Is Greed Good?

Lessons about Moral Leadership from Psalm 72

Hershey H. Friedman, Ph.D.

Professor of Business
Finance and Business Management Department
School of Business
Brooklyn College of the City University of New York
email: [email protected]

Linda Weiser Friedman, Ph.D.

Professor of Statistics and Computer Information Systems
Baruch College, CUNY
Department of Statistics and CIS
email: [email protected]

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 Abstract

There is a leadership crisis in the United States and much of the world. The United States
currently trails 19 other countries in stability as measured by the Fragile States Index. Psalm 72
was written by King David as he approached death. David’s great accomplishment was
establishing a powerful nation built on ethical monotheism, the United Kingdom of Israel. David
knew that Solomon, his son, would be his successor. David’s heartfelt prayer for Solomon’s
success is a message to all leaders, political as well as corporate. It is a reminder as to what
leaders should strive for: righteousness, justice, integrity, and compassion for the weak. Leaders
who are concerned with enriching themselves will end up destroying their organizations the way
Solomon’s lavish lifestyle contributed to the destruction of the United Kingdom of Israel
established by his father.
Keywords: moral leadership, Fragile States Index, Bible, Psalms, Psalm 72, righteous person.

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 INTRODUCTION – A CRISIS OF LEADERSHIP

According to a recent study, only 24% of people globally believe that leaders – in business and

politics – are in fact providing effective leadership (Ketchum, 2013). There is a leadership crisis

in the United States as well as much of the world. Americans have little confidence in various

institutions such as the presidency, big business, banks, and Congress. In fact, only 7% of

respondents to a recent June 2014 Gallup poll indicated that they had a “great deal” or “quite a

lot” of confidence in Congress (Watson, 2014; Blow, 2014). How can the rest of the world look

up to the United States as a role model when members of Congress have almost no credibility

with the American people and are tied with lobbyists and used-car salesmen in honesty ratings

(Gallup, 2014). Germany, a key ally, is quite upset with the United States for its espionage

operations. Apparently, the United States has been spying on friendly nations as well as tapping

Chancellor Angela Merkel’s phone (Mazzetti & Sanger, 2014). Our moral standing in the world

is plummeting.

The dysfunctionality of our political system is obvious to the rest of the world. The United States

expects other countries to do the right thing and take in refugees. In fact, countries, such as

Jordan, surrounding Syria have taken in millions of people fleeing the civil war. There are

currently about 52,000 children – mostly from Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador – seeking

asylum in the United States. They are fleeing from the violence in their countries due to the drug

cartels. The violence is being fueled mainly by American demand for illegal drugs. Sending the

children back to their countries is a death sentence for many of them. Honduras is among the

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most dangerous places in the world today with a murder rate of 90 per 100,000 (it is 5 per

100,000 in the United States) (Cornwell, 2014). These children are terrified of going back.

Sadly, the United States cannot pass a comprehensive immigration bill thanks to the extremists

in the House of Representatives. The world, however, expects the United States, a nation of

immigrants, to treat children with compassion. Instead, it seems that the Government wants to

use emergency funding to hire more immigration judges, speed up deportations, and strengthen

border control (Nazario, 2014). Cornwell (2014) asserts that the situation with the children from

Central America is a “reminder to voters … and to every American how far their country has

veered from the lofty and generous ideals it preaches to others every day.” Three of the

wealthiest Americans – Sheldon G. Adelson, Warren E. Buffett, and Bill Gates – with very

different political views are dismayed by the unresponsiveness of Congress to passing an

immigration bill. They are concerned about the “lack of humanity” and the indifference to

passing legislation that would advance America’s self-interest. In their words:

The current stalemate – in which greater pride is attached to

thwarting the opposition than to advancing the nation’s interests –
is depressing to most Americans and virtually all of its business
managers. The impasse certainly depresses the three of us
(Adelson, Buffett, and Gates, 2014).

There was a time when bankers were seen as paragons of integrity. The Great Recession of 2008

changed that perception. It is now clear that major banks have engaged in numerous unethical

behaviors as: “Money laundering, market rigging, tax dodging, selling faulty financial products,

trampling homeowner rights and rampant risk taking” (Eavis, 2014). We now understand what

happens when bankers are compensated “based on short-term returns regardless of whether their

business would blow up a couple of years down the road” (Porter, 2014).

