Salmos 72

VBL · Chapter 72/150

1Un de Salomón. Dios, por favor, dale al rey sentido de justicia y la capacidad para hacer lo recto con el hijo del rey.

2Que juzgue a tu pueblo con rectitud y que sea justo con los pobres.

3Que los montes traigan paz al pueblo, y las colinas bondad.

4Que defienda al pobre y salve a sus hijos. Que aplaste a quienes los oprimen.

5Que ellos lo respeten tanto como brille el sol y la luna en los cielos, por todas las generaciones.

6Que su reino sea como la lluvia que cae sobre la hierba nueva, como el rocío que riega la tierra.

7Que los que viven en justicia prosperen bajo su gobierno, y que haya prosperidad hasta que la luna no salga más.

8Que gobierne de un mar a otro, de un rio a otro y en todos los extremos de la tierra.

9Las tribus que habitan en el desierto se arrodillarán ante él, y sus enemigos comerán del polvo de la tierra.

10Los reyes de Tarsis y las islas le traerán tributos; y los reyes de Saba y Seba vendrán con regalos.

11Cada rey se arrodillará ante él; cada nación le servirá.

12Él ayudará al pobre cuando clame a él, y ayudará a los que sufren y no tienen quien los ayude.

13Él tiene compasión de los pobres y necesitados. ¡Él es quien salva sus vidas!

14Él los rescata de la violencia y la opresión, porque sus vidas son de gran valor para él.

15¡Que viva para siempre! Que Saba le regale todo su oro. Que el pueblo siempre ore por él y lo bendiga todo el día.

16Que haya abundancia de grano en la tierra, incluso que crezca en lo alto de las montañas. Que el fruto de los árboles cuelgue como en los árboles del Líbano. Que la gente de la ciudad prospere como la hierba en el campo.

17Que su renombre dure para siempre, tanto como el sol. Que todas las naciones Sean bendecidas a través de él, y que todas lo alaben.

18¡Alaben al Señor, Dios de Israel, porque es el único que puede hacer tales maravillas!

19¡Alaben su maravilloso nombre para siempre! ¡Que todo el mundo sea lleno de su gloria! ¡Amén y amén!

20(Este es el fin de los Salmos de David, hijo de Isaí).

📖 Chapter study

Summary

A prayer for a just king (likely Solomon), asking that he judge with righteousness, defend the poor and needy, and that his reign extend from sea to sea with lasting peace, bringing blessing to all nations.

Explanation

This psalm, attributed to or written for Solomon, closes 'Book II' of the Psalter with an elevated vision of just government: a king who prioritizes the defense of the poor and needy, not just his own power or wealth. The image of a reign that extends 'from sea to sea' and brings agricultural prosperity and universal peace led Jewish and Christian tradition to read this psalm with messianic expectations, pointing to an ideal government that no human king ever fully fulfilled. The closing note ('the prayers of David the son of Jesse are ended') marks the conclusion of a large collection of psalms attributed to David within the structure of the book. Today's application: the Bible presents a standard by which all authority — political, religious, or family — should be measured: does it care for the most vulnerable?

Fun facts

  • The closing note ('the prayers of David the son of Jesse are ended') is an important editorial remark, indicating that this particular section of the Psalter (David's psalms in Books I and II) was gathered as a collection before other psalms were added later.
  • The phrase 'he shall have dominion also from sea to sea' (v.8) later became a phrase of messianic aspiration quoted in later Jewish texts to describe the expected geographic extent of the Messiah's reign.

Verse-by-verse explanation

  1. Salmos 72:1Asking that the king receive God’s “judgments” and “righteousness” is asking him to govern as God’s direct representative on earth — the ancient idea that the king should reflect God’s own character in his rule.
  2. Salmos 72:2The specific concern for “thy poor” shows that, in the biblical view, good government is not measured only by general order, but by how it treats those with the least power to defend themselves.
  3. Salmos 72:3Saying that even the mountains and hills “shall bring peace” is an exaggerated image: land normally hard to farm producing abundance, a sign that a just government brings prosperity even to the roughest places.
  4. Salmos 72:4Judging the afflicted, saving the needy, and “breaking in pieces the oppressor” sums up the expected role of an ideal king in the ancient world: using power to protect the weak, not to serve his own interests.
  5. Salmos 72:5Promising that he will be feared “as long as the sun and moon endure” uses the most stable symbols known to the ancients to guarantee an endless duration — the same image used for the promise to David in Psalm 89:36.
  6. Salmos 72:6Comparing the king to rain upon “the mown grass” is an agricultural image: after cutting, a field looks withered, but the rain makes it green again — a sign of a government that renews the people rather than wearing them down.
  7. Salmos 72:7“Shall the righteous flourish” ties the prosperity of those who do right directly to the quality of the king’s rule — the idea that a good leader creates the conditions for a righteous life to bear fruit.
  8. Salmos 72:8“From sea to sea” and “the river” (probably the Euphrates) describe the ideal borders promised for the land in Genesis 15:18. It is an exaggerated way of describing a dominion without limits, not a real political map.
  9. Salmos 72:9“Lick the dust” is an image of total submission, drawn from the gesture of prostration before a victorious king — bringing one’s face so close to the ground that the mouth nearly touches the dust.
  10. Salmos 72:10Tarshish and Sheba were distant kingdoms known for trade and wealth. Saying their kings will bring gifts is a way of describing the reach and prestige of the ideal reign the psalm portrays, receiving tribute even from the most distant nations.
  11. Salmos 72:11Foreign kings falling down and serving is the ultimate image of universal dominion in the language of the ancient court: every rival power acknowledging and submitting to the king God has chosen.
  12. Salmos 72:12The “for” links the king’s greatness described earlier to its reason: he delivers the one who cries out, the afflicted, and the one who has no helper — his power is justified by his care for the weakest, not by military strength.
  13. Salmos 72:13Compassion for the poor and the afflicted is repeated again, reinforcing that this care is not a detail of the ideal reign but its very center: saving the “souls,” that is, the very lives, of the needy.
  14. Salmos 72:14“Precious shall their blood be” speaks of the blood of the needy, not of the king: it means their lives matter and are valuable in his sight, the opposite of kings who treated the weak as disposable.
  15. Salmos 72:15“The gold of Sheba” was a famous, exotic tribute, like the one mentioned when the queen of Sheba visited Solomon (1 Kings 10). Praying continually for a king and blessing him daily was a common custom of loyalty.
  16. Salmos 72:16It describes an abundance so great that even the mountaintops, normally poor ground for planting, will produce grain swaying “like Lebanon,” the famous cedar forests — an image of extreme abundance, not a literal agricultural forecast.
  17. Salmos 72:17Promising that “all nations shall call him blessed” almost literally repeats the promise made to Abraham in Genesis 12:3 — which is why this psalm is also read as messianic hope, beyond its praise of the actual king.
  18. Salmos 72:18This verse of blessing marks the traditional end of a group of psalms (the so-called “Book II,” Psalms 42 through 72): a closing praise that ends the collection before it starts over with a new section.
  19. Salmos 72:19“Amen, and Amen,” repeated, is a Hebrew way of reinforcing a statement with double certainty — the solemn close of this blessing that ends the group of psalms, asking that God’s glory fill the whole earth.
  20. Salmos 72:20“The prayers of David the son of Jesse are ended” is an editorial note, probably from the time when the psalms were arranged into collections. It marks the end of a block of psalms attributed to David, even though later psalms in the book also bear his name — a sign that the Psalter was assembled in stages.

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