War and Peace in the Psalms:

How to Pray in Times of

Crisis
Irene Nowell, O.S.B.

O
ur country has been at war almost half my lifetime: World War II,
Korea, Vietnam, Desert Storm, Afghanistan, Iraq. If the Cold War is
added into the account I have known only about a dozen years of
peacetime. How can we learn to pray in the midst of ongoing conflict? What
can we hope for? What can the psalms teach us? The poets and singers of
ancient Israel were well aware of the horrors of war and the longing for
peace. Three groups of psalms describe their experiences, hopes, and fears:
royal psalms (especially Pss 18, 20, 21, and 144), communal laments (espe-
cially Pss 44, 60, 74, and 79), and songs of Zion (especially Pss 46, 48, 76,
and 122).

Leadership in Time of War: Royal Psalms

Psalms 20 and 21, the people's prayer for the king, are bookends around the
experience of war. Psalm 20 is a plea to God to answer the leader's prayer,
to send help, and to give success to his every plan (Ps 20:2-6). The people
remember God's promise to give victory to the anointed king (Hebrew
mashiach, i.e., "messiah," v. 7). They pray in hope: "LORD, grant victory to the
king; answer when we call upon you" (v. 10, NAB). Psalm 21 is the happy
song when war is over: "LORD, the king finds joy in your power; in your
victory how greatly he rejoices" (Ps 21:2). In the reflected glory of God's
victory the king appears majestic and splendid (vv. 3-7). He trusts in God
and God loves him (v. 8). All is not well for the enemies, however. The
people envision the total disappearance of their foes as they sing the praises
of God's great power (vv. 9-14).

Detail from an ivory tablet from Megiddo depicting a lyre-player and a triumphant warrior,
from between 1350 and 1150 B.C. Jerusalem, Rockefeller Museum.

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 Israel's ideal king and the patron saint of the Psalms is David. He is the
model of the king at war. The superscription of Psalm 18 (paralleled in
2 Sam 22) gives the context for the psalm: David's gratitude when God
delivered him from Saul. David cries out to God, "I love you. LORD," and
piles up a list of nine names portraying God's help in distress: my strength,
rock, fortress, deliverer, God, rock of refuge, shield, saving horn, stronghold
(Ps 18:2-3)! David was in terrible trouble (vv. 5-6), and God swooped down,
flying on a cherub, to save him. God's arrival is heralded by earthquake,
smoke, fire, darkness, thunder, and lightning (vv. 7-15). Even a tsunami is
suggested (v. 16)! God heard David's prayer and snatched him from the
enemy who was too powerful for him (vv. 17-20). With God, David can do
anything: rush an armed band, leap a wall (v. 30). God trained him for war
and protected him from danger (vv. 31-37). Through God's strength David
defeats all his enemies (vv. 38-49) and David, God's anointed, sings God's
praise (vv. 50-51).
Psalm 144 is a reprise of David's song: "Blessed be the LORD, my rock,
who trains my hands for battle, my fingers for war" (Ps 144:1). The king
pleads for God once more to incline the heavens and come down in a storm
cloud (vv. 5-6). God is the one who will snatch him from danger (v. 7). The
God who rescued David is the one who can still be trusted to give victory
to kings (vv. 10-11).
These psalms give the impression that God's people, led by the anointed
king, were always victorious and had nothing to fear from enemies. In
reality, however, their experience was most often that of being attacked and
overwhelmed by the major powers of the ancient Near East: Assyria,
Egypt, Babylon. How do God's people pray then?

Disaster Strikes: Communal Laments

Do you remember where you were when you heard the news of planes
striking the World Trade Center? What were you doing that morning of
September 11, 2001? How did you feel? How did you pray then? If you
recall that emotional turmoil, you will have some idea of what the people
of Jerusalem felt as the Babylonians desecrated and torched the Temple.
The psalmist describes the disaster:
Your foes roared triumphantly in your shrine;
they set up their own tokens of victory.
They hacked away like foresters gathering boughs,
swinging their axes in a thicket of trees.
They smashed all your engraved work,
pounded it with hammer and pick.
They set your sanctuary on fire;
the abode of your name they razed and profaned.
They said in their hearts, "Destroy them all!
Burn all the shrines of God in the land!" (Ps 74:4-8)

