10th December 2025

This week’s lectionary reading from Psalm 72 has set me off musing about the nature of national leadership. Hereditary monarchy or democracy? Oligarchy or plutocracy or something-else-ocracy? No, I don’t know what any of those words mean either. Government by consent or dictatorship? King Donald of America? King Charles of Australia?

Your Party have just rejected both of their founding leaders and voted for a committee leadership instead. Earlier this year, the Green Party rejected their co-leadership model and voted for a single leader. Who has got it right? Does popularity make a good leader? A swathe of politicians, past and present, would tend to argue against that idea. Is it democratic to suspend elections during a war?

One is tempted to despair of all national leaders, but what is the alternative? No government at all? Look around the world – there are places without a functioning government and that is not working out too well for them.

What if the form of government is not nearly as important as the actions of those with power? Listen to God’s requirements for the king (Psalm 72, NLT):

… judge your people in the right way… let the poor always be treated fairly… rescue the children of the needy… may there be abundant prosperity… help the oppressed… rescue them… redeem them from oppression and violence… may the people thrive…

May the king’s rule be refreshing like spring rain on freshly cut grass, like the showers that water the earth.

Now that’s the kind of national leadership I can support.

Ian Waddington