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But wait, there’s more: 16 major banks have been accused of rigging the benchmark LIBOR rate

in order to increase profits. This key interest rate affects charges on credit cards, mortgage rates,

and student loan rates (Raymond and Viswanatha, 2014). Citigroup is about to pay $7 billion to

as part of a settlement with the Justice Department resolve a probe into their role in selling

garbage mortgage securities to their customers. JP Morgan Chase & Co, already paid $13 billion

for their role in selling the same kind of substandard mortgage securities (Freifeld & Viswanatha,

2014). Similarly, there is a suit against Morgan Stanley by Chinese banks for selling them

collaterized debt obligations consisting of the most inferior sub-prime mortgages (known as

Stack 2006-1) and then betting against them. Internally, people working at Morgan Stanley

referred to the securities as “Subprime Meltdown,” “Hitman,” “Nuclear Holocaust,” or in

scatological terms as a “Bag of ----” (Eisinger, 2013).

There are several scandals every day that can easily demoralize those of us who want to have

faith in our leaders. Daily newspapers describe several business scandals including, e.g., the one

at BNP Paribas, France’s largest bank, which is ready to plead guilty to charges and pay a fine of

$8.9 billion for transferring funds on behalf of clients working for countries blacklisted by the

United States (Protess and Silver-Greenberg, 2014). One of these blacklisted countries, Sudan,

has been accused of genocide. In addition, the United States Attorneys’ Office is now

investigating Delphi, the company that supplied General Motors with the defective part that

resulted in the death of at least 13 people. General Motors has admitted to covering up a

defective ignition switch and not recalling cars with the defective part. G. M. knew the part was

defective and changed the part without changing the part number so that they would not have to

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recall millions of cars (Wald & Vlasic, 2014). There is talk of trying some executives at G.M. for

criminal behavior because of the cover-up; this, despite the fact that there was a 325-page report

absolving the board and senior managers at G.M. of any wrongdoing (Stout, 2014). In another

scandal, The CEO at American Apparel, Mr. Charney, was fired by the board for allegedly being

involved in numerous cases involving sexual harassment. In fact, Charney had a reputation for

this for more than 10 years and has been sued numerous times. Charney’s awful reputation made

lenders wary of dealing with the company and gave the firm a reputation as a place for talented

potential employees to avoid (Harris & Greenhouse, 2014). Finally, Corinthian Colleges, a

company that owns several for-profit colleges, has admitted fraud in “reporting both grades and

job placements.” They took $1.4 billion a year from the federal government for student loans.

The degrees offered rarely led to good jobs. According to the California attorney general

employment rates were manipulated by getting temporary help agencies to employ students for a

few days (Norris, 2014).

The Fund for Peace publishes a Fragile States Index which considers various factors including

income inequality, corruption, and factionalism to measure the stability of a nation. The United

States has become considerably less stable in 2013 than in previous years. In fact, the United

States trailed 19 other countries. Sadly, 83% of the people in the world live in unstable countries

(http://www.foreignpolicy.com/fragile-states-2014). The United States is among the countries

with the highest level of inequality. CEOs have incomes that are approximately 295 times greater

than that of the typical employee; median incomes are lower today than they were 25 years ago;

about 25% of children under the age of 5 live in poverty (Stiglitz, 2014). Stiglitz (2014) provides

the answer to the question as to why income inequality is so out of control in the United States:

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 The American political system is overrun by money. Economic inequality
translates into political inequality, and political inequality yields increasing
economic inequality. In fact, as he recognizes, Mr. Piketty’s argument rests on the
ability of wealth-holders to keep their after-tax rate of return high relative to
economic growth. How do they do this? By designing the rules of the game to
ensure this outcome; that is, through politics.

So corporate welfare increases as we curtail welfare for the poor. Congress

maintains subsidies for rich farmers as we cut back on nutritional support for the
needy. Drug companies have been given hundreds of billions of dollars as we limit
Medicaid benefits. The banks that brought on the global financial crisis got billions
while a pittance went to the homeowners and victims of the same banks’ predatory
lending practices.

A report entitled Testing Theories of American Politics: Elites, Interest Groups, and Average

Citizens examined more than 1800 US policies and asserts that the United States political system

does not serve the interest of the majority of Americans; instead, it serves the needs of special

interests such as corporations (Boren, 2014). One thing is clear: the middle class is shrinking.

