Bible Strands
Psalms 72:6
May he be like rain that falls on freshly cut grass, like spring showers that water the earth.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The psalmist prays for the Davidic king to establish enduring justice, situating the request within a royal psalm that outlines the ideal scope of his rule. The prayer functions as a blessing for the monarch's reign, framed by promises of generational reverence and righteous prosperity.
The words — The Hebrew יֵרֵד (Ye.red) means "he will come down," describing the king's blessing descending like precipitation. The phrase כְּמָטָר עַל־גֵּז (ke-matar al-gez) literally translates to "like rain on mown grass."
The thread — This agricultural metaphor appears in Deuteronomy 32:2, where teaching falls like rain on new grass, and 2 Samuel 23:4, which compares the king's rule to glistening after rain on sprouting grass. Hosea 6:3 also employs the spring shower image to describe the LORD's faithful appearance.
Why it lands — The text establishes that the king's authority and the nation's prosperity depend entirely on divine provision rather than human effort. Readers must accept that lasting justice and flourishing require God's direct, life-giving intervention.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
He shall come down like rain upon the mown grass: as showers that water the earth.
Cross-references
- Hosea 6:3 So let us know—let us press on to know the LORD. As surely as the sun rises, He will appear; He will come to us like the rain, like the spring showers that water the earth.
- Deuteronomy 32:2 Let my teaching fall like rain and my speech settle like dew, like gentle rain on new grass, like showers on tender plants.
- 2 Samuel 23:4 is like the light of the morning at sunrise of a cloudless dawn, the glistening after the rain on the sprouting grass of the earth.’
- Psalms 65:10 You soak its furrows and level its ridges; You soften it with showers and bless its growth.
- Isaiah 14:3 On the day that the LORD gives you rest from your pain and torment, and from the hard labor into which you were forced,
- Hosea 14:5 I will be like the dew to Israel; he will blossom like the lily and take root like the cedars of Lebanon.
- Proverbs 16:15 When a king’s face brightens, there is life; his favor is like a rain cloud in spring.
- Proverbs 19:12 A king’s rage is like the roar of a lion, but his favor is like dew on the grass.
- Isaiah 5:6 I will make it a wasteland, neither pruned nor cultivated, and thorns and briers will grow up. I will command the clouds that rain shall not fall on it.”
- Ezekiel 34:23 I will appoint over them one shepherd, My servant David, and he will feed them. He will feed them and be their shepherd.