“My country, right or wrong!”

During my early teens, in the middle of the anti-Vietnam War movement, some countered the protesters with this phrase, saying it is the duty of citizens to back their country – even if it is in the wrong.

My father was in Vietnam, risking his life as a pilot. He had talked with the family about why he was going, why the war was important. So I had frustrations with the antiwar movement. But even as a teen, I had qualms about, “My country, right or wrong.”

I didn’t know at the time that it originated way back in 1816. A naval hero, Stephen Decatur, who had defeated the North African Barbary pirates, gave this toast: To “our country: In her intercourse with foreign nations may she always be in the right, and always successful, right or wrong.” Over time, the phrase lost its nuance, becoming: My country, right or wrong.

What should be our attitude toward our country – toward this country, the USA, which celebrates its 245^th birthday today?

Today’s text, Psalm 106, helps us answer that question. Like the previous psalm, this one looks back at the history of Israel. But whereas Psalm 105 relates the history of God’s faithfulness to His promise to Israel and His sovereign control over all events in bringing about His plan, Psalm 106 highlights the sins and failures of the nation. God in response brings judgment – but nevertheless fulfills His promise.

Verse 6 introduces the theme: “Both we and our fathers have sinned; we have committed iniquity; we have done wickedness.”

We today can say the same about our country. We and our fathers have sinned. Yet there are some voices today calling for us to say little else about our country’s history, only: “We have sinned, we have sinned!”

But both for Israel and for us there is much more to say. Let’s see how this psalm helps us to know what more to say.

We’ll examine it under four headings:

• A Command, An Observation, and a Request
• Israel’s sins
• God’s Righteousness
• How Should We Love Our Country?

A Command, An Observation, and a Request

Though the confession of sin in verse 6 provides the theme for the bulk of the psalm, the author does not begin with sin. He begins instead where we should always begin: With God. Indeed, the psalm begins and ends with the command, “Praise the Lord!”

• He is the good one.
• His love never ends.
• He has acted time and again showing that love.
• We fail, but He never fails.
• We could praise Him for the rest of our lives and never finish declaring all the praise He deserves.

So praise Him! Thank Him – whether you are rejoicing in good times or are suffering in bad times. God is always good, always worthy of praise.

That’s the command.

The observation is in verse 3: “Blessed are they who observe justice, who do righteousness at all times!” God observes justice; God does righteousness at all times. So we are blessed, we are fulfilling the purpose of our creation, when we act like Him.

The psalmist will highlight many cases in which the Israelites fail to do this. But nevertheless maintains: saying: This is the way to true joy: Be like Him.

The request is in verses 4-5:

Remember me, O LORD, when you show favor to your people; help me when you save them, that I may look upon the prosperity of your chosen ones, that I may rejoice in the gladness of your nation, that I may glory with your inheritance. (emphasis added)

Given what the psalmist is about to say, this is of great importance. The psalmist knows God will fulfill His promises to His people. He knows that despite all that he is about to say about sin, God will show favor to them, He will save them. He wants to be part of God’s people, sharing in that future.

Just so with us.

• May we fulfill the command: Praising Him and thanking Him continually.
• May we hold fast to the observation: That true blessings come only to those who by His grace take on His character.
• May we – seeing His church, with all her weaknesses and failures – may we long to part of that church, part of Jesus’ Bride, confident that God will perfect His church and glorify His Name through her.

Israel’s Sins

This brings us to verse 6: “Both we and are fathers have sinned.”

The psalm then recounts seven specific sins at particular times prior to their entering the Promised Land, followed by a brief description of how those sins continued once they entered the land. All seven result from a failure to fulfill the earlier command, to remember the earlier observation, or to continue to make the earlier request.

First sin: At the Red Sea: Rebellion through failure to remember (Psalm 106:7-12)

God has shown His power and love through sending the plagues on the Egyptians while sparing the Israelites. But when the Egyptian army approaches them when their backs are to the Red Sea, the people forget God’s love, God’s power, and God’s faithfulness. They “did not remember the abundance of your steadfast love, but rebelled” (Psalm 106:7). As recorded in Exodus 14:12, they cry out, “It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness.”

