Praying for our rulers.

After we elect a new president, governor, mayor, or whomever, we Christians tend to remind ourselves to pray for our rulers.

Sometimes enthusiastically, ’cause it’s our candidate who just got elected. And if we’re the really partisan sort, we’ll even rub this fact in other people’s faces. “The patriotic thing to do is to close ranks and back our new leader for the good of the country. So bury that disappointment and pray for your new leader. That’s right, your new leader.” Every so often, the Christian preaching this attempts a sympathetic tone—“Hey, I know it’s rough; I’ve had to do this when your guy won”—but most of the time they’re too happy to care. About 12 seconds of the message is sympathy, and the rest is a victory lap. Hey, I’ve been on both sides of it.

And when our candidate lost, we might pray mournfully. Regretfully. Reluctantly. The candidates have been demonizing one another throughout the election, and when partisans lose, they’re convinced the End Times have just arrived. Hence the prayers for our rulers aren’t so much for God to bless them. More like asking God to mitigate their evil. Keep ’em from ruining our land. Stop ’em from destroying lives. Maybe Jesus could make a Damascus-Road-style appearance to them and radically transform them into someone who’d vote our way. Wouldn’t that be awesome?

Sometimes we pray sarcastically. Partisans who hate their leaders will often immediately dive for Psalm 109.

Psalm 109.6-20 NKJV

6Set a wicked man over him,

And let an accuser stand at his right hand.

7When he is judged, let him be found guilty,

And let his prayer become sin.

8Let his days be few,

And let another take his office.

9Let his children be fatherless,

And his wife a widow.

10Let his children continually be vagabonds, and beg;

Let them seek their bread also from their desolate places.

11Let the creditor seize all that he has,

And let strangers plunder his labor.

12Let there be none to extend mercy to him,

Nor let there be any to favor his fatherless children.

13Let his posterity be cut off,

And in the generation following let their name be blotted out.

14Let the iniquity of his fathers be remembered before the LORD,

And let not the sin of his mother be blotted out.

15Let them be continually before the LORD,

That He may cut off the memory of them from the earth;

16Because he did not remember to show mercy,

But persecuted the poor and needy man,

That he might even slay the broken in heart.

17As he loved cursing, so let it come to him;

As he did not delight in blessing, so let it be far from him.

18As he clothed himself with cursing as with his garment,

So let it enter his body like water,

And like oil into his bones.

19Let it be to him like the garment which covers him,

And for a belt with which he girds himself continually.

20Let this be the LORD’s reward to my accusers,

And to those who speak evil against my person.

Now that’s an angry prayer. Sometimes King David wished some hateful stuff on his enemies. And when people start praying these curses over their rulers, most of the time they’ll stop mid-psalm and say, “Nah; I’m just kidding.” But nah, in their heart of hearts, they aren’t really. Y’ain’t fooling God.

But we’re meant to pray for them.

Where do the scriptures instruct us to pray for our rulers? Well, most of the time we point to Paul’s instructions to Timothy. Paul wanted Timothy and his church to pray for everybody. Kings and rulers included.

1 Timothy 2.1-4 NKJV

1Therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, 2for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence. 3For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, 4who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.

Note why Paul tells Timothy to pray this: So we Christians can follow Jesus in peace and quiet. And not persecution.

’Cause that’s what Christians had to deal with for the next three centuries in the Roman Empire: Some proconsul, procurator, or puppet king might get it into his head, “These Christians might be asking their deity to bless Caesar, but they’re not asking Caesar’s favorite deities, the official deities, to bless him. I need to rectify that.” And next thing you know Christians are getting crucified again.

Nope, this wasn’t only a first-century problem. Our culture still has multiple gods. Whenever we have presidents, governors, supervisors, or mayors who are pagan but think they’re Christian, they’re gonna interpret Christian behavior, intentions, and support quite a bit differently than an authentic Christian. They’ll worry about what we Christians are really up to. If they think Christians have taken the side of the opposition party (and sometimes we totally have) they’ll presume we aren’t really there to contribute, help, or bless them, but hypocritically undermine them (and sometimes they’re totally right). They’ll shut out Christians who won’t get on board with their program; or worst case, hassle them.

(I know; some Christians are pretty sure the real worst case is they’ll round up the ATF and invade their church compounds. But if your church has a no-kidding compound, y’might be a cult. There’s likely a very good reason the ATF should check you out. But I digress.)

