17 The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God.
18 For the needy shall not always be forgotten: the expectation of the poor shall not perish for ever.
19 Arise, O Lord; let not man prevail: let the heathen be judged in thy sight.
20 Put them in fear, O Lord: that the nations may know themselves to be but men. Selah.
Introduction
No nation, apart from Israel, has the spiritual heritage of America. It is impossible to understand or explain our country apart from this fact.
We are familiar with the spiritual heritage of Israel. It had its beginning when the Lord said to Abraham, “Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee: And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed” (Genesis 12:1-3).
In a similar manner, the spiritual roots of America run to the beginning of our history. When the New World was but a dream in the minds of men, God was at work in the heart of Christopher Columbus. He appeared before Queen Isabella and the court of Spain with his dream that the shortest path to the east was by sailing west. Columbus did not consider himself just an adventurer, he thought of himself as a servant of God who was called to do this great thing. When people made fun of him in the court of Spain, Columbus was not baffled.
When financial support was secured Columbus’ troubles were far from over. There would yet be long days and dark nights on the rough seas. His bewildered sailors would threaten mutiny. In those hours it would be his conviction and courage that kept him going.
In the year 1620 a small band of pilgrims, 102 in number, set sail from England for America in a frail little vessel called the Mayflower. Many of them sold all of their possessions and others served as indentured servants in order to finance their passage on a ship that had no plumbing and no heat.
As they left England, John Robinson led the procession from the church to the ship reading aloud from the Bible—God’s call to Abraham. They, with the same sense of divine providence, went out to a new land that they believed would one day bless all the families of the earth.
In mid-Atlantic the main beam of the ship cracked. The outlook for survival appeared bleak, but by the grace of God, after more than two months on the Atlantic, they arrived at what is now Massachusetts Bay just before Christmas, 1620.
When they landed, Captain Bradford entered these words in his journal: “Being thus arrived at a good harbor, and safely brought to land, we fell on our knees and blessed the God of heaven who had brought us over the vast and furious ocean and delivered us from all the perils and miseries thereof.”
Today, on top of a rocky summit overlooking the bay where the Mayflower first cast her anchor, is a statue. On the four comers of the base of the pedestal are seated four figures representing law, morality, freedom, and education. Rising high above those four figures is a granite shaft on which stands a figure of faith. In one hand he holds an open Bible, symbolizing the religious foundation of America, while the other hand is raised high with the index finger pointing upward to the throne of God.
When the war for independence from the tyranny of England came George Washington was selected to lead the small revolutionary army. At Valley Forge he knelt in the snow asking God for help. There came to him at that time a divine revelation—vision of the future of our great republic. If the infant nation would be properly established it must be by righteousness, not by appeasement on the one hand or alliances on the other, not by total reliance on huge armies or navies or military might, for of these Washington had none. “Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord” (Zechariah 4:6) was the truth in which Washington trusted and by which victory came.
With the war for independence won the new republic now needed a constitution. So representatives from 13 colonies gathered at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia. Each person had his own opinion. Many were so dogmatic they would not budge an inch. When, after some deliberation, they had almost decided to go back to their homes and form 13 separate nations, Benjamin Franklin stood and said, “I have lived a long time and the longer I live the more convincing proof I see that God governs in the affairs of man, and if a sparrow cannot fall without his notice, is it probable that a nation can rise without his aid? Except the Lord build the house they labor in vain that build it without his concurring aid, we shall proceed no better than the builders of Babel.”
A prayer meeting followed, and out of that prayer meeting came the Constitution of the United States, whose laws and policies are based largely upon the word of God.
Study our documents, examine our currency, listen to our pledge, and sing our hymns and see they all attest to our spiritual heritage, our religious foundation. So deep are our religious roots that William Penn spoke of our commonwealth as “a holy experiment in government.”
It is incredibly ironic, I think, that a country founded on biblical values now says that Christian ethics and scriptural principles cannot be taught in the public schools. Yet in growing numbers, biblical principles are freely taught throughout the former Soviet Union.
