Make the king wise,
Thoughtful,
Discerning.
Make our ruler righteous,
Deciding what’s best for the people,
Providing for your poor, God.
Let peace and freedom ring
From every mountainside
And justice
From every hill and molehill.
May he stand up for the poor,
For children born in poverty,
Crushing anyone who might abuse them.
Under such leadership,
The people will live toward God.
(Everyday Psalms, Psalm 72, page 164)
When I was a kid, I was told I could grow up to be President. I have since decided that’s a job I have no interest in. It sounds like such an exhausting and futile venture.
Throughout history, civic leaders have been viewed as a necessary evil. The allure of wealth, power, and status have always had their takers. Because of that, even the good ones have been viewed with significant skepticism.
Biblically, the books of 1 and 2 Kings and 1 and 2 Chronicles tell the stories of the kings who ruled God’s people, including when they divided into two kingdoms, Israel to the north and Judah to the south. Of the 19 kings of the northern kingdom of Israel, none was considered good. Of the 20 kings of the southern kingdom of Judah, only six were considered good. That’s a terrible track record — and these were God’s own people! It’s no wonder the Scriptures have a basic hesitancy when it comes to civic leaders.
Even so, the Scriptures call on us to not just obey our leaders, but to pray for them as well. We see this practiced in both the Old and New Testaments. This was important in those ancient monarchies and is equally so in modern democracies. But too often, we trade our duty to pray for our leaders for complaints about them and votes against them.
When 1 Peter 2:13-17 call its readers to “honor the emperor,” it’s very possible the current emperor was the notorious Caesar Nero. Those initial readers couldn’t vote, but they could complain. And Peter would much rather they did their complaining to God in prayer than to their neighbors, keeping them from developing reputations as whiny Christians. But mostly they were to pray for their leaders: kings and governors and the like. (Even Jesus apologized for saying something harsh to the Chief Priest, honoring the man in the position even if the man himself was corrupt.)
And so we pray. Drawing from Psalm 72, we pray for justice to reign in the land, that the people might thrive under the guidance of whomever is in leadership.
We pray for parents and teachers and pastors. We pray for mayors and congressmen and members of parliament. We pray for governors and presidents and prime ministers. If they lead well, we all do well.
Prayer: Politics can be such nasty business, Lord, and yet your yourself are a king. The King. Help me to care for those in leadership, subject to so many temptations and bearing the weight of so many difficult decisions. Give them wisdom. Give them an impulse toward justice. Sustain them and sustain our community through them. In Jesus the King. Amen.