A day of thankfulness for the sacrifice of our founding fathers. A day of thankfulness for the men who were willing to pledge their lives, fortunes and sacred honor, and kept that pledge. Oh that God would raise up such men today to help our country! A day of thankfulness that we can, one more time, celebrate together the birth of our great country and the freedoms she represents. A day of thankfulness that God has had mercy on our country one more year.
“Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people.” (Proverbs 14:34)
“It is of the LORD's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. 23They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.” (Lamentations 2:22,23)
The Star Spangled Banner
O say can you see by the dawn's early light,
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming,
Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming?
And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there;
O say does that star-spangled banner yet wave,
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?
“Oh that men would praise the LORD for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men!” (Psalm 107:8)
On the shore dimly seen through the mists of the deep,
Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,
In full glory reflected now shines in the stream:
'Tis the star-spangled banner, O! long may it wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.
And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion,
A home and a country, should leave us no more?
Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps' pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave:
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave,
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.
“It is of the LORD's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. 23They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.” (Lamentations 2:22,23)
O thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved home and the war's desolation.
Blest with vict'ry and peace, may the Heav'n rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us 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!
~ Francis Scott Key
“Happy is that people, whose God is the LORD.” (Psalm 144:15b)