Young people continue to go to college hoping to improve their status. A large number of them,

especially those from poor families, will not be able to join the middle class. Approximately 90%

of first-year college students from the top income quartile will earn a degree by age 24; only

about 25% of students from the bottom half will manage to do so (Tough, 2014). Those from the

bottom quintile of income who get a degree have a 40% chance of moving into the top two

income quintiles. Without the college degree, that probability is only 14% (Tough, 2014).

If financial and political institutions are not to be trusted, how about universities, those

institutions of higher learning? College presidents have also found clever ways to milk their

institutions as well the government (i.e., the public). Many of them collect extra money from the

non-profit university foundations that are supposed to provide funds for education and research.

This is in addition to being provided with chauffeur-driven automobiles and substantial housing

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allowances (Vincent, 2013). The new City University of New York (CUNY) chancellor is living

in an $18,000 a month 4-bedroom apartment in the posh Upper East Side (Vincent & Klein,

2014). He was also given a golden parachute; if he leaves after 5 years of service – even if he is

fired – he will receive a full year of salary. The government is responsible for some of the

administrative bloat which is plaguing many colleges and has resulted in a great deal of waste in

higher education (Greene, Kisida, and Mills, 2010). Between 1993 and 2007, the ratio of number

of administrators per 100 students grew by 39%; amount spent on administration per student

(inflation adjusted) grew by 61%. Public universities and private nonprofit colleges, from 1987

to 2011-2012, collectively added 517,636 administrators and professional employees. It is clear

that the high cost of tuition is due to the hiring or more administrators, not more educators

(Marcus, 2014). Ginsberg (2014) avers:

Indeed, for every $1 spent on instruction, $1.82 was spent on non-instructional

matters including ‘institutional support,’i.e., the care and feeding of deanlets. If
the ration of deanlets to professors in 2010 had been the same as in 1976, there
would now be nearly 400,000 fewer deanlets whose combined salaries account for
one-fourth of all tuition dollars paid by students and their parents in 2010.

As in the corporate world, there is little relationship between salaries earned by academic leaders

and performance. What administrators do is “endlessly rewriting the school mission statement

and “rebranding their campus.” To administrators, “a clever mission statement is more important

than an actual mission” (Ginsberg, 2014). Administrative bloat and overpaying college

administrators is even a problem in the UK. The ratio between the highest and lowest-paid

employees in higher education was more than 15:1 in 2008, much higher than any other area in

the public sector (Matthews, 2013).

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where in 2008 the ratio between the highest- and the lowest-paid workers in higher education was,

on average, 15.35:1, according to the 2011 review of fair pay in the public sector led by Will Hutton –

a bigger gap than found in any other part of the public sector.

There is no question that the United States has some of the best colleges in the world. In fact, one

study demonstrated that 19 of the top 25 colleges in the world are in the United States. This

statistic, however, is misleading. The measure that really matters is how well do American

college graduates do when compared to college graduates from other countries? The answer is

provided by the Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC),

of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). PIAAC tests the

literacy and math skills of graduates in OECD member countries throughout the world. The

results show how weak our college graduates are when it comes to math and problem solving

skills: only 18% score at the top two levels of numeracy. American college graduates are

mediocre when it comes to literacy (Carey, 2014). The report concludes

(http://www.oecd.org/site/piaac/Country%20note%20-%20United%20States.pdf):

Larger proportions of adults in the United States than in other countries have poor
literacy and numeracy skills, and the proportion of adults with poor skills in
problem solving in technology-rich environments is slightly larger than the
average, despite the relatively high educational attainment among adults in the
United States.

It is not surprising that whereas 96% of academic leaders such as college presidents feel that

their institutions prepare students for success in the workplace, only 11% of business leaders feel

this way (Keierleber, 2014). In fact, there is no correlation between tuition and the actual costs of

running a college. Even with all these administrators, colleges cannot explain the variation in

tuition among institutions (Kelderman, 2014). One thing is clear, many American college

graduates lack the skills needed to be successful in the workplace. This should not be surprising

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given that many college presidents are concerned with hiring more administrators, reducing the

number of full-time professors, and finding inventive ways to increase their own salaries.What

they are not doing is finding innovative ways to educate and to increase the skills of their

students. This may help explain why student loan debt is approximately $1 trillion and more than

50% of current graduates are unemployed. Many are underemployed and working at jobs that do

not really require a college degree (Abrams & Silver-Greenberg, 2014).

