God is King, and He rules by eliminating that which threatens His people - Assyria, the betrayer (1). On the other side of this judgment, He will bring “stability” to the age (6). And in this way, His people will return to Him, and fear Him (6).
But in order for this repentance to happen, the people must first feel the failure of their elites (7-9). Only after that will God arise (10-12), and the people will return to Him (13-16).
So too do our elites today betray and fail us. But God must allow us to see and experience their failure, before we will return to a fear and faith in Him. Only then will we see the beauty of God (17) and treasure His majesty (21). Only then will we will we count God as our true judge. Only then will we count His royal law as our standard, and our definition of love (22). Only by seeing the failure of our faulty kings will we be drawn to look up again at the Real Thing.
But praise God - for when we do, we find Him to not be a cold, coarse King, but one Who loves the world so much He would die for it (John 3:16). Though we are rebellious through and through, He provides the way of forgiveness, to be reconciled to Him whom we have offended (24). The King we should fear is also the Priest we should run to, for forgiveness.