And govern nations upon earth.
Verses 7 and 8 are then simply a positive expression of confidence that the prayer just uttered is to be answered and God’s supreme blessing received. The psalm is not then an eschatological hymn of praise, but rather an eschatological prayer.
Psalms 20 and 72 have distinctive positions in this group, since each offers up a petition in behalf of the king. In Psalm 20 the king had apparently presented his offerings and sacrifices at the sanctuary, and the priest prays, in verses 2-6 that God will remember the king’s sacrifices and grant him help in the day of trouble and all his hearts desires. Naturally, in the case of a king, the chief concern is that he should be victorious over his enemies whenever war should come. In verse 7 the priest, possibly informed by some sign that the sacrifice had indeed been accepted by Yahwe, gives positive assurance that the prayer has been answered:
Now I know that Yahwe will save his anointed.
Verse 8 reaffirms faith in Yahwe as mightier than horse or chariot, while verse 9 again predicts victory over the enemy. The psalm concludes in verse 10, as it began, with a petition for the king.
Psalm 72 might be fitted into the coronation service, being then the prayer offered for a just and successful reign. This would mean translating the successive sentences of the psalm from verse 1 to verse 11 and from verse 15 to verse 17 as petitions. Thus verse 2 would be translated:
May he judge thy people with righteousness
And thy poor with justice.
and other verses correspondingly. This psalm is then in no sense a psalm of lamentation, but it seems to be a psalm of petition in behalf of the king who is about to begin his reign.
The remaining thirty-seven Psalms of Lamentation, or almost one-fourth of the Psalter, arise out of the distress of the individual. The most common misfortune is sickness (Psalms 13, 6, 88, 70, 39, 77, and 102), accordingly the petition is that the afflicted one may be saved from death by Yahwe’s merciful power.