Psalm 72: the Credit Card of Justice and Righteousness

Presented to Nipawin and Tisdale Corps 01 July 2007
Presented to Swift Current Corps 30 July 2013
by Captain Michael Ramsay

I love Canada Day – (or Dominion Day as we used to call it) – I always have. I love the picnics and all the fun things to do. Every year we used to have a big picnic and fireworks in Beacon Hill Park in Victoria where I grew up. It is a perfect chance to see everyone – so I’m really looking forward to our picnic today in the park – this should be great.

But you know what else I love, I also love the quizzes that come out around this time – I know, who loves quizzes but, hey, I used to be a teacher– lets see how you do…

Who is our head of State?
What is our national animal?
What are our two national sports?
Who was the first PM of Canada?
When did Saskatchewan join confederation?
Upon what passage of scripture was Canada founded?

And that is another reason that I love it is that Canada Day it is a great chance to reflect upon the theological roots on which Canada was founded. Canada Day provides an opportunity to look at how the Lord formed and intended our nation.

Canada, unlike many countries who came into their own around the same time as us, was not born out of the atheist revolutions of the 1700s. If anything our forefathers went exactly the other way and decided to take a stand in FOR God, FOR King, and FOR country. So, instead of focusing on individualistic liberty and the selfish pursuits of personal happiness at the expense of others, the Canadian fathers of confederation focused on peace (Jesus is the Prince of Peace), order (God is a God of order not disorder), and good government (cf. Isa. 9:5-7, Ps. 72).

Canada’s motto, “A Mari usque ad Mare” is Latin for “from sea to sea.” It comes from Psalm 72. Where, in verse 8, it declares, “He shall have dominion also from sea to sea.” That is a key underpinning of our society and of our founding identity, the idea that God himself, through the Canadian government, shall have dominion from sea to sea.

This is neat. It is not some accident or coincident. It is intentional. Our country is intentionally founded on the Word of God. And another interesting thing - Sir Samuel Leonard Tilley, the father of Confederation that proposed the name for our country and its name, as the Dominion of Canada, be based on this Scripture would have made a great Salvationist.

He wasn’t one but he would have made a good one. Tilley was a Sunday-school teacher and lifelong temperance advocate; he was one of the so-called "Smashers", who tried to introduce prohibition to New Brunswick in the 1850s.

Now, a reason that I mention this and one key reason that all this is important for us today is that Psalm 72 is part of our foundation and one’s foundation is very important (Matthew 7:24-27; Luke 6:46-49). This is true both individually and as a country. Being that it is Canada Day today, I thought that it would be a great time to look at the foundation that this country was built upon.

Let’s take a look at part of our foundation. Let’s take a look at Psalm 72.

Psalm 72 is an old Psalm. It was written somewhere around 3000 years ago probably by or for King Solomon near the beginning of his reign. In it, there are a lot of blessings that Solomon has to look forward to and a lot that we as inheritors of this foundation have to look forward to as well.

It is notable that right away in verses 1 and 2 where the psalmist asks God to “Give the king your justice, O God, and your righteousness to a king's son. May he judge your people with righteousness, and your poor with justice.”

Now about Wisdom and Justice…Do you remember the famous story at the beginning of Solomon’s reign (1 Kings 3) where he prays for God’s wisdom? God tells him he can ask for whatever he wants. He could of asked for all the money and power in the world but he prays for God’s wisdom to discern between good and evil.

This pleases God so much that he also offers him riches and honour and, if he continues to be righteous, a long life. Now this is important because the wisdom is God’s, not man’s. And this story is very likely in the mind of the psalmist as the stage is nicely set for the rest of the Psalm. The King must rely on God’s justice and enact God’s righteousness (NIB McCann Jr. 963).

It is sort of like us. When I was younger, one of my jobs was to be the purchaser for CPCI – my job was to buy things for the college. Like Solomon, I was given a lot of responsibility. I headed out with a blank cheque or a credit card and could purchase whatever I discerned was needed. However the money was not mine so if I failed to use it properly or, say, just bought things for myself, well, the school wouldn’t benefit at all, the students wouldn’t benefit at all, the teachers wouldn’t benefit at all and my boss would stop signing blank cheques or giving me her company credit card.

This company credit card is very similar to what Solomon has received here and he’s been given the card to purchase (vs. 1&2) righteousness and justice, for the poor, on behalf of God.

And as he purchases with the credit card of God’s wisdom, look at all the blessings he and Israel will receive…as he defends the cause of the poor, delivers the needy and crushes their oppressors (verse 4). The mountains themselves will yield prosperity (vs. 3), his heirs will sit on the throne forever (vs. 5) and righteousness will flourish and (Shalom) peace will abound continuing until EVEN the moon is no more. (This is quite a credit card!)

