His Truth Is Marching On

Psalm 119:89, 142, 152 -  Your word, O LORD, is eternal; it stands firm in the heavens. Your righteousness is everlasting and your law is true. Long ago I learned from your statutes that you established them to last forever.

We've all heard the Battle Hymn of the Republic. It was introduced to us during the time of the Civil War, around 1862. Julia Ward Howe was asked to write words that could be used by infantrymen as they marched.

There are originally six stanzas and not very strangely at all, five can be referenced to certain scriptures in the Bible. There truly was a time when God was reverenced.

As we sang this song last Sunday (it is really an old church hymn) the words His truth is marching on stood out as it was repeatedly sung. Look at these stanzas carefully:

Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord;

He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored;

He hath loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword;

His truth is marching on.

There will be a day when Jesus returns to fight one last battle against the enemy of the world. We will know that He is here. And He will fight the battle as spoken of in His Word...His terrible swift sword.

I have seen Him in the watch fires of a hundred circling camps

They have builded Him an altar in the evening dews and damps;

I can read His righteous sentence by the dim and flaring lamps;

His day is marching on.

Those who know this God and stand by His Word have built their altar to the One they worship...even on the physical battlefield. We may fight against man, but in the spiritual, we fight another kind of enemy. Thankfully, we have His Word to show us how the final battle will come out. It will be marvelous.

I have read a fiery Gospel writ in burnished rows of steel;

“As ye deal with My contemners, so with you My grace shall deal”;

Let the Hero, born of woman, crush the serpent with His heel,

Since God is marching on.

We are promised that God will deal with those who condemn Him. He also has promised that His grace will cover those who call Him LORD. The Hero born of woman is, of course, Jesus, and He will in time crush the enemy. The enemy is His footstool (Psalm 110:1).

He has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat;

He is sifting out the hearts of men before His judgment seat;

Oh, be swift, my soul, to answer Him! be jubilant, my feet;

Our God is marching on.

We are going through a time of sifting today, during these days of battle against God and His Word in this world. There will be judgment against those who persist in ignoring the call of God. Be swift to answer Him. 

In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea,

With a glory in His bosom that transfigures you and me:

As He died to make men holy, let us live to make men free;

While God is marching on.

We as believers have received this holiness and we are free through the saving grace of Jesus. We must continue to uphold His Word and stand by it in this world where some think God is not a necessary lifestyle. This country was born across the sea...that we would have freedom...we need to continue to fight for it. We need to have Him as our foundation.

He is coming like the glory of the morning on the wave,

He is wisdom to the mighty, He is honor to the brave;

So the world shall be His footstool, and the soul of wrong His slave,

Our God is marching on.

What more can I say to this? Christ will return and justice will be met. 

Oh, believe me, our God is marching on. There is no beginning nor end to our God. The truth of who He is and the truth of His Word will never fade. It will continue as long as there is life on this earth! People can try to squelch it, ban it, reject it, argue about it, attempt to discredit or say it contradicts itself. In the final end truth will come out and the Word of God will be realized for what it is: the truth. 

Our God will march on until the end of life on this earth. Those who stand on His Word will glory in what He has promised us. Reread the third stanza. Those who stand on His Word will be victorious in the battle with our enemy. God will defend His followers, His inheritance and children.

This is not just a song to boost the strength of conviction to continue in physical battle or a patriotic song we sing on certain holidays. It is a word to us about how we can receive the power and strength of our God who marches on before us if we choose to believe that He is. 

Glory, glory, hallelujah!

Isaiah 40:8 - The grass withers, the flower fades, But the word of our God stands forever.