BLESSED IS THE NATION

Psalms 33:12 (KJV)

Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD; and the people whom he hath chosen for his own inheritance.

A moment to discuss the differences in the Hebrews words translated “blessed.”

In the one case, which is our primary focus for the year, the Hebrew word is Asher and the derivatives of it. 

It is a word best defined as “happy.”

But there is another word that is often translated “blessed” that in Hebrew is Barak and the derivatives of it.

Its primary definition is “to kneel”. It often speaks of a salutation, invocation, and congratulations.

When you think of a person who is blessed, you probably don’t think of someone who is happy but of someone who is favored. 

Good things happen to them.

I think of myself as one of those “favored” people.

I don’t know why, but it seems to me that God has been especially kind to me.

• I was favored with the ability to do well in school
• I was favored with a great trade right after school
• I was favored to meet and marry a wife who has loved me and been supportive of me
• I was favored to have heard the Gospel and gotten saved
• I was favored that my wife too trusted Christ and was saved
• I was favored in planting a church that actually grew from zero to averaging 140
• I was favored by having great friends in the ministry (Dave Brown among them)
• I was favored I was favored in being given a great building in Astoria
• I was favored in being asked to be the Executive VP at PCBBC and then HBBC
• I was favored when I asked God, He called me to this church
• I was favored with sons who love the Lord
• I was favored with daughters in law for my sons who also love the Lord and support their husbands

I am not saying that everything that has happened to me in my life was easy, painless and carefree.

Nor am I saying that there aren’t some things I wished had turned out a bit different

I am not saying that I am perfect.

I just mean that I am thankful to the Lord that He has been kind to me.

The reason why all of this is important to this message is because I imagine that most of us read Psalm 33:12 and interpret it that way,

Blessed, uniquely favored by God, is the nation whose God is the Lord….

And our interpretation would be incorrect.

This is the word that is defined “happy”.

Notice that it is not

• Blessed is the person whose God is the Lord or
• Blessed is the individual whose God is the Lord

Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord

We are created to be a united people.

We do best when we are in a body, when we belong to a unit.

When you think about a nation, you think about a government, don’t you?

I want to propose to you that there have been three nations that have been uniquely set aside as God’s:

• Israel
• England
• USA

I realize, by the way, that when this message gets out on our Youtube channel, there are going to be a LOT of people who take great offense to that statement.

Some people will not get passed the fact that I grouped England and the USA with Israel. 

They will accuse me of “replacement theology” and say I am anti Semitic.

Others will be offended that I was suggest that God favors anyone over another.

• They get offended that we claim that those who do not trust Christ as Saviour will go to hell.
• They get offended that would suggest that any group of people could be judged by God

I think Donald Trump would fit real well with them, they don’t think its fair that God is not fair.

They think everyone ought to be able to believe what they want to believe and behave how they want to behave and that God has no right judging one’s beliefs and behavior.

I. ISRAEL

Deuteronomy 7:6-8 (KJV)

For thou art an holy people unto the LORD thy God: the LORD thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself, above all people that are upon the face of the earth.

The LORD did not set his love upon you, nor choose you, because ye were more in number than any people; for ye were the fewest of all people:

But because the LORD loved you, and because he would keep the oath which he had sworn unto your fathers, hath the LORD brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you out of the house of bondmen, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.

I want to confess two things right now:

• Israel is a uniquely, much more than any other nation, the nation whose God is the Lord.
• By addressing England and USA as nations whose God is the Lord, I approach a heresy which replaces Israel with believing Gentiles

Israel has a unique relationship with God because He chose them as a nation and because He promised to love them unconditionally and eternally.

That is not true of any other nation.

While it is true that God has set Israel aside right now, it is also true that God is going to return His attention on them in the future.

• He has never forgotten His promise to Israel
• He has never stopped loving Israel
• He has never waiver in His plan for Israel

Speaking of the nation of Israel God says,

Romans 11:15 (KJV)

For if the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead?

When Israel rejected Jesus, God cast them away. He cut them off and grafted in a new thing, the church composed of Jews and Gentiles who have trusted Christ as Saviour.

But God makes a promise to Israel that He makes to no other nation on this planet as we think of nations; He promises to graft them back in.

• Babylon will be cast away forever
• Persia will be cast away forever
• Greece will be cast away forever
• Rome will be cast away forever
• Russia will be cast away forever
• Germany will be cast away forever
• England will be cast away forever
• USA will be cast away forever
• Etc

Not so Israel.

They have been favored, and they have been blessed and happy because of it.

• They happily gave to us the Word of God
• They happily enjoyed the leadership of Moses and Joshua and David
• They happily sang the songs of Zion
• They happily met with God in the Tabernacle and Temple

I do not mean to say that everyone was happy

And they were not flippantly happy all the time.

But as a nation they had reason to rejoice.

I cautiously come to the second nation

II. ENGLAND

There is no verse to prove that England’s God was the Lord.

I can only comment historically

• England received the gospel very early in their history
• England translated the Bible into their own language very early in history and
• England had kings who understood they were in many ways servants to their citizens very early in their history

I spent a great deal of time on this last year so I do not want to do that now, but English people considered themselves free men.

And there is a certain joy that enjoyed only in liberty.

I do not want to imply that everyone in England was happy or that their government was a godly one – far from it.

But there was always a seed of truth in England that did not exist anywhere else.

