Sabbath Devotional :: Thoughts on the Lyrics of Liberty

Lift Every Voice and Sing - Mormon Women for Ethical Government

In many churches and chapels around the U.S. today, congregations will sing patriotic songs.

One probable candidate is “America the Beautiful,” which was quickly drafted by Katherine Lee Bates in 1893 when she visited Pikes Peak. She wrote of the experience:

One day some of the other teachers and I decided to go on a trip to 14,000-foot Pikes Peak. We hired a prairie wagon. Near the top we had to leave the wagon and go the rest of the way on mules. I was very tired. But when I saw the view, I felt great joy. All the wonder of America seemed displayed there, with the sea-like expanse.

The version we’re familiar with is set to music by Samuel A. Ward, and expanded lyrics appeared 20 years later in 1913.

Another popular favorite is “My Country, ‘Tis of Thee,” which written by Samuel Francis Smith in 1831, using the tune of “God Save the Queen” from Clementi’s Symphony No. 3. Using that music as his structure, Smith penned the song lyrics in 30 minutes. Other lyricists added verses over the years. Worth checking out are A. G. Duncan’s abolitionist verses written in 1843.

Our national anthem was penned by Francis Scott Key in 1814 and called “Defence of Fort M’Henry” after a Baltimore naval battle against the British in the War of 1812. We know it now as “The Star Spangled Banner.” It competed with other popular patriotic songs as de facto national anthems until 1931, when President Woodrow Wilson made it official with a congressional resolution.

There are mixed opinions about singing patriotic songs in church. We don’t want to worship America. Our God is beyond universes, not just at home in the U.S. of A. Still, we want to express our gratitude with heart and voice for the freedoms we cherish and struggle to uphold. (I have made my own promises to dedicate every sacrament meeting to Jesus Christ. Songs that don’t include even a mention of Him or God, in general, are ones I sing with gusto in just about any other setting, but not in sacrament meetings.)

But here is one song I would have no problem singing in any sacrament meeting at any time of the year if it were an option: “Lift Every Voice and Sing.” It was written in 1900 by James Weldon Johnson as a tribute to the birthday of Abraham Lincoln. In 1905 his brother John Rosamond Johnson wrote its current rousing music.

Have you heard of this song? Perhaps not. If that’s the case for you, first read through the lyrics and feel their power of praise, gratitude, struggle, and hope. Acknowledge the heartfelt longing for the “God of our weary years, God of our silent tears.” Can you make it through the last stanza without tears?

Then, after you have read the lyrics of this magnificent anthem of liberty and longing, Google the title, find a YouTube version of it being sung, and expand your vision of the world.

On this Sabbath day, throughout this celebratory week, and through all our MWEG conversations and initiatives, keep these lyrics in mind. Let us make “earth and heaven ring… with the harmonies of Liberty” and praise God whose “might led us into the light” and keeps us on the path.

Lift Every Voice and Sing

By James Weldon Johnson, music by John Rosamond Johnson

Lift every voice and sing
Till earth and heaven ring,
Ring with the harmonies of Liberty;
Let our rejoicing rise
High as the listening skies,
Let it resound loud as the rolling sea.
Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us,
Sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought us,
Facing the rising sun of our new day begun
Let us march on till victory is won.

Stony the road we trod,
Bitter the chastening rod,
Felt in the days when hope unborn had died;
Yet with a steady beat,
Have not our weary feet
Come to the place for which our fathers sighed?
We have come over a way that with tears has been watered,
We have come, treading our path through the blood of the slaughtered,
Out from the gloomy past,
Till now we stand at last
Where the white gleam of our bright star is cast.

God of our weary years,
God of our silent tears,
Thou who has brought us thus far on the way;
Thou who has by Thy might Led us into the light,
Keep us forever in the path, we pray.
Lest our feet stray from the places, our God, where we met Thee,
Lest, our hearts drunk with the wine of the world, we forget Thee;
Shadowed beneath Thy hand,
May we forever stand.
True to our God,
True to our native land.