so exalted and superlative, it seems natural that the Church would interpret this psalm as speaking of Christ, that One—the Prince of Peace—to whom God the Father has given His judgement. Solomon thus becomes a type of Christ, in a larger symbolic matrix of scriptural meaning.

This psalm helps us to better understand the notion of a good, Christlike king; one who would reflect the attributes of Jesus’ unusual kingship: promoting peace, exercising righteous judgements, embodying graciousness and largess to his subjects, defending the poor, while his very name is a blessing.

The psalm also reminds us of the ambivalence of the Church’s relationship to kingship and to power in the civil realm. That Christ is called “King” might indicate the possibility of the Church wielding absolute authority in a secular sense. However, Christ’s rule seemingly must transcend all earthly iterations, insofar as his kingship reads as a failure in strictly human terms, being concerned with meekness, sacrifice, and death—not to mention the unparalleled destruction of sin and death. Christ isn’t just another king.

Here, a reflective interpretation of the psalm may aid further contemplation: a modern organ improvisation on Claude Goudimel’s setting of Psalm 72 in the Dutch tradition.

Yours in Christ,

—Justin