America cannot be ‘the nation whose God is the Lord’
This is adapted from my video on Bible verses that are frequently applied to America, which you can watch here.
The previous article examined a verse that many patriotic Christians apply to America, 2 Chronicles 7:14. They say if American believers do the things instructed in that verse, like pray and repent, then God will “heal our land.”
This entry will look at another Scripture that many Christians use as an imperative that will result in God blessing America:
Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord (Psalm 33:12).
What Christians usually mean when they quote that is, America will be blessed if we make the Lord our God. There are several issues with that premise.
Beware of half-verses
The first thing we need to know about this verse is that it’s not a verse. It’s the first half of a verse. You’d think it was a verse because it’s usually quoted without the second half.
It’s always dangerous to hang a doctrine on half a verse, because the other half tells you what the first half means. That’s certainly the case here.
The full verse is:
Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD,
The people He has chosen as His own inheritance.
Who is that describing? Who are the people He has chosen as His own inheritance?
At the time, it was Israel. Deuteronomy 32:9 says, “For the LORD’s portion is His people; Jacob is the place of His inheritance.” Likewise, Jeremiah 10:16 says, “Israel is the tribe of His inheritance.”
Back then, God’s people and the nation were the same thing. If you were born into Israel, you were one of God’s chosen people. Israel is the only nation in the history of the world that could say that; it’s the only nation God has ever made a covenant with, through Abraham, Moses and David.
But ultimately, God’s unique relationship with Israel wasn’t primarily about Israel. God chose Israel as the nation that would bring about the Messiah, the Savior and Redeemer. And then the Savior, God the Son, would establish a new covenant, the final covenant, which isn’t with any earthly nation.
This covenant created a new nation, a new people. Citizenship in this new nation wouldn’t be according to birth — at least not physical birth. It would be through second birth, the new birth. A spiritual birth. Those who are spiritually reborn would be God’s chosen people, whether they were Jews or Gentiles, no matter where they lived. This new nation is a global nation without borders.
This is the church, the worldwide body of believers in Jesus Christ. We, the church, are God’s possession, bought with the blood of Christ. And so we, the church, are the people He has chosen as His own inheritance. Therefore, we, the church, are the nation whose God is the LORD.
This verse isn’t about America or any other geopolitical nation. It’s about God’s redeemed people among all nations.
A holy nation, chosen by God
Some may wonder, how can the church be a nation? That’s exactly what we’re called in 1 Peter 2:
9 But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; 10 who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy.
We, the church, are a holy nation, set apart by God unto God. The Greek word there for nation is ethnos; it means a group of people with a common heritage and a common culture. Verse 10 says we were once not a people; we didn’t have anything in common except for our sinful humanity. But God has made us His people, a nation from all nations, Jews and Gentiles. Of course, what we have in common now is Him.
Also, both Psalm 33:12 and 1 Peter 2:9 say that we are the people whom God has chosen. They describe something God does. The Christians who apply this to America think this is an imperative, that we as a nation must choose the Lord as our God. But no, it’s God who does the choosing. He chooses us.
How would we do that anyway? How does a geopolitical nation make the Lord its God? I don’t know. There are no instructions or examples in Scripture. Only the story of what God has done.
The future of all nations
I love my country. Specifically, I love the people in my country as my neighbors. Even though Christians are exiles and aliens, we seek the welfare of the city where we have been sent into exile, as God said to the captive Israelites in Jeremiah 29:7. As the Bible says we should in 1 Timothy 2, I pray for our leaders, from any party.
Has God used America? Of course He has; He’s used all nations. The whole world is God’s chessboard.
Was America founded by God? Yes, because He founded all the nations. That’s in Acts 17:26 — “And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings.” In that way, all nations are under God.
You know what else the Bible says about nations? Jesus is going to destroy them. Read Psalm 2:
8 Ask of Me, and I will give You
The nations for Your inheritance,
And the ends of the earth for Your possession.
9 You shall break them with a rod of iron;
You shall dash them to pieces like a potter’s vessel.
Compare that to the return of Christ in Revelation 19:
15 Now out of His mouth goes a sharp sword, that with it He should strike the nations. And He Himself will rule them with a rod of iron. He Himself treads the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.
If you think America is a nation in the Biblical sense, that’s where we’re headed. God is going to judge America, not for some specific sin, but for every sin that every person commits every day, just like in all the other nations.
Ultimately, as Christians, our nation is the kingdom. For now, we are ambassadors of the kingdom in a foreign land. In eternity, we will be “a great multitude which no one could number, of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb” (Revelation 7:9).
That’s the nation whose God is the Lord.
See also: