Verse Text: “Will you not revive us again, that your people may rejoice in you?” – Psalm 85:6
“How long, O Lord? Will you hide yourself forever?” – Psalm 89:46
“How long will the enemy mock you, O God?” – Psalm 74:10
Sometimes in the Bible, prayers of intercession take the form of a question. Take the Psalms, for example. On quite a few occasions the writer gets so desperate before God that their prayers for help turn into questions, crying out for an answer to their troubles:“Will you not revive us again, that your people may rejoice in you?” – Psalm 85:6 “How long, O Lord? Will you hide yourself forever?” – Psalm 89:46 “How long will the enemy mock you, O God?” – Psalm 74:10 These prayers, daring as they may be, are still very much worship. They are not the cries of people who have given up on God. They are not sarcastic or rhetorical questions. Instead, they are songs of intercession, from a people whose only hope is found in their God. They are honouring to Him, because they show their need for total dependence on Him. The Psalmists cry out with these searching questions because they know God is powerful enough to change the situation. And they also know He is a God whose heart is full of compassion for his people. In other words, he is strong enough to intervene, and he is kind enough to do so too.
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The aim of the song, “Can a nation be changed?” was to adopt a similar tone to the example these Psalmists set. It is a desperate cry, again in the form of a question:“Can a nation be changed, can a nation be saved, can a nation be turned back to you?” I wrote it at a real low moment – I had a phone call telling me my Granddad was very seriously ill in hospital and was sure to die the next day. As far as I know, he didn’t know Jesus, and would be the first person close to me, or in my family, who had died without knowing the Lord. That realisation had a huge impact on me in that moment. Was it too late for him now? It certainly seemed that way. Then my thoughts went wider; was it too late for a nation? Can a nation be changed? Can a nation be saved? And I began to sing these lines out with my guitar. It was just my way of responding to God in that moment. A mixture of mourning the imminent death of my Granddad, and intercession for the lost. In a way, the chorus and the 2nd verse give us an answer to the question. The fact that “we’re on our knees” crying out “Let this nation be changed” shows we have faith that, yes, God can save the nations. He is willing and able. The question therefore, “Can a nation be changed?” is not a hopeless stab in the dark, it is a desperate heart-cry to our God of mercy and power.
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