Happy Independence Day, America!  As citizens of this great nation, we should be thankful for the freedoms we have, and eternally grateful to the men and women in uniform throughout our history who have secured and kept our freedom.  To every veteran and all current military, police and firefighting personnel in America, I honor you especially today with my deepest thanks.

Today I direct your focus to Psalm 33.  My Bible includes a header that says, “Praise to the Creator and Preserver,” so why not take a moment on this special day to read the entire chapter and give praise to the One who created the world and preserves it, even in perilous times.  Then, take particular note of verse 12:

Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord,
The people whom He has chosen for His own inheritance.

Though many today would dispute this fact, we find mounds of evidence that our nation was founded, not just upon Christian principles, but upon raw dependence upon the One True God.  There are attempts to “re-write” our history, but our forefathers were very clear in their intent in the establishment of our nation.  Let’s observe some of those intentions:

George Washington:
“It is impossible to rightly govern a nation without God and the Bible.”
“Do not let anyone claim tribute of American patriotism if they even attempt to remove religion from politics.”
“Religion and morality are the essential pillars of civil society.”
 Patrick Henry:
“It is when a people forget God that tyrants forge their chains.” 

John Adams:
“Human passions unbridled by morality and religion…would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net.”
“Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”
“The general principles on which the fathers achieved independence were the general principles of Christianity.  I will avow that I then believed, and now believe, that those general principles of Christianity are as eternal and immutable as the existence and attributes of God.”

Noah Webster:
“The moral principles and precepts found in the Scriptures ought to form the basis of all our civil constitutions and laws.”
“No truth is more evident to my mind than that the Christian religion must be the basis of any government intended to secure the rights and privileges of a free people.”
“The Bible must be considered as the great source of all the truth by which men are to be guided in government as well as in all social transactions.”

Charles Carroll (delegate to the Continental Congress):
“Grateful to Almighty God for the blessing which, through Jesus Christ our Lord, He had conferred on my beloved country in her emancipation.”
” Without morals a republic cannot subsist any length of time; they therefore who are decrying the Christian religion, whose morality is so sublime and pure (and) which insures to the good eternal happiness, are undermining the solid foundation of morals, the best security for the duration of free governments.”

Beyond our founding fathers, many other US Presidents acknowledged the place of Christianity in the founding of our great nation.  For example:

Regardless how diligent others may be to “re-write” American history, the truth with always be the truth.  Our nation was, indeed, established on the principles of God’s Word.  Yes, as a whole our nation is rapidly walking away from that, and ultimately God’s hand of blessing and protection will be removed, leaving us vulnerable to His judgment.  That’s why we absolutely must seek the face of God, repent, and plead for God’s mercy.  (2 Chronicles 7:14)

But let’s circle back to Psalm 33:12 and address the second part of that verse.  Who are the people God has chosen for His own inheritance?  Most certainly God has chosen the Jews.  However, look at Ephesians 1:1-7:

To the saints who are at Ephesus and who are faithful in Christ Jesus: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace which He lavished on us.

Christian friends, Jesus Christ chose us before the foundation of the world!  We are chosen!  Now stay with me….the chosen (believers) make up a “nation” without walls or borders!  We are “one nation under God!”  Certainly, America honored that idea when our forefathers established this nation on that fact.  However, before the foundations of the world, God created a “nation” for Himself!  That is the Christian nation without borders!  As Americans, we simply get the double blessing of being Christians, living in a Christian land (albeit, changing rapidly).

Our true independence is in Jesus Christ!  Our freedom is in Jesus Christ!  Our life is in Jesus Christ!  Nothing and no one can separate us from that fact!  Rejoice…and celebrate!

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things? Who will bring a charge against God’s elect? God is the one who justifies; who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us. Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Just as it is written, “For Your sake we are being put to death all day long; We were considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”  But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us.For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
~Romans 8:31-39

PS: This principle is gloriously expressed in a song written by a most beloved worship leader, Brad Eberly.  Take a listen to “One Nation under God.”  (Lyrics)