No king is saved by the size of his army; no warrior escapes by his great strength. – Psalm 33:16

Today’s Scripture Reading (May 25, 2019): Psalm 33

Nicholas, Count of Salm, was seventy years of age when the Siege of Vienna began on September 27, 1529. Outside of the city walls, Suleiman the Magnificent of the Ottoman Empire had brought with him somewhere between 120,000 to as many as 300,00 soldiers in his attempt to take Vienna. Inside the walls of the city, 20,000 local farmers, peasants, and civilians, sprinkled with a few mercenaries, most of whom were German, prepared to defend the city against its Ottoman attackers. And, of course, Nicholas.

Actually, the seventy-year-old German Count of Salm was a mercenary, but he was about to become the hero of Vienna. The Ottoman forces had brought with them 500 pieces of artillery and started to batter the city. According to at least some accounts, this attempt to bombard the city with an artillery barrage was just a cover for their real intention; the Ottomans intended to dig under the walls of the Vienna so that they could come up in the middle of the city, behind Vienna’s defensive line. But Nicholas had an idea. Apparently, the German Mercenary instructed that the space around the walls be filled with water and dried peas. The dried peas would float to the top of the water and, when disturbed by the digging below, the peas would create ripples in the water. The ripples signaled to the city’s defenders exactly where the Ottomans were digging, allowing the defenders to dig down and intercept the tunnels below.

In the end, the ingenuity of the city’s defenders, along with inclement weather that surrounded Vienna during the siege, meant that the city would not be taken by Suleiman the Magnificent and his Ottoman army. More than 120,000 trained soldiers were defeated by 20,000 farmers and peasants, and of course some dried peas.

David makes it clear that his military success is not about him and his abilities as a General. David believed that any success that he might be able to achieve was the direct result of the will of God. The victor was the one for whom God places his thumb on the scale. That was David’s story. He knew what it was like to be the underdog. He knew what it was like to be the little guy going up against a giant. This was his story.

But David also understood that miracles were the domain of God. It was this belief in his “God of Miracles” that allowed David to have the confidence to go up against Goliath, the Giant. “The Lord who rescued me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will rescue me from the hand of this Philistine” (1 Samuel 17:37). He would not win because of the size of Israel’s army, or because of his physical strength. He would only succeed if God was on his side; and if God was his courage and his strength.

As for Nicholas, Count of Salm, the Siege of Vienna would be his last battle. Nicholas was injured by falling rock at the height of the artillery attack. He survived the battle, but he would die of his injuries a few months after the siege, on May 4, 1530. But this veteran of many campaigns is remembered more because of the peas he used to defend a city at the age of seventy than he is for any of brave ways he acted in the many battles that came before Vienna.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Psalm 35