Election Year Hymn

Strange but true: I have a personal earworm tradition that’s tied to the U.S. election cycle. This earworm took up residence in my head in October of 2016 and lasted about a month; it repeated this exact time frame in 2020, and is back again in 2024. Thankfully, it’s a hymn I love and don’t mind it being on constant repeat inside my head. It’s also the hymn that gets me through a difficult and contentious election cycle—in one piece, spiritually, mentally, and emotionally—with friendships and family relationships intact, with neighbors and communities that I still love, and with hope and peace instead of anger and despair.

Wired.com shares a study that suggests that earworms (a song or tune that runs continually through a person’s mind) usually occur in response to certain triggers: boredom, anxiety, sleep deprivation, or other kinds of stress. So my earworm was acquired honestly, it seems. The stress surrounding American politics and leadership is tenfold what it used to be (I tell my young adult children this but they’ve never known anything but stressful elections with awful candidates, so I don’t know if they believe me); therefore, my earworm arrives on the scene to help me cope.

The song comes from Psalm 146, which is a beautiful psalm to be sure, but the lyrics to the hymn are magnificent. While the entire hymn is worth memorizing, here’s the particular line that’s such a help to me (whether I like it or not, there it is in my head) when I’m faced with an election that I absolutely want nothing to do with:

Put no confidence in princes, nor for help on man depend…

Back in November 2020, the day before I voted, I wrote this reflection below. Every word of it remains true here in 2024:

In 2016, I thought, “This is not normal. This is not how it’s supposed to be, and in 2020, things will be different.” In 2016, I refused an “I Voted” sticker and I’ll likely do the same tomorrow.

Psalm 146:3 cautions and reminds us, “Put not your trust in princes, in a son of man, in whom there is no salvation.” The hymn based on this psalm has been in my head for days:

When elected officials disappoint or fail us, when leaders show their feet of clay and do or say things that we believe are unwise or even immoral, when those who rule over us behave in ways that we would reprimand our young children for, this hymn is a balm to the Christian’s soul. There’s a reason we should put no confidence in princes—they will eventually and surely let us down. At the very least, even if they remain without public blemish, they’ll one day return to dust in the way that all humans do. There is only one firm and unchanging foundation for those who believe: “Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord his God” (Psalm 146:5).

This is where my confidence lies—every day, but in particular over the next 48 hours, the next 3 months, and the next 4 years.

And when the votes are counted and a winner is declared, here’s another good reminder from the hymn’s final verse:

Over all God reigns forever, through all ages He is King…

So sing or read along and let your heart be encouraged. You can listen to the entire hymn here, with a congregation singing at a sedate tempo. Or here, with a sweet and jubilant family singing at a faster pace.

Hallelujah, Praise Jehovah, O My Soul

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Related posts:

Even though I follow politics pretty closely, both local and national, I don’t write on this topic very often. But in 2020 I addressed political issues twice, and these articles are both still relevant today:

The View from the Middle Back Seat (a secular perspective stemming from my own political past)

Living at Peace During Political and Social Chaos (a biblical perspective that has helped me tremendously over the past decade of dramatic political and social change)