The Americans believe God is on their side. Here’s what the Bible really teaches

Psalm 18 has recently gained attention because it was quoted by the US Secretary of Defence, Pete Hegseth, who wants Congressional approval to change his title to “Secretary of War”. He quoted v37-42, including: “You armed me with strength for battle; you humbled my adversaries before me”.

Then he prayed that God would grant American forces “overwhelming violence of action against those who deserve no mercy.”

This prompted me to examine passages in the Psalms where God is asked to harm others because they are the enemy. I was surprised to find none. 

Of course, David and other psalmists do ask God to defeat others – but not merely because they are enemies. They point instead to their immorality: their violence without reason, their deceitfulness and injustice. The psalmists never ask - or assume - that God will harm their enemies simply because He is on their side.

Actually, requests for God to harm others are relatively rare – most of the time the psalmists ask for God’s protection or give God thanks retrospectively for having kept them safe. Like those who took part in medieval trial by combat, they assumed God would help only the side that is in the right.

Fighting for what’s right

The psalmists knew God well enough not to assume He would fight for them simply because they worshipped Him. God had revealed Himself as righteous, not merely as a divine partisan supporter. And the later prophets repeatedly stressed that while God was faithful, He also punished Israel when the nation sinned. 

Psalm 18 is an unfortunate choice for anyone wanting to imply that God takes sides, because it was written by David while being hunted by Saul and his fellow Israelites. Both David and his enemies called on the LORD for help (v6,41), much like opposing armies in the world wars and other civil conflicts.

Perhaps, like the psalmists, these opponents believed their cause was morally right. But unlike the psalmists, they assumed God would automatically be on their side, simply because they worshipped Him.

Jesus taught that the Father does not have favourites

Surprisingly, the “enemies” usually named in the Psalms were fellow Israelites. David was pursued for seven years by King Saul, who grew fearful of David’s rising popularity after he defeated Goliath and his military success as Saul’s general (1 Samuel 18:6-9).

David wrote several psalms during that time (Psalms 7, 17, 18, 54, 55, 57, 59, 63, 64) and later similar ones when in danger from fellow Israelites during Absalom’s rebellion (Psalms 3, 41, 55, 63, 143).

Only two clearly refer to battles with foreign armies - Psalms 56 and 144 (and perhaps 58 and 140), but even these explain why God should help, by pointing to the enemy’s immorality. They are described as “wicked traitors”, “whose mouths are full of lies, whose right hands are deceitful” (Psalm 59:5; Psalm 144:8-11) – that is, they had broken oaths sworn by their right hand.

The war with Iran

At this point, we may be tempted to ‘play God’ and judge which side He might favour in a conflict between the US and Israel against Iran. Iran’s claims that it was enriching uranium merely for civilian purposes were clearly false, because nuclear power plants only require enrichment of around 4%, whereas they themselves claimed to reach over 20%.

The former supreme leader, Ali Hosseini Khamenei, who was killed by a bomb in February, had ruled against the production of nuclear weapons, regarding them as immoral. But it is widely assumed that elements within the Iranian government were intending to continue uranium enrichment to weapons-grade level once he was dead.

However, the other side can also be criticised. In 2015, after the longest negotiations since the second world war, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action was agreed. In return for the lifting of economic sanctions, Iran accepted limits on its nuclear programme – especially uranium enrichment – and allowed 150 international inspectors continuous access for verification.

When Donald Trump became president in 2017, he withdrew the US from the agreement. While the UN and EU regarded it as a binding treaty, the US argued it was only a ‘deal’, since it hadn’t been ratified by a two-thirds Senate majority. Lies and broken agreements are exactly the kinds of behaviour the psalmist expected God to consider when judging between sides (Psalm144:8-11).

Personal and national

Psalm 18 is unique because we have two versions. The earlier form in 2 Samuel 22 was written after David survived his long conflict with Saul. He describes facing “violent people” and “waves of death [that] swirled about me” as he was overwhelmed by “my powerful enemy… who were too strong for me” (v3-6, 18).

He ends by thanking God that even foreigners now respect him (2 Samuel 22:45-46) - probably referring to groups within Israel such as the Jebusites, from whom he took Jerusalem early in his reign (2 Samuel 5:6-7). 

The same Psalm was subtly adapted for national worship by generalising the conflict from David’s “my people” (2 Samuel 22:44 in Hebrew) to “the people” (Psalm18:43) – making a personal struggle applicable to the whole nation.

The psalmists knew God would not fight for them simply because they worshipped Him

This broader description of his enemies meant that the “foreigners” now included the armies of other nations whom David defeated later. However, the psalm retained its assertions that these enemies were morally debased – “violent” and ‘haughty” opportunists who struck during a time of weakness (v18,27,48). The prayer to God for support was still based on God’s judgement of who was morally right, rather than His bias towards them as Israelites (v25-27). 

People sometimes accuse God of showing undue support for Israel in the Old Testament, whether they were right or wrong, and some might expect God to show favour to His people today. But Jesus taught that the Father does not have favourites; God regards everyone as His children until the day of judgement, sending sunshine and refreshing rain “on the just and the unjust” (Matthew 5:45).

This truth echoes throughout the Bible: God operates without favouritism (see Acts10:34-35; Romans 2:11; Ephesians 6:9; Colossians 3:25; James 2:1) - however much we might wish or expect him to take sides.