Another thought on Patriotism:

Not even half had been told.

(First Kings10:7)

One last thought before leaving Songs of America. Can we be patriotic even though our nation’s history and its leaders are flawed? Thomas Jefferson comes to mind as the framer of our Declaration that “all men are created equal and endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights…”; and yet, Jefferson owned slaves. What are we to make of our nation’s blemishes?

The Bible can’t stop boasting about the wonders of the nation David and his son Solomon brought forth. David the warrior who cleared the way for Solomon’s wise rule (1K 4):

God gave Solomon very great wisdom, discernment, and breadth of understanding as vast as the sand on the seashore, so that Solomon's wisdom surpassed the wisdom of all the people of the east, and all the wisdom of Egypt. He was wiser than anyone else, wiser than Ethan the Ezrahite, and Heman, Calcol, and Darda, children of Mahol; his fame spread throughout all the surrounding nations.

He composed three thousand proverbs, and his songs numbered a thousand and five. He would speak of trees, from the cedar that is in the Lebanon to the hyssop that grows in the wall; he would speak of animals, and birds, and reptiles, and fish. People came from all the nations to hear the wisdom of Solomon; they came from all the kings of the earth who had heard of his wisdom.

For a brief moment, Israel stood toe to toe with the great nations of the earth. When the Queen of Sheba saw it with her own eyes it took her breath away and she sighed, “Not even half had been told.”

This was Israel’s Golden Age. And yet, both David and Solomon disappoint. There’s that David and Bathsheba thing and the tragedy that unfolds: “Absalom, O Absalom, my son, my son!” And, Solomon’s 700 wives and 300 concubines proves too much, not only for God, but for us as well. It’s just as Samuel warned (1 Sam 8): “This is the way of kings…”

We can be patriotic even though our leaders disappoint. As nations go, the U.S.A. isn’t bad—it’s right up there with the best of them. It would be sanctimonious not to be grateful for such a nation. We can be good patriots, while at the same time acknowledging that “here we have no lasting city, but we are looking for the city that is to come (Hb 13:14).