1 Kings 10:9, Blessed be the Lord your God who delighted in you to set you on the throne of Israel; because the Lord loved Israel forever, therefore He made you king, to do justice and righteousness." 
	In this morning’s reading, we have detailed for us just how much God blessed Solomon with wisdom, and then earthly treasures beyond belief. We are initially presented with the fact that the Queen of Sheba was seeking to know just how valid were the rumors that she had heard concerning the son of David who now sat upon the throne of Israel. Apparently she had some burning issues and questions for which she was seeking advice and counsel. She may not have understood, at first that she was witnessing the working power of God set into this ruling monarch over the Hebrew nation. 
	No matter what were her reasons for coming to Solomon, while she was there and studying the manner in which he ruled the people and the manner in which he gave answers to the various inquiries and resolved the issues at hand, she was struck by the fact that there was something about this king that was beyond human comprehension! She, a pagan in the sense of not being of the Children of Israel, still was the one to voice the blessing and the observation that is our morning’s text. 
From the mouth of a Gentile came forth that which is ever the blessing to be voiced by the people of God and by those who watch how He works. His people are to act and to respond and to express His heart of love and care and wisdom with regard to all our dealings with those in our households, in our neighborhoods, in our communities, in our work places, in fact everywhere we interact with anyone whom the Lord brings into our midst. 
	Blessed be the Lord your God who delighted in you to set you on the throne of Israel; because the Lord loved Israel forever, therefore He made you king, to do justice and righteousness." 
While this was specifically set in the realm of Solomon’s sovereignty over the people of Israel, it should still be the manner in which others express their recognition of how much Yahweh, the Lord God Almighty, Jehovah, the Only True and Living Lord and Creator of all that is made, is to be blessed by the witness of His people. We recognize that He, Our Lord Jesus Christ, is the King over each of our lives. Therefore, He is to be blessed for all His great and awesome working power and wisdom in action and in evidence in us, the chosen people of His Kingdom. 
We are to be seen as that blessed nation with Jesus on the throne of our hearts, our minds, our actions, our reactions, our decisions, our families, over our expenditure of the resources He provides, over everything! For that, He is to be blessed forever and forevermore!
Accordingly, let us spend a little time in His Word seeing how, throughout the course of the history of not just Israel, but over all of creation, He has been working and making known His tremendous authority. It has always been in His wisdom and in His complete Sovereignty manifested in the people whom He has chosen and who belong to Him.
Let us return to the point at which Moses, in Deut 7:7-11, made the declaration to the people whom God had rescued and made to be His nation on the earth. They were to follow all the commandments in order to be Holy unto God before the eyes of the rest of the world. The full measure of the reason for this calling as the nation of God was because Jehovah loved His people and wanted them to express that love throughout the world. They were to show that Yahweh is ever and always faithful and the expressed essence of love in a world that is lost in sin and chaos.
Deut 7:7-11. The Lord did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any of the peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples, but because the Lord loved you and kept the oath which He swore to your forefathers, the Lord brought you out by a mighty hand, and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. Know therefore that the Lord your God, He is God, the faithful God, who keeps His covenant and His lovingkindness to a thousandth generation with those who love Him and keep His commandments; but repays those who hate Him to their faces, to destroy them; He will not delay with him who hates Him, He will repay him to his face. Therefore, you shall keep the commandment and the statutes and the judgments which I am commanding you today, to do them. 
	We continue forward to the prayer of David, in 1 Chron 17:22-27, as he was thanking the Lord for the promise that was given to him by God. He knew that Jehovah would carry out that pledge because The Lord is ever faithful and true in all that He does! God loved Israel, and God loved David, and David loved The Lord. There was that relationship which was established in the faithfulness of Jehovah to do all that He promised. Inherent in this oath is the Messiah, the Christ, the Son of David, Who would sit on the throne for all time and beyond. This is our Lord Jesus Christ in all His fullness and glory and honor!
	1 Chron 17:22-27, "For Thy people Israel Thou didst make Thine own people forever, and Thou, O Lord, didst become their God. And now, O Lord, let the word that Thou hast spoken concerning Thy servant and concerning his house, be established forever, and do as Thou hast spoken. And let Thy name be established and magnified forever, saying, 'The Lord of hosts is the God of Israel, even a God to Israel; and the house of David Thy servant is established before Thee.' "For Thou, O my God, hast revealed to Thy servant that Thou wilt build for him a house; therefore Thy servant hath found courage to pray before Thee. And now, O Lord, Thou art God, and hast promised this good thing to Thy servant. And now it hath pleased Thee to bless the house of Thy servant, that it may continue forever before Thee; for Thou, O Lord, hast blessed, and it is blessed forever." 
	David was relating his heart of the proven power of God working in the course of establishing that which would bring blessing and honor and glory to God through his family as so promised by God. It was also a prayer of thanksgiving for that which was taking place with the setting of Solomon upon the throne. Just as God was promising to build the house of David, so David was seeking to build that Temple of The Lord. Because he personally could not do so, He was making sure that Solomon was well established to so construct the Temple where God would have that dwelling place among the people whom Jehovah so loved.
	One who was very instrumental in offering the help that was required for Solomon to complete the Temple and his own house was Huram, king of Tyre. In 2 Chron 2:11+12, Huram made a similar observation as was recounted in this morning’s passage by the Queen of Sheba. 
He too, a Gentile monarch, set before the God of Israel the honor and the blessing that Jehovah was due for the fact of making Solomon king of Israel. There was that mutual recognition that what was in place was divinely ordered for the rest of the nations to witness and acknowledge, to the praise and the blessing of the God of the Hebrews.
