"The king shall joy in your strength, O Lord; and in your salvation how greatly shall he rejoice! You have given him his heart's desire, and have not withheld the request of his lips. For You prevent him with the blessings of goodness; You set a crown of pure gold on his head. He asked life of You, and You gave it him, even length of days for ever and ever. His glory is great in your salvation; honor and majesty have You laid upon him. For You have made him exceeding glad with your countenance. For the king trusts in the Lord, and through the mercy of the Most High he shall not be moved." (Psalm 21:1-7)
In this portion of Scripture we have the assurance that the prayer so often uttered, "God save the king!" (1 Samuel 10:24) is not a vain one. "The Lord saves His anointed." (Psalm 20:6)
The king's glory and rejoicing are only in the salvation of God; for the grace of God brings salvation, and no one is indeed king except by the grace of God.
The words, "Edward VII by the grace of God king," etc., are more than a mere formula. They express a most solemn truth; for it is indeed a serious matter to be in a position of so great influence and responsibility as is the one who stands with the eyes of a great nation upon him.
The Sacred History reveals to us the fact that kings never come to the throne except to carry out some part of God's great plan, and that when they have performed their appointed service, or have shown their unwillingness to serve God, He has removed them. "He removes kings, and sets up kings." (Daniel 2:21) "The Most High rules in the kingdom of men, and gives it to whomsoever He will." (Daniel 4:25)
This is true not merely of kings over God's chosen people,--of men who knew the true God,--but of heathen who never heard His name. To Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, the prophet Daniel said, "The God of heaven has given you a kingdom, power, and strength, and glory. And wheresoever the children of men dwell, the beasts of the field and the fowls of the heaven has He given into your hand, and has made you ruler over them all." (Daniel 2:37-38)
God himself sent by the prophet Jeremiah a special message to the kings of many lands, saying, "I have made the earth, the man and the beast that are upon theground, by my great power and by my outstretched arm, and have given it unto whom it seemed meet unto me. And now have I given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, my servant." (Jeremiah 27:5-6)
And all nations and kings were commanded to serve him. A refusal to acknowledge Nebuchadnezzar as King was regarded by God as disloyalty to himself; but this did not give him authority to put himself in place of God, or to regard himself as anything else than God's instrument.
In the 10th chapter of Isaiah we read, "O Assyrian, the rod of my anger, and the staff in their hand is my indignation. I will send him against a hypocritical nation, and against the people of my wrath will I give him a charge, to take the spoil, and to take the prey, and to tread them down like the mire of the streets. Howbeit he means not so, neither does his heart think so." (Isaiah 10:5-7)
The Assyrian king's idea was that he was ruling by his own power; but God characterized his action thus: "Shall the ax boast against him that hews therewith? or shall the saw magnify itself against him that shakes it? As if the rod should shake itself against them that lift it up, or as if the staff should lift up itself as if it were no wood." (Isaiah 10:15)
Just as God used the king of Assyria as an instrument to execute His judgment upon a faithless nation, so He did the king of Babylon, saying, "I was wroth with my people, I have polluted my inheritance, and given them into your hand; you showed them no mercy; upon the ancient have you very heavily laid your yoke." (Isaiah 47:6)
And because the king of Babylon did not, like God, mingle mercy with judgment, God took the kingdom from him. In like manner we read of the king who conquered Babylon: "Thus says the Lord to His anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have held, to subdue nations before him; ... I have even called you by your name; I have surnamed you, though you have not known me." (Isaiah 45:1,4)
Because the king "is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that does evil, We must needs be subject, not only for wrath, but also for conscience sake." (Romans 13:4-5)
Therefore it is that we are exhorted to: "Fear God; honor the king." (1 Peter 2:17)
He who does not honor the king, even though it be a heathen king,--the tyrant Nero, who ruled in the days of Peter and Paul,--does not truly fear God and keep His commandments. When ancient Israel were carried captive to Babylon, God's message to them was: "Seek the peace of the city where I have caused you to be carried away captives, and pray unto the Lord for it; for in the peace thereof shall you have peace." (Jeremiah 29:8)
Anarchy and anarchists can find no sympathy or support in the Word of God.
It is for these reasons that the coronation today is not only a gorgeous spectacle but a solemn ceremony. How great its import, none but He who rules over all, working all things after the counsel of His own will, can tell.
That this great kingdom, equally with the kingdoms of the past, that were greatly inferior in extent of territory and population, has a place in God's plan, none who believe God's Word can doubt; and all such will from the heart comply with the exhortation to pray "For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceful life in all of godliness and honesty;" (1 Timothy 2:2) and that he who is this day anointed king over this vast realm may fully appreciate the high responsibility placed upon him, and the wondrous opportunities for good that are open before him.
We are living, we are dwelling
In a grand an awful time;
In an age on ages telling,
To be living is sublime.
--Arthur C. Coxe, Athanasion (1840), "We Are Living, We Are Dwelling"
How much more so, then, to stand in a position where one's every word commands the attention of the whole world. Never was there a time when so truly as now the words of Christ were applicable: "Many prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things which you see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which you hear, and have not heard them." (Matthew 13:17)
The Gospel of the Kingdom is now going to the world to an extent never before known, and soon He will come whose right it is. Christ, the King of kings and Lord of lords will soon come, "And the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve Him and obey Him." (Daniel 7:27)
And, "This generation shall not pass till all these things be fulfilled." (Matthew 24:34)
Edward VII, if God spares his life as long as He did the beloved Queen Victoria's, will have questions brought before him for decision, such as have been before no other king for centuries,--questions affecting his personal relation to God, His truth, and His people.
God grant, that for his own sake, as well as that of his people, his heart may indeed be in the Lord's hand as the rivers of water, to be turned withersoever He will; and let all the people say,
"Amen! God save the King!"--Present Truth, June 26, 1902--Psalm 21:1-7.