Episode
The Prayer #RTTBROS #Nightlight #USA250 #Nation250 #America250
- Podcast
- RTTBROS
- Published
- Jun 10, 2026
- Duration seconds
- 175
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Summary
The Prayer #RTTBROS #Nightlight #USA250 #Nation250 #America250 The Prayer That Moved a Convention Except the LORD build the house, they labour in vain that build it. — Psalm 127:1 THE STORY It was the summer of 1787, and the Constitutional Convention was on the verge of collapse. The delegates had been arguing for weeks. The small states and the large states were deadlocked. The entire enterprise was unraveling, and men were talking about going home for good. Then Benjamin Franklin, eighty-one years old, the oldest man in the room, rose to speak. He reminded them that in the beginning of the conflict with Britain, they had daily prayer in that very room. "Our prayers, Sir, were heard," he said, "and they were graciously answered." He then quoted Psalm 127 directly: "Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it." He moved that the Convention open each session with prayer. The formal motion was tabled in the moment. But Virginia's Edmund Randolph offered a counter-proposal: that a sermon be preached on the Fourth of July. On July 4th, 1787, the entire Convention assembled at the Reformed Calvinistic Church in Philadelphia, where Rev. William Rogers prayed asking God to enable them to devise such measures as may prove happy instruments in healing all divisions. Washington recorded the visit in his diary. THE REFLECTION What happened next is the part of this story that almost never gets told. After five weeks of deadlock, after the recess and the church service and the prayer of Rev. Rogers, the Convention reconvened. In just ten weeks, those same divided delegates produced the document that has become the longest-running constitution in the history of the world. Franklin later wrote that he could hardly conceive a transa…