Psalm 72 and No Kings
It is with tragic and disgusting irony that the Daily Lectionary (for my daily devotions) kept giving me Psalm 72, day after day last week, in these horrific and baffling days of Trump, a President who only wishes to be honored and glorified as King of the World (but now seems to be scaling back to set his sights specifically on the Western Hemisphere….maybe his Project 2025 Think Tank has gotten through to him that China indeed is Strong…..but then, again, here we go again with saber rattling in Iran). Trump trounces American Law as well as International Prudence and Legality by bombing and “running the country” of Venezuela and supporting ICE in shooting American Protesters even before any investigation is done on such shooting. He would be King.
I used to pray Psalm 72 by transposing “King” to “President”. Of course, even then, it’s problematic, depending on who holds office. But now, in these Trumpism and MAGA years and “No Kings” Demonstrations the “King” of Psalm 72 veritably leaps off the page. In this now 250th year of American Independence that 1776 fight against monarchial tyranny becomes not only mindful but instructive and inspirational. We should realize that 250 years is actually not a long time over against the course of thousands when the King and Queen were the norm. Kingship today is not simply aspirational. People are doing it today in fascist fashion. We are seeing today that America is not immune.
Psalm 72 saves itself, we see, by leading us to pray for the King to live by and rule with an ethic of distributive justice: “May he defend the cause of the poor of the people,” and “he delivers the needy when they call, the poor and those who have no helper,” and “from oppression and violence he redeems their life; and precious is their blood in his sight.” If you have to have a King, it helps if he actually acts justly with the populace (and need it be said, if he is not a lecherous and convicted sexual abuse and defamation criminal and federal felon).
When you read the Bible daily not for inspiration, information, instruction, comfort, challenge, direction , or anything of that sort…..when you drop out all the tropology and also the anagogy, and perhaps even strip it bare of all allegory and history, what you have left is a remarkable engagement of Demand on the one side and Promise on the other. When that is applied to Psalm 72 as Psalm 72 is applied to me I am fire-branded into political resistance. That’s the Demand. And I am liberated in realizing that there are actually leaders out there who will do right by the people. That’s the Promise.
