In God is Our Trust

God will uphold the cause of the righteous and pronounces judgment on the disobedient - He works in individual lives and, I believe, He works in the history of nations.  Psalm 9 says this:
(1b) I will praise You, O Lord, with my whole heart; I will tell of all Your marvelous works.
2 I will be glad and rejoice in You; I will sing praise to Your name, O Most High.
3 When my enemies turn back, They shall fall and perish at Your presence.
4 For You have maintained my right and my cause; You sat on the throne judging in righteousness.
5 You have rebuked the nations, You have destroyed the wicked; You have blotted out their name forever and ever.

We can ponder the sovereignty of God; the Bible teaches that He will use nations according to His purposes and He will use His people, those He has called by His name, to give glory and honor to Him.  We see in Scripture that God calls all people to live in righteousness, and that can only experienced in this day through a relationship with Jesus Christ.  In the midst of a nation that has forgotten God, we can live to call upon Him and give Him praise, and, we can intercede for our nation and its leaders to turn to Him.

+++++

Psalm 33 reminds us that God works in the lives of nations - and in the hearts of the people
comprising those nations:
12 Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, The people He has chosen as His own inheritance.
13 The Lord looks from heaven; He sees all the sons of men.
14 From the place of His dwelling He looks On all the inhabitants of the earth;
15 He fashions their hearts individually; He considers all their works.

Weekend number 1 of the National Football League is now complete, and while there were some solid performances throughout the league, what did - or didn't - take place before the games made headlines, not unexpectedly.  Of course, opening day took place on the anniversary of the events of September 11, 2001, and the league arranged to have video presentations by President Barack Obama and former President George W. Bush shared before the Sunday games.  The former President and First Lady were also part of the coin toss at the game in Dallas, followed by the presentation of the National Anthem.  At that game, as in most of the league, there were no expressions of protest during the song, as you saw in a small handful of instances around the league.  And, here in America, they definitely have the right to do that. Of course, this stemmed from 49ers' backup quarterback Colin Kaepernick's use of the act of not standing for the anthem to call attention to injustices in the nation.

In fact, there were some rather moving moments surrounding the National Anthem this weekend. According to BleacherReport.com, Seahawks players locked arms during the anthem, while in Jacksonville, Jaguars and Packers players held the large American flag on the field.   Vice-President Biden was on the sidelines with the head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles prior to the game, and some players chose to wear patriotic designs on their shoes.  Personally, I thought the presenation of the anthem prior to Saturday night's college game in Bristol, TN was amazing, complete with patriotic images created by cards held by the fans, fireworks, and a flyover while Jennifer Nettles sang - people were cheering during the last few lines of the song.

Well, I thought it would be good, amidst this controversy over the anthem, to go back and look at a couple of stories related to it.  First of all, you have the history of the song itself.  In an excellent piece at CNSNews.com, Mike Fuljenz summarizes that story, as well as another one that you may not be aware of.

Let's go back to the War of 1812...Francis Scott Key was a Washington lawyer and had gone to Baltimore to negotiate the release of a Maryland physician, Dr. William Beanes, who was being held prisoner by the British.  He and another negotiator were on a truce ship when the British launched an attack on Fort McHenry.  At the conclusion of the bombardment, on September 14, he saw the newly sewn U.S. Flag on top of the Fort was still intact.  Fuljenz writes:

All these sights and sounds inspired Key, a poet by avocation, to compose some verses of patriotic homage to the drama he had beheld. He started making notes aboard ship – and by the time he set foot on land, he was already immersed in writing a poem he called “Defence of Fort McHenry.” He completed all four stanzas within a day at the Baltimore inn where he was staying. The poem was published in the Baltimore Patriot on Sept. 20, 1814, six days after the end of the British bombardment.

But, there's another story about which you may not be aware.  The fourth stanza of the anthem contains these words:

“Then conquer we must, when our cause is just,
And this be our motto: ‘In God is our trust.’”

During the first year of the Civil War, Treasury Secretary Salmon Chase issued a directive to the Director of the United States Mint, James Pollock. Chase told him, “The trust of our people in God should be declared on our national coins,” adding, “You will cause a device to be prepared without unnecessary delay with a motto expressing in the fewest tersest terms possible this national recognition.”

James Pollock was a close friend of Lincoln and had served previously as both Governor of Pennsylvania and a Congressman from that state. He and Lincoln had been active in the anti-slavery movement, and he was referred to as "The Great Christian Governor.”  After studying the matter raised by Chase, Pollock wrote back:

“The motto suggested, ‘God our Trust,’ is taken from our National Hymn, ‘The Star-Spangled Banner.’ The sentiment is familiar to every citizen of our country; it has thrilled the hearts and fallen in song from the lips of millions of American Freemen. The time for the introduction of this or a similar motto, is propitious and appropriate. ’Tis an hour of National peril and danger, an hour when man’s strength is weakness, where our strength and our nation’s strength and salvation must be in the God of battles and of nations. Let us reverently acknowledge his sovereignty, and let our coinage declare our trust in God.”

By 1864, this suggestion had become reality, in a sense. "In God We Trust" was determined to be used as the key phrase, and was first used on a new bronze two-cent piece.   The National Anthem, by the way, wasn't placed in that high position until 1931, and "In God We Trust" became the national motto in 1956.

Isn't that cool?  I think there are several things that we can think about related to this information about our National Anthem.  First of all, I believe that we are to remember our heritage.  We are living in a nation that was founded as a refuge, a city on a hill, by people who wanted to practice their faith freely.  And, I believe that God raised up people to mold this nation from its very foundations. We do well to remember these strong foundations upon which we are built.

And, remember that God intervenes in the lives of peoples and nations.  The familiar passage from 2nd Chronicles 7:14 tells us that if we meet His conditions of humility and repentance, crying out to Him, then He will heal our land.  If we expect God's restoration in this day, we have to surrender to His principles.

I do want to return to a concept that I related on the air the other afternoon.  As Christians, we have to be sure that we present the message we embrace in a way that puts our message in a positive light - we have to call attention to the message without calling attention to ourselves.  If we are convicted about a cause, we have to make sure that the message isn't overriden by our actions.   I think the National Anthem protests, while apparently well-intentioned, seem to have brought more attention to the players themselves rather than the message they wish to communicate.  I think that's a word of caution to each of us as we seek to be effective communicators of the love message of Christ.