And the Lord said to Samuel, “Obey the voice of the people in all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them.
– 1 Samuel 8:7
This is a really sad moment in the Old Testament. God’s people looked at the nations around them and said, “We want to be like them. We want a king to rule us like they have a king to rule them”. But they had the greatest King there is. They had God as their King, and they rejected God as their King. Instead, looked for another king other than God.
1 Samuel 8:7 teaches us the dangers of rejecting God as King.
We read in the pages that follow in the Old Testament, that this was a disastrous decision. A consequential rejection. As a result of this decision, God’s people would plunge into more and more evil and wickedness.
And this in so many ways summarizes life and death. So just listen closely. Let this soak in in a fresh way today. The path to true life is found in revering God as King. And the path to death is found in rejecting God as King. It’s that simple. I’m not saying it’s easy or there’s not a battle against sin in our own hearts like. As we see here in 1 Samuel 8, this is the fundamental truth of life. True, full, abundant life is found in revering God as King and revering Jesus as King of your life, as King over every facet of who you are, over everything you do. This is where life is found.
And yet we are all prone to reject God as King, to look to ourselves as king, to seek others; as they were doing here in 1 Samuel 8, to lead them; “Follow the ways of this world instead of the ways of God in his Word.”
1 Samuel 8:7 reminds us to revere God as the true King.
And so we pray. God help us to choose life today. We praise you as the Sovereign King over all, as the infinitely good King, infinitely loving King, infinitely merciful King, infinitely just King, infinitely perfect King, holy King revealed in Jesus, the King over all kings. You alone are King, oh God. You alone are King, Jesus. And we bow to you today as King over the world and King over our lives, and we worship you, and we praise you, and we give all our allegiance to you. We want to love, worship, and follow you with all our heart and all our soul and all our mind and all our strength today.
And we pray that you would save us from ourselves. Oh God, save us from looking to ourselves as king, to others around us and saying, “We want to be like them following the ways of this world.” God, we pray, please forgive us for the ways we are prone to reject you as King. Please keep us from rejecting you as King all day today. Help us to revere you as King, proclaim you as King, and lead others to know you as King, Father, Lord, and Savior.
Oh God, we praise you for your goodness as our King. We praise you for the gospel of the kingdom; Jesus the King, for giving your life for us. God, help us to lead others to the life that’s found in revering you as King.
Prayer for the Talysh People
God, we pray this specifically today for the Talysh people of Iran and Azerbaijan, for 750,000 of them, Muslim men, women, and children, who don’t know you, Jesus, as King, who think you’re just a Prophet. They haven’t heard the good news that you are the King and you laid down your life for their sin and risen from the dead. God, we pray that the Talysh people of Iran and Azerbaijan would be reached for that good news and you would help us in a Matthew 24:14 kind of way to proclaim the gospel of the kingdom to all the nations until the day when we see your kingdom come and your will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven.
We pray all of this according to your Word in 1 Samuel 8:7, in the name of Jesus the King. Amen.
David Platt serves as a Lead Pastor for McLean Bible Church. He is also the Founder of Radical, an organization that helps people follow Jesus and make him known in their neighborhood and all nations.
David received his B.A. from the University of Georgia and M.Div., Th.M., and Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. Some of his published works include Radical, Radical Together, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, and Don’t Hold Back.
He lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area with his wife and children.
