In God We Trust 8/30/42
Scripture: Psalm 20
Text: Psalm 20: 7 “Some trust in chariots and some in horses; but we will remember the name of the Lord our God.”
“Time marches on” and history repeats itself generation after generation. More than three thousand years ago, David put into a song the sobering experience of ages as well as the experience of his own heart. “Some trust in chariots and some in horses.”
The earliest man must have relied on this teeth and his arm; then on his club; then on his spear, his bow, his gun. The more skilled he became at managing himself and his environment and his tools, the more complicated became his tools.
In the expansion of his power, man relies on might - more and more of it. And it is true that if he is clever enough, and well enough equipped, he may impose his will on much of the world as he finds it.
The trouble with this simple reliance on might is that it may be used for good or for evil. And the end, or intention, for which it is used makes all the difference between heaven on earth, or hell on earth.
Man is right now witnessing a use of power that brings misery and despair to others. It is not new, but it is near to us, and it seems to us that it must be worse than anything man has hitherto endured. Armed might has crushed and enslaved nation after nation of human beings with a hatred and ruthlessness entirely unbecoming enlightened human beings, and unworthy of the soul of man.
We of our country are involved in the struggle, not because most of us like a free for all fight, but because we feel that the standards which make our lives worth living are in deadly peril. I am convinced that the majority of the people of this nation feel that the only recourse this nation had was resort to armed force to check armed-force-gone-amok in the world.
But the use of force, and the victory of force, does not in itself, ensure the triumph of right nor the defeat of evil. It offers the victor an opportunity to make his will effective in the area he has mastered.
I believe with all my heart that a United Nations victory is vital, not only to the saving of our kind of life (and perhaps our lives) but for the opportunity of our kind of life in the world. The Nazi type of militarism has demonstrated a ruthlessness of group and self interest which has left the rest of the world utterly devoid of hope in that power.
But a United Nations victory will guarantee nothing better than our nations have the will to make it. If this contest of might shall issue in victory for us, we shall have an opportunity to demonstrate practically what can be done by intelligent good will. As I see it, that opportunity is what we struggle and pray for; and that opportunity will carry with it the gravest sort of responsibility.
In these months of tense anxiety, shall we put our trust in “chariots and horses,” in aircraft and tanks and guns and ships? Yes, we must have them to fight the kind of fight we are now in. But if we are to hope for a victory that will count through the years, we must put our trust in the eternal truths that go as far beyond chariots as the stars go beyond our stormy little planet.
This great trust in righteousness - this great plus, beyond the trust in our strong right arm - is indicated in the motto of our nation which appears on most of our coins: “In God We Trust.” We sing the same motto when we sing our national anthem (if we sing it all the way through.) Every time you put a coin in the collection basket, or pass it over the counter, you pass on the words, “In God We Trust.”
Think with me for a moment what that may mean. Does it mean that we may rightly pray “O God, we’re in an awful mess and you’ve got to help us out of it?” Does it mean that we may assume that our cause, our safety, our opportunity are right, and that God’s omnipotent power should be added to ours? Is that trusting God? Or is it just imploring the Great Judge to take sides and become a partisan in our conflicts?
Again, if we truly trust in God, can we suspend, for a time, that relationship, while we take care of a situation in our own way? You may recall the story of the little girl who had gotten herself ready for bed and was saying her prayers as she knelt beside her bed. Her younger brother, coming upstairs and passing the open door of her room, noticed her bare toes sticking out from under the hem of her nightgown. Finding temptation too strong for him to resist, he tickled his sister’s toes. Whereupon she interrupted her prayer with these words: “ ‘Scuse me just a minute, Lord, while I knock the stuffin’ outa Willie!” There are those who seem to feel that we must turn away from God, or ask Him to turn His back, while we settle an aggravated issue in our own way. With that thought, I do not think a Christian can agree.
If we really trust in God, must we not be mightily concerned with our motives? Are they the motives of God? Do we really desire God’s way in the world?
What about love? Our Christ commands us to love God and neighbor as well.
Four weeks ago, I heard the pastor of this church (and you heard him, too) say that while we must resist our enemies with all our strength, we must do so without hatred. I think he was right.
I think that, even in war time, we can not afford to hate people. We must hate wrong with all our hearts. We must despise the evil policies of evil governments. But we must discipline ourselves against hatred of people.
This is hard. Jesus Christ gave us one of the most difficult of precepts when he said “Love your enemies; do good to them that hate you.” [Luke 6: 27]. There is nothing soft about it. It calls for a pretty stern definition of love. But that saying of the Master is born of the recognition that “an enemy does himself the most harm.”
It seems to me that the Christian teaching at this point might be summarized in some such saying as this: “Do not be any man’s enemy.” Resist your enemy’s evil; discipline his selfish and willful desires if you can; but watch eternally for a chance to be his friend; and keep yourself from the corrosive acid of hatred.
Is not that a Christian direction? And is that not involved if we truly trust in God?
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dates and places delivered:
Port Edwards Community Church, August 30, 1942
Methodist Church, Wisconsin Rapids, August 30, 1942 (Union
Service)