With all this money going to hire more and more administrators rather than improving quality,

educators should not be surprised that there is a movement toward competency-based education

in which the burden of learning is shifted directly to students. Students learn at their own pace

and learn the material using online material or in person. Students may also earn credits for

knowledge acquired in the workplace or the military. What matters is knowledge acquired, not

hours spent in a classroom (Berrett, 2014). Google is moving away from “traditional metrics”

such as G.P.A. and looking at skills that include “leadership, humility, collaboration,

adaptability, and loving to learn and relearn” (Friedman, 2014). These soft skills are usually not

taught in college classes. It is expertise that matters, not a college degree; this is why the

proportion of employees at Google without any college degree keeps increasing (Friedman,

2014).

Is this a purely modern phenomenon – the ‘greed is good’ mentality and the consequent loss of

respect and trust in our financial, academic and public institutions? Is it an unavoidable artifact

of our so-called modern society? There is a group of conservative legislators and intellectuals

known as reformicons that want to rethink government and work on issues such as “immobility

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in the poor, insecurity in the middle class, with cronyist privilege at the top of the ladder”

(Tanenhaus, 2014). Yuval Levin, one of the intellectual leaders of the reformicons, has been

speaking about “applying the Judeo-Christian moral tradition to critical issues of public policy”

(Tanenhaus, 2014). That is a good idea. King Solomon, in Ecclesiastes (1:9), said “There is

nothing new under the sun.” It is interesting to note, therefore, that his reign initiated a decline

somewhat reminiscent of what we are seeing today and for similar reasons.

SOLOMON’S CRISIS OF LEADERSHIP

To his credit, King Solomon built the First Temple, which was quite ornate, and took seven years

to complete, before he began work on his own royal palace. The temple construction required a

corvee of 30,000 men to build (I Kings 5:27). These men were sent to Lebanon on a monthly

basis in shifts consisting of 10,000 people. Solomon also needed 70,000 men to serve as carriers

and 80,000 stonecutters to hew the mountains, as well as 3300 foremen to oversee the work (I

Kings 5: 29). Clearly, the building of the Temple was a major undertaking that required a huge

number of workers. This was an important achievement and was crucial for the nascent

monotheistic faith. All sacrifices to God had to be made in the Temple; private altars which

could easily be erected for pagan deities would no longer be allowed. Moreover, three times a

year — for the festivals of Pesach, Shavuot, and Sukkot — all able citizens had to make a

pilgrimage to Jerusalem (Exodus 34:23). This precept is known as oleh regel (lit. going up [to

Jerusalem] for the Festival). It unified all twelve tribes and made Jerusalem the spiritual center of

ancient Israel. In fact, it was the center for ethical monotheism and sacrifices could be brought by

Jews and gentiles.

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The Queen of Sheba met Solomon and was greatly impressed with his wisdom (I Kings 10: 7):

She blessed Solomon as follows (I Kings 10: 9): “Blessed be the Lord your God, who has chosen

you and set you on the throne of Israel! Because the Lord loved Israel forever, he has established

you as king, that you may execute justice (mishpat) and righteousness (tzedaka).” She

understood that a ruler has to be concerned with mishpat and tzedaka.

Instead of helping the poor, Solomon spent a prodigious amount on his own palace (I Kings 7),

an effort which took thirteen years to complete. By spending more time on the construction of

his own home than on the Temple, it is clear which one he valued more. A spectacular palace

was not enough for Solomon; he also made (I Kings 10:18) “an immense ivory throne and

overlaid it with glittering gold.” The throne was quite magnificent and consisted of 12 golden

lions—one on each side of the six steps (I Kings 10: 18-20). The amount of gold that Solomon

received each year was equal to 666 talents (a talent is about 75.558 pounds). His goblets were of

gold; silver was practically worthless to him (I Kings 10:21). Solomon also had 1,400 chariots

and 12,000 riders (I Kings 10:26). Solomon married an unusually large number of women; he

had 700 royal wives and 300 concubines (I Kings 11:3). There is no question that all these

expenditures resulted in a substantial tax burden on the people and ultimately caused

complications for Rehoboam, Solomon’s son and successor. Moreover, instead of being

concerned about justice and equity, Solomon allowed his numerous foreign wives to erect altars

in Jerusalem for their pagan deities. Scripture (I Kings 11: 4-8) states:

For when Solomon grew old his wives turned away his heart after other gods, and
his heart was not as complete to the Lord his God, as was the heart of David his
father. For Solomon went after Ashtoreth, the goddess of the Sidonians, and after
Milcom, the abomination of the Ammonites. And Solomon did what was evil in

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 the sight of the Lord and did not wholly follow the Lord, as David his father had
done. Then Solomon built a high place for Chemosh, the abomination of Moab,
and for Molech, the abomination of the Ammonites, on the mountain east of
Jerusalem. And so he did for all his foreign wives, they burned incense and
sacrificed to their gods (I Kings 11: 4-8).

