Who Trains my Hands for War

At the Secretary of Defense’s personally-led, monthly worship service in January, he quoted Psalm 144 in conjunction with a military operation. 

Blessed be the LORD, my rock, who trains my hands for war and my fingers for battle, my rock and my fortress, my stronghold and my deliverer, my shield, in whom I take refuge, who subdues the peoples under me. …

Bow your heavens, O LORD, and come down; touch the mountains so that they smoke. Make the lightning flash and scatter them; send out your arrows and rout them. …

May our sons in their youth be like plants full grown, our daughters like corner pillars, cut for the building of a palace. May our barns be filled with produce of every kind; may our sheep increase by thousands, by tens of thousands in our fields, and may our cattle be heavy with young. May there be no breach in the walls, no exile, and no cry of distress in our streets. Happy are the people to whom such blessings fall; happy are the people whose God is the LORD.

The thinking seems to be that if the United States declares itself a Christian nation and offers public homage to God, the promises of the Old Testament apply to it and its leaders. God will treat it just like it treated Israel. It will grant it victory in battle and prosperity at home. Therefore, the the Secretary of Defense can claim the promises of the Psalms for the nation’s military forces. He is wrong on many fronts.

In this present evil age, there is only one Christian nation and it is the church of Jesus Christ. Its citizens are scattered in exile among the nations of the world. It respects no national boundaries and it does not live by the rules of the world. The church has now only one means of conquest and that is the cross of the messiah who overcame the world.

The nation of Israel played a unique role in the history of salvation, and the Psalms must be read in that light. For whom was this Psalm prayed? The king of Israel, the Son of David, who went out to battle the enemies of God’s chosen people so that they could live in peace in the land of promise.

I will sing a new song to you, O God; upon a ten-stringed harp I will play to you, the one who gives victory to kings, who rescues his servant David.  …

Who now is the king of God’s people? Who is the son of David who gives us victory, so that we can live in peace in the land of promise? For whom can we pray this Psalm? Only for Jesus, whose victory over sin, death, and injustice came by the injustice of a bloody cross and the vindication of an empty tomb. Not for the President of the United States. Not for the Secretary of Defense. Not for the military forces of my country. The United States is not God’s chosen nation. 

No nation on earth can stand in the place of King David. The Son of David’s battlefield was a cross. His broken body and shed blood were the weapons. That’s the lens through which we must read the Psalms of war. 

We who belong to the messiah’s army train our hands for his war and our fingers for his battle by learning his compassion, kindness, mercy, and forgiveness. We show ourselves to be members of his kingdom with acts of healing and reconciliation. We conquer the forces of evil and injustice by offering our lives in living sacrifice. We give ourselves to the cause of righteousness and justice and peace and well-being for everyone in his kingdom.

The use of force may be necessary in this present evil age to restrain evil and defend the innocent, but it is idolatry to equate that with the kingdom battles of the Old Testament. The kingdom of God is no longer a matter of blood and soil. The political kingdoms of Israel and Judah, defended with sword and spear, were but a faint foreshadowing of the kingdom to come in Jesus.

The Secretary should be glad that the United States is not ancient Israel, for then it would face stricter judgement. The kingdom’s of Israel and Judah did not fall because they failed to make an adequate show of religion, but because the wealthy corruptly enriched themselves at the expense of the poor, because they lacked compassion on the weak and vulnerable, because they denied justice to the innocent, and because those in authority committed idolatry. The model of Christianity now practiced by our national leaders is a form of idolatry.

What about Israel’s neighbors? Why did the nations outside God’s covenant fall under God’s judgement? Amos says that it in their lust for power they committed war crimes, took what was not theirs, and used their military forces in a cruel and unjust manner. “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the Great,” wrote the seer of Revelation. He was talking about Rome and all the great powers that would follow. The Babylon our our age will fall as well. The lamb of God and those who belong to him will conquer by his cross and resurrection.

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