Strange, also, I think, that our senators meet in the chambers of government begin their sessions with a prayer and then vote that it is illegal to pray in school. Strange indeed!
With this rising tide of secularism in America we are in danger of forgetting the rock from whence we were hewn. That’s why we need the warning of scripture, “The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God.”
This is a psalm of thanksgiving to God for his blessings on the nation of Israel. It reminds us that God is the god of all nations. He establishes their boundaries and determines the length of their existence. It reminds us that we are mere men, puny men. It reminds us that God expects justice and mercy to prevail in the land. And it reminds us that righteousness exalts a nation but sin is the reproach of any people.
Then in the middle of the psalm is this solemn warning to all nations. The Hebrew word translated forget literally means “to be oblivious of.” Isn’t that our biggest danger? Not that we shall cease to believe that God exists, but that we shall cease to believe that he matters.
The Hebrew word translated hell is the word “Sheol.” It literally means “the grave” or “the place of the dead.” The warning of scripture is that the nation that forgets God will wind up in the dust heap of history.
Why is this so? Is it because there are some things you cannot have without God. I’ll mention just three:
1. Fruits and roots. First, when a nation forgets God it loses its basis for moral values. The strength of a nation is in the moral fiber of its people. As the saying goes, “The strength of a nation is in its square men, not its square acres.” It is a historical fact that when people have ceased to believe in absolutes, they died. Ethical values are fixed constellations by which we as individuals and a nation guide ourselves.
But, where can we go for a basis for right and wrong? Shall we go to the individual? Will we allow everyone to decide for himself? I remind you that the dark ages of Israel’s history was the period of the Judges when “every man did what was right in his own sight.” Any time the individual decides right and wrong for himself the dark ages return.
Shall we decide by majority opinion? Will we let the group be the judge? If so, the pollsters become the preachers and prophets of society.
The only sure foundation for right and wrong is God himself. Without him there can be no absolutes. John Erskine, a Scottish jurist and professor of law, stated the case just as it is when he said, “Depend on it—the world could not be held together without morals, nor can morals maintain their station in the human heart without religion.”
Ultimately, right is right because God said so. And, wrong is wrong because God said so. And, if a thing was wrong yesterday, it is wrong today, and it will be wrong tomorrow. If a thing was right yesterday, it is still right today, and if the world shall last ten thousand years it shall still be right. Ethical values flow from the eternal character of God.
When flowers are cut from their roots, they will live a few days, but their days are numbered from the time they are cut. The result is the beauty of America is wilting. Ours is a cut-flower civilization. Even Ann Landers said, “Let’s face it, America is sick.”
As a result of ignoring God, our music is noise. Our dances are convulsions. Our language is unprintable. Our art is junk. Our worship is irreverent. Our jails are overcrowded. Our streets, parks, offices, courthouses, and post offices are unsafe. And when a couple walks down the aisle to get married, odds are their marriage won’t last seven years—not as long as the washer, dryer and freezer they buy.
According to the Centers for Disease Control, one out of every six boys and one out of every four girls in America is sexually abused before they turn 18. The psychiatrist Carl Menninger said that sexual abuse is becoming as common in America as shoplifting.
One boy put it this way: “I never knew when I went home whether I was going to be hugged or slugged, or what made the difference.” Alcoholics, neurotics, drug addicts, and criminals have become a sizable part of our population. These are the fruits of a nation without religious roots.
It is as true as life itself: the nation that becomes oblivious of or indifferent to God will die because moral principles die within it. It was no less a historian than Will Durant, in his book The Lessons of History, who said, “There is no significant example in history, before our time, of a society successfully maintaining moral life without the aid of religion.”
Ultimately, right and wrong are rooted in God. If, therefore, a nation becomes oblivious of and indifferent to God it loses the bases for moral values.
2. The up-looking one. Second, when a nation forgets God it loses the basis of human dignity. Our nation was founded not only on faith in God but also on the dignity of man. Our Declaration of Independence begins, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
The basis of human dignity is that man is made in the image of God. Genesis gives us the details: “The Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul” (Genesis 2:7).