The verse makes it sound like Solomon himself worshipped the foreign deities. Some scholars

maintain that it was his wives who did it and he did not join them in their idolatry. This is not

much better given that his mission was to spread ethical monotheism to all the peoples of the

world. In any case, God was angry with him and he was told that the kingdom would be split

when his son succeeded him. This is what happened. Solomon’s indifference to the tax burden he

imposed on the people ultimately caused the split in his kingdom.

PSALM 72

Could Solomon, who had (ironically, in this regard) been gifted with exceptional wisdom, have

avoided this endgame? Sadly, yes, if he had listened to the words of his father, David. Psalm 72

– displayed in Figure 1 based on translations of Davis (2012) and Davis (2010) – was written by

King David for his son, as David approached death. King David knew that Solomon, his son,

would be his successor. David’s heartfelt prayer for Solomon’s success is a message to all

leaders. He prayed that Solomon would be a righteous and just king and thereby ensure the

prosperity of the kingdom. Psalm 72 should be read by all leaders, political as well as corporate.

It is a reminder as to what leaders should strive for: righteousness, justice, integrity, and

compassion for the weak.

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 1. A Psalm for Solomon. O God, Give the king Your own justice (mishpatecha),
and Your righteousness (tzidkascha) to the king’s son.
2. May he judge Your people with righteousness (tzedek), and your poor with
judgment (mishpat).
3. May the mountains bring peace to the people, and the hills, by righteousness.
4. May he judge the poor of the people, save the children of the destitute, and
crush the oppressor.
5. So that they will fear You as long as the sun and moon endure, throughout all
generations.
6. May he descend [the words of the king] as rain that falls on the mown grass; as
showers that water the earth.
7. May the righteous flourish in his days; and let there be abundant peace until the
moon is no more.
8. And may he have dominion from sea to sea, and from the river until the ends of
the earth.
9. May nobles kneel before him, and may his enemies lick the dust.
10. May the kings of Tarshish and of the islands bring presents; may the kings of
Sheba and Seba offer gifts.
11. And may all kings prostrate before him; may all nations serve him.
12. For he shall save the needy when he cries, and the poor who has none to help
him.
13. He will pity the poor and destitute, and will save the souls of the destitute.
14. From fraud and violence he shall redeem their soul; and precious shall their
blood be in his eyes.
15. May he [Solomon] live, and may He give him the gold of Sheba; may prayer
be made for him continually; and may he be blessed every day.
16. May there be abundance of grain in the land, upon the tops of the mountains;
may its fruit rustle like Lebanon [i.e., as abundant as the forests of Lebanon]; and
may they [the people] blossom out of the city like grass of the earth.
17. May his name endure forever; as long as the sun, may his name be
perpetuated; may all peoples bless themselves by him and may nations praise him.
18. Blessed be the Lord God, the God of Israel, who alone performs wondrous
things.
19. And blessed be His glorious Name forever; and may the whole earth be filled
with His glory; Amen, and Amen.
20. Completed are the prayers of David, the son of Jesse.
Figure 1. Psalm 72

Samson Raphael Hirsch’s translation to German of Psalms (Tehillim in Hebrew) was published

in 1892. His views are prescient. Hirsch (2014: 585), in his commentary on this Psalm 72, notes

that a state (or an organization) must be founded upon the twin pillars of tzedek and mishpat; this

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is made clear in verse 2. The difference between these two terms is crucial to understanding what

good leadership is about. Sacks (2013) explains the difference between the two.

