The LORD is king forever and ever. Those who worship other gods will vanish from his land.

You are my king and my God; you give victory to your people,

Sing praise to God; sing praise to our king!

God is king over all the world; praise him with songs!

But you have been our king from the beginning, O God; you have saved us many times.

You, O LORD, chose our protector; you, the Holy God of Israel, gave us our king.

Be glad, Israel, because of your Creator; rejoice, people of Zion, because of your king!

All the rigging on those ships is useless; the sails cannot be spread! We will seize all the wealth of enemy armies, and there will be so much that even the lame can get a share. The LORD himself will be our king; he will rule over us and protect us.

I am the LORD, your holy God. I created you, Israel, and I am your king."

Listen! Throughout the land I hear my people crying out, "Is the LORD no longer in Zion? Is Zion's king no longer there?" The LORD, their king, replies, "Why have you made me angry by worshiping your idols and by bowing down to your useless foreign gods?"

Then the LORD will be king over all the earth; everyone will worship him as God and know him by the same name.

"Teacher," answered Nathanael, "you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!"

The LORD says, "I am the LORD your God, who led you out of Egypt. You have no God but me. I alone am your savior.

These people will soon be saying, "We have no king because we did not fear the LORD. But what could a king do for us anyway?"

Then the LORD will ask his people, 'Where are those mighty gods you trusted?

" 'I, and I alone, am God; no other god is real. I kill and I give life, I wound and I heal, and no one can oppose what I do.

"Where are the gods that you made for yourselves? When you are in trouble, let them save you---if they can! Judah, you have as many gods as you have cities.

"My people chose kings, but they did it on their own. They appointed leaders, but without my approval. They took their silver and gold and made idols---for their own destruction.

Then the LORD gave the Israelites leaders who saved them from the raiders.

Whenever the LORD gave Israel a leader, the LORD would help that leader and would save the people from their enemies as long as that leader lived. The LORD would have mercy on them because they groaned under their suffering and oppression.

and said to him, "Look, you are getting old and your sons don't follow your example. So then, appoint a king to rule over us, so that we will have a king, as other countries have."

Samuel was displeased with their request for a king; so he prayed to the LORD,

The people paid no attention to Samuel, but said, "No! We want a king,

so that we will be like other nations, with our own king to rule us and to lead us out to war and to fight our battles."

And the LORD sent Gideon, Barak, Jephthah, and finally me. Each of us rescued you from your enemies, and you lived in safety.

But when you saw that King Nahash of Ammon was about to attack you, you rejected the LORD as your king and said to me, 'We want a king to rule us.'

When the people of Israel heard that Jeroboam had returned from Egypt, they invited him to a meeting of the people and made him king of Israel. Only the tribe of Judah remained loyal to David's descendants.