Lift Every Voice And Sing!

"Lift every voice and sing
Till earth and Heaven ring
Ring with the harmonies of Liberty;
Let our rejoicing rise,
High as The list'ning skies,
let it resound loud as the Rolling sea

Sing a song
full of 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 Chast'ning rod,
Felt in the day that hope
Unborn had died;
Yet with a steady Beat,
Have not our weary feet,
Come to the Place on 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 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,
Least our hearts,
drunk with the wine of The world, we forget thee,

Shadowed beneath the Hand,
May we forever stand,
True to our God,
True to our native land."  

There has been a lot of debate about this being sung before the first week of NFL games alongside the National Anthem.  I think a lot of it stems from being referred to as the Black National Anthem, not recognizing that the title was given to the song by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in 1919, for its power of voicing a cry of liberation and affirmation for African American people.  

I don't know about you, but looking over the lyrics and listening to the song, this seems to be a fitting anthem for our country right now.  In many ways, more fitting for the America we want to be than the Star Spangled Banner.  If there were to be a proposed change, I would be in agreement. 

If you haven't, I implore to you listen to this hymn.  Let it speak to you.  Let God speak to you through it.   Meditate on its words.  I guarantee they are easy to find.  It's in your hymnal now.

We'd be in a much better place if we could all lift our voices and sing this in agreement.