Second sin: In the Wilderness: Putting God to the test (Psalm 106:13-15)

This incident is recorded in Numbers 11. God has provided them for their sustenance miraculously, sending manna six mornings every week. But they cry out, “Oh that we had meat to eat! We remember the fish we ate in Egypt that cost nothing, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic. But now our strength is dried up, and there is nothing at all but this manna to look at” (Numbers 11:4-6). Despising God’s marvelous gift, they put His love to the test, effectively saying, “If God really loved us, He would give us whatever we want.”

Third sin: In the Wilderness: Jealousy of God’s chosen leaders (Psalm 106:16-18)

In Numbers 16:3, certain men say, “All in the congregation are holy, every one of them, and the LORD is among them. Why then do you [Moses and Aaron] exalt yourselves above the assembly of the LORD?” Yet God had shown in miraculous ways who His chosen leaders were. Thus Moses says in Numbers 16:11, “it is against the LORD that you and all your company have gathered together.”

Fourth sin: At Sinai: Idolatry (Psalm 106:19-23)

While Moses is on the mountain, the people have Aaron make a golden calf and worship it:

They made a calf in Horeb and worshiped a metal image. They exchanged the glory of God for the image of an ox that eats grass. They forgot God, their Savior, who had done great things in Egypt (Psalm 106:19-21).

Paul alludes to this passage in Romans 1:

Although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images (Romans 1:21-23).

Fifth sin: In the Wilderness: Lack of faith in God’s promise (Psalm 106:24-27)

This passage refers to the incident recorded in Numbers 13 and 14. Twelve men return from spying out the Promised Land. They all agree that it is fruitful, but ten of the spies say that the nation will be destroyed if they enter, for the land is populated by powerful nations, including giants. The people then want to choose a leader to take them back to Egypt.

As Psalm 106:24 says: “Then they despised the pleasant land, having no faith in his promise.”

This is the fundamental sin: Lack of faith in God, lack of faith in His promises.

Sixth sin: In the Wilderness: Worshiping false gods (Psalm 106:28-31)

Rather than destroying the inhabitants of the land, as God instructs, many of the people participate in the worship of Midianite gods (Numbers 25). This worship includes practicing sexual immorality with Midianite women.

Seventh sin: In the Wilderness: Not trusting God (Psalm 106:32-33)

God has provided miraculously for the needs of His people time and again. Yet when they lack water, they blame Moses, saying, “Why have you made us come up out of Egypt to bring us to this evil place? It is no place for grain or figs or vines or pomegranates, and there is no water to drink” (Numbers 20:5).

God tells Moses to strike a rock, and He will cause water to flow. But Moses, angry with the people, speaks as if the water comes by his own power. God then punishes him.

The General Sin: In the Promised Land: Desiring to be like other nations (Psalm 106:34-39)

God set them apart from every other nation. But they despise this huge privilege, this great honor of belonging to Him, of being unique, and therefore repeat the earlier sins of idolatry, failing to remember, and lacking faith in God’s promise.

Twice in this sorry narrative, the psalmist deviates from the litany of sin, highlighting the way God uses Individuals who hate the sin and take action in quite different ways.

• The sixth sin: God sends a plague in punishment for the worship of Midianite gods. Leaders of the congregation are mourning over the sin and pleading with God for the people. At that very moment, a man brings a Midianite woman into the camp right in front of those pleading with God. They enter his tent and engage in sexual relations. Phinehas, Aaron’s grandson and thus in the priestly line, enters the tent and kills them both. As the psalmist says, “Phinehas stood up and intervened, and the plague was stayed. And that was counted to him as righteousness from generation to generation forever” (Psalm 106:30-31)
• The fourth sin: God tells Moses He will destroy the people for their sin with the golden calf, and will make a new nation from Moses’ descendants. But Moses pleads with God. The psalmist tells us, “[God] said he would destroy them – had not Moses, his chosen one, stood in the breach before him, to turn away his wrath from destroying them” (Psalm 106:23).