Tzedek, "justice", is a key word in the book of Devarim [Deuteronomy] - most

famously in the verse: “Justice, justice you shall pursue, so that you may thrive
and occupy the land that the Lord your God is giving you” (Deut. 16:20).What
does it mean? Tzedek/tzedakah is almost impossible to translate, because of its
many shadings of meaning: justice, charity, righteousness, integrity, equity,
fairness and innocence. It certainly means more than strictly legal justice, for
which the Bible uses words like mishpat and din. One example illustrates the
point: “If a man is poor, you may not go to sleep holding his security. Return it to
him at sun-down, so that he will be able to sleep in his garment and bless you. To
you it will be reckoned as tzedakah before the Lord your God.” (Deut. 24:12-13)

Tzedakah cannot mean legal justice in this verse. It speaks of a situation in which
a poor person has only a single cloak or covering, which he has handed over to
the lender as security against a loan. The lender has a legal right to keep the cloak
until the loan has been repaid. However, acting on the basis of this right is
simply not the right thing to do. It ignores the human situation of the poor person,
who has nothing else with which to keep warm on a cold night. The point
becomes even clearer when we examine the parallel passage in Exodus 22, which
states: “If you take your neighbor's cloak as a pledge, return it to him by sunset,
because his cloak is the only covering he has for his body. What else will he sleep
in? When he cries out to me, I will hear, for I am compassionate” (Ex. 22:25-26).

Thus, mishpat is retributive justice; tzedek deals with distributive justice and compassion. One

who withholds wages from his employees has violated a Biblical precept. This would require

mishpat. This is the floor of ethics, obeying the law. The Psalmists demand considerably more of

humankind than just mishpat. One has to pursue tzedek since it is a much higher form of ethics

and includes charity and equity. An employer who pays employees a wage considerably above

market (or above the minimum wage) or provides a generous bonus is acting with tzedek. The

Bible does not demand that people renounce wealth. Hirsch (2014: 586) asserts:

The ideal of the equal distribution of wealth for all men is an unfortunate dream
which is at variance with the natural state of the world’s affairs and which, if it
were to come true, would bring about the disintegration of human society. For
God has founded the society of man on the premise of unequal distribution of

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 wealth rather than upon the equal apportionment thereof. The term “wealth” as
used here is to be understood in its broadest interpretation, namely, to include not
only material possessions, but spiritual gifts and values as well. Were it not for the
fact that the gifts of this world are not equally distributed, the self-discipline
required as part of the respect for tzedek would not have its proper worth, nor
would there be any basis for the duty of tzedakah (charity) which is set down in
verse 3 and which constitutes the lofty ideal of ennobling perfection of both
individual and society.

Let me repeat: the ideal of the equal distribution of wealth is an idle dream that is
at variance with conditions as they really are. For it would presuppose universal
equality of intellectual ability, physical strength and potentialities, an equal
number of members in every family etc. Such a state of affairs would be contrary
to the design of the Creator of Mankind (Hirsch, 2014: 586).

The goal of a leader should be to run an organization (or country) with compassion and use

tzedek and mishpat to eradicate poverty. First, the oppressor (i.e., those who exploit others) must

be crushed (verse 4). Leaders must also protect the destitute from deceit and fraud (verse 14). As

we now know, bankers and mortgage brokers used deceit to convince poor people to take on

mortgages they could not afford. Millions of people lost their homes because of this (Friedman &

Friedman, 2009). Psalm 89:15 states that the ideal government copies that of Heaven and is

based on the foundations of righteousness (tzedek), justice (mishpat), loving-kindness (chesed),

and truth (emet).

One of Solomon’s blunders was in the construction of his own palace. He should have followed

the advice given to him in Psalm 72 and realized that leadership is not about self-

aggrandizement. Verses 11 -14 explain what a king has to do to receive honor.

The king shall receive this universal homage because the weak will look to him
for deliverance, the needy will turn to him as their defender and the unfortunate
will know that he cares for them and will restore their souls. They will pay tribute
to him because he will champion their cause against all malice and tyranny. Even
the smallest drop of human blood will be infinitely precious to him and therefore

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 he will count the spoils of his kingship not in terms of shattered human happiness
and slaughtered human lives, but in terms of the building and advancement of
human happiness and prosperity (Hirsch, 2014: 592-593).

Sacks (2014), in reviewing Terry Eagleton’s (2014) book, Culture and the Death of God, makes

some very important points about secular humanism and the drive to find substitutes for God. As

he notes:

We are meaning-seeking animals. And if we can no longer believe in God we will

find other things to worship. Eagleton’s book is a brisk, intelligent, and
provocative tour of western intellectual history since the Enlightenment,
understood as a series of chapters in the search for a God-substitute. The
Enlightenment found it in reason, the Idealists in the human spirit, the Romantics
in nature and culture, the Marxists in revolution, and Nietzsche in the
Üntermensch. Others chose the nation, the state, art, the sublime, society, science,
the life force, and personal relationships. None of these had entirely happy
outcomes, and none was self-sustaining.

