A Psalm for the Battle: Reflections on Psalm 18, Christians and Warfare

By Martin Roth

What does God really think about war?

In this short devotional, best-selling Christian author Martin Roth uses the resounding words of Psalm 18 – in which David praises God for victory in battle – to examine some of the ethical issues of Christianity and warfare.

He asks questions such as when can a Christian soldier kill? How are we to understand some of the bloodthirsty passages of the Old Testament? Does God still provide guidance to military commanders, as He did in Old Testament times? What does a Christian do when ordered on a suicide mission?

And he provides some surprising answers. He includes testimonies from modern-day military leaders who have clearly heard God speaking to them at critical times of battle.

And did you know that some of the Japanese kamikaze pilots – who deliberately crashed their aircraft into American warships during World War II – were devout Christians? How did they reconcile their actions with their faith?

But ultimately this devotional is about the spiritual battle faced by every Christian. It is for all those who have been challenged by the stirring words from the Book of Ephesians:

"Finally, be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms."

• Language: English
• Publisher: Martin Roth
• Release date: May 15, 2014
• ISBN: 9781311766458

Martin Roth

Martin Roth is a veteran journalist and foreign correspondent who lived in Tokyo for seventeen years and whose reports from throughout Asia have appeared in leading publications around the world. He now lives with his family in Melbourne, Australia, where he enjoys walking his black Sarplaninac mountain sheepdog and drinking coffee in the city’s many wonderful cafés.

Book preview

Preface

Who was the first Gentile to be baptized?

Cornelius.

What did he do?

He was a soldier. (Read Acts 10 for the story.)

God loves soldiers, though Christians throughout the ages have sometimes been unsure. Can you really be a soldier and a true Christian? Doesn’t Jesus teach non-violence?

The fourth-century Saint Martin of Tours is an example. Called up as a young man into the Roman army, he famously declared, right before an important battle, that his faith forbade him from fighting. He even volunteered to stand unarmed at the head of the troops.

I personally used to be ambivalent about the role of Christians in the military. My father was a Jewish refugee to New Zealand, and a Communist. He served in the New Zealand Air Force during World War II – he once told me he would have been first in line to volunteer to help drop the atomic bombs on Japan - but after the war he refused to accept the medals to which he was entitled, as some kind of anti-war protest. (After he died I wrote to the New Zealand Defence Department to check if the medals were still available. They were, and I have them now in my desk drawer.)

He and my mother became leaders of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, and I was raised in the 1950s and 1960s in an intensely anti-war environment. Yet at the same time my uncle – my father’s younger brother, who as a boy had been smuggled by Jewish groups into pre-war Palestine – was a career officer in the Israeli army. I used to admire the photographs he sometimes sent us, of him in his uniform, on maneuvers in different parts of the Holy Lands.

I guess that ambivalence about military matters stuck with me. So in middle age, after I became a Christian, if I’d been asked my views about armed service, I might have answered with something vague to the effect that of course we need an army, but that it’s better that Christians not serve in it. Because armies are for killing, and Christians shouldn’t kill.

Or I might have said that I classified soldiers with lawyers and real estate agents. When you need them you expect them to get down and dirty. Better they not be Christians.

But in 2002 I started blogging, trying to place a Christian spin on events of the day. One of the big issues at that time was the looming US invasion of Iraq, and I became fascinated with notions of how Christians should regard war. I began writing blog posts based on the many questions I had. Questions such as: when can a Christian soldier kill?