1 Samuel 12:13
Now therefore behold the king whom ye have chosen, and whom ye have desired! and, behold, the LORD hath set a king over you. Now therefore behold the king whom ye have chosen, and whom ye have desired! and, behold, the LORD hath set a king over you.
The words belong to Samuel's parting address to the nation, delivered at Gilgal after the kingdom had been confirmed to Saul. The demand for a king that lay behind them was no sudden impulse but a deliberate, long-cherished effort to change the government, springing from discontent and pride, with complaints against the judges used only as a pretext. In making that demand the people were rejecting God Himself, who had delivered them out of all their troubles and who had been their true King. The king in view is Saul, the very man whom the people themselves had chosen and eagerly desired.
Yet the verse also affirms that the Lord Himself set this humanly chosen king over them. His granting of their request was no approval of their rejection of His rule, nor did it mean that He had abandoned them. Saul was exactly the kind of king the people wanted, impressive in appearance, courageous and skilled in war, rather than one distinguished by the godliness and justice required to preserve the holy character of the nation. Because they insisted on having their own way instead of seeking God's counsel, God gave them a king whose character mirrored their own, that their experience under his rule might teach them their error and bring them back to loyalty to God.