God Save the King

And Samuel said to all the people, See ye him whom the Lord hath chosen, that there is none like him among all the people? And all the poeple shouted, and said, God save the King.

-- I Samuel 10: 24 (KJV)

Before there were kings of Israel there were Judges, ad hoc leaders who rose to meet the latest crisis. In the time of the last Judge, Samuel, the Israelites found their theocracy inadequate in the face of constant conflict with the Philistines. They yearned for a true ruler to unite them once and for all against the enemy. Neither God nor Samuel is entirely happy about this, but the people persist. Reluctantly, Samuel seeks out a man fit to be king, and with God's help he chooses Saul -- "him whom the Lord hath chosen."

The people shout "God save the King," which is the King James Bible's translation of what in Hebrew is closer to "long live the King." (The English version is unintentionally ironic -- Saul loses God's support rather early.) But the translation stuck and became the title and theme of a tune composed by John Bull in the early 17th century and later adopted as the British national anthem. Americans know the tune better as the setting for "My Country 'Tis of Thee."

 
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Michael Macrone is Associate Site Producer of GraceCom and the author of nine books on language, literature, and ideas, including the best-selling Brush Up Your Shakespeare!