Sermon Tone Analysis

Thousands of years ago the psalmist issued that promise that the nation who exalts the Lord will receive His blessings.

As the people of Israel sang this verse, their thoughts focused on their nation.

They wanted God to bless Israel and cause it to prosper.

Though the writer of this passage did not have the United States in mind, the principle applies.

Any nations that puts God first will experience and live in His blessings.

How can we see this happen for our country?

We as the people of God have a responsibility to pray for our nation.

In 1863, Abraham Lincoln issued a Presidential Proclamation calling for day of prayer and humility.

He included this in his statement:

But we have forgotten God.

We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us, and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own.

Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us.

It behooves us, then, to humble ourselves before the offended Power, to confess our national sins, and to pray for clemency and forgiveness.

As we celebrate our independence as a nation, let’s pray that we never forget God and that He will help us as we repent and turn to Him.