God Save the King

In Samuel we have our first mention of a king for the children of Israel, in particular the phrase "God save the king". I had always thought it basically meant "We love the king" mixed with "We have faith that he will do his best". But the literal wording was brought to mind of late, and I realized a word you might be able to use in place of 'save' is 'keep'. So we have "God keep the king".

Changing the verb to 'keep' certainly adds a bit of a darker undertone - one that I believe does NOT detract from the original meaning, nor expand it unreasonably - and with this slight alteration we reveal the actual perspective of the children of Israel. We see that the children of Israel truly wish to support their king, but that they are asking God to "save" their king ... and so one might very well ask "from what?" Asking this question adds relevance to the suggestion to change the verb "keep", for certainly the suffix applies to this second verb as well.

So what are the children of Israel asking God to (save/keep) their king from?

The children of Israel asked for a king because they wanted to be like all the other kids. The other kids had kings who fought wars, gave them a feeling of continuity, and tied them to the land and location. Certainly the children of Israel had been traveling for quite some time, so the need to identify with others and to establish roots was likely something they found desirable. A king would give them someone to blame when things went wrong, someone to appeal to when they wanted their way, and someone to apologize to when they messed up.

At this point in their history, the children of Israel had spent the last few centuries having no real home. Clearly they didn't exist at the time of Abram, didn't exist in the time of Abraham, didn't exist in the time of Isaac, but even then there were hints of a future place, a future home, and you know the teachings of Abraham made it very real in their eyes that such a place existed. So this establishes a need, generations in the making, for a home, and one that had been unavailable most of the lives of the children of Israel. So I suggest that desiring a king was, in addition to wanting to be like all the other kids, a desire to not move again. They clearly didn't trust God thoroughly and were likely asking for some assurance that they wouldn't be moved AGAIN.

God, grieving because He had something better, and because He knew the type of king Saul would turn out to be, warned them through the one man they associated with God, that of Samuel. And they didn't hearken. They clearly listened ... at least waited until he was done talking ... before shouting "We want a king".

And so God gave them their king.

A king that never wanted to be king.

A king that only acted kingly when the Holy Spirit fell upon him.

A king that tried to kill his son, torture his son-in-law, and not long after his reign began, threw it away because he had no patience.

How many of us are like Saul - wanting something other than what God wants for us, passively aggressive when we should be obedient, hearkening when it is convenient, and ultimately ruining the plans God has for our lives?

I believe that God wants every believer to be a king. However, many fail at the task - not because we could not be placed there by God, not because we wouldn't want to do good, and not because we couldn't listen to wisdom - but because to be a truly righteous and good king, we need to listen to God.

Every time Saul was doing the right thing, or was in the right place, Saul was either doing what God had asked, or had the Spirit of God on him.

My challenge today is this:

Ask God to reveal to you in what way you are like unto the children of Israel.
Ask God for the revelation of both the good and the bad, and praise God for both.

• Praise God for the manner of your spiritual proximity to God's chosen people.


• Praise God for the potential that being grafted into the family of God allows.


• Praise God for the hope that being literal and earnest worshipers of Jesus brings.


• Praise God for revealing our weaknesses so that we can know where we need to trust God more fully.


• Praise God for revealing our poor decisions so we can make reparations and bring them more in line with God's heart.


• Praise God for revealing our hearts, showing us what we've been begging for that doesn't match God's will.

and because this whole process can be painful and laborious ...

Praise God for giving us the grace and patience to listen to EVERYTHING He has to tell us.