an inaugural prayer

No one asked me to pray at the inauguration of Barack Obama today, but if given the opportunity, I might have intoned the words of Ralph Mark Gilbert from 1941: "O Thou eternal God, Thou alone knowest what is in store for us. The distant unknown is dismal and dark; but we feel that the God who watches over His own slumbers not nor sleeps; and the Captain who has never lost a battle will see His children through. God speed the day when righteousness, and justice, and freedom shall spread over all mankind, and when bigotry, hatred, prejudice, pride, injustice, greed, and sin shall perish from the earth. Forgive us all our sins. Bless, we pray Thee, those who mourn for the loss of loved ones, and all who are confined upon their sick beds or in prison cells. Bless the President of these United States in this, his crucial hour, and God bless America. In Jesus' name we ask all this, Amen."