That seed demonstrated itself, I think, in the results of revival during the 18^th century. England turned to God under the preaching of the Gospel. France, by contrast, turned to rationalism and then to bloody violence.

England only had the seed of truth and they soon expelled that seed, which landed on this continent and eventually became,

III. UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

Unlike some, I do not believe America was ever 

• Godly and 
• Pure and 
• Good

Your Baptist forefathers and mine were persecuted heavily right here all the way through 

• The Revolutionary War 
• The writing of the Constitution and until 
• The Bill of Rights was ratified

But while I would not go so far as to say our country was godly back then, I would say that our founders were men who sought God as best as they knew and through a search of the Bible.

The most commonly quoted reference in the work on the Constitution was the Bible.

Our country may not have been godly, but God was using those men.

The result was a nation that was blessed.

A handful of scrabble soldiers:

• Barely clothed
• Poorly fed and
• Nearly unarmed

Happily defeated the most powerful military of their day.

Our country began 

• In debt
• Fragmented and
• Alone in the world – no other nation was remotely like her

But in just a few very short years she was considered one of the most powerful nations in the world.

Please remember that: 

• I did not say that any of these nations were always happy
• Nor did I say that everyone in their nation was ever happy and
• Neither did I say that there were never circumstances that were unhappy

What I mean to say is that there was a general trend of happiness.

The same thing is true of my own life.

I cannot say that everything that has happened to me and my family after I got saved has been 

• Good, 
• Easy and
• Pleasant

The fact has been that we have lived a life filled with 

• Heartache, 
• Pain, 
• Persecution and 
• Trouble 

because we are Christians and because, with His grace, we have obeyed the Lord’s leading.

As a pastor, trouble, persecution and heartache is the norm. something doesn’t feel right without it.

But while that is true

It is also true that I can’t imagine being happier.

And all I have to do is look at my siblings to know that there would have been NO happiness if I had not gotten saved and followed the Lord.

• Israel had troubles, but as long as God was their Lord they were happy.
• England had troubles, but while England heard from God they were happy
• America had troubles, but so long as America sought God she was happy

The problem is that in every case they turned their back on the Lord.

• Israel crucified Jesus
• England gave herself over to reprobates and now
• America has rejected God in favor of wicked idolators

All of this seems a little dismal but rejoice!

There is one nation, different than any of the others, of whom it can truly be said, “whose God is the Lord.”

IV. AN HOLY NATION

1 Peter 2:9 (KJV)

But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light:

There are a lot of different terms that we use to describe corporate Christianity; Christians as a whole:

Church, is mostly incorrectly used to describe the unity that exists between all Christians

Also incorrectly used are the terms:

• Body
• Bride
• Building

These terms do describe an assembled and unified collection of Christians; but they describe accurately describe a limited number of them in a single location.

• Sometimes we use the term “Kingdom of God” 

to refer to all believers of all time.

• Sometimes we use the term “family of God”

Notice the terms that Peter gives us in this verse:

• A chosen generation
• A royal priesthood
• A peculiar people

And the one I am interested in for this message, 

• an holy nation.

This book, according to its very first verse, is a addressed, 

1 Peter 1:1 (KJV)

… to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia,

He is speaking to Christians and he says in this first verse that

They were strangers

They don’t fit anywhere. No place feels like home to them. No one in this world makes them feel welcome.

• The culture
• The worldview
• The purpose for living

Was so different for these Christians that it would not have matters where in the world they lived, they would have felt strange there.

They were scattered

Because they did not feel at home anywhere, and because no one anywhere wanted them there, they ended up scattered farther and farther into the regions beyond.

No doubt this refers primarily to the persecution of the believers in Jerusalem as described back in Acts 8.

Jerusalem wasn’t the only place they were run out of.

Paul was run out of: 

• Damascus
• Jerusalem
• Thessalonica
• Berea
• Philippi and
• Ephesus

They were strangers and they were scattered but Peter reminded them that they were much more:

• They were chosen
• They were royal
• They were holy and
• They were peculiar to God

The Greek work for nation is “ethnos”.

It is used to describe:

• The human family or
• A people group

It also speaks of a multitude of people associated or living together.

But the definition that intrigues me the most is, individuals of the same nature.

That is a perfect description of all Christians of all times in all places.

We all possess the new nature given to us in Christ.

It is an holy nation in that

It belongs to God

It is an holy nation in that

It is separate from everything in this world

It is an holy nation

It is consecrated for God

And it is a blessed nation

The joy of the Lord is our strength. 

• He indwells us, 
• He goes before us
• He comes behind and protects us

• When we wake up in the morning we are aware the He watched over us through the night.
• When we go through trials and troubles He promises to go with us
• As we go about our activities we know He enables us and helps us

• There is no enemy He cannot conquer
• There is no danger He cannot overcome
• There is no fear He cannot replace with love

• Life has meaning
• Trouble has purpose
• Death has no power

Those of this nation are truly blessed indeed.

Conclusion

Do you know that you are a citizen of this holy and blessed nation?

The qualifications have nothing to do with: 

• race, 
• class or 
• background

• Your parents can’t gain you access
• Your place of birth has no bearing

Citizenship belongs to those who have personally

• Realized their sinful condition
• Recognized the eternal consequence of sin
• Relied on the gospel of Jesus Christ to save them and have
• Received the gift of eternal life through Jesus Christ