Xenophobia, elitism, and a judaic god returning to rescue its “chosen ones”: This hymn pictures a returning kingdom you definitely would not want to be on the wrong side of.
Thee will I love, O Lord, my might,
My rock, my help, my saving power.
My God, my trust, my shield in fight,
My great salvation, my high tower.
To the Eternal is my prayer,
To whom all praise we owe;
So shall I by His watchful care
Safely be guarded from my foe.
In my distress I called on God,
To the Eternal raised my prayer;
My voice He from His temple heard,
My cry ascended to His ear.
He bowed the heavens His high abode,
Came in the dark of night;
He on a cherub swiftly rode,
And on the wings of wind His flight.
His deadly shafts around He threw,
His foes dispersed in wild retreat;
Like burning darts His lightnings flew,
Scattering them in sore defeat.
He sent from heaven and rescued me
From waters swelling high;
From those that hate me set me free,
And foes that stronger were than I.
For who but God should be adored;
Who but our God can us befriend?
Who is a rock besides the Lord?
Who else is able to defend?
On the Eternal I relied,
And over foes prevailed;
With the Almighty on my side,
Their lofty walls I fearless scaled.
The first verse reinforces the notion in the member’s mind that we are the chosen ones, the special elect of god, the elitism that made us better than the unelightened, demon-controlled people that surrounded us. The judaic god may have been unforgiving, unrelenting, judgemental, and partial to bringing trials and adversities onto the very ones who pleaded for its patience, but as long as we did everything right, we would be guarded safely by it. The implication being, if you are not being safely guarded, then you must be doing something wrong.
The last three lines of the second verse reinforces the notion that this judaic god would return “like a thief in the night”. Meaning we should be ready to flee at any time. Thus, over many decades, the truly devout members never contemplated home ownership, or making any plans further than three or five years into the future, because it just wasn’t going to be necessary. Even now, in job interviews, when the dreaded “Where do you see yourself in five years?” question comes up, I really have to struggle for an answer.
It’s not that I don’t have plans for my life, I do. I set goals for myself, both short-term, and long-term. After a lifetime of being born and raised to live forever “in the moment”, I find it almost impossible, day by day, to look ahead to five years in the future. I just don’t think like that. Sometimes I don’t think that I’m capable of thinking that way.
Intellectually I can do it, but emotionally, it’s just a blank canvas. I don’t know, and I really can’t seem to raise enough impetus to care, what will happen in five years. Nor can I usually determine, with any great success, what I can do in the here and now, to influence that five-years-hence. Until it’s too late and already upon me.
The last two verses reinforce the mental images of Armageddon, often illustrated in impressionable children’s minds by the questionable work(s) of Basil Wolverton, with a soundtrack designed to make us feel better about this approaching apocalypse, in that we were the ones who were going to be “spared” from it.
The final verse gives a hint as to why Worldwiders were so very self-righteous, in all that they said and did.
Tags: elitism, judaic god, kingdom of god, xenophobia
