Today, we are on Psalm 21 and in this psalm, God is depicted as a warrior. In verse 8, David says, “Your hand will lay hold on all your enemies; your right hand will seize your foes.” David concludes the psalm by saying, “Be exalted in your strength, Lord; we will sing and praise your might.” A lot of people aren’t comfortable with the idea of God as a warrior, but scripture affirms that he is on numerous occasions. As human beings, I think we all understand there are opposing forces at work in the universe. There is a cosmic struggle between good and evil going on 24/7/365. The different religions of the world take different angles in trying to describe this struggle, but all of them acknowledge that it exists.

If we can all agree that God is good and therefore not evil, then it is not difficult to believe that God hates evil and actively fights against it. I mean, how good could God be if he was indifferent or apathetic while watching things like rape, murder and adultery? Some think of God as being so far removed from creation that he is not moved or emotionally engaged with the happenings of our world. But this is a fallacy in emphasizing God’s transcendence and de-emphasizing his immanence. Jesus was God incarnate and showed us that God does not sit back and merely watch the human drama unfold. Angry, he went into the temple and overthrew the tables of the money changers because his Father’s house was being dishonored. (Matthew 21) In Matthew 23, Jesus was more than a little frustrated as he berated the scribes and Pharisees for their hardhearted unbelief. No, Jesus showed us that God is not indifferent or unmoved by the human condition. He is very capable of anger, sadness and compassion.

Simply looking at Jesus, it is not difficult to imagine God as a warrior. God hates evil and his ultimate plan includes completely doing away with it. David was thankful for God’s might and found a sense of security in God’s ferocity. It’s easy for us to try to create a god in our own minds that is basically just like us. We don’t have any problems or difficulties with who god is because we created him. He is a figment of our imagination. It is imperative therefore, that we let scripture inform our view so as to avoid this colossal error. God is a lot of things and there is no box big enough to fit him in.

Have you ever encountered a truth about God that you weren’t comfortable with? How did you navigate that challenge?