Praise be to the LORD my Rock, who trains my hands for war, my fingers for battle. – Psalm 144:1

Today’s Scripture Reading (February 11, 2012): Psalm 144

I have never been in a war. I am not a soldier. I have never had to place myself in harm’s way for the sake of my nation. I am old enough to remember Vietnam, but my country wasn’t involved. I have watched with interest (or maybe horror) the conflicts that have flashed across my television screen during my life. But I have never been there. Even though I have never actually experienced it, I don’t think that I can imagine a lonelier place to be than anywhere in the moments before the conflict starts. Once the battle begins, training takes over,  and I think you do what it is you need to do – but in that moment before the battle it is different. And the waiting must be almost unbearable.

I can make that comment because I do know the feeling of going into the uncomfortable places in my life. I know firsthand those long moments before a meeting when you know you are going to be challenged. And while your life may not be at risk, in those moments when your reputation or something else that you love dearly is on the line, it seems like the battle lines are being drawn. And those moments, the ones right before even those battles start, are definitely lonely.

But they are also sad. So many conflicts, from the military conflicts that I have read about in history, to the ones I have watched unfold before me in the contemporary world, to those personal conflicts that I have found myself in the center of all too often, all of them seem to have been based on some level on a miscommunication. The conflicts just didn’t need to happen. And I think that makes those moments before the battle starts seem even lonelier.

It is the moment that the Psalmist is experiencing. The moment for battle is approaching. And what he needs to remind himself of is that God has given him precisely what he needs to join the battle. And that as the battle approaches, he is t alone. We never are. As the fight draws near, God is with us. And he stands with us in the heat of the battle. And in the end, that really is all that matters.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Psalm 145