As I was flipping through pages to get to Psalm 18 yesterday, my eyes fell on a verse in Psalm 17 that jumped out at me. I had already flipped past the page, but I felt Holy Spirit was telling me I needed to go back and take a closer look at that Psalm. I turned back and found the words that had hooked my attention: “swollen with pride and filled with arrogance,” found in verse 10. The Passion Translation title for Psalm 17 is “A CRY FOR JUSTICE;” it is a priestly prayer by King David.
I began at the beginning, and when I came to verse 8, Holy Spirit directed me to pray for the United States, beginning with that verse.
“Protect me from harm; keep an eye on me like you would a child reflected in the twinkling of your eye. Yes, hide me within the shelter of your embrace, under your outstretched wings. Protect me there from all my foes. For there are many who surround my soul to completely destroy me….They’re like lions eager to tear me apart…so ferocious and cruel—ready to rip me to shreds. Arise God and confront them! Challenge them with your might! Free me from their clutches and rescue me from their rage…” Psalm 17:8-13, (TPT)
Holy Spirit had me pray through to the end of the Psalm, and I encourage you to read it in its entirety, especially verses 8-15, in the King James or The Passion Translation.
It struck me I wasn’t just praying for the United States or even on behalf of the United States; I was praying AS the United States, the land. I thought that was a little strange. Then Holy Spirit reminded me of Romans 8:19, which says that the “earth groans for the day when all God’s children become who they were meant to be.” He also reminded me of Genesis 4:9-10, when God tells Cain, “your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground.” And when the Pharisees told Jesus to tell his disciples to stop praising him as he drew near to Jerusalem, Jesus said, “I tell you that if these should keep silent, the stones would immediately cry out” (Luke 19:40, NKJV).
This land which became the United States of America was consecrated to the LORD in 1607 by those who founded Jamestown. Before they set foot on the land, they fasted and prayed for three days. And when they disembarked, they erected the wooden cross they had brought with them on their voyage and made a Covenant of Dedication with God, led by Reverend Robert Hunt:
“We do hereby Dedicate this Land, and ourselves, to reach the People within these shores with the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and to raise up Godly generations after us, and with these generations take the Kingdom of God to all the earth. May this Covenant of Dedication remain to all generations, as long as this earth remains, and may this Land, along with England, be Evangelist to the World. May all who see this Cross, remember what we have done here, and may those who come here to inhabit join us in this Covenant and this most noble work that the Holy Scriptures may be fulfilled.”
Notice that this covenant to “take the Kingdom of God to all the earth” would apply to all future generations “as long as this earth remains.”
At the conclusion of the prayer, Psalm 22:27-28 was read from the Geneva Bible: “All the ends of the world shall remember and turn to the Lord, and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before thee. For the kingdom is the Lord’s and he ruleth among the nations.”
I believe our beloved land is crying out for God to return us to our covenant and foundation as a light to the world. Not only do we as the Church have a destiny; this land, the United States of America, has a covenant with God and a destiny. And she is crying out to God to free her from those who would keep her from her destiny. I don't know if this is affecting you as it has affected me, but my heart is breaking for our nation which is in such agony.
On this very important Election Day, join me in praying for our nation and decree that God’s will is done, on earth as it is in heaven. And vote for those who support our nation’s God-given destiny to be a light to the world.