Give Us A King!

Give Us a King!

Most of us feel safer with some kind of ruler. We want a higher power to give us guidance, to advocate for us, and to protect us. (But not someone too high or too powerful.)

When the Israelites begged for a king like the other nations, they were really asking to separate God’s rule from the whole fabric of their lives and to relegate him to the Tabernacle only. They sought to marginalize what was meant only to be magnified. They believed they knew best, and they wanted a king they could see and bargain with.

Like them, we live more comfortably with a king. That’s why we’re so quick to bow the knee to power, beauty, control, lust, or money. But Israel learned what some of us who belong to God are still trying to settle: to the extent that we seek another ruler, we seek our own heartbreak. When we plead for something less than God himself, we plead for our own demise, however slowly it may come.

London heard its first performance of George Frederick Handel’s oratorio Messiah in 1743. As the story goes, the crowd watched in hushed expectation for the response of England’s reigning monarch, George II, to Handel’s great “Hallelujah” chorus, with its proclamation of the “King of kings and Lord of lords” who “shall reign for ever and ever.” Reverently, quietly, the temporary king of a temporary kingdom rose to his feet as the words and music resounded. One by one, his subjects stood in tribute to their king’s King.

Have you looked for a king who is like other kings? Are you pleading in your heart for something smaller to worship than the One True King? Do you believe you know better than this King what is really best for you? I have. And sometimes, God help me, I still do. But what I should be doing instead is paying tribute with my very life to the only King worth honoring. Because he shall reign forever and ever.

They shall speak of the glory of Your kingdom and talk of Your power; to make known to the sons of men Your mighty acts and the glory of the majesty of Your kingdom. Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and Your dominion endures throughout all generations.

Psalm 145:11-13, NASB