Religion and the Nation


Happy is that people, whose God is the Lord.--Ps. 144: 15.

In this psalm David prays for the nation over which he reigned as king. The first part of his prayer relates to the citizenry (v. 12). The second part relates to the nation’s material prosperity (vv. 13, 14). He is concerned about the material side of the nation’s life. He wants to see his people blessed with all those temporal goods necessary to their contentment and well-being. But his first and chief desire is that the sons and daughters of the land shall grow up to be God-loving, God-trusting, God-obeying men and women. If the nation’s material prosperity is to be stable, it must be founded on righteousness. Only as the people trust God and obey His laws, can the nation continue prosperous and happy. Hence the order of his prayer, praying first for God-filled citizens, and then for grain-filled garners. Of the nation thus blessed, he says, “Happy is that people, that is in such a case” (v. 15).

Religion has been the basic factor in making America strong and great. Walt Whitman recognized this when he wrote of the United States: “I say the real and permanent grandeur of these states must be their religion. Otherwise there is no real and permanent grandeur; nor character nor life worthy the name without religion, nor land nor man or woman without religion.”

In his Democracy in America, de Tocqueville says he sought for the greatness and genius of America in her commodious areas and ample rivers, in her fertile fields and boundless forests, in her rich mines and vast commerce, in her public school system and institutions of higher learning, in her democratic Congress and matchless constitution. And then he adds: “Not until I went into the churches of America and heard her pulpits aflame with righteousness did I understand the secret of her genius and power.”

“Righteousness exalteth a nation” (Prov. 14: 34). Religion is the mother of righteousness. Our civic institutions were built around the Bible and religious ideals. The Bible and the church stand back of the best things in American life. The churches, the ministers, and the truths they foster have been the prime producers of our prosperity and progress. To make real and permanent the grandeur of our country, we must practice the faith expressed by our national motto, “In God We Trust.”