One Nation Under God
Scripture Reference: Psalm 33:1-12
Introduction
Last nights final of the U.S. Open Tennis championship was an awesome display of power and skill. Venus and Serena Williams served balls upwards of over 100 mph.
These were two sisters, ranked number one and number two in the world, a total of 12 championships between them. Venus with her power serve and long reach, Serena with her powerful backhand brought determination and dominance to the court.
Venus wearing her traditional tennis attire, Serena with her new non-traditional black lacquer tennis wear played under the array of bright lights, camera shots, and some pulling for one, some pulling for the other. It didn’t matter who you cheered for or booed for they would not be divided at the end of the match.
Despite their individual accomplishments, their individual ranking on the tennis circuit, their individual personalities, their individual styles and dress, their individual play, they are still one family under Richard Williams, who is both father and coach.
There is another statement of unity or oneness that should effect all of us in the room…
The Pledge of Allegiance
I pledge allegiance to the flag,
Of the United States of America,
And to the republic for which it stands,
One nation, under God, indivisible
With liberty and justice for all.
Did you since the unity in the pledge? United States…One nation…under God (not gods)…Indivisible…and it ends – For All.
Billy Graham, in and address to a congressional prayer breakfast said he believed that there were many times in the history of America when certain men stood for God and changed the course of its destiny.
For example, at the first Constitutional Convention, the delegates were frustrated due to the burdens of the hour. They were burdened and harassed by tremendous crisis.
They were so fragmented that they were just about to throw out the whole concept of a constitution completely. Just then an old white-haired man by the name of Benjamin Franklin rose to his feet and said:
Gentlemen, if it is true that not one single petal from any flower falls to the ground
without escaping God’s attention, will the distress of this nation go unheeded? Let us therefore determine to seek His face.
They promptly got down on their knees and when they arose from prayer, the slogan, E Pluribus Unum was born: ONE OUT OF MANY.
What about some of the ones found in the Bible?
1. Genesis 2:24 – Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.
2. Genesis 11: 1. And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech.
3. Deuteronomy 6: 4. Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God is one Lord
4. Psalm 14: 3. They are all gone aside, they are all together become filthy: there is none that doeth good, no, not one.
5. John 17:20. ``I am not praying for these alone but also for the future believers who will come to me because of the testimony of these. 21. My prayer for all of them is that they will be of one heart and mind, just as you and I are, Father--that just as you are in me and I am in you, so they will be in us, and the world will believe you sent me.(Living Bible)
6. Ephesians 4:4 We are all parts of one body, we have the same Spirit, and we have all been called to the same glorious future. 5. For us there is only one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6. and we all have the same God and Father who is over us all and in us all, and living through every part of us.(Living Bible)
Transition
That’s what we seek to celebrate this morning…setting straight the record that we are One Nation Under God.
33:1–22 This psalm is a general hymn of praise. Its two primary themes are: 1) Yahweh is the Lord of nature, and 2) He is Lord of history. In biblical thought, these realms are always related; the Creator sovereignly rules over His total creation, over all creatures throughout time.
I. The Prelude of Praise (33:1–3)
1. Rejoice in the Lord, O you righteous! For praise from the upright is beautiful (comely).
2. Praise the Lord with the harp; Make melody to Him with an instrument of ten strings.
3. Sing to Him a new song; Play skillfully with a shout of joy.
Now, all of us are in the practice of praise. We praise our children when they have completed a certain assignment. We praise them when their behavior has connected with our instruction.
We praise our spouses as a way of encouragement and motivation. We give praise to our co-workers for a job well done or our supervisors for taking strong stands against head management.
We sought today to praise our local heroes this morning, our law enforcement officials, our fire fighters, our military. So you see, praise is not a foreign practice to us.
But the Psalmist this morning is not asking us to direct our praise to the children, he is not asking us to direct our praise to the honey-dos and the honey-dips. He’s not asking us to direct our praise outward towards the men and women in uniform.
He is directing us to someone else. Someone who has regularly invaded our consciences with acts of kindness. Someone who has intentionally and often reminded us that we didn’t get here by ourselves.
Someone who has poured more into your life on accident than you have tried to do for yourself on purpose. Someone who has touched the string of your emotions to tell you that you are loved, you are cared for, you are not just a body to feed, clothe, bathe, rest, retire, or to be walked on, stepped on, run down, or tripped up.
