Psalm 72: The Millennium

I'm going to ask you to turn to the book of Psalms and chapter 72. The inscription, Messiah's glorious kingdom, a psalm for Solomon. There'll not be time to investigate even part of it, I'll just tell you what I've got on my heart, give you a few headings and you can search it out after at your own leisure.

Brother Scott has taken us to the rapture, looking forward. I want to take you further on. I want to take you to the kingdom.

So just as we read these few verses, try and picture this glorious event of 1,000 years that is soon to come. Verse 1, give the king thy judgments, O God, and thy righteousness unto the king's son. He shall judge thy people with righteousness and thy poor with justice.

The mountain shall bring peace to the people and the little hills by righteousness. Just drop to verse 7, in his day shall the righteous flourish and the abundance of peace as long as the moon endureth. He shall have dominion also from the sea to sea and from the river unto the ends of the earth.

Verse 10, the kings of Tarshish and of the Isles shall bring presents. The kings of Sheba and Seba shall offer gifts. Yea, all kings shall fall down before him.

All nations shall serve him. Verse 16, there shall be a handful of corn on the earth upon the top of the mountains. The fruit thereof shall shake like Lebanon and they of the city shall flourish like grass of the earth.

His name shall endure forever. His name shall be continued as long as the sun and the moon shall be, men shall be blessed in him. All nations shall call him blessed.

God will bless to us what we've heard in a little meditation now this afternoon. Christian, there's better days ahead. Regardless of present trials or difficulties, however those could be measured, just remember this, there's better days ahead.

Brother Scott has mentioned that there's better days ahead for the saints. We're going to look for him. There's better days if I could have put it reverently for the Lord Jesus when he receives us.

But the real, I'm going to say it reverently, the real big thing in the plans and purposes of God is the kingdom. Glorious day ahead. Just for those that are younger, there are a number of Psalms that are referred to as Messianic Psalms.

And that simply means that they are quoted in the New Testament and they refer to the Lord Jesus as the Messiah, as the Christ. Interestingly enough, that Psalm 72 is not mentioned in the New Testament as a reference, but it is Messianic in that there are features of his Messianic reign that can be unfolded and seen and therefore appreciated. For the help of those that are young, let me see if I can give you a little timeline.

Go back now 2,000 years to the death, burial, resurrection of the Lord Jesus and the descent of the Spirit in Acts chapter 2, we have the dispensation of the grace of God. What a great dispensation to be born in. That is a biblical term, Ephesians chapter 3 and verse 2. This dispensation is going to end in a moment of time, that atom that Brother Scott has referred to.

And those that are dead and those that are living, we're going to be caught up with him. Glorious moment to see the man who loved us and died for us. And we're going to be with him, judgment seat of Christ, then we're going to be with him for seven glorious years.

Find you on earth, there's going to be some tragic events. Poor Israel, what she may have gone through in history is nothing compared to what she has to go through yet. And then that dispense, that era of time of seven years referred to as tribulation, the last three and a half years, great tribulation, is going to end suddenly with the appearing or the manifestation of the Lord Jesus.

When he comes at the rapture, he comes for us. When he comes in the manifestation, he is coming with us. One coming that's going to be seen in two stages.

Again, just to back up what Brother Scott was saying about the word rapture, the word rapture is not found in the Bible, its principle is. The word millennium is not found in the Bible, but six times over in Revelation chapter 20 verses one to seven, you have this expression, 1,000 years. And we believe it's going to be a literal 1,000 years.

Great things ahead for divine persons. When God is going to set his man on the throne and show the world the kind of governing and government that he intended it to be. Glorious day for God, glorious day for Christ.

Just let me give you a few thoughts then as we move down the chapter. First of all, in verse one, it's going to be a time of unrivaled supremacy, a time of unrivaled supremacy. He's going to reign in righteousness.

And you're going to notice down through the chapter that righteousness and peace are so often brought together. We have to ask ourselves why? The reason is this. There's going to be peace on earth because there's righteous reign.

They go together, no righteousness, no peace. So righteousness and peace are going to be joined together. So it's going to be a time of unrivaled supremacy.

Another has said that it's going to take three essential elements for the millennium to be a success, if I could use the word success. First of all, you need a ruler with adequate authority and power. Now that's been grasped back by the world, hasn't it? Total failure.

