for peace

Psa 120:6-7 Too long have I lived among those who hate peace. I am for peace; but when I speak, they are for war.

This verse reminds me of a Military Ethics class I took as part of my officer training. I argued against forcing enemy PWs to clear a path through minefields by walking ahead of our soldiers. I thought that even in the use of military power, we needed to be working toward a state of peace. I was the only one, and after class two others cornered me and told me if I was such a wuss I didn’t belong in the Infantry. 

This verse also reminds me of the scorched-earth approach we take to dialogue these days. We no longer seek to persuade; we don’t try to find middle ground. On even the most minor points, it seems, what we really want is to annihilate the opposing view, to overwhelm the people who hold it and burn down the last vestige of their moronic ideas. If we can’t argue their logic, we attack their credibility, or even question their intelligence. It’s even a favored tactic of one of our Presidential candidates.

It seems that many of my friends and co-workers have an endless willingness to fight. Many like me are weary of it; for us this verse resonates.

That’s why we can’t ignore the rest of Psalm 120. The psalmist is calling out to God. He sees how hard it is to keep to the way of peace when everyone else is on the warpath. And he knows that God can not only soothe and affirm his peaceful heart, but God can also change the hearts of those around him.

That’s my challenge: to pray for changed hearts. Because I’m like everyone else: I just want those dumb fighters to be defeated by my superior thinking. Instead, I should want them to hear Jesus, and to follow the Prince of Peace.