I believe you know who is at the center of the universe and it is not your free-flowing or no flowing locks of hair, suit wearing, slack wearing, dress wearing, square toe/round toe, pump up/pump down shoe wearing, apartment/town home/single family home living, full size/mid-size/compact/truck driving, in between young and old self.
The practice and language of praise belongs to the Lord. There is an invitation this morning to give to God what He is due. Matthew Henry states, “Holy joy is the heart and soul of praise, and that is here pressed upon the righteous. Thankful praise is the breath and language of holy joy.”
Rejoice is to be glad, to make merry. The righteous and the upright have a language that brings us to the heart of God. 33:1 beautiful. This means that praise to Him is proper, suitable, and fitting.
33:3 a new song. I.e., a new occasion and impulse for expressing fresh praise to God (cf. Pss. 96:1; 98:1; 149:1).
As a nation there should be one song we sing in harmony and that’s the song of praise. We owe a lot to the invisible yet very visible God who continues to make His mark in everyway.
II. The Rationale for Praise (33:4, 5)
4. For the word of the Lord is right; and all his works are done in truth.
5. He loveth righteousness and judgment: the earth is full of the goodness of the Lord.
A. The Lord’s Sovereign Power in Natural History (33:4)
The Hebrew word for “his works” can be defined in terms as business, deeds, do(-ing), labor, thing made, ware of making, occupation, thing offered, operation, possession, work(ing, -manship).
It was word used to reference the work of a skillful craftsman, weaver, or jeweler. That is no matter what God does from labor to workmanship it is done in truth.
God does the kind of work that led the Psalmist in Psalm 8 to declare:
3. When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained;
All of God’s "works" are characterized by faithfulness to His promises and covenant: "For the word of the Lord is right; and all his works are done in truth" (Ps. 33:4). If there is no truth or faithfulness in his work, then we are a lie and living a lie.
B. The Lord’s Sovereign Providence over Human History (33:5)
When I mention a specific date in history, call out what that day signifies. Let’s see how well you do.
December 7, 1941 (Pearl Harbor)
September 2, 1945 (treaty ending WW2 signed in Tokyo Bay)
November 22, 1963 (JFK assassinated)
July 20, 1969 (Neil Armstrong steps on the surface of the moon)
September 11, 2001 (Need I say more?)
History has a way of numbering the significant of our lives so that their impact is simply recalled by their numerical date. All an author needs to write is say December 7th or September 11th and we know what they are referring to. 911 will never be just an emergency phone number again.
Today, a year after the fact, all you need to do is say September 11th and we are there once again. Yes, that’s one way to number a day. But we must go beyond a day to the time when there may be no more days for us.
Those on the 87th floor of Tower One at the World Trade Center didn’t plan on what happened. Those three hundred plus firefighters who went up the stairwells of both towers to evacuate people and never came out didn’t expect they’d never see their colleagues or family members again.
Neither did the police officers that perished. And we have no guarantee that our lives will not end just as abruptly someday.
God’s providence in human history lets us know that while we don’t know how long we have, He does provide us with enough time to make a decision that will impact our eternity.
A commentary writer penned these words, “What a pity it is that this earth, which is so full of the proofs and instances of God’s goodness, should be so empty of his praises; and that of the multitudes who live upon his bounty, there are so few who live to his glory!”
III. The Response of Praise (33:6–19)
A. The Creator’s Sovereign Power (33:6–9)
6. By the word of the Lord were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth. 7. He gathereth the waters of the sea together as an heap: he layeth up the depth in storehouses. 8. Let all the earth fear the Lord: let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him. 9. For he spake, and it was done; he commanded, and it stood fast.
33:6, 9 God’s utterances created a universe out of nothing (cf. “God said” in Gen. 1:3, 6, 9, 11, 14, 20, 24, 26). No nation would exist with God’s hand in it.
I have to insert that classic dialogue between God and Job. At the point where God gives Job a history and science test at the same time. From the Living Bible:
1. Then the Lord answered Job from the whirlwind:
2. ``Why are you using your ignorance to deny my providence?
3. Now get ready to fight, for I am going to demand some answers from you, and you must reply.
4. ``Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell me, if you know so much.
5. Do you know how its dimensions were determined, and who did the surveying?
6. What supports its foundations, and who laid its cornerstone, as the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy?
33. Do you know the laws of the universe and how the heavens influence the earth?
34. Can you shout to the clouds and make it rain?
35. Can you make lightning appear and cause it to strike as you direct it?
36. ``Who gives intuition and instinct?
37. Who is wise enough to number all the clouds? Who can tilt the water jars of heaven, when everything is dust and clods?
