I: Me, an individual, a committee of one.

PLEDGE: Dedicate all of my worldly goods to give without self pity.

ALLEGIANCE: My love and my devotion.

TO THE FLAG: Our standard, Old Glory, a symbol of freedom. Wherever she waves, there’s respect because your loyalty has given her a dignity that shouts freedom is everybody’s job.

UNITED: That means that we have all come together.

STATES: Individual communities that have united into 50 great states. Fifty individual communities with pride and dignity and purpose; all divided with imaginary boundaries yet united to a common purpose, and that’s love for country.

AND TO THE REPUBLIC: A state in which sovereign power is invested in representatives chosen by the people to govern. And government is the people, and it’s from the people to the leaders, not from the leaders to the people.

FOR WHICH IT STANDS, ONE NATION, UNDER GOD: One nation, meaning “so blessed by God.”

INDIVISIBLE: Incapable of being divided.

WITH LIBERTY: Which is freedom, the right of power to live one’s own life without threats, fear, or some sort of retaliation.

AND JUSTICE: The principle or quality of dealing fairly with others.

FOR ALL: For all, which means, it’s as much your country as it is mine.

Red, White, & Blue

As imperfect as it may be, I love my country. I always have; I always will.

One reason I love my country so much is because of the men and women who, through the years, have sacrificed so much in its defense.

Abraham Lincoln, in his Gettysburg Address, said...

The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

…which brings me to our text this morning, Psalm 33:12

Psalm 33:12 KJV 1900

Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord; And the people whom he hath chosen for his own inheritance.

Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord

Every nation has a god.

The Babylonian Empire had a god. Its name was Marduk.

The Medo-Persian Empire had a god. Its name was Ahura Mazda.

The Grecian Empire had a god. Its name was Zeus.

The Roman Empire had a god. Its name was Jupiter.

The United States Of America was founded as a Christian nation whose God was the Lord God Almighty!

George Washington, our first president, wrote a “Prayer for the Nation,” in 1783 and sent it to the governors of all the states. In it, he wrote...

Almighty God, we make our earnest prayer that Thou wilt keep the United states in thy holy protection...that thou wilt most graciously be pleased to dispose us all to do justice, to love mercy, and to demean ourselves with charity, humility, and pacific temper of mind which were the characteristics of the Divine Author of our blessed religion, and without an humble imitation of whose example in these things,  we can never hope to be a happy nation. Grant our supplications, we beseech Thee, through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen. 

You can re-write it but you cannot deny it…the United States was founded as a Christian nation. And, because of that...

The United States of America was a blessed nation - a happy nation!

President George Washington stated, in his 7th Annual Address, on December 8, 1795...

Join with me in profound gratitude to the Author of All Good, for the…extraordinary blessings we enjoy…Is it too much to say, that our country exhibits a spectacle of national happiness, never surpassed, if ever before equalled? With sincere acknowledgment to Heaven, and pure love to our country, to unite our efforts to preserve our immense advantages.

However, it could now be argued that...

The god of the United States of America is no longer the God of the Bible but has instead become the god of humanism.

Whatever we once were, we are no longer just a Christian nation; we are also a Jewish nation, a Muslim nation, a Buddhist nation, a Hindu nation, and a nation of nonbelievers. Then Senator Barrack Obama in 2006

C.S. Lewis remarked:

God cannot give us happiness and peace apart from Himself, because it is not there. There is no such thing.

Because of that...

The United States is no longer blessed!

Our country is no longer happy; it is now stressed!

Since 2007, the American Psychological Association has commissioned an annual nationwide survey...to examine the state of stress across the country and understand its impact.

https://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/stress?tab=10

In its “Stress in America, 2019” report...

Health care, the election, and mass shootings are significant sources of stress for Americans. While a full year remains before Americans will go to the polls in 2020, many report stress related to issues in the news, including the presidential election—which more Americans say is a cause of stress now than said the same in the lead-up to the 2016 election.

https://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/stress/2019/stress-america-2019.pdf

Mass Shootings

Terrorism, Climate Change, Sexual Harassment

Even though fewer people are “stressed” about the economy.

Economy

However, we should not be surprised that this has happened. Why? Because God already gave an example of all of this in His Word.

Turn to and read 1 Kings 3:7-14.

Then, turn to and read 1 Kings 11:4-10, 14, 23-25, 29-33.

While King Solomon followed God; God blessed the nation of Israel.

When King Solomon turned from following God; God removed that blessing.

We see that the exact same thing has happened to the United States of America!

So, what can we do? We can find the answer in Psalm 33:12.

Psalm 33:12 KJV 1900

Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord; And the people whom he hath chosen for his own inheritance.

Blessed is…the people whom He hath chosen for His own inheritance.

In the context of this passage of Scripture, this is referring to the nation of Israel.

However, by application, it refers to those who have trusted Christ as their Savior.

Turn to and read 1 Peter 1:18-19, 23; 2:9-10.

If you have accepted Jesus Christ as your Savior than you are blessed. Continue to walk with and follow God!

Micah 6:8 KJV 1900

He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; And what doth the Lord require of thee, But to do justly, and to love mercy, And to walk humbly with thy God?

What happens when we walk with someone? Imagine that you and a close friend are enjoying a walk down a country lane. You are in close proximity. You talk, laugh, listen, and share your hearts. Your attention is focused on this person to the exclusion of almost everything else. You notice the beauty around you or an occasional distraction, but only to point it out to your companion. You share it together. You are in harmony, and you both enjoy the peaceful camaraderie.

Walking with God is like that.

And, while our nation may no longer be walking with God as it once was, there’s no reason why each of us, cannot.