"Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord."
I first heard this verse when I was about 10 or 12 years old.
I didn't hear it in church.
I didn't hear a Sunday School teacher say it, or my parents.
I didn't read it in a Bible on my own.
I didn't hear it from a friend's family.
I heard it on TV. I heard it at the end of "the broadcasting day" back when every TV station ceased broadcasting shortly after midnight and didn't resume again until about 5:30 or 6:00 a.m. One of our FIVE channels at that time put up a photo of the American flag and a man's recorded voice spoke this verse.
"Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord." I hear that verse and suddenly it's way past my bedtime and I know the TV is soon going to display that circular diagram that will be there until morning.
It's hard to believe, today, that Christianity and God were once a comfortable, accepted given in our nation. No more. It seems much of the country hates God and sees Him as the enemy of their happiness and rights to do whatever they want without any accountability for their lives. I think that's what it is. People simply don't want it to be true that they are accountable to God. So they deny, pretend, and ignore the reality that lies deep inside their own hearts: that God is real and yes, we are each accountable to Him. What they don't know is that He is the best good they could ever imagine, that He loves deeply, and His call to them to believe in Jesus' death is so that they can receive the forgiveness that takes care of that accountability ...and that His love is what gives freedom and full life.
I love the memory of hearing that verse quoted unashamedly on TV at the end of the broadcasting day.
Hi Judi
ReplyDeleteBoy, if only someone in authority could step up to the mark and speak like that so openly again, maybe, just maybe, it would make a few people think more. I don't know if it's the same in the US, but here in the UK it seems to be the case that all other faiths other than christianity, which is frowned upon, are openly promoted.
I totally agree that people also don't want to be accountable God, or it would seem anyone, and as you say, if only they were, how better their lives would be!
When I first started school, which was a very strict private boys one, first thing that happened after registration was all the classrooms had to stand up and sing Jerusalem as it played over the tannoy......ugh!
I'm not familiar with the song Jerusalem, but schoolboys in Britain singing it at the start of each day brings to mind another issue that has changed here in the US: support for Israel. It amazes me that folks would rather support those with a consistent record of inhumanity to man throughout history than favor the tiny country of Israel that has been consistently victimized in horrific ways throughout history. But...when you look at it as a spiritual matter, the nonsensical-ness of it sort of makes sense. Israel is God's chosen people, therefore, the world hates them.
ReplyDeleteP.S. What's a "tannoy"? I'm sure it's a loud speaker of some sort, but I've never heard that word. Is it a shortened version of another word, like "tele" means television?