Oh, Say, Can You See?
Deuteronomy 31:16, 19
And the LORD said to Moses, “Behold, you are about to lie down with your fathers. Then this people will rise and whore after the foreign gods among them … and they will forsake me and break my covenant. … Now therefore write this song and teach it to the people of Israel. Put it in their mouths, that this song may be a witness for me against the people of Israel.”
A little anthem can go a long way.
When Francis Scott key penned the lyrics, “Oh, say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave, o’er the land of the free and the home of the brave,” he couldn’t have foreseen the unifying force those lines would have in later generations. The calm they would bring to rival fans at baseball games, the tears they would ignite at a soldier’s funeral, the way they’d tug on the heartstrings of peoples from different tribal traditions and ethnic backgrounds and cultural practices, leading men, women, and children of all ages in a Marionette-type dance to the rhythm of liberty. In other words, a national anthem such as ours, a song that tells the story of a people’s unique existence, can unify a nation, and inspire it, and pass on a luminous torch from generation to generation.
Just last night, I read Paul’s words to the church of Ephesus in Ephesians 6:13b-19, “Be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart,” and it strikes me how much more unifying and awe-inspiring a force an anthem can be when the Kingdom of Heaven is its subject. Unlike national hymns, gospel hymns transcend all human borders, drawing together men from every tribe, tongue, and nation into one body, forming deep connective tissues between otherwise factional clans, leading all in a dance to the rhythm of God’s good heart. Songs in the church are for our defense against the devil, for our joy amidst sorrow, for our reminder in forgetfulness, for our restoration in prodigality, for our thanksgiving in want and for our hope in despair.
But sadly, when we yearn after sin instead of righteousness, when we deem the banner of a cross a burden rather than a gift, the anthem of the Kingdom of our Lord becomes a mournful dirge rather than a triumphal procession.