The Star Spangled Banner (2019)

This calendar has been on my desk for many years, telling me not only of the current date but also reminding me of many of the significant events in our nation’s history and the sometimes-unrecognized role that an Almighty God has played in those events.

Following are the pages from my calendar for the day before and the day after, along with one of the most significant dates, September 14, 1841, this year the 205^th anniversary of the writing of our National Anthem.

September 13

At the first light of dawn on this day in 1841, the British fleet commenced its bombardment of Fort McHenry, in Baltimore’s harbor. All day long and into the night, the shelling continued, lighting up the sky with explosions of aerial bombs, rockets, and mortars.

Watching from a British ship were two Americans, aboard under a flag of truce to negotiate an exchange of prisoners. One of these was Francis Scott Key, and as he paced the deck, he would pause and write down in a notebook the words that were coming to him. Then he would return to the rail, to see if the fort’s huge flag was still there.

September 14

In the early hours of this morning in 1814, a fierce storm came up, further obscuring the drama that was being played out in Baltimore’s harbor. Francis Scott Key strained to see the Stars and Stripes over Fort McHenry. And then, at the first light of dawn, he saw her and wrote the words that have stirred our hearts ever since:

September 15

Most churches sing more that the first verse of a hymn, and many sing them all. But at public events, the first stanza of our National Anthem must suffice. Too bad, for we seldom hear the last, and the words are beautiful:

O! thus be it ever, when free men shall stand
Between their loved home and the war’s desolation;
Blest with vict’ry and peace, may the Heav’n-rescued land
Praise the Pow’r that hath made and preserved 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!

Reference: ’The Glory of America’ by Peter Marshall & David Manuel, published by Garborg’s Heart ’N Home, Inc., Bloomington, MN, SPCN 5-5044-0164-X

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