When God is The King of Nation

Psalm 33:12

St. John’s United Church of Christ
Greeley, Colorado
July 7, 2024
Rev. Juvenal Cervantes

Last week we celebrated the 248th birthday of our country. Americans spent $6.9 billion on food. We consumed 150 million hot dogs—that’s enough hot dogs to stretch from Los Angeles to Washington, D.C. We also ate 700 million pounds of chicken.

In addition, we spent $825 million on fireworks, and we imported $5.4 million of American flags, most of them from China.

As we think of our country, our focus is on a single verse in Scripture. God’s word states: “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord” (Psalm 33:12).

The word “blessed” means “to be envied, to be so blessed that others want what you have been given.” “The Lord” is Yahweh, the personal name of God himself. We all have some god, something that is our highest priority, something in which we trust above all else. When a nation puts God first, trusts first in the Lord, surrenders to him as King and Lord, that nation is blessed so that it is the envy of others.

These days we sing and hear “God Bless America,” not just at baseball games but at parades, concerts, and across the land. Can God bless America? I’d like us to remember two stories, then see how they impact our story today.

Two crises

Scene one: David has been anointed by the prophet Samuel as Israel’s next king. Now he finds himself facing the giant warrior Goliath. The most specific description of anyone in the Bible is devoted to this man, highlighting the crisis David faces. 1 Samuel 17 says he is “six cubits and a span” in height (v. 4), over nine feet tall. Such height is not impossible even today, as proven by a man named Robert Pershing Wadlow. He stood eight feet eleven inches tall at the time of his death on July 15, 1940 at the age of twenty-two.

Goliath’s armor weighs 125 pounds. His spear’s point weighs over thirty pounds. He marches against the shepherd boy with his shield bearer before him to give added protection. If David runs into battle, he will be killed. If he runs away, he will lose face and never be king. What should he do?

Scene two: It is July 4, 1776. Congress has officially adopted a Declaration of Independence from Great Britain. The colonial population is outnumbered three to one by England. Their army never numbered more than 17,000 men, compared with nearly 50,000 battle-hardened British troops. The American navy consists of eight frigates; the British have the greatest naval force the world had ever seen. In other words, the British are the world’s greatest superpower and the Americans seemingly have no chance.

Two responses

What did David do when facing Goliath?

Here’s the biblical text:

Then David said to the Philistine, “You come to me with a sword and with a spear and with a javelin, but I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This day the Lord will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you down and cut off your head.

And I will give the dead bodies of the host of the Philistines this day to the birds of the air and to the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel, and that all this assembly may know that the Lord saves not with sword and spear. For the battle is the Lord’s, and he will give you into our hand.”

When the Philistine arose and came and drew near to meet David, David ran quickly toward the battle line to meet the Philistine.

And David put his hand in his bag and took out a stone and slung it and struck the Philistine on his forehead. The stone sank into his forehead, and he fell on his face to the ground.

So, David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and with a stone, and struck the Philistine and killed him.

There was no sword in the hand of David. Then David ran and stood over the Philistine and took his sword and drew it out of its sheath and killed him and cut off his head with it. When the Philistines saw that their champion was dead, they fled (1 Samuel 17:45–51).

What did the Americans do when facing the world’s greatest superpower in 1776?

Earlier that year, the Second Continental Congress proclaimed March 16 a National Day of Humiliation, Fasting, and Prayer. This was the purpose of the day: “That we may, with united hearts, confess and bewail our manifold sins and transgressions, and, by a sincere repentance and amendment of life, appease his righteous displeasure, and, through the merits and mediation of Jesus Christ, obtain his pardon and forgiveness.”

This faith commitment stood on the foundation of others.

When Christopher Columbus set foot on land in the New World, these were his first words: “Blessed be the light of day, and the Holy Cross we say; and the Lord of Verity, and the Holy Trinity.”

The first set of written laws for the New World was the Mayflower Compact, ratified in 1620. Some have called it “the first American Constitution.” John Quincy Adams called it the foundation of the U.S. Constitution. It states that the pilgrims undertook their voyage “for the Glory of God, and Advancement of the Christian Faith.” According to William Bradford, their governor, when they came ashore “they fell upon their knees and blessed the God of Heaven who had brought them over the vast and furious ocean.”

Next came the “Fundamental Orders” of 1639, the first written Constitution in the New World. Its preamble states the colonists’ purpose: “To maintain and preserve the liberty and purity of the Gospel of our Lord Jesus which we now profess.”

Now, as our first Commander in Chief sought to lead his army to victory over the mighty British forces, this is what he told his troops:

“The time is now near at hand which must probably determine whether Americans are to be freemen or slaves; whether they are to have any property they can call their own. . .. The fate of unborn millions will now depend, under God, on the courage and conduct of this army. . .. Let us therefore rely on the goodness of the cause and aid of the Supreme Being, in whose hands victory is, to animate and encourage us to great and noble actions.”

Conclusion

Our two stories illustrate our text: “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord.” Let’s be clear: The Lord does not love America more than he loves other peoples. His grace is for us all: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16).

God will bless any nation whose people make him their Lord. In fact, he seeks to offer such blessing today: “Behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear him, on those who hope in his steadfast love” (Psalm 33:18).

But it is also a fact that the first Americans positioned their nation to be blessed. They stepped into covenant relationship with the Lord of the universe. They sought his favor with their faith and their lives. Our first Commander-in-Chief and president did the same.

“Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord.” Can God bless America today? More personally, can he bless you? What challenges are you facing on this first weekend of July? What decisions do you need to make? What problems do you need to resolve? As you stand before your Goliath, your superpower, will you trust in him or in yourself?

The American Automobile Association estimated that a record 46.7 million Americans traveled over the July 4th holiday. That’s the highest number since AAA started tracking Fourth of July travel twenty-four years ago.

Many of them spent time at a lake or on the beach. There are many to choose from.

There are 307 million lakes in the world. And that doesn’t include the 1,450,000,000,000,000,000 (one sextillion, 450 quintillion, 19-digit number) tons of water in the world’s oceans. And that’s just on this tiny planet, one of 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 (one septillion, one with twenty-four zeros) planets in our universe.

And God made all of that. Now, what’s your problem?