	2 Chron 2:11+12, Then Huram, king of Tyre, answered in a letter sent to Solomon: "Because the Lord loves His people, He has made you king over them." Then Huram continued, "Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, who has made heaven and earth, who has given King David a wise son, endowed with discretion and understanding, who will build a house for the Lord and a royal palace for himself. 
	Next, we turn to the Psalmist, specifically as written in Psalms 72. This was declared to be the last of the prayers of David, the son of Jesse. It is the accounting of what was in the heart of this king in relationship to the working power and might of God. We see that he had an influence with other monarchs, particularly King Huram. 
However, there is that voiced in this prayer which lays forth the love of God for the afflicted of the nation. There is that call for the justice and the righteous judgments of God to become the course of the ruling over all the peoples. 
It is not about riches and earthly honor being ascribed to the king because of his position. It is the truth that God would manifest the greater measure of His Holiness and His Righteousness and His justice in the manner in which all the people will find their place of satisfaction and rest and safety in the arms of the Lord and His anointed. 
	Ps 72, Give the king Thy judgments, O God, And Thy righteousness to the king's son. May he judge Thy people with righteousness, And Thine afflicted with justice. Let the mountains bring peace to the people, And the hills in righteousness. May he vindicate the afflicted of the people, Save the children of the needy, And crush the oppressor. Let them fear Thee while the sun endures, And as long as the moon, throughout all generations. May he come down like rain upon the mown grass, Like showers that water the earth. In his days may the righteous flourish, And abundance of peace till the moon is no more. May he also rule from sea to sea, And from the River to the ends of the earth. Let the nomads of the desert bow before him; And his enemies lick the dust. Let the kings of Tarshish and of the islands bring presents; The kings of Sheba and Seba offer gifts. And let all kings bow down before him, All nations serve him. For he will deliver the needy when he cries for help, The afflicted also, and him who has no helper. He will have compassion on the poor and needy, And the lives of the needy he will save. He will rescue their life from oppression and violence; And their blood will be precious in his sight; So may he live; and may the gold of Sheba be given to him; And let them pray for him continually; Let them bless him all day long. May there be abundance of grain in the earth on top of the mountains; Its fruit will wave like the cedars of Lebanon; And may those from the city flourish like vegetation of the earth. May his name endure forever; May his name increase as long as the sun shines; And let men bless themselves by him; Let all nations call him blessed. Blessed be the Lord God, the God of Israel, Who alone works wonders. And blessed be His glorious name forever; And may the whole earth be filled with His glory. Amen, and Amen. The prayers of David the son of Jesse are ended. 
As a direct result of being honoring to The Lord, those other aspects of the given riches would be used to meet the needs of those in poverty, the afflicted and the outcast, the poor and the orphan and the widow. This entire Psalm reflects the heart of God that was to be present in the king in the care and keeping of those who were in such desperation and dire consequences. While the other nations would discard and ignore the plight of the marginalized, this prayer was that all the considered non-consequential and powerless of the nation would find that they had that place of refuge and hope within the community of the Lord!
The Prophet Isaiah builds on this hope of the marginalized and the discarded of society in the heart of God as detailed in Isa 9:2-7. The Lord would bring forth that Sovereign Who would break the yoke of oppression, whether from foreign powers or from earthly consequences. 
Jehovah provided a light Who shines in the darkness and brings forth justice and righteousness, hope and peace in the midst of the chaos that is ravaging the people of God. There springs forth joy and gladness as the Son of David, the Promised One, The Messiah, The Christ was born and has now taken the throne of His inheritance with justice and righteousness.
Isa 9:2-7, The people who walk in darkness Will see a great light; Those who live in a dark land, The light will shine on them. Thou shalt multiply the nation, Thou shalt increase their gladness; They will be glad in Thy presence As with the gladness of harvest, As men rejoice when they divide the spoil. For Thou shalt break the yoke of their burden and the staff on their shoulders, The rod of their oppressor, as at the battle of Midian. For every boot of the booted warrior in the battle tumult, And cloak rolled in blood, will be for burning, fuel for the fire. For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; And the government will rest on His shoulders; And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace, On the throne of David and over his kingdom, To establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness From then on and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will accomplish this. 
	This is the blessing of The Lord and the blessing unto God in the fulfillment of all that He had promised to David and to His nation. The faithfulness of Jehovah and His Word has come to full fruition in Jesus, The Only Begotten of the Father. This was not, however, the overthrow of the human oppressors, the Assyrians, the Greeks, the Romans, etc., in their governmental power and authority. 
Rather, it was the overthrow of sin and the power of sin, death. It was the uprooting of those spiritual forces of darkness which has so enslaved the hearts and the minds and the lives of those who were heretofore powerless under the grip of the tentacles of fear and anxiety and rebellion against the holiness and the purity of obedience unto God. 
In Christ, through His birth, His life of purity, His death, and His resurrection, everything of the ills and the vile slavery to this realm is overthrown! A new life under the Loving Sovereignty of The Son of God is now established and upheld with justice and with righteousness forever and forever because it has been done by the power and the love of God, Himself! So be it.
Blessed be the Lord your God who delighted in you to set you on the throne of Israel; because the Lord loved Israel forever, therefore He made you king, to do justice and righteousness." Amen. 

This morning’s benediction is Ps 22:8. "Commit yourself to the Lord; let Him deliver him; Let Him rescue him, because He delights in him." Amen.