During the deadly September attack, casualties mounted, with both the capital and the White House being targeted. What few know is how the President secretly sent a Georgetown attorney to meet with our enemies in an attempt to secure the release of a prominent hostage. However, he was detained before his mission could be completed and had to watch the attack. During the battle, he could only pray as he sat helplessly aboard an enemy ship.
The story I just shared is true, but it did not happen in 2001; no, the year was 1814, and the precise date was not the 11th but the 14th. Early that morning, when it became apparent our forces had survived the brutal attack, the attorney, Francis Scott Key, penned these now famous words on the back of an envelope, “O say, can you see, by the dawn’s early light, what so proudly we hailed at the twilight’s last gleaming. O say does that star-spangled banner yet wave, O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?” He had no idea then that his words would ultimately become our national anthem.
Few Americans realize our anthem has a second verse. “Blessed with victory and peace, may the heaven-rescued land, Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us as a nation! Then conquer we must when our cause it is just, and this be our motto: ‘In God is our trust.’ And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave, O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.”
Though relatively few have heard the second verse, I believe it is the most significant, for it reminds us of how God has rescued and sustained our nation.
Sadly, I know many now view the words, “In God we trust” as political. I am not sharing this story to promote a political slogan. In truth, we should trust God not because those words are our national motto, but because he has blessed us as a nation.
An ancient hymn-writer expressed a similar sentiment when he penned these words, “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord…” (Psalm 33:12, NASB) Despite all our problems and the current divisions in our country, we have been blessed.
Because of our blessings, I suggest we express our gratitude to God as we celebrate the Fourth of July. Francis Scott Key recognized that God had blessed America and encouraged us to be grateful. Now, 210 years and millions of blessings later, I trust you, and I will be like the author of our national anthem, personally thankful that God has blessed our nation.
