9How can(A) a young man keep his way pure?
By guarding it according to your word.
10(B) With my whole heart I seek you;
let me not(C) wander from your commandments!
11I have(D) stored up your word in my heart,
that I might not sin against you.
12Blessed are you, O LORD;
(E) teach me your statutes!
13With my lips I(F) declare
all the rules[a] of your mouth.
14In the way of your testimonies I(G) delight
as much as in all(H) riches.
15I will(I) meditate on your precepts
and fix my eyes on your(J) ways.
16I will(K) delight in your statutes;
I will not forget your word. (Psalm 119:9-16)
The second stanza of Psalm 119 answers one of mankind’s greatest needs. It tells us how to raise the coming generation in purity of thought and action. America’s parents and leaders knew this, yet in 1963 The Supreme Court hammered one nail into our coffin by outlawing the reading of the Bible and prayer in our public schools. Christian parents put another nail into our coffin by not immediately removing all of their children from public schools. If they had, the new law would have been changed in a day. The Supreme Court foolishly or evilly, depending upon their intent, said in their opinion,
“Because of the prohibition of the First Amendment against the enactment by Congress of any law “respecting an establishment of religion,” which is made applicable to the States by the Fourteenth Amendment, no state law or school board may require that passages from the Bible be read or that the Lord’s Prayer be recited in the public schools of a State at the beginning of each school day – even if individual students may be excused from attending or participating in such exercises upon written request of their parents.” (SCHOOL DISTRICT OF ABINGTON TOWNSHIP, PENNSYLVANIA, ET AL. v. SCHEMPP ET AL. APPEAL FROM THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF PENNSYLVANIA. No. 142. Argued February 27-28, 1963. Decided June 17, 1963, Pp. 205-227)
The Court rendered this decision when I was attending third grade public school. I still remember singing, The Battle Hymn of the Republic in this particular school and I think it was this very year. Here are the words to that stirring song:
Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord;
He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored;
He hath loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword;
His truth is marching on.
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! His truth is marching on.
I have seen Him in the watch fires of a hundred circling camps
They have builded Him an altar in the evening dews and damps;
I can read His righteous sentence by the dim and flaring lamps;
His day is marching on.
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! His day is marching on.
I have read a fiery Gospel writ in burnished rows of steel;
“As ye deal with My contemners, so with you My grace shall deal”;
Let the Hero, born of woman, crush the serpent with His heel,
Since God is marching on.
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! Since God is marching on.
He has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat;
He is sifting out the hearts of men before His judgment seat;
Oh, be swift, my soul, to answer Him! be jubilant, my feet;
Our God is marching on.
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! Our God is marching on.
In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea,
With a glory in His bosom that transfigures you and me:
As He died to make men holy, let us live to make men free;
[originally …let us die to make men free]
While God is marching on.
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! While God is marching on.
He is coming like the glory of the morning on the wave,
He is wisdom to the mighty, He is honor to the brave;
So the world shall be His footstool, and the soul of wrong His slave,
Our God is marching on.
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! Our God is marching on.
Today there exists hardly a public school in America where you can hear this song. And if you did, some unbeliever who also heard it would likely file suit against them and prohibit it from ever happening again. But, this song was the “battle hymn” of this republic, America. Now any so-called hymn of our public school would deal more with vampires, satan, and pre-marital sex than anything of God.
Can anyone really wonder why judgment has come upon this once great land?
