Viva La Vida, literally meaning, "long live life" is an ironic title for a song that conveys a significant amount of the speaker's pain to the audience. The sadness and regret that plague the speaker throughout the song become apparent right off the bat with the opening lines, "I used to rule the world, seas would rise when I gave the word," contrasting with the following lines, "now in the morning I sleep alone, sweep the streets I used to own." The speaker is reflecting on his fall from power and its effects on his lifestyle.
He describes everything he had as very fragile through the use of metaphor when he explains, "I discovered that my castles stand, upon pillars of salt and pillars of sand." The salt and sand are obviously very weak building materials, as anyone that has made a sand castle would know.
As the song progresses, he tries to justify the situation he's currently in and take it as a positive one. The snippet begins, "Revolutionaries wait for my head on a silver plate, just a puppet on a lonely string, oh who would ever want to be king?" Using a rhetorical question, he wonders why he misses his past life as he lived under constant threat of violence surrounded by enemies. Despite dropping significantly from his past social position, in the end it can be seen as a blessing.
The song ends with the almost ominous "for some reason I can't explain, I know Saint Peter won't call my name. Never an honest word, but that was when I ruled the world." The author has lost all hope at a shot of getting into heaven due to the life he led as a ruler. Yet it seems to suggest that he's been improving as a person since his fall from power, as his dishonesty primarily occurred when he ruled the world.
The song praises life despite the pains that in can bring. The speaker was able to find benefits to his fall from power, such as his path to becoming a better person, and the newfound lack of people constantly trying to kill him. Even through all of the negative things a positive light can be seen.
I agree the song title is pretty ironic, but it's kind of tragic, too. The speaker has to live this long life after his glory days have already ended, one that's lonely and nothing but a shadow of what it used to be. But like you said, he seems to be improving since his fall from power. Maybe his loneliness isn't so bad after all.
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