A psalm of David
144
📚Blessed be the LORD my rock,
who trains my hands for war,
and my fingers to fight.
144:1 Note on “Rock” at Deut 32:4. This psalm is very similar to Psalm 18. David lived in a time when the people of God fought physical battles against human enemies. Skill in battle was highly desirable. No doubt David had natural ability and practiced much with sword and bow. But he does not attribute his skill to himself, but to God. In this New Testament age the great battles of God’s people are spiritual (Eph 6:10-18). God Who taught David will teach us how to fight these battles if we are willing and obedient. If we gain some success we should attribute this to God and not vainly imagine that it is our own ability or goodness that has gotten us the victory (1 Cor 4:7).⚜
2 📚He is my merciful
one, and my fortress 📖,
my high tower, and my deliverer,
my shield, and the one
in whom I trust,
who subdues 📖 my people under me.
3 📚LORD, what is man, that you
acknowledge him?
Or the son of man,
that you concern
yourself with him?
4 📚Man is like a vapour.
His days are like a shadow
that passes away.
144:3-4 See Ps 8:4; Job 14:1-2; Heb 2:6; Isa 2:22. David included himself in this description of man. He knows that it is God alone Who has made him strong, skillful, and successful, and it fills him with praise that the great God should care for puny man.⚜
5 📚Bow your heavens, O LORD,
and come down!
Touch the mountains and make
them smoke!
6 📚Hurl out lightning bolts and
scatter them!
Shoot out your arrows and
destroy them!
7 📚Send down your hand
from above.
Rescue me, and deliver me
out of great waters,
from the hand of foreigners,
8 📚Whose mouth speaks vanity,
and whose right hand is a
right hand of falsehood.
144:5-8 In all his danger David knows that safety and deliverance depend on God alone. Compare Ps 18:7-15. David prays that God will do as He did before.⚜
9 📚I will sing a new song to you,
O God.
I will sing praises to you on a lyre
and a ten-stringed
instrument,
10 📚you who give salvation
to kings,
who deliver his servant David
from the deadly sword.
11 📚Rescue me, and deliver me
from the hand
of foreigners,
whose mouth speaks vanity,
and whose right hand is
a right hand of falsehood,
12 📚So that our sons may be
like plants 📖 grown up in
their youth,
that our daughters may
be like pillars 📖,
carved like palace carvings.
13 📚And that our barns
may be full,
furnishing all kinds of provisions,
and that our sheep may
give birth to thousands and
ten thousands in our fields,
14 📚That our oxen
may be strong
to labour,
and that there be no
breaking in,
or going out,
that there be no outcry
in our streets.
144:12-14 David does not pray for victory just for his own sake. He is thinking of all the people of God. He desires their prosperity and peace.⚜
15 📚Happy are the people
who are in such a condition;
yes, happy are
the people whose God
is the LORD.
144:15 Deut 28:3. Notes on blessing at 1:1; Gen 12:1-3; Num 6:22-27. Blessed indeed are those who have the one true God as their God. There can be no blessing higher than this. And even though we live in poverty or deadly danger we are still blessed indeed if this God is our God.⚜