26. ``Do you know how a hawk soars and spreads her wings to the south?
27. Is it at your command that the eagle rises high upon the cliffs to make her nest?
17. Has the location of the gates of Death been revealed to you? Do you realize the extent of the earth? Tell me about it if you know!
19. Where does the light come from, and how do you get there? Or tell me about the darkness. Where does it come from?
20. Can you find its boundaries, or go to its source?
21. But of course you know all this! For you were born before it was all created, and you are so very experienced!
22. ``Have you visited the treasuries of the snow, or seen where hail is made and stored? For I have reserved it for the time when I will need it in war.
1. The Lord went on: (in chapter 40)
2. ``Do you still want to argue with the Almighty? Or will you yield? Do you--God’s critic--have the answers?’’
3. Then Job replied to God:
4. ``I am nothing--how could I ever find the answers? I lay my hand upon my mouth in silence.
5. I have said too much already.’’
Do you get the message? He alone has creative sovereign power. There is no one like him. No wonder the hymn writer wrote those glowing words:
O Lord my God, when I in awesome wonder, consider all the worlds, Thy hands have made, I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder, Thy pow’r thru-out the universe displayed.
When thru the woods and forest glades I wander And hear the birds sing sweetly in the trees, When I look down from lofty mountain grandeur And hear the brook and feel the gentle breeze,
Then sings my soul, my Savior God, to Thee, How great Thou art, how great Thou art!
And that is why we should praise for the awesome power throughout the universe displayed.
B. The Creator’s Sovereign Providence (33:10–15)
10. The Lord bringeth the counsel of the heathen to nought: he maketh the devices of the people of none effect. 11. The counsel of the Lord standeth for ever, the thoughts of his heart to all generations. 12. Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord; and the people whom he hath chosen for his own inheritance. 13. The Lord looketh from heaven; he beholdeth all the sons of men. 14. From the place of his habitation he looketh upon all the inhabitants of the earth. 15. He fashioneth their hearts alike; he considereth all their works.
10. And with a breath he can scatter the plans of all the nations who oppose him, 11. but his own plan stands forever. His intentions are the same for every generation. 12. Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, whose people he has chosen as his own. 13. The Lord gazes down upon mankind from heaven where he lives. He has made their hearts and closely watches everything they do.
33:10, 11 A sharp contrast is drawn between mankind’s shaky plans and the Lord’s sovereign plans.
Greece built a civilization on culture and it failed. Rome built its civilization on power and it crumbled.
The Bible states that the nation that survives is not the nation with the power; not the nation with the military might; not the nation with all the intellect, not the nation with all the wealth, but the nation whose God is the Lord.
A nation without theological reference is not a nation whose major problem is with those who wants to invade their borders, but with God whom they want to keep out of their lives.
A nation without God can face the same issue that Israel faced during the reign of King Asa in 2 Chronicles.
1. Then the Spirit of God came upon Azariah (son of Oded), 2. and he went out to meet King Asa as he was returning from the battle.``Listen to me, Asa! Listen, armies of Judah and Benjamin!’’ he shouted. ``The Lord will stay with you as long as you stay with him! Whenever you look for him, you will find him. But if you forsake him, he will forsake you.
3. For a long time now, over in Israel, the people haven’t worshiped the true God, and have not had a true priest to teach them. They have lived without God’s laws. 4. But whenever they have turned again to the Lord God of Israel in their distress, and searched for him, he has helped them.
5. In their times of rebellion against God there was no peace. Problems troubled the nation on every hand. Crime was on the increase everywhere. 6. There were external wars, and internal fighting of city against city, for God was plaguing them with all sorts of trouble.
It was stated that the Speaker of the House rose in a recent session of Congress and stated that no politician or government representative should take a public stand on a religious matter of any kind---and right behind him on the wall is a large plaque with the words inscribed: IN GOD WE TRUST!
CONCLUSION
A nation without God is without moral absolutes
A nation with God is with a God who is faithful and whose word is dependable.
A nation without God faces no end to external wars and internal turf fighting.
A nation with God is with confident assurance that He shall deliver us in a time of trouble.
A nation without God is filled with all the stress, frustration, and uncertainty in dark days.
A nation with God is a nation who walks not in the fear of terrorists’ strikes but in the faith of God who can strike terror in all men.
A nation without God is a nation forced to define its own peace, its own hope, its own truth.
A nation with God is a nation who rests in the timeless truth of the ages.
