The prayer is Psalm 72 was unanswered for centuries, until the birth of “Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham” (Matthew 1:1). Jesus fulfills Adam’s mission, is right now blessing the nations through His death and resurrection, has applied the law to our hearts through His new covenant, and has already begun a heavenly reign which will one day meet no opposition and no end.

The Bible is one story, a single plot that unfolds through a series of covenants God made with Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, and David—all of which point towards, and are fulfilled in, the New Covenant in Christ.

There are many passages of Scripture that we could draw on in order to demonstrate this key idea, but recently I’ve been struck at how Psalm 72 pulls everything together so well.

The Psalm’s title is “Of Solomon,” and the opening request is “Give the king your justice, O God, and your righteousness to the royal son!” (Psalm 72:1). These words recall God’s promise to David that “I will raise up your offspring after you… and I will establish his kingdom” (2 Samuel 7:12). In fact, much of the Psalm could be described as a prayer from David’s heir that God would keep the promises of the Davidic covenant (found in 2 Samuel 7).

But that’s not all. The Psalm also envisions Israel’s king as an inheriting the charge given to Adam and Eve to “have dominion” over the earth. “And God blessed them. And God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.’” (Genesis 1:28).

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