These two Individuals are faithful to God in the midst of a sinful people. They both intervene – but in quite different ways. Phinehas acts, displaying God’s righteous wrath. Once that act takes place, God ends His plague. Moses on the other hand prays. He agrees that the people deserve judgment, but prays for God to be glorified among the nations by continuing to go with the people, so that other nations won’t be able to say that He brought them into the desert to kill them.

Thus God uses individuals in the midst of His sinful people for His good purposes.

God’s Righteousness

What is God’s righteousness?

It is more than His doing acts that are right and just. God not only does acts that are right and just; He is at His very core right and just. To do acts that are right and just is to display who He is – that is, to glorify Himself. So we can think of God’s righteousness as His living up to His character, His displaying His character. He does that in this psalm both by punishing sin and by being faithful to His promise. Let’s look at these in turn.

God punishes all the recounted sins except the first, at the Red Sea. The account of God’s righteous punishment of sin culminates in Psalm 106:41-43, where the psalmist summarizes the book of Judges:

He gave them into the hand of the nations, so that those who hated them ruled over them. Their enemies oppressed them, and they were brought into subjection under their power. Many times he delivered them, but they were rebellious in their purposes and were brought low through their iniquity.

God hates sin. He sees to it that every sin is punished. This is one important aspect of His righteousness.

But God also is righteous in being faithful to His promise, despite the sins of the people. We see this in verse 23, when God turns away His wrath after the incident with the golden calf after Moses prays; in verse 30 when He stops the plague after Phinehas acts; in verse 43, delivering the people many times. As the psalmist records:

Nevertheless, he looked upon their distress, when he heard their cry. For their sake he remembered his covenant, and relented according to the abundance of his steadfast love. He caused them to be pitied by all those who held them captive (Psalm 106:44-46, emphasis added).

While commenting on the Red Sea experience, Psalm 106:8 makes this point most succinctly: “Yet he saved them for his name’s sake, that he might make known his mighty power.”

God always displays His justice, His hatred for sin. And God always displays His love, His mercy, His grace. In both ways, He works “for His Name’s sake,” for His glory. That is His righteousness. And thus that righteousness is the only hope of sinful people like you and me.

How Should We Love Our Country?

How is our country today similar to ancient Israel? How is it dissimilar?

We certainly can say with the psalmist, “Both we and our fathers have sinned.” Similar to Psalm 106, we could look at the history of the United States and make a list of past and present sins. That list might include:

• Saying all men are created equal and then not treating many as equals. At different times and in different ways, those sins have been against African Americans, women, Native Americans, Jews, Chinese, Japanese, Irish, Poles, Roman Catholics, and others.
• Putting to death over 60 million unborn children in the last five decades. And though praise God the annual number of abortions has decreased, still today one in five pregnancies in this country ends in abortion; in some cities, that proportion is over one half.
• Throughout our history, we as a people have run after idols: The idol of freedom, as if we are free to do whatever we may desire; the idol of prosperity; the idol of power; and, yes, the idol of country – “My country, right or wrong” is a symptom of that idolatry.

So, yes, like ancient Israel, our country’s history contains a long list of sins, of rebellions against God. We could say the same about every country today.

There are other ways that all countries, including the US, are similar to ancient Israel. Here are four:

• God’s sovereign hand is over both. As God says in Jeremiah 27:5, “It is I who by my great power and my outstretched arm have made the earth, with the men and animals that are on the earth, and I give it to whomever it seems right to me.” He removes governments and sets up governments. He rules all nations.
• There’s an element of corporate responsibility for our national sins. The psalmist says, “We and our fathers have sinned.” He doesn’t have to be guilty himself of any of these seven specific sins to say that. Recall that Daniel confesses sins of the people, saying, “We have sinned and done wrong and acted wickedly and rebelled, turning aside from your commandments and rules” (Daniel 9:5). We know of no such sins committed by Daniel as an individual; indeed, the account of his life is exemplary.
• We all have an Individual responsibility to act for God’s glory in our spheres of influence – as we’ve seen that Phinehas and Moses did. Whether through public actions, like Phinehas, or through private prayer, like Moses, we are to intervene for the good of our people and the glory of God’s Name.
• God’s character doesn’t change – so our responsibility doesn’t change. The same God who punished and showed mercy to Israel still punishes, still shows mercy.