His dominion, as a vassal of the Lord, will be to the end of the earth (v. 8), his enemies will be powerless – all nations will submit to him and even bring him tribute (v. 9-11) as he uses his credit card of wisdom for God and His people. This is quite a blessing for Solomon and as Canada has been founded on this, I submit, for us as well.

So Solomon is given this credit card of wisdom – and, verses 1 and 2 again, what he is to purchase with it? Righteousness and justice for the poor, right? Deliverance to the needy and protection from their oppressor (vv. 4, 12) pity on the week and the needy (v.13) Mercy as he protects even the least in society from their persecutors…and then he will live (v 5) as long as there is a sun and a moon.

Today, as inheritors of this promise, we can reap these benefits as well as we defend the cause of the poor, deliver the needy and defeat their oppressors.

But does Solomon reap these benefits? How does Solomon do with this responsibility? When he is young, Solomon begins to work on the temple in Jerusalem so that people can come from all over Israel to worship God in this magnificent structure. It is gigantic but interestingly – Solomon makes his own house even bigger.

And instead of looking out for the poor, the needy, and the oppressed, he divides the historical tribes of Israel and makes slaves of his own people so that he can do all this building. // Well he makes slaves of everyone in the country EXCEPT the ones from his home province. He doesn’t make the people from Judah, his own tribe, do any of the work. Right, that would be like Harper saying everyone starting tomorrow must spend two years doing hard labour – except Toronto, Ontario, where he was born – and you in Saskatchewan or wherever, you must make up the difference.

He promotes the worship of other gods and Solomon even disobeys the command from God not to get horses from Egypt and in all likelihood he uses these as weapons of war against his own people.

Solomon did not make wise purchases with God’s wisdom and, 1 Kings 11:6 says, “he did not follow the LORD completely, as David his father had done.”

1 Kings 11:9 says, “The LORD became angry with Solomon because his heart had turned away from the LORD… So the LORD said to Solomon, "Since this is your attitude and you have not kept my covenant and my decrees… I will most certainly tear the kingdom away from you.” King Solomon did not ‘defend the cause of the poor of the people, deliver the needy, and crush the oppressor’ and the united Kingdom of Israel died with him.

So what about Canada? We have the example of King Solomon who started out with such a promise as his was…and we saw how (according to the 1 Kings account) he squandered his wisdom. How have we done at building upon a basis of God’s righteousness and purchasing with God’s wisdom so that our dominion can continue from sea to sea?

Honestly, we’ve had some problems in the last couple of years, it has been reported that immigration officials have kicked down the doors of the poor and the alien, we have been implicated in international war crimes in Somalia and elsewhere, there are more homeless than recorded previously in this country and many politicians of every political stripe SEEM to be calling for more tax cuts in this day and age - and taxes of course are a primary way that God uses the resources of the country to look after the poor, the needy, and the oppressed.
Also in the news in the last few years there have been more stories of school bullying and parents and kids just standing by and letting the needy be oppressed. I was just reading in the Winnipeg Free Press the other day, that the vast majority of us – the average person is willing to cheat on our taxes, not tell the clerk if she gives us too much change, lie, cheat, or steal, if we don’t think we’ll be caught. In doing so, we are not serving God and we are putting ourselves before the poor, the needy, and the oppressed.

But it doesn’t have to be this way. Remember back in 1 Kings right after Solomon prays for wisdom, when he is told he can ask for anything is the world. The Lord is pleased and gives Solomon so much more and immediately after Solomon receives the Lord’s wisdom, is the story of the two prostitutes and the child. (1 Kings 3)

The two of them show up each claiming to be the mother of the same small child. It appears that both had just had a baby and one of the children dies. Right? When the mom whose child dies notices this, she switches the dead child with the live one, hoping to fool the other mom. These two prostitutes then appear before the king, the wronged one looking for God’s righteous judgement.

Do you remember what Solomon says when the women show up to fight about who gets the live child? – he says --- cut the child in two then they can each have half --- (of a dead child) --- of course God’s wisdom is shown as the real mother screams and begs for the life of her child, even willing to give him up to the other lady. She shows that she is his mother. And Solomon shows that he is purchasing well with God’s wisdom for the needy by then giving her the child.

Solomon starts out well purchasing with the credit card of God’s wisdom but he strays. Solomon may have failed to live up to his promise but God does not. A descendant of David and Solomon sits on the throne today and that descendant is Jesus Christ.