In the United States our Congress and state legislatures, much as they claim otherwise, usually worship Mammon. They sought power so they can control our governments’ money. So they’re gonna prioritize money, the budget, sending pork back home, enriching themselves, and funding their re-election campaigns, over the people of our country. And if these people get in their way… well, we’ve granted them the power to move us out of their way. It’s what defense spending is all about.

So why’re we instructed to pray for rulers? So they’ll leave us be.

And with them off our backs, we can quietly work on the kingdom which will eventually replace them.

What else should we pray?

One of my bishops once pointed out while Paul said we oughta pray for rulers, and why, Paul never stated what we should pray. I would disagree; I’d point him to Paul’s instruction for “thankful, intercessory prayer requests” 1Ti 4.1 —which includes rulers. Thank God for our rulers when they do right. Intercede for them when they need help. And if they start oppressing us, David has plenty of imprecatory psalms for us to take examples from.

The bishop borrowed some ideas from Psalm 72, something David wrote for Solomon to bless him. Some interpreters think לִשְׁלֹמֹ֨ה/li-Šelomóh, “to Solomon” should mean by Solomon, but verses 1 and 20 suggests this psalm is indeed by David. Ps 72.20 The bishop did point out the American president is hardly an ancient Israeli king; he’s not sworn to uphold the Law of Moses, but the Constitution. He doesn’t have the same relationship to God a king would. He’s no messiah. (And frankly if he started acting like he thought he was a messiah, we’d have a problem.) Even so, we can still pull a few general ideas out of this psalm.

Psalm 72.1-4 NKJV

1Give the king Your judgments, O God,

And Your righteousness to the king’s Son.

2He will judge Your people with righteousness,

And Your poor with justice.

3The mountains will bring peace to the people,

And the little hills, by righteousness.

4He will bring justice to the poor of the people;

He will save the children of the needy,

And will break in pieces the oppressor.

(Y’notice the NKJV translators capitalized “son” in verse 1 ’cause they were thinking of Jesus, the “son of David.” Again, it’s about Solomon, the literal son of David.)

Like David said in verse 1, primarily we want our rulers to have God’s judgment and God’s righteousness. Our rulers shouldn’t presume they already have these things; that the reason God let ’em take office is because God’s already bestowed blessings upon them, and already given them “a really good brain,” to quote a particular candidate. We gotta pray God redirects our rulers to think like him. Not us ourselves; we’re wrong. Think like Jesus. Look at the people through God’s eyes—with compassion, patience, and grace.

We also want our rulers to particularly look out for the needy and the poor. Those who have money and resources can look out for themselves just fine. Too often that’s all they’re doing, and the reason they vote the way they do is to make themselves richer. They’ve already purchased our rulers’ attention. Gets even worse when our rulers are social Darwinists who believe if you’re needy it’s your own fault. (Or worse: It’s God’s punishment.) Whereas God instructs his people to not treat the rich and poor any different. Lv 19.15 Because unless you make a conscious attempt to do so, you just will, and the poor will get shafted. Pr 22.7

So we should pray, as David did, for God to focus our rulers’ attention on justice, rightness, and the needy. And crushing their oppressors—and not themselves becoming their oppressors. As they usually do.

’Cause that bit in verse 3 about the mountains and hills carrying peace and rightness: Mountains and hills are a metaphor for God. Remember, back when David was writing psalms, the temple hadn’t yet been built. So ancient worship practice was to go to the highest point you could find, build an altar to the LORD there, and worship him on “high places.” 1Ki 3.2 It was still a practice for years thereafter, even though the authors of the bible figured the practice oughta be consolidated in the temple. 1Ki 15.14, 22.43, 2Ki 12.3, 14.4, 15.4, 35, 17.32 Anyway, the idea was you want peace, you go to God. You want righteousness, you put your faith in the LORD.

We already have him as our source of peace and rightness. Or should. Now we pray our rulers to turn to him as well.

And if they do, may they be blessed, reign a long time, and be otherwise prosperous and famous. And if not… well, David never got into that, ’cause he never expected Solomon to go wrong. Pity he did. 1Ki 11.4-9 So let’s pray that not happen.

Psalm 72 aside, let’s also pray for the individual in the office. Pray for their salvation. Pray for their relationship with Jesus. Pray that power, money, and lust don’t turn their heads, as they do for so many. God wants everybody saved and to know the truth, as Paul said, 1Ti 2.4 and we pray for everybody, rulers included, for just that reason.