Proverbs 16:15

"In the light of the king's countenance is life And his favor is a cloud of the latter rain."

"If a king's look is benevolent, this portends life, and his favor is like a cloud promising spring rain."[17] With a wise and righteous man upon the throne such a situation as this would be tolerable; but the record of earthly kings has reduced the very idea of royalty to shame and contempt on the part of the vast majority of the human race. The great historian Edward Gibbon extolled the monarchy as the best form of government known to men;[18] but, even so, it still remains true that, "It is not in man that walketh to direct his steps."