This blog is being published on the fifteen anniversary of that attacks of September 11 2001. At such a time, it is important to think about prayers of protection.

On September 11, 2001, fifteen years ago today, our nation was attacked by a group of terrorists. Several airplanes were hijacked and crashed into the World Trade Center in New York City, the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., and a field in Pennsylvania. The plane that crashed in Pennsylvania was apparently trying to reach a target in Washington. Since that time, our nation has been engaged in the so-called “War on Terror.” At fifteen years and counting, this war is the longest war in our nation’s history. Kathy and I had the opportunity to visit the 9-11 Museum in New York City just as it opened. It was a sobering experience, especially to read the names of those killed when the Twin Towers collapsed.

This week I had lunch with a fellow pastor who served in the United States Navy into the Second Gulf War. He reminded me that history is filled with wars that lasted fifteen, twenty, thirty, 100 years, and longer. Such wars, like the War on Terror, are more than just conflicts over economics political power, or national borders. They are conflicts over different ways of life. The Second World War only lasted four years for we Americans, but it lasted much longer in Europe. It was a war to determine whether freedom would endure in Europe. World War II was what we might call an “existential war.”

Long wars are  clashes of civilizations. By their very nature, they involve periods of danger, periods of quiet, and many casualties. In wars that are clashes of civilizations, the result is less determined by initial military power and more determined by who has the deepest faith in their way of life. This kind of faith requires confidence in the future and in God’s protection during a long period of uncertainty.

We in the West are at the end of what we call the “Modern World” and at the beginning of what we currently call the “Post-Modern World.” [1] At such times in history there are often long, dangerous conflicts and economic and political dislocation. Such was the case when the ancient pre-Roman civilizations disintegrated, when the Greco-Roman civilization decayed, and at the end of the Middle Ages when the modern world began. We are now at another break in human history. It is very likely that the current period of danger and uncertainty will last for the rest of the lives of everyone now alive. We will need to pray a great deal over the next few years.

David Looks Back.

Our text for this meditation is from Psalms 18. [2] Psalm 18 is perhaps the most interesting Psalm. It appears verbatim in Second Samuel chapter 22. In Second Samuel, the song appears at the end of David’s life, inserted into the story as a kind of spiritual commentary on the meaning of his life and God’s blessing upon him. Here are selections from the first eighteen verses of the Psalm:

I love you, Lord, my strength. The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. I called to the Lord, who is worthy of praise, and I have been saved from my enemies. The cords of death entangled me; the torrents of destruction overwhelmed me. The cords of the grave coiled around me; the snares of death confronted me. In my distress I called to the Lord; I cried to my God for help. From his temple he heard my voice; my cry came before him, into his ears (18:1-6).

^…
The Lord thundered from heaven; the voice of the Most High resounded. He shot his arrows and scattered the enemy, with great bolts of lightning he routed them. The valleys of the sea were exposed and the foundations of the earth laid bare at your rebuke, Lord, at the blast of breath from your nostrils. He reached down from on high and took hold of me; he drew me out of deep waters. He rescued me from my powerful enemy, from my foes, who were too strong for me.They confronted me in the day of my disaster, but the Lord was my support. He brought me out into a spacious place;  he rescued me because he delighted in me (18: 13-19).

Today, O God, we come thanking you for the protection you have given our nation and for the special protection you have given us during the so-called “War on Terror.” Please give us faith in you and in your protection and a willingness to await your deliverance from this time of danger and distress. In Jesus Name, Amen.

 David: A Man In Need of Protection.

There was a time when every schoolboy knew the story of David by heart. David was the youngest son of Jesse, the son of Obed, the son of Boaz, who was married to Ruth the Moabitess (Ruth 4:21-22). As the youngest son, he had been given the lowliest of jobs: he was a shepherd of sheep. In his day, his oldest brother would have inherited most of the family wealth. His future was as a working man. He was also a musician and psalm writer, and he was quite good at using a slingshot (I Samuel 16).

