Martin Luther King's Last Speech: "I've Been To The Mountaintop"

Today, we celebrate the life of Reverend Dr. Martin Luther Ling, Jr. This speech includes my favorite lines of Martin, King states them profoundly from the heart.

In the face of increasing death threats upon his life, King weighs the balance of his life, his mission, and his obedience to God’s will.

Invoking the Biblical imagery of Moses who climbed Mount Nebo during the Exodus from Egypt (Deuteronomy 34:1-4), King has been to the mountaintop, that he may not get there, but prophesies that “we as a people will get to the Promised Land.”

For me personally, Martin’s most compelling words focus upon his life’s mission and ministry: King states that while “longevity has its place,” he just wants “to do God’s will.” King exclaims that he doesn’t “fear any man.”

Thus, King wholly surrenders to God’s will, as Jesus did in in the Garden of Gethsemane in Luke’s Gospel, “Not my will, but Thy will be done” (Luke 22:42) or as we are admonished in the Third Step of Alcoholics Anonymous, to “make a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God, as we understood Him.”

Lastly, King surrenders to the commitment to live in love, as his obedience to “God’s will” would command. To do “God’s will” enables King to live in love and despite imminent death threats to be freed from fear. King approaches the human embodiment of John’s Gospel, “Perfect love casteth out fear” (1 John 4:18).

For me this is the apex of King’s ministry (literally hours before his assassination), which speaks profoundly to our clients, namely, to surrender to the will of God, to do the next right thing, and to live in the love and not fear.