As the biblical drama unfolds, the pattern becomes clear: people who cannot rule themselves by principle become restless in the absence of formal authority; yet those who obtain a king seldom find the peace, justice, or virtue they crave. Is there a way out of this cycle? Israel’s story, and indeed the wider scriptural tradition, offers a paradoxical answer in the person of David.
David—A King “Under Authority”
When God finally anoints David as king, Scripture is careful to make a crucial distinction: David is not simply another strongman. He is described as “a man after God’s own heart.” His legitimacy is rooted not in personal glory or unchecked power, but in his humility, repentance, and willingness to subordinate his throne to a higher Sovereign.
David’s greatest moments are not his conquests or statecraft, but his submission—to law, to conscience, to rebuke. Unlike Saul before him, David confesses when he errs (“I have sinned against the Lord”—2 Samuel 12:13). Unlike later kings, he knows the source of his authority and limits.
The Psalms—many of them attributed to David—are filled not with pride, but with trembling and longing for justice, mercy, and righteousness. Even in the king’s palace, we hear the plea:
“Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart
be acceptable in Thy sight, O Lord, my strength and my redeemer.”
—Psalm 19:14
Psalms 1 and 2: The Yin and Yang of Rule and Submission
The opening Psalms set the stage:
- Psalm 1 contrasts the righteous—rooted, fruitful, meditating on the law—with the wicked, chaff blown by the wind. True prosperity and stability arise not from arbitrary power, but from deep devotion to divine principle.
- Psalm 2 reveals the heart of rebellion:
“The kings of the earth set themselves,
and the rulers take counsel together,
against the Lord and against his Anointed, saying,
‘Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us.’”
It is an ancient drama—those who resist all rule, casting off every yoke, only to find themselves adrift and judged.
The “No Kings” Slogan—A Cry for Freedom, Or a Rejection of All Authority?
At face value, the “No Kings” movement in America reprises the ancient aspiration for liberty—“no king but God and the law.” Yet, beneath the slogans, there is sometimes another spirit at work: not merely a desire for freedom from tyrants, but a wholesale rejection of all structure, all moral authority, all limits that do not originate in individual desire or consensus.
Psalm 2’s warning comes to life: “Let us break their bands asunder.” But against what? Not only unjust kings, but any claim—divine or otherwise—that there exists a law above our own will. This is not the vision of the Founders, who knew “liberty” without law quickly devolves into chaos; it is not the vision of David, who sought to align his rule with the “King of Kings.”
The Inward Law—From Tablets of Stone to Hearts of Flesh
The solution to this tension is hidden in plain sight. Scripture, affirmed across traditions, moves history not merely toward better kings, but toward the transformation of the law itself:
“I will put My law within them, and I will write it on their hearts;
and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.”
—Jeremiah 31:33
Jesus magnifies the law—insisting it must live not only in conduct, but in intention and spirit. The Baha’i Writings echo this, calling us to internalize justice, to “see with thine own eyes and not through the eyes of others,” and to know that only “after thorough cleansing of thine heart from all that is from the world” can divine guidance begin.
As Baha’u’llah writes in the Hidden Words:
“O Son of Spirit!
The best beloved of all things in My sight is Justice; turn not away therefrom if thou desirest Me, and neglect it not that I may confide in thee.”
(Arabic Hidden Words, #2)
The Sheep and the Goats—The Standard for All Nations
The call is not for anarchy, but a higher obedience. In Matthew 25, the ultimate Judge—the Son of Man—divides the nations not by creed or custom, but by the extent to which they lived out justice, mercy, and compassion: “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.”
The world’s own moral consensus, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, aspires to the same: dignity for all, justice impartially administered, liberty in worship and conscience. These are not shackles, but the basis for any society worth the name.
Freedom For… or Freedom From?
One subtle but deeply destructive shift in American society has been the turn from “freedom of religion” (affirming the public, communal good of spiritual life) toward “freedom from religion” (treating moral constraint as oppression itself). This inversion, confuse the right complaint—that power must be limited—even as it advances the ancient error: that no guidance or authority is to be trusted, not even the One who created liberty itself.
Leaders As Stewards, Not Sovereigns
Just leadership—be it presidential, judicial, legislative, or local—requires humility before a standard higher than personal will or public opinion. A true king, after the pattern of David, is “under God’s authority” and lives to serve, to protect, and to uplift—not to rule for its own sake.
In Baha’i perspective, the call is also to societies:
“The Great Being saith: Blessed and happy is he that ariseth to promote the best interests of the peoples and kindreds of the earth…”
(Baha’u’llah, Tablets of Baha’u’llah)
The challenge for citizens is no less demanding: not to cast off all rule, but to bend their desires and ambitions to the will of justice, compassion, and truth.
America’s Drift—Why Law Alone Is Not Enough
America’s ongoing crisis is not just about “who rules,” but about the erosion of shared standards. Law, to be just, must be rooted in a common understanding of the good. Without that, every law is suspect, every authority contested. The constitutional order—the “republic, if you can keep it”—stands or falls not on the presence or absence of kings, but on whether the people themselves submit to a law higher than their own convenience.
The Real Danger Behind “No Kings”
It is too easy to mistake the battle as simply being against bad rulers, or for unfettered freedom. The real danger is refusing all discipline, rejecting every cord—even those that anchor us to justice and compassion. “No Kings” can become nothing more than “no rules, no standards, no God.” It is precisely this rebellion—Psalm 2—against which every prophet and teacher has warned.
The Way Forward
True liberty is not the absence of all bonds, but joyful obedience to the highest standard. Nations thrive only when their leaders are under authority and their citizens choose law, not simply out of fear or habit, but love. This is the “kingdom of God among you”—the aim of every spiritual revolution, the essence of the prayer: “Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”
In our next installment, we’ll retrace the story of the Golden Calf and examine the millennia-long arc of God’s efforts—from Abraham and Moses, through Jesus and to the modern age—to form a people who will neither idolize kings nor recoil into chaos, but finally live as “a city on a hill,” a beacon of law, compassion, and justice.
