What a thrilling experience it is to join a crowd of people in singing "God Bless America!" It is a prayer in song which lifts us to the heights of national loyalty and patriotism. But we might as well stop singing this song if we mean no more by it than the selfish appeal that God shall preserve to us our security and freedom and make us a prosperous and happy nation.
In the 67th Psalm David prays in this manner: "God be merciful unto us, and bless us, and cause His face to shine upon us; that Thy way may be known upon the earth, Thy saving health among the nations."
Notice that David did not end his prayer simply with the supplication: "God be merciful unto us, and bless us, and cause His face to shine upon us." He went on to express the true purpose of his supplication: "That Thy way may be known upon the earth, Thy saving health among the nations."
The blessing of God cannot rest upon selfishness and isolation. God has never been willing to bless either a man or a nation which was content to be clothed in purple and fine linen and fare sumptuously every day, while at that man's door, or that nation's gate, lay a Lazarus full of sores desiring to be fed with the crumbs that fell from the overladen table.
If we desire God's blessing for our land we must pray something like this: "God bless America. May it be the kind of country the blessing of the Lord can rest upon. Help us, O God, to have greatness and strength and power and might, not for our own safety and prosperity alone, but in order that the blessings which we enjoy may be shared by all the nations and peoples around the whole earth, and that we may demonstrate in our national life the faith and love of God. Amen."
Let us closes with this passage from the Psalms: "May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face to shine upon us, that Thy way may be known upon earth, Thy saving power among all nations.