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 But even the destruction of the Temple is not the worst horror. Everyone is
mourning the dead. Not only is the temple defiled and Jerusalem reduced
to ruins, but bodies litter all the streets: "They have left the corpses of your
servants as food for the birds of the heavens, the flesh of your faithful for
the beasts of the earth. . . . No one is left to bury them" (Ps 79:2-3).
The people who have suffered this terrible attack turn to God with plead-
ing and protest. They complain to God: "Why, God, have you cast us off
forever? . . . How long, O God, shall the enemy jeer?" (Ps 74:1,10; see 79:5).
They plead, "O God, you rejected us, broke our defenses; you were angry,
but now revive us" (Ps 60:3). But how are they going to persuade God to
come to their aid? They point out to God that divine honor is at stake.
"Remember how the enemy has jeered, O LORD, how a foolish people has
reviled your name. . . . Arise, God, defend your cause; remember the con-
stant jeers of the fools" (Ps 74:18, 22; emphasis mine). It is God's sanctuary
that has been desecrated; it is God's people who are being destroyed
(Ps 79:1-2).
They remind God that their ancestors trusted and God came to their
defense: "O God, we have heard with our own ears; our ancestors have
told us the deeds you did in their days" (Ps 44:2). It was not with weapons
or strength that they won the land,
but by God's power (Ps 44:3-4). But
now God seems to have abandoned There is tlOwhere tO
theiTi: "You have rejected and dis-
graced us; you do not march out tUTtl eXCept TO LrOU.
with our armies" (Ps 44:10; see
Ps 60:12). They are forced to retreat
and the enemy plunders all their treasures (Ps 44:11). They even accuse
God of selling them to their enemies (Ps 44:13)! Their defeat is so complete
that they have become a joke to the other nations (Ps 44:14-17).
In Psalm 79 they consider the possibility that it is their own sinfulness
that has led God to abandon them to their enemies. So they beg God to for-
give and forget the sins of the past (Ps 79:8-9). Even this forgiveness is tied
to God's honor: "Deliver us, pardon our sins for your name's sake. Why
should the nations say, 'Where is their God?'" (Ps 79:9-10). But in Psalm 44
the people declare their own irmocence: "All this has come upon us though
we have not forgotten you, nor been disloyal to your covenant" (Ps 44:18).
They declare that their hearts have been true and their steps faithful to God's
path (Ps 44:19). They even dare to blame God for the disaster! It is God who
has left them crushed and covered them with darkness (Ps 44:20). They cry,
"For you we are slain all the day long" (Ps 44:23).
One thing is certain: there is nowhere else to turn except to God. They
beg God to take revenge on their enemies: "Pour out your wrath on
nations that reject you, on kingdoms that do not call on your name"
(Ps 79:6). They plead: "Remember your flock that you gathered of old, the

Irene Nowell, O.S.B. 151

tribe you redeemed as your very own. Remember Mount Zion where you
dwell" (Ps 74:2). They challenge God: "Redeem us as your love demands"
(Ps 44:27). They promise: "then we, your people, the sheep of your pasture,
will give thanks to you forever; through all ages we will declare your
praise" (Ps 79:13).

God's Final Answer: Songs of Zion

The people know that God can come to their defense as a warrior. They
declare: "The LORD of hosts [= armies] is with us; our stronghold is the God
of Jacob" (Ps 46:4, 8). They remember that once, when they were attacked
and taken captive by enemies, "the LORD awoke as from sleep, like a warrior
shouting because of wine. He put his adversaries to rout; he put them to
everlasting disgrace" (Ps 78:66). They have heard David's thanksgiving for
God's rescue (Ps 18). They know "the earth trembles" when "God's voice
thunders" (Ps 46:7).
But what kind of warrior is God? What does this Lord of armies do?
Does God really set out to annihilate enemy peoples? No! The Songs of
Zion tell us that God's anger is directed at the true enemy. God destroys
the very weapons of war and even war itself! God "stops wars to the ends
of the earth, breaks the bow, splinters the spear, and burns the shields with
fire" (Ps 46:10). On Zion, God's sanctuary, "the flashing arrows were
shattered, shield, sword, and weapons of war" (Ps 76:4). At God's roar
"chariots and steeds lay still" (Ps 76:7). God says, "Be still," that is, stop
fighting, "and confess that I am God! I am exalted among the nations,
exalted on the earth" (Ps 46:11).
Thus the gift of peace comes only as God's gift. It is God who destroys
war. "God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in distress"
(Ps 46:2). It is God who "is fully victorious" and makes Mount Zion and
the cities of Judah glad (Ps 48:11-12). God "checks the pride of princes" and
delivers "the afflicted of the land" (Ps 76:13,10). God strengthens its gates,
blesses its children, brings peace within its borders (Ps 147:13-14). So the
psalmist urges prayer for the peace of Jerusalem, "May peace be within
your ramparts, prosperity within your towers," and for all God's people,
"May peace be yours" (Ps 122:8).

The Wisdonn of the Psalms in Time of War

What wisdom can we glean from the psalms about war and peace? First,
we learn that God gives the victory. Only God can quiet our warring
nature and bring peace. The psalms give us words to plead with God for
help. To put trust in anything or anyone else but God is idolatry. "God is
our refuge and our strength" (Ps 46:2). In Psahn 20 the psalmist declares:
"Some rely on chariots, others on horses"—the preferred vehicles of war—
"but we on the name of the LORD our God. They collapse and fall, but we

152 THE BIBLE TODAY

stand strong and firm" (Ps 20:8-9). Trusting in superior weaporu-y is fruit-
less and foolish. The victory gained by God is not measured by the defeat
of other people; it is salvation for all people. The very word that is often
translated "victory," yeshua, can also be translated "salvation" (Pss 20:6;
44:5; 98:2-3; 149:4).
In the psalms, God brings peace and victory through the anointed king,
the messiah. Powerful rulers bring tribute to the king and great peace
(Shalom) flourishes in his time (Ps 72:7-11). Christians look to Jesus whose
very name, yeshua, means "victory" or "salvation," for this true peace. In
this Shalom everyone has what is necessary for a full life. The lives of the
poor are saved with compassionate aid; the oppressed are delivered from
the violent (Ps 72:12-14). Food grows in abundance (v. 16). Peace flows out
from Jerusalem, the city of God. There all the weapons are destroyed
(Ps 76:4). "God is in its midst; it shall not be shaken" (Ps 46:6). From there
peace flows out to all the world (Ps 48:11) because all people are its citizens
(Ps 87:5). All of us sing: "Within you is my true home" (Ps 87:7).

Irene Nowell, O.S.B., is a Benedictine of Mount Saint Scholastica in Atchison,

Kansas. She is an adjunct professor of St. John's University School of
Theology and a past president of the Catholic Biblical Association. Her
books. Sing a New Song: The Responsorial Psalm in the Sunday Liturgy and
Women in the Old Testament, are both published by Liturgical Press.

Irene Nowell, O.S.B. 153