Ps. 72.1 (the theosis of the throne)

O God / your justice / give to the king
and your righteousness / to the son of the king. 

It is no small thing to say that the abundant life that flows throughout this psalm finds its wellspring in these two lines. Indeed, the whole psalm could be said to reside here, in this primal ‘handing over’ of God’s justice and righteousness to the king. It in this ‘handing over’ that the king is lifted up into the realm of God, where he will dispense these gifts to the earth. Indeed, he is later described as “coming down/descending” upon the earth like rain. This dynamic is crucial: God giving is an empowering, premised on that gift being, itself, handed over to God’s people. Only to begin the process all over—when the king practices God’s righteousness it comes to “sprout” within the land, producing ‘more righteousness’. It is anything but static. Indeed, as we will see, it is explosive. It is ‘handed over’ to be enacted. In fact, we might say that this primary ‘handing over’ is already the beginning enactment, as the king is himself empowered in much the same way that all of creation will become. Along these lines we must note that this handing over passes over into the earth, first, through a single person: the king, the ‘son of God’ (Ps. 2). He becomes the central portal and agent through whom God will mediate his justice and his righteousness. It is to him, in his active reception of these attributes, that they will (woman-like) be ‘birthed’ into the world. These are ‘handed over’ to him in much the same way the ‘rod of iron’ is handed over to the king in Ps. 2. In this individual we catch a glimpse of the king-of-creation, Adam. To this ‘son’ God now hands over his own desire for creation and this ‘handing over’ does not, clearly, diminish God (the end of the psalm will make this clear); it does, just as clearly however, supremely elevate the king. Lastly, a note is struck here that is important to trace: the generational stability of God’s handing over as it exists in the kingly-line. These opening lines separate in two what, in its administration, will be unified: justice to the king; righteousness to the king’s son. The point is not that they exists separately in two individuals—the point is that God’s eternal reign will be embodied in the continuous, generational-familial line of David. In their duality, they point to the supremely profound unity of promise that will undergird (the covenant) the kings—that covenant is the ‘raising up’ into God’s ‘forever’, the now ‘forever’ throne of David (the theosis of the throne we might say).