Pray the Word with David Platt is a resource from Radical.net.

Psalm chapter 72, verse 1.

Give the king your justice, O God, and your righteousness to the royal son.

Thus begins a Psalm that is a prayer for, and really an ode to, praise to in a sense, the king of Israel,

as a representative of the reign of God as king. So this is so important understanding this

Psalm to understanding how scripture points us to Jesus, and then even practically, to how we

pray for leaders today. When we think about leaders of government or leaders in the church or

leaders really in any capacity, because God sets up leaders, puts leaders in place over institutions from government to his church

and so many other things to be a reflection of his character.

God has designed, called leaders to lead with justice.

That's the very first phrase, give your king justice, oh God.

And to judge people, lead people with righteousness, verse 2.

To lead the poor, to defend the cause of the poor of the people,

to give deliverance to the children of the needy, to crush the oppressor.

That's verse 4 in Psalm chapter 72.

And then you keep going on throughout the Psalm and you see a picture of good, wise, just,

rule, and reign that is good for people, that is glorifying to God. And so when we read a psalm like this,

we should pray for all of these things in leaders around us, leaders above us, if I could use

that term, to think about leaders of countries, to pray for this in leaders, that they would be a good

reflection of the character of God.

And then as we do that, we'll inevitably realize that the leaders around us, any leader

in this world is not perfect injustice or perfect in righteousness.

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