A Promise from God's Word

Late in the evening on November 25, 1944, I made my way to the quaint old English chapel on our post. The moon was high, the murky fog had lifted and after a walk around the camp, I was feeling fine. I entered the chapel and although we had the black-out blinds up, I did not bother to turn on the lights. Earlier in the evening I had made a fire in the little barrel-like stove and believe it or not, it was still burning. The men who have been stationed in England, and who have had to use those small grateless stoves, can sympathize with me when I say that it was a real problem to get coal to ignite. This particular night, I just dropped a few sticks of wood in and added a few lumps of coal. Then I knelt at the altar for prayer.

When I looked up, I could see the pulpit to my right and the cross on the altar which the Catholics used for mass. By the dim light which flickered across the altar where I knelt, I could barely see to read my Bible. I opened it to the Psalms and read several of them. After a time I was attracted to a portion of the sixty-sixth Psalm and especially to the twelfth verse: "Thou hast caused men to ride over our heads; we went through fire and through water; but thou broughtest us out into a wealthy place." I stopped reading and looked for a long time at what I had read. Could it be that God was giving me a promise that He would bring me through as He had brought His servant through years before? As I studied the verse it seemed to fit me and I began to make it my own promise from God. In fact, I turned to the fly-leaf of my New Testament and Psalms and wrote there, "Psalms 66, Verses 10-12, promise given me November 25, 1944, at Chapel Altar, Gloucester, England." I held that promise close to my heart that night, and in the days that followed, I found great comfort in it.

I did not understand all the meaning then. I thought that the portion, "Thou hast caused men to ride over our heads" had reference to men getting higher positions than those we would have. Not once did I think of it as being overrun by the Germans, or that bombers would fly over and drop their bombs on us. There was one word that seemed to light up and that was the word "out." "Thou broughtest us out." I thought, "Could it be possible that I would see the 'fire' of the front line and then pass back over that great body of 'water' and enter again into 'that wealthy place'—America?" I promised God then and there that I would trust Him to bring it to pass. Later, I reread the Psalm in prison camp and found that since God had promised what He would do for me there was something for me to do in return. I used that portion of scripture often in my services with the men and challenged them to return to the States and do for God what the psalmist said he did. It is with that thought in mind that I give Him the praise and glory for all that He has done for me.