seeing the reigning Christ as unveiled in Psalm 72 and choosing to take the way of the ministry

In Psalm 72 we have a picture of Christ in His reigning in the millennium, and He is typified by Solomon in his prosperous and flourishing time. Solomon was the son of David (Matt. 1:1; 22:42) and the flourishing and prosperous part of his reign is described in 1 Kings 9-10.

When it comes to us in the New Testament though, we need to be careful not to fall into the trap of preaching or emphasizing “the gospel of prosperity”, which misuses Deut. 8 in telling people that God wants you to be prosperous…

Being Prosperous when the Lord is Prosperous

It is a shame and a disgrace that certain believers would preach this so-called “prosperity gospel“, in which they take God’s word in chapter 8 of Deuteronomy and tells believers that God wants you to be prosperous, wealthy, and have material things.

God doesn’t want you to suffer and He doesn’t hate you, but He wants you to be prosperous when He is prosperous!

In the age of the kingdom, in the next age, the millennium, that’s when the Lord will be prosperous and flourishing. It is then that He comes to recover the earth and bring prosperity.

Being Those who have the Ministry and not Desiring Gifts

Today the way the Lord takes is the way of producing ministers – just like Paul in Phil. 3:10 and 2 Cor. 4, and like the Lord Jesus in Psa. 69.

Many people want to have gifts, supernatural things, and prosperity – but the Lord today wants to produce His overcomers, those who enjoy Him and experience Him in the midst of all kinds of sufferings and pressures.

May we not be ruined by living a life of ease, but rather may we be those who have the ministry which is produced through consuming pressures and the work of the cross.

We may be touched by the Lord to be vital with the saints in our home meeting, or we may be involved in serving with the students and the young ones – but do we take the way of the ministry?

As the Lord reveals it to us in His Word, do we take the way of being produced as ministers? We all need to pray, Lord, give me the experiences I need that will produce this ministry!

There is a great price to pay even to produce a small measure of the Lord’s ministry.

The Lord wants to have a group of brothers and sisters who have been broken, dealt with, consumed, crossed out, terminated, reconstituted, resurrected, and blended together – to produce the ministry!

The reigning Christ as seen in Psalm 72

In Psalm 72 we can see many aspects of the reigning Christ in the age of the millennium – a glorious picture of what it will be like for the Lord to recover, possess, and reign over the earth!

• O God, give Your judgments to the king, / And Your righteousness to the son of the king (v. 1) – though this verse speaks about Solomon, Christ is the king and He has the judgement and the righteousness.
• He will judge Your people in righteousness, / And Your poor with justice. / The mountains will bear peace to the people, / And the hills, in righteousness (v. 2-3) – Christ will reign in righteousness and in justice for peace.
• Christ will be feared by the people throughout the generations as long as the sun and the moon endure (see v. 4-5).
• As Christ reigns, He will drop like rain upon mown grass and like the abundant showers dripping on the earth – for the flourishing of the righteous and for the abundance of peace on the earth (vv. 6-7).
• Christ will have dominion from sea to sea / and from the River unto the ends of the earth (v. 8) – Christ will reign not only from the Mediterranean Sea to the Dead sea, but over all the earth!
• Christ exercises His dominion, and all the nations will serve Him (vv. 9-11).
• Christ grants favor to the needy – He delivers the needy when he cries, and the poor when there’s no one to help him; He has pity on the weak and saves the souls of the needy, redeeming their soul from oppression (vv. 12-14). In response, the needy bless Him and praise Him (v. 15)
• The reigning of Christ is a blessing to all the earth in prosperity (v. 16) and the blessed ones bless Him and speak well of Him (v. 17).
• The conclusion of this psalm is a blessing to the Lord for all He is and for His glorious name (vv. 18-19).

[sharing inspired from the message given in the training and from the life-study of the Psalms, as quoted in the Morning Revival on the Crystallization-Study of Psalms (1). Intro: the reigning Christ in the millennium]

Lord, make us those who rather choose the way of the ministry than the gospel of prosperity. O, Lord, unveil us to see what’s in Your heart – what kind of people do You need to bring You back and meet Your need! Enlighten the eyes of our heart, Lord, to see You in Your glorious coming kingdom, that we may praise You as we ought! Come Lord Jesus and bring restoration to the earth! Come and regain the earth for God!