Psalms 144:1-15
1 Blessed be the LORD my strength,a which teacheth my hands to war, and my fingers to fight:
2 My goodness,b and my fortress; my high tower, and my deliverer; my shield, and he in whom I trust; who subdueth my people under me.
3 LORD, what is man, that thou takest knowledge of him! or the son of man, that thou makest account of him!
4 Man is like to vanity: his days are as a shadow that passeth away.
5 Bow thy heavens, O LORD, and come down: touch the mountains, and they shall smoke.
6 Cast forth lightning, and scatter them: shoot out thine arrows, and destroy them.
7 Send thine hand from above; rid me, and deliver me out of great waters, from the hand of strange children;
8 Whose mouth speaketh vanity, and their right hand is a right hand of falsehood.
9 I will sing a new song unto thee, O God: upon a psaltery and an instrument of ten strings will I sing praises unto thee.
10 It is he that giveth salvationc unto kings: who delivereth David his servant from the hurtful sword.
11 Rid me, and deliver me from the hand of strange children, whose mouth speaketh vanity, and their right hand is a right hand of falsehood:
12 That our sons may be as plants grown up in their youth; that our daughters may be as corner stones, polishedd after the similitude of a palace:
13 That our garners may be full, affording all manner of store: that our sheep may bring forth thousands and ten thousands in our streets:
14 That our oxen may be strong to labour; that there be no breaking in, nor going out; that there be no complaining in our streets.
15 Happy is that people, that is in such a case: yea, happy is that people, whose God is the LORD.
God's People Are Happy
This psalm savors of the rocky caverns from which David and his men emerged to fight. Each day the chieftain asked God to teach him to fight, and realized that all his need would be met. The names he gives to God indicate that all-sidedness which becomes the complement of every conceivable necessity on our part.
What a striking conception opens in Psalms 144:4! Saul was but a “breath”! r.v., margin. The persecuting bands were as the shadows that pass across the hills! From them all he appealed to God to bow the heavens and come, to touch the mountains, and to rescue him from the rising waters. And when the storm has passed he sings his new glad song, Psalms 144:9; Psalms 144:12-15 were probably added at a later time, when David was established in his kingdom.
They describe a summer afternoon of prosperity, when sons have grown from plants to trees, and daughters resemble the carved figures which support the beams of a palace. No breaking in of the foe, no need to go forth to fight, no outcry of oppression or want; but the halcyon sunset of a well-spent life.