Canada today, yes, has some struggles but there is good news. And the good news stems from the fact that there is that descendant of Solomon – Jesus – is sitting on the throne today.
You see, Jesus is the Messiah. Jesus is the King. He is the one who paid in full for the poor, the needy, and the oppressed. He is the one who purchased righteousness on the cross. Therefore, there is no longer any need for people to suffer from poverty, neediness, war and oppression. Jesus has already purchased righteousness for the whole world. When he died, he made atonement for all of our sins.

And this is important as far as our practical salvation is concerned as well: there are well over 100 times the resources needed to feed, clothe, and shelter everyone in -not only Canada- but in the whole world. God has already provided, we just need to distribute his provision, he has already purchased justice and righteousness on the cross. We just need to distribute that justice and righteousness to the poor, the needy, and the oppressed.

Well, it’s Canada Day, so now is as good a time as any to evaluate…how have we been doing with that? Well of course there is always more we can do but - I submit that we haven’t actually done that poorly. And the Lord has used many different people to enable us to obey Him in this way. And some of the people that the Lord has used have come not only out of traditions similar to our own Salvation Army, like Lord Tilley, but right out of our own province – I say own, I’ve only been here for less than a week – Our motto, reflecting this psalm, Psalm 72, first appeared officially on the legislative buildings in Saskatchewan[4] over 100 years ago when Walter Scott was premier.

In our earliest days as people were being persecuted in the US and were being tortured and killed by being dipped in boiling tar and then covered with feathers, God provided refuge for his suffering people, here in Canada.

Later, When the slaves oppressed by the US had to flee for their lives. Canada was a place to which the Lord took them via the underground RR.

The Christian Reverends JS Woodsworth (of Manitoba) and Tommy Douglas (Premier of Saskatchewan from 44-61) intentionally sought to bring about peace and justice through distributing the Lord’s provision for HIS poor and the needy. Woodworth and MacKenzie King were used by the LORD to provide for HIS poor, the powerless, and the elderly, through the old age pension plan.

God also, in Saskatchewan, introduced a bill of rights to protect people from (not only the government) but also from oppression by the rich and the powerful people in our society. This was before even the UN even sought to set its efforts this way.

God used Tommy Douglas, who after having almost lost his own leg because his family was too poor to pay for surgery, to make it possible for the poor and the needy to receive the same justice as the wealthy right here in Saskatchewan in the area of medicine. Medicare was enacted here under Premier Woodrow Low in 1962 and in all of Canada through Lester B. Pearson in 1966.

Historically, I submit, as Jesus purchased righteousness and justice on the cross, we have been faithful to distribute it. We have been used to deliver HIS righteous decisions and justice for HIS poor. HIS deliverance to HIS needy and protection from their oppressors (vss. 4, 12) has been offered through us, both internally and abroad. We have shown HIS pity on the weak and the needy (vs. 13). We have shown HIS mercy and protect even the least in society from their persecutors…we have. We do!

And as we have, we have been blessed. By the 1960s, we had been blessed with a Shalom (vv. 3,7), a peace, like no nation on earth ever has. We became known not as a nation of pacifists but as a nation of peacemakers and peacekeepers. From the 1960 through to the mid-1990s not only did we argue for peace but we sent our brave soldiers overseas to stand between powerful warring nations with legitimate grievances and the Lord blessed us abundantly. We are even equipping our forces today and sacrificing our soldiers so that maybe in the future we again may be used in this same role.

This is our heritage. This is our foundation. This is a reflection of Jesus, himself, the rock upon which we stand. This is what our Fathers of Confederation said that Canada stands for…the poor, the widow, the immigrant AND WHY, why, why have we founded the nation upon this scripture… because people were created by God; to serve God.

And we must serve God. You and I, as heirs to the promise of Psalm 72; you and I, as servants of the King of Kings; You and I, as we love our neighbour as ourselves, we must continue to build upon our great heritage of distributing that justice and righteousness to the poor, the needy, and the oppressed.

So I ask today who will stand with me on our foundation that the Lord has lain in this country? Who? If you will commit to stand up for and pray for the poor, stand with me. If you will commit to stand with and pray for the needy, stand with me now. If you commit to stand up for and pray for the oppressed, stand with us now. If you commit to pray for our leaders so that the Lord may have dominion in this country FROM SEA TO SEA, stand with us now. Happy Canada Day! Halleluiah! Let’s build on our foundation. Let’s live up to our heritage.

You know where we get the power…(Song: Wonderworking Power)

Benediction:
The Lord has provided, (vss 18-19) “blessed be the lord, the God of Israel, who alone does wondrous things. Blessed be his glorious name forever; may his glory fill the whole earth. Amen and Amen.”
---------------------------------
[4] http://www.pch.gc.ca/progs/cpsc-ccsp/sc-cs/arm2_e.cfm