Of presidents and kings

We are going to elect a president soon. But I wonder if I would have been better off growing up under a king. Maybe I have been unconsciously treating God like a president rather than a sovereign, and this has been my spiritual downfall.

A president has some authority over us, and we are happy to let him rule up to a point. But he serves at the people's pleasure. He can be overruled by the Congress. And ultimately he can be replaced. Almost three score years under this system may have formed my mentality in some unquantifiable deleterious way.

A king serves at no one's pleasure but his own. He makes laws and no one questions. ("The cause is in my will," replied Julius Caesar to Decius Brutus in Shakespeare's play, when asked to give account for his decision not to appear in the Senate.)

It's certain I have lacked the mindset of unconditional submission. The world (and most importantly, my life) isn't being run the way I like, and I regularly defect. We seem to need new management. "It is futile to serve God. What did we gain by carrying out his requirements and going about like mourners … ?" (Malachi 3:14). "I have labored to no purpose. I have spent my strength in vain and to no purpose" ( Isaiah 49:4). "Ever since we stopped burning incense to the Queen of Heaven … we have had nothing. …" (Jeremiah 44:18).

Time for a change of administration? A vote of "no confidence"?