The Hebrew word translated “dust” literally means “red clay.” That’s why I believe that the Garden of Eden was originally here in East Texas. God took a lump of red clay and molded it into the lifeless statue of a man. Then he performed mouth-to-mouth resuscitation and breathed into that statue the breath of life. Thus man became a living soul. It is this fact that sets man apart as unique among all other creatures. And it was because man was made in the image of God that God first forbade murder (Genesis 9:6).
The Greek word translated “man” is the word “optomahee.” From it we get the word ophthalmologist. It means “to gaze,” “to stare.” It suggests that man is the “uplooking one.” All other animals look down. Man alone looks up. It is a symbol of our higher heredity.
It is the fact that man is made in the image of God that gives him uniqueness. And this became the basis for God’s command against taking another’s life.
But if there is no God, there is no man. If there is no God, man simply evolved from other animals and is nothing more than a higher animal. Friends, we’d better hope there is a God. For he is our only hope. And if God is dead, as we were being told years ago, we’d better find his tomb and weep until he arises again.
Let a nation forget God, and they forget man. Germany forgot God and six million Jews were exterminated in gas chambers. Russia forgot God, and at the height of his power Stalin was executing 40,000 people a month. Let America forget God and we will have abortion on demand and doctors assisting patients in committing suicide (euthanasia). When people forget God, life becomes cheap.
3. Greatness and goodness. Finally, the nation that forgets God loses its bases for greatness. The French diplomat and historian Alexis de Tocqueville said, “I searched out America to find why America was great. I went to the virgin forest where the trees stretched to the sun, and it was not there. I visited the manufacturers where dedicated workers changed raw materials into the necessities of life; it was not there. I went to many cities where people from all nations have come to become one, but it was not there. Then I went to the nation’s churches and synagogues and that is where I saw the real America. I learned that America is great because America is good, and when America ceases to be good, it will cease to be great.”
Since the dawn of history countless civilizations have risen and fallen, and the reasons for their fall are notorious in their similarity. Civilizations have failed because:
- They lost their religious convictions and flaunted basic morality.
- They became obsessed with sex.
- They debased their money of its intrinsic value and let inflation run rampant.
- Honest work ceased to be a virtue.
- Respect for law disintegrated, and violence became an accepted method of achieving individual and group desires.
- They reached a point that their citizens were no longer willing to be soldiers and fight for the defense of their nation. They resorted to paid mercenaries or tried to buy off their attackers.
We are back to where we started. The strength of the nation is not in commerce, or Tyre would never have fallen; it is not in culture, or Greece would never have fallen; it is not in religion or Israel would never have fallen; it is not in government or Rome would never have fallen; it is never in military might, or Babylon would never have fallen.
Wherein is the strength of a nation? It is in God. That’s why the scriptures say, “Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people” (Proverbs 14:34).
The psalmist reminds us that we are mere men, puny men. Rather than declare our independence on this Independence Day, we need to declare our dependence on God. The highest act of patriotism of which a person is capable is to bow before the Lord God. It is to trust him through his son Jesus Christ.
The highest act of patriotism that a person can perform is not to salute the flag, as fitting as that may be. It is not to sing these great hymns, as beautiful as they are. It is not even to serve in the defense of the nation. The highest act of patriotism is to bow in reverence and humility before God. It is to honor, serve, and obey him.
The scriptures give us a prescription for a healthy nation: “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land” (2 Chronicles 7:14).
Ultimately, healing depends on humility. We must bow before him. We must do it because righteousness exalts a nation and sin is the reproach of any people.
One of our greatest documents of all times is the Declaration of Independence. It closes with the words: “And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.”
Independence was won, not by a declaration only, but by six long years of bitter struggle. Men had to lay their lives, their fortunes, and their honor on the line for this nation.
For the Christian, dependence on God is not only a declaration, but a lifetime commitment. Let us do no less for the Kingdom of God than our forefathers did for America. Let us pledge to God our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor. That is our hope. That is our highest act of patriotism.