v 17-19
"I will call upon the LORD to send thunder and rain. And you will realize what an evil thing you did in the eyes of the LORD when you asked for a king." Then Samuel called upon the LORD, and that same day the LORD sent thunder and rain. So all the people stood in awe of the LORD and of Samuel. The people all said to Samuel, "Pray to the LORD your God for your servants so that we will not die, for we have added to all our other sins the evil of asking for a king."
At first sight it seems like Israel understands what they have done and that they are truly repentant. But I'm not convinced. Why? Because they kept their king. If they were genuinely repentant wouldn't they have given up their king and returned to the Lord? But they don't. Which tells me that they didn't really recognize the evil in what they did, they were simply afraid of the consequences. They still didn't want the Lord to be their king, they just didn't want him to destroy them.
I've felt that before. It's the fear that comes after you have been caught doing something wrong. It's not like you are sorry for what you did, you're just sorry that you got caught and now there are consequences. So you apologize and plea for mercy, but in your heart you still want whatever it is that you were busted for. That's not repentance. If it was real repentance I would hate my previous action and run from it into the arms of my merciful Savior. I would see how much better He is than what I was chasing before. There would be life change, not just a plea for mercy so that I can keep that which was evil to begin with.