Saul, the king of Israel, had not been obedient to the Lord (I Sam. 15). Therefore, Samuel, the prophet of God, was commissioned to go to the land of Judah, to the home of Jesse, and anoint one of his children as king. One by one, God rejected each of his older brothers. Finally, Samuel asked if there was anyone else at home. Jesse answered “Only my youngest son (1 Sam. 16:11). When David was brought before Samuel, God spoke to him and David was anointed to be the next king of Israel (see, I Sam.l 16:13).

In those days, Saul was fighting a battle against the Philistines. In the land of the Philistines there lived a group of giants, one of which was so large that he was called “Goliath.” One day, David was sent with some food for his brothers. He went to the battlefield and heard Goliath taunting the Jews. No one would go out and fight this huge monster. Not even Saul, who was a large man, was willing to do that. David, filled with the Holy Spirit, fought Goliath and won (I Sam. 17).

David became one of the greatest Saul’s warriors. Unfortunately, as be became famous David became a threat to Saul, who constantly tried to have him killed (I Samuel 18). For many, many years, David’s life was in constant danger. Even after he became king, his life was often in danger from his enemies, and even from his own family. His own son, Absalom, rebelled against him. In those days, David often wrote prayers for protection, many of which we have recorded in Psalms (see for example, Psalms 3:1-2; 9:2; 6:4; 7:1-2;17:1-2). David knew what it was to cry out to God for protection.

Jesus: A Model of Hope.

As David looked back on his life, he could praise God for the protection God had given him over the years in times of danger. Jesus gives us another role model—a role model for what we might be like when we face danger and threats which do in fact occur and from which we are not delivered as we would wish. Jesus prayed two prayers during the last hours of his life that are important. In the Garden of Gethsemane Jesus prayed to God that the cup he was about to drink might be taken from him (Mark 14:36). At the very end of his life, he prayed, “Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit” (Luke 23:46). His first prayer for protection was not answered in the affirmative, but his faith in the goodness of the Father remained intact.

In the beginning of our prayer life, it is common for us to assume that all of our prayers in accordance with God’s perfect will be answered, “Yes.” As we grow older, and as our faith deepens, we learn that life and faith are more complex. Every soldier on the battlefield prays to be delivered. Unfortunately, some are and some are not. Our world is not a perfect world, and bad things do happen.

Jesus came to reveal to us a deep mystery: Sometimes the depth of human brokenness, evil, sin, violence, and pain require a sacrifice. It would be nice if every serious problem could be resolved without conflict. That is not always the case. It would be nice if our enemies in the War on Terror, who are clearly in the wrong, would see the error of their ways and peacefully stop. Unfortunately, that is not likely to be the case.

There are times when we will legitimately pray for protection and not receive the protection for which we prayed. This does not mean that God does not hear our prayers. God hears our prayers, just as God heard the prayer of Jesus in the Garden. Sometimes, our prayers simply cannot be answered as we might desire. It is then that a deeper faith is required. Faith continues to believe and hope even when a prayer is not answered as we would wish (see, Hebrews 11:1-2). The faith of Jesus “commends our spirits unto God” at such times.

A Story from the Greatest Generation.

I am dedicating this blog to one of my professors: Dr. James Luther Mays. Jim Mays was a well-known professor of Old Testament at Union Theological Seminary in Richmond Virginia. Just before I graduated, Dr. Mays published a commentary on Psalms. [3] Obviously, a professor in his last years of full-time teaching and a masters’ level student do not become best friends; however, we had a kind of mutual friendship and understanding based upon an incident that occurred one day in class.

I was in the last Psalms seminar that Dr. Mays offered at Union Theological Seminary in 1994, just before his commentary was published. One afternoon, we were looking at some of the many psalms in which David prays to God for protection and victory over his enemies. Often, Psalms records these prayers in violent terms. Some of the younger students were complaining about David, the Psalms, and the God of the Old Testament in general.

