Presidents are People, Too

AM Psalm 72 • PM Psalm 119:73-96
1 Kings 22:1-28 • 1 Cor. 2:1-13 • Matt. 4:18-25

The morning psalm is a prayer for a king:

“O God, please give the king your understanding of justice.
May the decisions the king makes today, God, be morally right.”

Of course, we don't have a king. We have a president.

So the prayer might get garbled into a complaint:

“I wish to God the president understood justice and would act right!”

We pray for a leader as if we know the situation better than our leader does. But when we pray for our leaders, IF we pray for our leaders, are we praying for them as individuals?

Aren't we really praying for the people they lead? They're the ones that need it.

Psalm 72 is written in a context of need. The people need help. There is a desire for things to be right in the world because there is no prosperity: people are afflicted and weak and have no one to help them; they need protection and the poor need rescue and the violence needs to stop. Something needs to be done and a king must be the person to do it. Right?

No, actually. The end of the psalm reminds us that the 'king' isn't really the one doing it. It is the Lord God, who alone does the marvelous deeds. However, God uses people to get the job done, even presidents. We have all these fallible, mistake-making, all-too-human people who are supposed to be in charge. Wouldn't it be marvelous if God gave each of them good judgment and clear understanding of the right thing to do?

May the people ever pray for their leaders.

And for each other.

Written by Troy Schremmer

Troy works with preschool age children as an enrichment teacher in music and movement. He and his wife Jonny are both Theatre Directors for the NWA Prison Story Project.