If our countries today are similar in all these ways to ancient Israel, what is the difference?

The difference is the promise.

God makes no promise to the US as a country. This nation is not God’s chosen people. There is no promise that through America, through our descendants, all the families of nations will be blessed. God does not promise a coming American Messiah.

The promise today instead is to God’s church – God’s worldwide church. The Messiah already has come – Jesus Christ. His Kingdom will endure forever. All the promises of God are “Yes” in Him.

Therefore: We do not know if the US will endure as a country until Jesus returns. We do not know if we will drift into irrelevance over time (as the Roman Empire did over centuries), or be conquered by a foreign power (as the Babylonian Empire was), or experience a massive revival and be a major force for the advance of the Gospel.

So given who we are as a country – how we are like and yet unlike ancient Israel – how can we love our country?

The answer is in the beginning of Psalm 106: the command, the observation, and the request.

• We are to thank Among mighty deeds of the Lord is placing you in this country. We all are beneficiaries of the history of this country; we inherit a blessing by being born into or immigrating to the US. So thank God for the positive aspects of the history of this nation, especially for highlighting the idea that all are created equal. Thank Him for raising up those who sacrificed so that we might have this inheritance. Thank Him for freedom of speech – especially the freedom to criticize the government, which most people have never had. Thank Him for our elected officials, praying for them. Thank Him for freedom to worship, and pray that it may continue.
• We are to know the observation: “Blessed are those who observe justice, who do righteousness at all times” (Psalm 106:3). Knowing this, we ask: How can we take the inheritance we have in this country and improve it? What can I do individually – in my family, in my neighborhood, in my city, in my church? Perhaps God will use you like Phinehas and Moses, having you play a major role in improving our wider society. But don’t look down on the seemingly small ways you influence those around you. Particularly don’t look down on prayer: For national and local leaders, for churches, for us corporately as a nation.
• We are to make the same request: “Help me be among your people.” Our most important identity is in Christ. Our most important citizenship is in the Kingdom of God, not in the US. Indeed, the best way for you and me to love the US is to be an ambassador of the Kingdom of God, to be like Christ, to follow Christ, to love with His love, to serve by His power, to proclaim the Gospel and to act according to His righteousness.

Love the United States on this 245^th birthday. Love our country by thanking God, by acting and praying, by being an ambassador.

Conclusion

So what about that phrase: “My country, right or wrong”?

That phrase does not represent biblical patriotism. No ancient Israelite should have said that; we surely shouldn’t today.

Yet: a lesser known incident in the history of that famous phrase surprisingly brings out the right way to understand it.

Carl Schurz immigrated from what is now Germany shortly before 1850. He became a citizen, served in the Union army in the Civil War, and in 1868 was elected to the US Senate from Missouri as a Republican. Disappointed with the presidency of Ulysses Grant, however, he left the Republican party and attempted to form a new one.

In 1873 a fellow senator accused Schurz of working to undermine the US. Implying that Schurz was still a foreigner, with his allegiance divided, this other senator said Schurz should live out, “My country, right or wrong.”

Schurz replied: “In one sense I do say, ‘My country, right or wrong:’ If right, to be kept right; and if wrong, to be set right.”

May we as ambassadors of the Kingdom of God be His agents to keep right what is good in this country, to right what is wrong, especially in our individual spheres of influence, and to thank and praise Him that our hope is not in any country, but in the redeeming power of Jesus, who has all authority in heaven and on earth. His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed (Daniel 7:14).

[See Carl Cannon’s July 1 column at Real Clear Politics for the source of the Carl Schurz story. This devotion is based on the July 4, 2021 sermon, which is available as video here and as audio here].