After listening for a while, I made a comment. Basically, I observed that, until your life has been in physical danger because of a relentless enemy bent on destroying you, you can’t fully appreciate or understand these prayers. “In battle,” I observed, “men have always prayed such prayers and there’s nothing wrong with it.” The debate went on for a while, then Dr. Mays looked down the table at me and said in a quiet voice, “I think Chris is right.” We looked at each other straight in the eye, and in just an instant, we had a moment of deep mutual understanding.

Jim Mays was a birdwatcher, a gentle person, a fisherman, the author of commentaries on various Old Testament books, and regarded as one of the finest professors at the seminary.  No one could possibly have considered Jim Mays a man-of-war. Unlike some professors, he never raised his voice in class no matter how ill-prepared a student was or how off base his or her answer to a question might be. Jim Mays was a quiet, peaceful man.

Years later, I picked up a book and looked at a picture. It was taken during the Second World War, and it looked exactly like Dr. Mays and the inscription “J. L. Mays” was on the picture. This week, I attempted to find that picture but could not. I did, however, read his obituary in the Richmond Times Dispatch. [4] It turns out that Dr. Mays served in the Second World War. He was one of the  unlucky individuals that served in both Europe and in the Pacific Theaters of that conflict. I always thought he must have fought in the war, because in the moment we shared looking into each other’s eyes I saw the eyes of a man who remembered what it had been like to be very young, very much in danger, and very, very scared. Such men know what it is like to be scared and to pray for protection.

Lessons for Us.

The deepest human instinct is to cry out to God, the supreme power of the universe, to protect us when no one else can. There is nothing wrong with such prayers. They represent our deepest instinct that the universe has a moral order, that God cares for us personally, that he hears our deepest needs, and desires to protect us from danger. This is a deep truth we all need to remember.

It is also true that God answers all of these prayers. I believe that he answers all of the prayers in the affirmative, despite the fact that some of these prayers will be answered in heaven and not on earth. The life of faith is largely a life of growth in trusting the Lord of the Universe, his goodness, his kindness, his power, and his love. This trust grows both when we receive that for which we ask as we have asked for it and when God gives an unexpected or unwelcome answer. The cross and resurrection are not what Jesus asked for in the Garden. They were better. They were more important. They changed the world.

In Christ, we see the fullness of God’s wisdom and the depths of his answers to our prayers for protection. His providence and his love extended beyond our imagination into eternity. This is a truth we need to remember, and we need to remember it as we pray for protection now and in the future.

Amen.

Copyright 2016, G. Christopher Scruggs, All Rights Reserved

[1] It is not a part of this blog to talk about what constitutes the “Modern” and “Post Modern” world. The Modern World began with the development of modern science, technology, and critical thinking, roughly 300 years ago. Sometime in the middle of the 19^th Century, or about 150 years ago, this era began to end. Confidence that human reason can create a perfect, harmonious world and solve all human problems began to dissipate. By the end of World War I clearly we had entered a new era. It remains unclear whether our current era is a new era or simply the decadent form of the modern era. I lean towards the view that we are currently in a decadent phase. Certainly in the West there has been a great loss of faith and confidence in human reason and its capacities to harmonize human life. At this point, one can only guess at the world that will emerge from our current period. My guess is that it will be less confident of human reason and goodness, more humble in the face of problems, more realistic about our human capacity to create a perfect world, and less materialistic than the Modern World has been.

[2] I have consulted many sources for this sermon, Dr. Mays commentary  “Psalms” in Interpretation: A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching (Louisville, KY: John Knox Press, 1994) and Arthur Weisner, The Psalms tr. Herbert Hartwell (Philadelphia, PA: Westminster Press, 1962). Some commentators doubt that David wrote the Psalm, a conclusion with which I disagree, and in any case think unimportant to understanding. It was meant to be read in the context of David’s life.

[3] This is Dr. Mays, “Psalms” in Interpretation: A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching (Louisville, KY: John Knox Press, 1994) noted above. I have an autographed copy of the commentary given to those who participated in the seminars leading up to its publication. It is and always will be a treasured possession.

[4] James L. Mays, 1921-2015 in Richmond Times Dispatch, November 8, 2015 (downloaded September 7, 2016).