Psalm 72

Solomon is connected with this psalm and 127. If the inscription is translated “of Solomon,” then he was the author and wrote of himself in the third person. This would make it a prayer for God’s help as he sought to rule over the people of Israel. But if the inscription is translated “for Solomon,” David may have been the author (v. 20), and the psalm would be a prayer for the people to use to ask God’s blessing upon their new king. If Solomon did write the psalm, then it had to be in the early years of his reign, for in his later years, he turned from the Lord (1 Kings 11; Prov. 14:34). But beyond both David and Solomon is the son of David and the one “greater than Solomon” (Matt. 12:42), Jesus Christ, the Messiah of Israel. The psalm is quoted nowhere in the New Testament as referring to Jesus, but certainly it describes the elements that will make up the promised kingdom when Jesus returns.