Battle Prep

We’ve said it before at Theopolis: young men are in trouble.

Our boys are increasingly addicted to tech and pornography, trading tangible, earthly pleasures for gnostic, disembodied simulations. And even those who aren’t enslaved to explicit pornography often live in a near-constant stream of cheap stimulation: swipes, clips, memes and noise.

The saturation of these new quick hits is unprecedented. They form men who are overstimulated, under-formed, and unprepared.

We say we want our young men to become warriors in the Kingdom of God. But too often what we get is the parabolic angry young man who is reactive, lonely, chaotic and brittle. A dull battle axe without a target.

Scripture gives us a different image in the Psalter in our brother, David.

David was a slinger and swordsman, yes, but the Psalter reminds us: “ The LORD trains my hands for war, and my fingers for battle ” (Psalm 144:1).

David’s fingers learned war on the strings of the harp and lyre. His warfare was liturgical as much as it was martial. He conquered demons with music before he conquered Goliath with a stone. Perhaps as a boy he was plucking strings in the morning before slaughtering lions during the day.

If we want to form warrior-kings rather than perpetual boys, the church must become a house of song again.

Not just singing on Sunday, but the headwaters of Sunday worship must flow into:

Daily household psalm and hymn-singing

Fathers and sons learning songs together

Serious, embodied musical training (violin, piano, voice, guitar) where fingers are disciplined, where attention is trained, where glory is learned

Yes, this means planning for music lessons alongside workouts, jiu-jitsu, and sports. Yes, this means parents budgeting time and money for instruments and practice.

It’s all battle prep.

If David’s hands were trained for war, it was because his fingers were trained for praise.