The Soldier’s Bible
The Soldier’s Bible is a FREE WWII period monologue highlighting Psalm 91. Complete production notes and monologue are included below. A PDF download of this script can be purchased HERE.
Production Notes
Running Time
3-5 minutes
Scripture Reference
Psalm 91
Cast
HANK is an 18 year-old American soldier in World War II
Synopsis
HANK is the youngest of three boys, determined to fight for the honor of his country in World War II. He enlists at 18 with heroic ideas of war and leaves for Europe with a soldiers’ Bible given to him by his mother.
When faced with the difficult realities of war, HANK turns to the Scriptures and finds great comfort in Psalm 91. He comes to understand that no matter what difficulties he faces in life, he can have hope, because he faces them with the Lord.
Hank
When my older brothers were drafted in 1942, I could think of nothin’ else.
Ray went to Asia as a medic, and then Bob left for Alabama to guard a prison camp soon after. Even Ma and Pops were doin’ their part spendin’ their days workin’ at the war plant, and their nights volunteerin’ with the Red Cross. There I was still sittin’ on my behind in high school collectin’ dust – just because I wasn’t eighteen years old yet.
What I wanted more than anything else was to be out on the front lines. I told as much to Ma one day. She got real quiet and clutched the locket of us boys around her neck and asked in a whisper of a voice, “Why Hank, haven’t you given any thought to goin’ off to college?”
(HANK shakes his head and continues reflective)
I know it was hard for her and Pops, with two boys already out fightin’ the war, but I couldn’t just sit on my hands and wait. My country needed me, and I wanted to go, so I enlisted on my eighteenth birthday and readied myself for war.
I said goodbye to Ma and Pops on a cold night in November. Their eyes told me what their words couldn’t. They were scared – real scared – afraid they could lose one of us, maybe all of us now that I was headed off to Europe. Ma reached deep into her apron pocket and pulled out a soldiers’ New Testament.
“Now Ma, I know we don’t have the money for you to be gettin’ me gifts like this,” I chided her.
“Hush child,” she said through the tears streaming down her face. “You take this Word and you keep it near your heart. When it gets dark out there and you need a light, you open up these pages and you read. (pause) I’ll be prayin’ for you, son. Every day and every night ‘till God brings you back home to me.”
I knew she meant it, and even though I never had been one to put much stock in religion, I took the Bible and gave her my word.
It did not take long for me to discover that war was not as heroic an ideal as it seemed back home. It was ugly, and dirty, and all kinds of evil, standard issue like the M1 Garand they placed in each of our hands. Even though I never doubted the cause, I came to understand in painful ways how much it really cost.
It did get dark, and I did need light, so I read like I promised Ma, and what an ocean of peace awaited me in those pages. By what I can only imagine as the hand of God, I found Psalm 91 and memorized it top to bottom, front to back, until I could recite it in my sleep.
(quoting from Psalm 91:1 KJV)
“He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.”
That Psalm was my lifeline and my prayer. With every danger and every battle, every fallen comrade and every wounded man we risked our lives to bring to safety, it was a balm to my fear- filled heart – a prophecy of hope for a future I couldn’t see back in the trenches of Europe.
(quoting from Psalm 91:15-16 KJV)
“He shall call upon Me, and I will answer him: I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him, and honour him. With long life will I satisfy him, and shew him my salvation.”
Most of what I lived in Europe I left there – dead and buried like so many who never made it home (HANK continues with a tender kind of passion) – two things exceptin’.
First, that eighteen-year-old unbridled passion I had for this nation only grew as I served with our boys beneath the Stars and Bars. Sometimes you don’t really know how good you have it until you come eye-to-eye with those who don’t.
And second, I brought home Ma’s Bible, and with it a faith stronger than I ever could have imagined possible. I knew if God could walk beside me through the battlefields of Europe, surely He would walk beside me the rest of my days.
The Soldier’s Bible was first written for Irma Solorio for Fine Arts Competition.