Credit to Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash
The second hymn in my four-part series “The History of Hymns” is “The Star-Spangled Banner.” While this hymn is not strictly about God and Jesus, His Son, it does have an underlying theme of God’s great mercy to our country, America. And besides, we did just celebrate July 4th. ;)
Many people know the story of “The Star-Spangled Banner,” but it bears repeating, for it truly is an awe-inspiring tale, one born completely out of experience. Experience, as I said last week, was key to creating some of the very best hymns, and very few stories are as incredible as the one that led Francis Scott Key to write “The Star-Spangled Banner.”
The great anthem of our country was written during the War of 1812, the first war that America faced as a country. In August of 1814, the British burned the White House and other important and famous buildings in Washington D. C. At the same time, they also captured a doctor by the name of Binet. Francis Scott Key was a Christian Attorney at the time and, because of his political influence, was elected to barter for the doctor’s release. The negotiations, which took place aboard one of the ships in the British fleet, were successful, but returning to shore was less so. For fear that the Americans would warn their troops about a proposed attack on Baltimore, the British refused to let them leave. The ships arrived at their destination and then Key and the others in his party were returned to their ship—but put under guard.
All day and into the night, they watched the British fire on Fort McHenry. I’m sure it was a horrifying thing to witness. The firing stopped around midnight but, just as Key’s song says, it wasn’t until the sun rose on the fort the next morning that they beheld their American flag still waving proudly. No doubt it was a thrilling moment for the Americans aboard that boat—and a disappointing moment for the British. Inspired by what he was seeing, Key instantly began writing “Oh, say can you see by the dawn’s early light…” When he was returned to shore, he wrote out a clean copy of the song and, within a week, it had been published in two different Baltimore papers. A month or so later, the song was published in sheet music form, using a tune that had been written thirty-nine years before. Ever since, it has been an immensely popular song and was our National Anthem by public acceptance long before it was declared so by Congress in 1931.
The story of our National Anthem is certainly an inspiring, thrilling one. I believe God had his hand on that fort and when Key wrote it, the song became worthy of a country that had had God’s hand on it from the start. Though the anthem doesn’t specifically deal with typical hymn-worthy subjects—Jesus’ Saving Grace, for one—it does carry an underlying theme of God’s mercy on our country. Two lines that prove this are, “And this be our motto, “In God is our trust!” and “may the heav’n rescued land Praise the Pow’r that hath made and preserved us a nation!”
It truly is a beautiful hymn of God’s deliverance and mercy in America’s history, one that we shouldn’t always remember.
I hope you are beginning to realize that hymns, the best hymns, are truly experiences. No one could just sit down and write what Francis Scott Key did at a desk.
It took both a special man and a special experience. And, of course, a God who truly loves our country.
We should be grateful for it.
O say can you see, by the dawn's early light,
What so proudly we hail'd at the twilight's last gleaming,
Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight
O'er the ramparts we watch'd were so gallantly streaming?
And the rocket's red glare, the bomb bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there,
O say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?
On the shore dimly seen through the mists of the deep
Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,
In full glory reflected now shines in the stream,
'Tis the star-spangled banner - O long may it wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!
And where is that band who so vauntingly swore,
That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion
A home and a Country should leave us no more?
Their blood has wash'd out their foul footstep's pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave,
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.
O thus be it ever when freemen shall stand
Between their lov'd home and the war's desolation!
Blest with vict'ry and peace may the heav'n rescued land
Praise the power that hath made and preserv'd us a nation!
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto - "In God is our trust,"
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.
I never thought of hymns as experiences before but they truly are. It makes me appreciate life experiences more of those songs are what can come out of them!