ODB: From the Deadly Sword
May 26, 2025
READ: Psalm 144:1-2, 9-15
I will sing a new song to you, my God. Psalm 144:9
Sabin Howard’s remarkable sculpture A Soldier’s Journey breathes with vitality and anguish. Thirty-eight bronze figures lean forward across a fifty-eight-foot bas-relief that traces the life of a World War I soldier. Completed in 2024, the panorama begins with a heartrending goodbye to family, leads us through the naive elation of departure, and moves into the horrors of battle. Finally the sculpture returns us home, where the veteran’s daughter peers into his upturned helmet—only to foresee World War II.
Howard sought “to find the thread that runs through humanity—that human beings can reach great heights, and they can sink to the level of the animal.” War reveals this reality.
The psalmist David knew well the bloody consequences of war. Aware of its tragic necessity to confront evil, he praised the God who “trains my hands for war” (Psalm 144:1). Yet he also recoiled from combat, praying, “From the deadly sword deliver me” (vv. 10-11). David looked forward to the time when the young won’t die in war, but sons “will be like well-nurtured plants” and daughters “like pillars carved to adorn a palace” (v. 12). On that day “there will be no breaching of walls, no going into captivity, no cry of distress in our streets” (v. 14).
Looking back, we remember those who’ve fallen in battle. Looking ahead, we sing with David, “I will sing a new song to you, my God” (v. 9).
— Tim Gustafson
How has war affected you? What can you do to work for peace?
Father, we remember those who’ve died in war. We long for Your lasting peace.
Source: Our Daily Bread
