Anglican Morning Devotion for 23 July 2021 Anno Domini
A ministry of the Anglican Orthodox Communion Worldwide
“O LORD, save thy people, and bless thine heritage. Govern them and lift them up for ever. Day by day we magnify thee; And we worship thy Name ever, world without end. Vouchsafe, O Lord, to keep us this day without sin. O Lord, have mercy upon us, have mercy upon us.O Lord, let thy mercy be upon us, as our trust is in thee.O Lord, in thee have I trusted; let me never be confounded.”
3rd paragraph of the Te Deum Laudamus. – “Thee, O God, we praise”
(from the 1662/1928 Anglican Book of Common Prayer)
“I will extol thee, O LORD; for thou hast lifted me up, and hast not made my foes to rejoice over me.”
(Psalm 30:1; all scripture quoted is from the King James Version)
The Government of God is the perfect one which worldly governments should emulate. His government is designed to profit man and not oppress him.
Prince Otto von Bismark’s biographer says that Bismark literally despised England and all that pertained to the English. Bismark’s manner of government was controlled-despotism while the British government of constitutional monarchy and parliamentary governance was alien to Bismark’s thinking. The British system followed in line with the third paragraph of the Te Deum Laudamus (“Govern them and lift them up for ever.”) That is the kind of governance favored by God – the kind that lifts its people up but does not oppress.
Bismark’s mode of government was to “govern them and keep them down forever.” It is indeed the very form of government against which the citizens of every nation must guard. There will always be a prideful desire to demean the citizen to the point of servitude to government. If we stand not to the line in combatting every emerging proponency of such government, we shall be reduced to the kind of servitude from which a great cost in blood must be paid to escape.
It is the Christian Way to lift up and not oppress. We follow in the footsteps of our Lord Jesus Christ in so doing; and, if we are committed Christian citizens, we will strive to uphold such Christian principles in our government.
Christ was constantly lifting others up. When informed of the infirmity of Peter’s mother, we are told, “
“And he came and took her by the hand, and lifted her up; and immediately the fever left her, and she ministered unto them.” (Mark 1:31) Even the Psalmist refers to our Lord as the Lifter-upper. “But thou, O LORD, art a shield for me; my glory, and the lifter up of mine head.” (Psalm 3:3)
The Lord lifts the poor and depressed from the filth of the world: “He raiseth up the poor out of the dust, and lifteth up the beggar from the dunghill, to set them among princes, and to make them inherit the throne of glory: for the pillars of the earth are the LORD’S, and he hath set the world upon them.” (1 Samuel 2:8)
It is the resurrection power of the Lord that raises us up from the very gates of death: “Have mercy upon me, O LORD; consider my trouble which I suffer of them that hate me, thou that liftest me up from the gates of death:” (Psalm 9:13)
He lifts us up from the dangers of the enemy: “He delivereth me from mine enemies: yea, thou liftest me up above those that rise up against me: thou hast delivered me from the violent man.” (Psalm 18:48)
Christ lifts us up from the wyles of the devil: “But Jesus took him by the hand, and lifted him up; and he arose.” (Mark 9:27)
Our Lord by hand or mouth lifts the deceased from their slumber: “. . .And he put them all out, and took her by the hand, and called, saying, Maid, arise. 55And her spirit came again, and she arose straightway: and he commanded to give her meat.” (Luke 8:54-55) The same Voice called forth Lazarus from the tomb and lifted him to liberty.
In America we face a great danger and challenge. There are forces afoot that have been eating away at the pillars of our Constitutional government for many decades. Our freedoms that we have enjoyed have been purchased by the treasure of blood of our patriotic soldiers and sailors. These forces would like to deprive us of our freedoms and reduce us to the servitude of as Marxist-Socialist state. Shall we rise up as men and women of Christian conscience and crush those irreverent culprits who seek to enslave us, or crouch timidly in our robes while our liberties are crushed? I will stand. I will resist. I will wage battle for our children and grandchildren.
