God save the king (1 Tim. 2:1–7)
“God save the king!” Words we have heard spoken and sung around the world since the passing of Queen Elizabeth and the rise of King Charles III to the throne. I wonder whether the people saying those words realise that what they’re speaking is a prayer.
A quick Google told me that the original words to God Save the King (or Queen) were first published in 1745:
God save great George our king,
Long live our noble king,
God save the king.
Send him victorious,
Happy and glorious,
Long to reign over us,
God save the king!
God Save the King is a prayer for a long life and health. It’s a prayer for a victorious, happy, glorious, and long reign. God granting these things to the reigning monarch will result in the same for the people of the kingdom.
Paul says the same to us today. 1 Timothy 2:1,2 say:
Therefore, first, I urge that supplications, prayers, petitions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in authority, that a quiet and well-ordered life we may live in all piety and dignity.
Christian duties
What does a good, faithful Christian person do? A strong faith results in good works, as it says in James. What kind of good works?
Donate to charity, give offering at church
Attend worship every week
Sit on a couple of church committees and on rosters
Offer practical help (e.g. meals for the sick)
Visit the elderly
Generally friendly, positive, and lovely to be around
“First and foremost,” Paul says, “I urge you to pray.” It’s good for Christians to do all of these things, and Jesus advocates for all of them himself, but prayer is of utmost importance for Paul as he writes to Timothy and his parishioners.
We all know we could pray more. Some of us might admit that we’re a bit slack when it comes to prayer. Some of us might spend hours in prayer each week and still don’t cover everything we feel we should. It’s difficult to know where to start.
The Lord’s Prayer, of course, is a great place to start. That’s not Paul’s approach today. He describes prayer in four categories. I’m an organised, categorical sort of guy, so this works for me.
The categories of prayer
Supplications, prayers, petitions, and thanksgivings. Yes, prayer can be described as simply as “talking to God” and maybe including listening to Him as well. But, just like there are many types of conversation with other people, there are different kinds of prayers. These categories are by no means exhaustive, but they certainly help to orient our prayer a little bit.
Supplications
A supplication can be defined as an urgent request. These are the things that come to mind as soon as we close our eyes and quiet our minds.
During the Prayer of the Church, there is often a moment of silence for us to pray for people we know personally to be in particular need that don’t need to be prayed for publicly necessarily. How do you go with that silence? Do you rack of a few people off the top of your head? Do you always resort to the same person or two? Does your mind wander a bit? Do you forget to pray at all?
Let’s say your mind wanders in that moment of silence, or in any time of prayer you have. You start wandering about what’s for lunch, who’s playing footy next weekend, or whether your crush likes you back. Bring that to God in prayer. He doesn’t mind! It’s better to have an open communication line with God than a closed one because you’re afraid of what’s acceptable or not.
Supplications are prayers for those things that come to the front of your mind when you get a chance to stop and think. A supplication would usually begin with, “Please…”
General prayer
This one is more open and kind of makes space for things that the other categories don’t necessarily cover.
Petitions
Also known as intercessions. This is when we pray for the needs of other people. This type of prayer had significance in Paul’s day because intercession was a big part of a Jewish high priest’s role. It says in Hebrews that Jesus came to be our great high priest, interceding for us, praying for us, to his heavenly Father.
This is also the kind of prayer Paul highlights today. Pray for all people and especially those in positions of authority. “God save the king” is an intercession. We’ll come back to this one.
Thanksgivings
Finally, prayer should always include thanksgiving to God for something he has done, something he has given us, or simply for who he is. In the Communion liturgy, we say that it is fitting and right for us to give thanks to God always for what he has done for us by sending us Christ. We should never stop giving thanks because he is constantly providing for us, protecting us, standing alongside us, and saving us.
Supplications, prayer, petitions, thanksgivings. Again, these are not exhaustive, but very helpful categories for us to think about when we pray. Paul urges us to make it our top priority.
Pray for our authorities.
Let’s come back to prayer for those in authority, which is a key point Paul makes here. This was particularly important back then because of the oppressive Roman rule that the early church had to constantly battle against to simply exist. We know today that a government that is at peace is one which the church can flourish in. The less peace there is, the more blame the church seems to get and the harder it becomes to be Christian people in society.
It's always good for us to remember that behind every position of authority—whether it’s our king, prime minister, premier, local member, or even the chair of the footy club, there is a person who has needs. Whether that person is a Christian or not, we are called to pray for that person. If you’ve ever held a position of authority, you’ll know that it comes with responsibility, which brings pressure. That pressure can come about from other people and their high expectations, or it can come from within due to the expectations we place on ourselves. Either way, that pressure can stress us out and weigh us down.
We pray for the person behind the position. I mentioned before that we want the best for the position because of the outcomes that will have, too. A government that is at peace is good for the church. I’m not just talking about military peace. Peace is about being satisfied with how things are and accepting of others around us. It seems that there isn’t a whole lot of peace in our world right now—think of the debates around sex and gender, or the representation of Indigenous people in parliament and the discussions about race around the world, just to name a couple.
Even when the news of Queen Elizabeth’s death, social media exploded with debates around how much sensitivity and emotion is acceptable. We claim to be an inclusive and accepting society, but on the whole, we struggle to avoid making accusations and dividing ourselves on just about anything.
Now is as good a time as any to pray for our authorities so that the society we live in can be a peaceful one and a joyful one to exist in, and also so that the people in those positions can bear the burden of responsibility with confidence in a loving heavenly Father.
God wants all people to be saved.
We pray for all people and those in positions of authority because we want the best for ourselves and those we pray for, but also because it pleases God. Paul says:
This is good and acceptable before God our Saviour, who wants all people to be saved and come to knowledge of the truth.
And what is that truth?
For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony at the proper time.
The work has already been done. Jesus, who is the mediator between God and human beings, became a human being himself to be a ransom for us all. The price of our sin is death, which we should fairly pay, but that payment was made when Jesus did it for us—that’s what a ransom is. He covered the cost, and he took the bill for everyone.
God has done the work to save all people. He desperately wants his created people to come back to him. When just one person repents of their sin and recognises their need for God’s grace and mercy, the whole of heaven rejoices!
When we pray, “God save the king,” we pray for something that has already happened. He has saved our king, our PM, our premier, all authorities, and all people. The only thing that can stop us from receiving that salvation is us. God doesn’t make us accept his gift—we can turn it away if we want to.
So, when we pray “God save the king,” we pray that our king would accept the salvation that God has already offered to him. When we pray for others to be saved, we pray that they would have a chance to come to know God and his love.
Paul was a herald and a messenger of this truth: that God wants all people to be saved and has already done the work required. As God’s baptised children, we have become heralds and messengers ourselves. We pass on the gift that was first given to us by Christ himself: the forgiveness of sins and life everlasting.
