Have You Prayed for Our Country?

God Bless Our Native Land

Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD. (Psalm 33:12)

Some years ago there was placed upon the altar of the Washington Memorial Chapel at Valley Forge an exquisitely illuminated copy of Washington’s prayer for the nation:

“Almighty God: We make earnest prayer that Thou wilt keep the United States in Thy holy protection; that Thou wilt incline the heads of the citizens to cultivate a spirit of subordination and obedience to government, and entertain a brother-affection and love for one another and for their fellow-citizens of the United States at large. And finally that Thou wilt most graciously be pleased to dispose us all to do justice, to love mercy, and to demean ourselves with that charity, humility, and pacific temper of mind which were the characteristics of the Divine Author of our blessed religion and with a humble imitation of whose example in these things we can ever hope to be a happy nation. Grant our supplication, we beseech Thee, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.”

When is the last time you prayed for your country? When is the last time you thanked God for the privilege of living in this great nation of ours?

We should be grateful to God that some of our nation’s founders and most since were men of prayer and men who believed in God. They believed that if this nation was to prosper and survive and continue to be a special, blessed place, then the United States would have to remain “a nation whose God is the LORD.” Christian people today still believe it.

It is sad that in our day many citizens and leaders have lost sight of the connection between the health of our nation and its relationship to God. It is sad that many government leaders do not have the backbone to vote for that which is right and God-pleasing. It is sad that some of those leaders lead openly immoral lives.

Many citizens feel—and some Christians may be tempted to join them—that the health and security of our nation rests on its wealth, its resources or its armaments. “Shouldn’t we be able,” they ask, “to put our trust in our nuclear weapons and our smart bombs and Patriot missiles to defend ourselves, to win any war, to stop any aggressor?”

Many of our individual citizens place their trust in their bank accounts, property and the good things which money can buy. Some citizens choose power as their god. They will stop at nothing to obtain a position of power so they can manipulate other people and fulfill their personal desires.

Let us not be misled because our God does not collect all his accounts at the end of each month.

Our God deals with nations as he does with individuals. We may be sure that our God will always judge the proud and the wicked. Not wealth, not numbers, not armaments, but our God is the greatest resource of our nation.

Thank God for those Christian citizens who place God first in their lives.

We, as the salt of the earth, need to set an example for our co-workers, friends and neighbors. For our nation’s, our own and for God’s sake we are to preserve and season our national life as salt preserves and seasons food. How vital that we as Christians serve as beacons of light in this world, guiding men to him who is the Light of the world.

Thank God for statesmen who are churchmen as well. They know the need to pray to the only true God. They know that faith and trust in God is what brings blessings to a nation.

As we consider the future of our nation and our desire to continue receiving the many blessings from God upon our land, we need to live by the truth of our Bible verse, pray to God for our nation and its leaders and pray that we may find an increasing number of people who look to God for strength and urge others to turn back to him. It isn’t enough just to sing this hymn thoughtlessly as we invoke God’s protection on our land. We must pray it often and mean it.

Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord!

Prayer: Dear Lord, thank you for the blessings you have given us through our great nation. Forgive us when we place other gods ahead of you. Forgive us when we fail to pray for your protection and bring thanks to you. Give us leaders who are Christian and believe the many promises of the Bible. Amen.

Background of the Hymn, God Bless Our Native Land

Three years after the defeat of Napoleon, Siegfried August Mahlmann wrote a patriotic hymn, “Gott Segne Sachsenland,” which he dedicated to the King of Saxony in 1815.

This German hymn later became the basis for Charles Timothy Brooks’ and John S. Dwight’s English version, “God Bless Our Native Land.” At the time Brooks was a student at Harvard Divinity School while Dwight was a Boston music critic.

This hymn also suggested the tune and meter for Samuel F. Smith’s patriotic American hymn, “My Country, Tis of Thee.” Smith did not learn until some time later that the tune the Germans had used for “Gott Segne Sachsenland” was the same used by the British in singing “God Save the King.”

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