The 250th Anniversary of America’s Battle Psalm

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Today, at 9:00 A.M., we celebrate the 250-year anniversary of God giving the United States its “Battle Psalm,” Psalm 35.  Here is that untold story and why it is relevant to us today.

In September of 1774, the American colonies and Great Britain had seen a decade of escalating tensions.  A call had gone out from colonial leaders calling for a Continental Congress to discuss a how a unified voice might help their grievances to be heard, rather than ignored by Parliament and the king.

On September 5, forty-five(*) delegates came together in Philadelphia.  Each of them was well known in his own colony, but this was the first time that many of them were meeting one another.  The atmosphere had to be filled with anticipation and a degree of caution as they began to get to know one another.

The very first motion put forward was by Thomas Cushing of Massachusetts: that they should open their deliberations in prayer.  Though most all of the 45 men came from Christian denominational backgrounds, those backgrounds were varied, and there was a degree of concern of how this proposal should be carried out.  Delegates from Virginia and South Carolina even resisted the idea, as each colony had its own denominational preference.

At this point, Sam Adams, a Puritan Congregationalist from Boston, rose to his feet and said, “I am no bigot, and could hear a prayer from a gentleman of piety and virtue, who was at the same time a friend to his country” (1).

[He] was a stranger in Philadelphia, but had heard that the Reverend Jacob Duché deserved that character, and therefore he moved that Mr. Duché, an Episcopalian clergyman, might be desired to read prayers to the Congress tomorrow morning.

On September 7, Reverend Duché arrived, dressed in his clerical robes and vestments.  In that day and age, prayer was a more formal affair, and, per Sam Adams’s suggestion, Rev. Duché was invited to read prayers and invoke God’s blessing on the assembly.

But then “Mr. Duché, unexpectedly to everybody, struck out into an extemporary prayer which filled the bosom of every man present” (2).

He prayed with passion and earnestness for ten minutes.  What was the effect?

Washington was kneeling there, and Patrick Henry, Randolph, Rutledge, Lee, and Jay, and by their side there stood, bowed in reverence, the Puritan Patriots of New England, who at that moment had reason to believe that an armed soldiery was wasting their humble households.

It was believed that Boston had been bombarded and destroyed. They prayed fervently “for America, for Congress, for the Province of Massachusetts Bay, and especially for the town of Boston,” and who can realize the emotion with which they turned imploringly to Heaven for Divine interposition. … It was enough to melt a heart of stone. I saw the tears gush into the eyes of the old, grave, Pacific Quakers of Philadelphia.

But something else happened that explains further why the first Congress was so deeply moved to prayer.  It was the providential nature of the assigned Scripture reading for the day.  The book of Common Prayer was put together in 1662, and on each day of the year, it had assigned Scripture readings.  The assigned scripture reading for that day, Sep. 7, 1774, was Psalm 35.  It begins:

Contend, O LORD, with those who contend with me; fight against those who fight against me. Take hold of shield and buckler and rise for my help. Draw the spear and javelin against my pursuers. Say to my soul, “I am your salvation.” Let them be put to shame and dishonor who seek after my life. Let them be turned back and disappointed who devise evil against me. (vv. 1-4)

Upon hearing that psalm read, those gathered felt the awesome presence of God.  This psalm, which had been assigned 112 years earlier to be read that day, precisely fit their moment.  At the very time they were meeting in Philadelphia, they had heard a rumor that Boston was under attack by the British army and navy.  Their distress was extreme.  They viewed that “Battle Psalm” as providentially assigned by Heaven to be read, heard, and prayed that day.

“I never saw a greater effect upon an audience. It seemed as if Heaven had ordained that Psalm to be read on that morning. It has had an excellent effect upon everybody here. I must beg you to read that Psalm… Read this letter and the 35th Psalm to [your friends]. Read it to your father [the Rev. William Smith, church pastor].”

—John Adams

God knew what they would be facing at that time, thus confirming to them that He was watching over them.  As George Washington saw it, “the liberties of America are the object of Divine protection” (3).  (George Washington in his lifetime actually noted 250 examples of God’s providence in America’s founding.)

Well, here we are in 2024, and Psalm 35 applies to our exact situation today.  It is the United States “Battle Psalm”!  And in fact, it is being prayed today, on the 250th Anniversary of Sep. 7, 1774, by thousands of Christian citizens across our country.

Prayer is our ultimate weapon against evil, corruption, and wickedness, particularly when it has infested civil government.  When personal enemies come against us, Jesus calls us to “turn the other cheek.”  However, when wickedness invades God’s institution of civil government, designed by Him to “restrain evil and encourage good” (Rom. 13), then the Battle Psalm can be prayed.

When a Battle Psalm is prayed, it is prayed with the hope that wicked individuals would first and foremost come to faith.  Pending that time, we pray that their plans would be thwarted, confused, or destroyed and that evil would be exposed and truth would prevail.

If we use this metric, God is in fact massively answering prayer right now before our very eyes, as we have never seen such evil, corruption, and wickedness exposed for all to see.  But we cannot stop praying.  We need this wickedness routed, and we need truth and righteousness to prevail.

Craig Seibert is the director of the Christian Civics Training Initiative.  He is a writer, speaker, teacher, and trainer.  He offers free eight-week Biblical Citizenship Zoom courses twice a year at www.ChristianCivicsTraining.org as well as “on demand” content.  He is a leader with the www.ServeGodDefendLiberty.com movement and is Biblical Citizenship and Constitution Coach with www.PatriotAcademy.com.

Image via Wikimedia Commons, public domain.

(*) 56 delegates were registered to come, 45 of them were present

(1) Adams, Familiar Letters of John Adams and His Wife Abigail Adams, During the Revolution, p. 37, to Abigail Adams on September 16, 1774.

(2) Adams, Letters of John Adams, Addressed to His Wife, Vol. I, p. 24, to Abigail Adams on September 16, 1774.

(3) George Washington, The Writings of George Washington, ed. John C. Fitzpatrick (Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1937), Vol. XX, p. 95, General Orders of September 26, 1780.