Today is Pearl Harbor Day. As a nation we mark the anniversary of the surprise attack on American forces by the Japanese navy in 1941. Over 2,300 sailers died, many trapped inside ships as they burned and sank in the harbor. The assault catapulted the United States into a war that ended four years later only with the nuclear bombing of Japan.

On this day so long ago the wicked found success. David prayed against such people in his world:

Do not grant the wicked their desires, Lord; do not let their plans succeed.

I don’t know if any amount of prayer would have stopped the events leading up to Pearl Harbor. But I do know that millions of people died due to a war launched by a few men gorging on power. The desires of the wicked led to tragedy upon tragedy for the innocent.

I regularly pray for well-being, good health, prosperity, wisdom, kind hearts, and a meaningful relationship with the Lord for myself and those around me. But I rarely ask God to blunt the plans of the wicked.

Our world is no more enlightened today than when those planes rained death on a idyllic harbor in Hawaii. We possess more ways to harm each other than ever before.

Perhaps we all need to pray David’s prayer more often.

Psalm 140 in reading the Bible in 2023

Photo by Kirby Yardley