Recent events have made me think a lot about one of our hymns.

By happenstance yesterday I came across Rudyard Kipling’s “Recessional” in the April 25, 1940 issue of the Millennial Star. Both my coming across it, and its publication in the Star seem like appropriate timing, given the poem’s text. Most LDS Church members will recognize the hymn from its first line, “God of our Fathers, Known of Old,” but I’m not sure how many have really connected with what the text says.

Kipling wrote the poem in 1897 for Queen Victoria’s diamond jubilee, when the British empire was at its height. But in the poem Kipling sees the empire’s potential decline. Written in the form of a prayer, the poem urges us to remember God instead of focusing on power and military might.

Here is the poem after the first stanza, which we know well:

The tumult and the shouting dies;

   The Captains and the Kings depart:

Still stands Thine ancient sacrifice,

   An humble and a contrite heart.

Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,

Lest we forget—lest we forget!

Far-called, our navies melt away;

   On dune and headland sinks the fire:

Lo, all our pomp of yesterday

   Is one with Nineveh and Tyre!

Judge of the Nations, spare us yet,

Lest we forget—lest we forget!

If, drunk with sight of power, we loose

   Wild tongues that have not Thee in awe,

Such boastings as the Gentiles use,

   Or lesser breeds without the Law—

Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,

Lest we forget—lest we forget!

For heathen heart that puts her trust

   In reeking tube and iron shard,

All valiant dust that builds on dust,

   And guarding, calls not Thee to guard,

For frantic boast and foolish word—

Thy mercy on Thy People, Lord!

With the events of the past two days, these lines are now going around in my mind, over and over. I don’t know if the United States is at an apex, or already in some kind of decline, but Kipling’s words resonate with the way our country has acted. (Sorry for using “our” if you aren’t a U.S. citizen — but that means you aren’t responsible for the actions of the U.S.)

So, I am praying and fasting today, that our country can leave its focus on our pomp of yesterday behind. That we will stop using our “wild tongues that have not [God] in awe.” That we stop “putting our trust in reeking tube and iron shard.” And that we will instead hold reach for a “humble and a contrite heart.”

I’m praying that our country will not forget. For I’m worried about what comes, “lest we forget—lest we forget.”