Secondly, you need a realm of subjects to be ruled. That'll be all those who come into the millennium. Thirdly, you will need the actual exercise of function to rulership.

Do you remember way back in the garden that it was God's intention to set up a man to rule and Adam failed? But you see, God's purposes haven't changed. Because when you come to Hebrews chapter two, the Hebrew writer moves from Adam and he moves to Christ, telling us that God has not changed his intentions of having a man to rule. So, where Adam failed in the garden, this great dispensation with the appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ, God is going to set up his man.

Now, someone may ask the question, and it's a good question, why is there the necessity of the millennium? There have been six previous dispensations. We're moving into the seventh. This was noted this morning in the Bible.

Why the necessity of the final or the seventh dispensation? The reason is this. God is going to prove conclusively that man's a rebel. God is going to prove conclusively.

Remember now, only saved individuals enter the millennium. But individuals born into the millennium are going to have a nature like us that needs to bow to the king. And so these are going to be what we would call ideal conditions.

And in those ideal conditions, when the thousand years have expired and the old devils let loose, angels are sent to the four corners, and there's the final rebellion against the king. So, you see, during the millennial reign, there will be those who willingly bow to the king. But there are those who are going to have to bow to the king, because if they don't, there's going to be immediate judgment, a time of unrivaled supremacy.

Is there a picture in the Old Testament that helps us to understand this reign? The answer is yes. It's the reign of Solomon. You'll appreciate that David, on his deathbed, gives instructions to his son Solomon that when he takes the reign of the government, there's going to be required that men be removed.

That is, there are some men, because of their character, could not enter this glorious kingdom. So when you read 1 Kings 1, there's a man by the name of Adonijah. He was Solomon's older brother.

He aspired to kingship. David said he's got to go. And then you remember there was that man Joab.

The problem with Joab was this. The Joab loved Joab, not David. And you remember that he slew Abner and Amasa in the time of peace.

Simei's got to go, pardon me, Joab's got to go. Adonijah, Joab, Shimei. Remember the man that cursed David? And there were those who wanted to immediately take off his head, and they wouldn't have done it, they would have done it without a blink of an eye.

David said, no, just leave him alone. And Solomon now is going to introduce his kingdom, and there have to be men that have to be removed. That, you see, is the great event that's going to take place at the end of the tribulation, when all evil and all evil men are put down.

For you come to Matthew chapter 25 and verse 46, proof that only saved individuals will enter the millennium, a time of unrivaled supremacy. But not only did David say that there were men to be removed, there were men to be rewarded. Do you remember that David in his exile running from Saul, there was this old man named Barzillai.

What a nice man. And he came to David in his rejection with all of his men, and his men were hungry. And he supplied the goods for David and his men.

David says to Solomon, don't forget Barzillai. So in the kingdom that Solomon was going to be part of, there were men that had to be removed, and then there were men that were going to be rewarded. A time of unrivaled supremacy.

But again, verses 8 and 9, it's going to be a time of unbounded dominion. During the millennial reign, of course, Jerusalem will be the world's center or the metropolis, but the land promised to Abraham in Genesis 15 from the river, even to the great river Euphrates, I understand includes Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Iran, and Saudi Arabia. That's a vast land.

And his dominion is going to be over all of those areas. There's going to be men of the wilderness, likely the Bedouins, who don't bow to anybody. Well, they're going to have to be subject to him as well.

There's something that thrills my heart, amongst other things, about the millennium. You good people in the United States of America could probably tell me after the meeting how much money is spent every year on arms, how much you've already sent to the Ukraine. It's amazing, in the millennium, there'll be no warfare.

There'll be no competition for who's going to be the greatest of powers. Micah chapter 4 and verse 3 is helpful. They shall beat their swords into plowshares, their spears into pruning forks.

It's going to be a time of unbounded dominion. Verse 10 and verses 11 and 16, it's going to be a time of unlimited prosperity. The earth is going to bring forth like it likely never had before.

I suppose your country's no different than ours in Canada. There's likely a lot of waste of food that goes on. Maybe the world could be fed if so much wasn't wasted.

When you dear sisters go to the grocery store and you pick up your two pound or your five pound bag of carrots, you'll likely see that all of them are pretty uniform. What happens to those that are crooked? What happens to those that are spiked? Those that are a little deformed, they just get thrown out. Why? Well, because the housewife wants straight carrots.

