Article June 11, 2007 Issue

GOD IS IN THE DEEP

BY BOB MARTIN

In the summer of 1965, I went through the United States Navy Submarine School. On my duty days I was assigned to stand security watch in the Submarine Library, a huge repository filled with submarine memorabilia, books, correspondence, and artwork. I would often wander through that library looking at battle flags, photographs, and various works of art.

One pen-and-ink drawing of a submarine that had perished at sea was particularly interesting to me. In the drawing, a huge hand was reaching up out of the ocean, with a submarine held in its palm. And underneath was an inscription from Psalms: "They that go down to the sea in ships, that do business in great waters; these see the works of the Lord, and his wonders in the deep" (107:23, 24).

Being just a young sailor at the time, I often looked at that drawing and wondered how I would react if confronted with a life-threatening experience at sea. Would "the hand of God" be there to shelter and protect me? Had the crew of the submarine depicted in the drawing prayed in the final seconds before their boat was destroyed—and, if so, why hadn't they survived?