Psalms 44:5–7 says "Through you we push back our enemies and trample our foes." How does that belief work in a modern context if both sides are claiming that the God of the Bible is on their side?

20 years ago, when I was in jr. high-school, I played on a traveling AAU basketball team. I was always certain that God was with our team and gave us wins against other teams. I was always looking for spiritual advantages that would translate to in-game victories as I believed that God had a hand in athletics so long as a Christian was participating. The things I would do to secure these athletic advantages were prayer, fasting, and Bible reading. One day I asked a pastor the question, “If there were two AAU basketball teams that were playing against one another in the State championship game and in the locker room before the game they both prayed to God for victory, how would God decide on who to give the State title to? The pastor answered me, “God would give the victory to the team that is walking in righteousness.” I answered, “What if both teams are walking in righteousness?” He answered, “Then God would award the victory to the team that is walking in the most righteousness.”

Psalms 44:5–7 was written circa 1000 B.C. by David, King of Israel. During David’s reign, Israel looked to God for guidance during its military campaigns. God and Israel were very intimate with one another at this time in the narrative of the Bible. It should be noted that the Psalms, was in many respects a diary of King David’s; it was also letters of praise to God; it was also a book of songs that praised God. King David was a war-time king; during his 40-year reign over Israel, he defeated the Philistines, the Amalekites, the Edomites, the Jebusites, and the Ammonites. Many of the verses in the book of Psalms speak of victory in battle and God’s deliverance in relation to battle.

In modern-day contexts, the only enemy that a person should pray to God for victory against is Satan. If a person prays to God for victory over a mortal foe, in my opinion, they are missing the point. Ephesians 6:12 reads, “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” This verse means that a Christian should recognize that the hardships that they are facing are not instigated by man, but by Satan; and that the adversarial conditions that are being placed upon them by wicked people, are not mortal devices, but Satanic devices.

So if we re-examine the question that I asked the pastor some 20 years ago, and apply it to a person’s life generally, it will show that if there are two or more parties that are Christians that have conflicting interests, and these parties pray to God for the victory in the situation, the question that begs to be asked is “Who would God give the victory to?” The answer as shown in Ephesians 6:12 is the person that recognizes that it is a spiritual war that is being fought and that the adversary is spiritual and not mortal. If all of the parties praying for victory have similar dispositions concerning the spiritual nature of the battle that they are in, then the one walking in the most righteousness will emerge victorious (1 John 5:4).