Sacks (2014) does note that the “occupational hazard of monotheism is dualism: the division of

humanity into the children of light and the children of darkness, the redeemed and the infidel.”

The Book of Psalms consists of 150 rousing and inspiring hymns and can be used to teach

everlasting and enduring lessons to all people, not just believers (Friedman & Lynch, 2013).

Three of the world’s foremost religions – Judaism, Christianity, and Islam – consider its words

sacred. Psalms is not only for those who believe in a Supreme Power; it provides inspirational

messages regarding such values as “persistence, faith, honesty, assistance to the underprivileged,

concern for others, importance of community, compassion, forgiveness, penitence, and

redemption” (Friedman & Lynch, 2013). Psalm 72 in particular has a powerful message about

leadership. As Sacks (2014) observes: “having tried and failed to provide substitutes for religion,

today’s public intellectuals have no new candidate to offer beyond the present mix of relativism,

individualism, hedonism, and consumerism, which is neither elevating nor redemptive.”

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 CONCLUSION

After Solomon died, the people asked Rehoboam, his son and successor, to reduce the “heavy

yoke” of taxation imposed on them by Solomon. Rehoboam antagonized the people by saying he

would even add to the yoke. The people rebelled against the House of David and joined

Yeroboam. The country was split into two: the Northern Kingdom and the Kingdom of Judea.

The Northern Kingdom consisted of ten tribes under the leadership of Yeroboam (I Kings 12);

Rehoboam was left with the two southern tribes of Judah and Benjamin. The end of the United

Kingdom of Israel meant that the two countries would always be relatively weak. For political

reasons, Yeroboam established two golden calves for the Northern Kingdom to worship (I Kings

12:26). He did not want his people to go up to Jerusalem, which was under the control of the

House of David, during festivals on the religious pilgrimage to bring sacrifices in the Temple.

By the fourth year of his reign, the people of Judah also “did evil in the eyes of the Lord” and

worshipped pagan deities (I Kings 14:22-24; II Chronicles 12:1). In the fifth year of Rehoboam’s

reign, King Shishak of Egypt attacked Jerusalem and looted the treasures of the Temple and the

King’s palace (I Kings 14:25). The great wealth accumulated by Solomon ended up in Egypt.

Eventually, the Assyrians conquered the Northern Kingdom and dispersed the 10 tribes. All this

would not have happened had Solomon followed the lessons of Psalm 72 and lived a simpler life,

rather than a sybaritic and extravagant one.

In our day, we see leaders who make the same mistake as Solomon. CEOs become obsessed with

wealth and, with the assistance of corrupt boards, provide excessive salaries to top management.
18
Once a CEO goes down this path, the organization must suffer. The “greed is good” speech

delivered by Gordon Gekko in the classic film, Wall Street (Pressman & Stone, 1987), has been

the mantra of numerous executives. The speech is available on YouTube

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PF_iorX_MAw). This belief is insidious and a destroyer of

values. Many corporations such as McDonald’s and Wendy’s have been fighting government

efforts to raise the minimum wage. Cooks working in fast-food chains earn an average of $9.07

an hour which means a life of poverty for a family of four (Porter, 2014). In 1914, Henry Ford

doubled the pay of most his employees when he raised the daily wage to $5. He noted that “A

low-wage business is always insecure” (Porter, 2014).

More recently, two current television programs, House of Cards (Fincher & Spacey 2013) and

Scandal (Rhimes, 2012), each portrays a fictional president of the United States who is a

murderer. In one show, the person who eventually becomes President using manipulation and

deceit calmly and efficiently kills someone who was going to expose him by throwing her in the

path of a moving train. In the other show, one character notes that, of three people running for

office, everyone has committed murder.

On the other hand, Psalm 72 contains what really should be the mantra of all leaders: “Loving

righteousness, justice, kindness, and truth.” Solomon did not listen to his father's advice and

look what happened to him and his legacy. We also have the benefit of David's wisdom today

and it seems that we – or at least the leadership of our foremost institutions – are also not paying

attention to these important words. What will future generations say about us?

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