Psalms 144:12-15

A description of the prosperity of Israel under the protection and blessing of Jehovah. Cp. generally Deuteronomy 28:2 ff; Deuteronomy 30:9.

The absolute dependence of the earlier verses upon existing Psalms makes it probable that these verses also are borrowed, though the poem from which they were taken is not preserved; and the absence of a clear grammatical connexion with the preceding verses makes this probability almost a certainty.

What the compiler intended the connexion to be (for considering the general character of the Psalm we need not doubt that he appended them himself) is much disputed.

(1) The LXX (followed of course by the Vulg.) changes the pronouns to the third person, and makes Psalms 144:12 describe the temporal prosperity of the enemies of Israel referred to in Psalms 144:11. "Whose mouth hath spoken vanity … whose sons are as young plants &c." Psalms 144:15 then describes the contrast between this temporal happiness and the true spiritual happiness which Israel possesses. -Men call the people happy who have these things; (but truly) happy is the people whose God is the Lord." This however can only be regarded as a conjectural alteration, and not as the true reading.

(2) It is possible to render, We whose sons, or (R.V.) When our sons&c., and to take Psalms 144:15 as the apodosis, but such a lengthy protasis as the whole of Psalms 144:12 is awkward.

(3) The A.V., which follows Aq., Symm. and Jer., may give the right meaning. The goal to which the Psalmist looks forward as the end of deliverance from enemies is the happiness and prosperity of the nation. No doubt the construction is harsh, but it may be explained by the supposition that the Psalmist borrowed the description in Psalms 144:12, and tacked it loosely on to the rest of his poem by the particle of relation or conjunction asher, without altering the construction of the passage to suit it.