A Prayer for America

4 Ah, sinful nation,
a people loaded with guilt,
a brood of evildoers,
children given to corruption!
They have forsaken the LORD;
they have spurned the Holy One of Israel
and turned their backs on him.

5 Why should you be beaten anymore?
Why do you persist in rebellion?
Your whole head is injured,
your whole heart afflicted.

6 From the sole of your foot to the top of your head
there is no soundness—
only wounds and welts
and open sores,
not cleansed or bandaged
or soothed with oil.

7 Your country is desolate,
your cities burned with fire;
your fields are being stripped by foreigners
right before you,
laid waste as when overthrown by strangers.

It's Morning, Jesus
You see our condition, Lord
As a society there is little "soundness" in America

Our lives are not based on thorough understanding of knowledge
Our logic has been broken and our arguments are flawed
We have thrown away the teasure houses of knowledge which our forefathers gave us
and upon which we were built.

We are not well. We are sick.
Our court system is not well
Our judges have lost honor
Our juries are sick

The open sore of covenantal marriage in our society
needs tending
Losing the soundness of principle that only a man and a woman
make a marriage
the very concept of man marrying man and woman marrying woman
is like a wound and a welt and an open sore upon our cities

The open sore of drug addiction
and cocaine parties and crack babies and meth drug labs
has loaded us with guilt
Our teachers in our school systems deal every day
with the wounds and the welts and the open sores

We are a society that refuses the medicine of God
saying we are not unclean, we are not sick, we do not need a bandage
We refuse the oil of truth
We refuse the cleansing of your word
We mock at God

We have lived apart from truth
We have stiff armed righteousness
We built our lives with hay and stubble
They hay of immediate satisfaction
The stubble of the instant gratification
And our country is desolate,
our cities burned with fire;
our fields are being stripped by foreigners
right before us,
laid waste as when overthrown by strangers.

Call us back to you, mighty God.

Amen