The Star Spangled Banner
by Francis Scott Key
O say, can you see, by
the dawn's early light,
What so proudly we hailed
at the twilight's last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes
and bright stars, through the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we
watched, were so gallantly streaming!
And the rockets' red
glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the
night that our flag was still there:
O say, does that star-spangled
banner yet wave
O'er the land of the
free and the home of the brave?
On the shore dimly seen
through the mists of the deep,
Where the foe's haughty
host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the
breeze, o'er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows,
now conceals, now discloses?
Now it catches the gleam
of the morning's first beam,
In full glory reflected
now shines on the stream:
'Tis the star-spangled
banner! O long may it wave
O'er the land of the
free and the home of the brave!
And where is that band
who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war
and the battle's confusion
A home and a country
should leave us no more?
Their blood has washed
out their foul footsteps' pollution.
No refuge could save
the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight,
or the gloom of the grave:
And the star-spangled
banner in triumph doth wave
O'er the land of the
free and the home of the brave!
Oh! thus be it ever,
when freemen shall stand
Between their loved
homes and the war's desolation!
Blest with victory and
peace, may the Heaven-rescued land
Praise the Power that
hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must,
for our cause it is just,
And this be our motto:
"In God is our trust."
And the star-spangled
banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the
free and the home of the brave.
Psalm 84:12
O LORD of hosts, blessed is the man that trusts in You.