The Perfect King

What kind of country do you want to live in? If we interviewed people around the world we would get a variety of answers to this question. As a new college graduate I spent a year in the Czech Republic, a country that was building a constitutional democracy as an independent country for the first time in its history. In the early 2000s I spent a year and a couple of summers in Ukraine, another country that was developing as an independent nation after centuries of being part of a larger empire. Starting in 2004 I traveled to Afghanistan nine times for work and observed the Afghan people trying to create a prosperous and stable government and civil society. They were trying to decide on fundamental issues such as the characteristics of a good member of parliament, the rules for voting and elections, and whether or not women should participate in government. Both Ukraine and Afghanistan have since had traumatic blows to their progress as free and peaceful places to live. Even our own country, which has been growing and developing for 224 years, remains a work in progress. A recent study reported that only 22% of Americans trust the government to do what is right “just about always” or “most of the time.”

Thankfully we can look to our perfect heavenly King when our earthly kingdoms fail us. Psalm 72, the psalm that closes out the second book of the Psalter, points to this comforting truth. The Psalm is a prayer for King Solomon, but it directs our minds and hearts to God’s heavenly kingdom, a place that is far more peaceful, just, and prosperous than any earthly country that has ever existed. According to Psalm 72, our King is just, righteous, powerful, prosperous, everlasting, glorious, blessed, compassionate, and peace-loving. He delivers those who have no helper (v. 12). Blessed be his glorious name forever; may the whole earth be filled with his glory (v. 19)!