But during the millennial reign, there is going to be an abundance of provision so that there will be absolutely no poorness, no poverty. And notice again, the kings are going to bring their gifts to him. You can just imagine for a moment, just let your imagination run.

Here's the kings from the south and the kings from the north and from the east and they're all coming up to the king. And, of course, if they refuse to come, this is Zechariah 14, God will send a drought. God is intending that the world, the known world of that time of 1,000 years is going to give his son the rightful place that he deserves, the place that he should have had down here.

Instead, they took him out to Calvary and crucified him. What a day that is soon before us. I'm thinking just as I speak here, my younger sister in Africa, in Zambia, they would go to the store to buy 100-pound sacks of flour and rice and so on, and stamped right across the sack is this, not to be sold.

Donation from the United States, donation from another country. But there it is in the store and that's all there is to buy. I'll tell you, those things will never happen in the millennium.

Verses 12 to 15, a time of unsurpassed victory, a time of unsurpassed victory. And the reason for that, going back now to the beginning of the psalm, a psalm where righteousness and peace are wedded together. Okay.

In nations, we say no peace. What's the problem? An unrighteous reign. And that goes for nations, goes for my family, and it goes for the assembly as well.

Now, there is peace when there is righteous reign, righteous reigning according to the word of God. There is a mysterious character in the Bible. His name is Melchizedek.

You'll read of him in Genesis. You'll read of him in the Psalms. You'll read of him in the book of Revelation.

He's a type of the Lord Jesus. If you go back to Genesis 14 where he's first mentioned, you will understand that his name means king of righteousness, king of peace in Salem, Jerusalem. And so he's a little picture in his name of righteousness and peace that is going to be seen in this glorious event of the millennium.

Unparalleled bless, verse 17, I'll just leave that. Verse 18, and then I'm going to sit down, unprecedented glory, unprecedented glory, glory for God, glory for Christ, glory that he would be seen in the display of the saints. Interestingly enough, that the reign will not only touch mankind, but it's going to touch the animal kingdom as well.

This is Isaiah 65, the wolf and the lamb shall feed together. The lion shall eat straw like a bullock, but don't miss this. The dust shall be the serpent's meat.

He never changes. So he ends with a doxology. His glorious name is going to fill the earth.

It's not that way today, is it? His name dragged down, sometimes even standing in line at the grocery store. You wonder how such words should come out of a man or a woman. No glory for him today.

But Christian, there's going to be glory for him in that day. Is there something practical to leave you with about the millennium? The answer is yes. Is it worthwhile to spend and to be spent for him? The answer is yes.

Is it worthwhile to attend all of the assembly meetings? The answer is yes. Is it worthwhile to use any little gift that God has given us for his glory? The answer is yes. Is it worthwhile for elders in God's assembly to make biblical, scriptural choices and to have those worked out in the assembly? And the answer is yes.

Is it worthwhile to be faithful to him and to his word individually? The answer is yes. Remember again now, if you missed the Bible reading this morning, try and get the tape. It was good.

Thanks, Brother Joel, for helping us. Brother Joel ended it with the words of the late Mr. Sidney Maxwell, unknown to likely a good number that are here. When I was a little boy, and that just wasn't yesterday, Portage Conference, Sunday afternoon in the school, probably 80 degrees outside, no air conditioning, hard, hard seats, not like these nice soft seats here, and hard to stay awake.

And then Mr. Maxwell would get up. And if you didn't know him, young people, Mr. Maxwell was thrilling to listen to. He was a great teacher, and he used every inch of the platform.

I've got an MP3 of him, and you're listening in the car, so you turn it up because he must be over there. And then he comes back to the microphone, and you've blown your ears out. Mr. Maxwell liked every inch of the platform.

And he used to remind us of this. I'll just quote the words that Brother Joel said and sit down. He said it more than once.

He says, I'm not concerned about how I get into heaven. He says the blood of Christ secures it. But I am concerned how I come out of heaven.

For faithfulness now will bear reward in that day. Christian, let us look to the rapture. Let us lift our eyes beyond the rapture to the manifestation, and just let me encourage you, be faithful to him.

May God bless this work.