Text -- Psalms 144:1-11 (NET)

Psalm 144

144:1 By David. The Lord, my protector, deserves praise– the one who trains my hands for battle, and my fingers for war, 144:2 who loves me and is my stronghold, my refuge and my deliverer, my shield and the one in whom I take shelter, who makes nations submit to me. 144:3 O Lord, of what importance is the human race, that you should notice them? Of what importance is mankind, that you should be concerned about them? 144:4 People are like a vapor, their days like a shadow that disappears. 144:5 O Lord, make the sky sink and come down! Touch the mountains and make them smolder! 144:6 Hurl lightning bolts and scatter them! Shoot your arrows and rout them! 144:7 Reach down from above! Grab me and rescue me from the surging water, from the power of foreigners, 144:8 who speak lies, and make false promises. 144:9 O God, I will sing a new song to you! Accompanied by a ten-stringed instrument, I will sing praises to you, 144:10 the one who delivers kings, and rescued David his servant from a deadly sword. 144:11 Grab me and rescue me from the power of foreigners, who speak lies, and make false promises.

Commentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

NET Notes: Psa 144:1

¹ sn Psalm 144. The psalmist expresses his confidence in God, asks for a mighty display of divine intervention in an upcoming battle, and anticipates God’s rich blessings on the nation in the aftermath of military victory.

² tn Heb “my rocky summit.” The Lord is compared to a rocky summit where one can find protection from enemies. See Ps 18:2.

³ tn Heb “blessed [be] the Lord, my rocky summit.”

⁴ sn The one who trains my hands for battle. The psalmist attributes his skill with weapons to divine enablement (see Ps 18:34). Egyptian reliefs picture gods teaching the king how to shoot a bow. See O. Keel, The Symbolism of the Biblical World, 265.

NET Notes: Psa 144:2

¹ tn Heb “my loyal love,” which is probably an abbreviated form of “the God of my loyal love” (see Ps 59:10, 17).

² tn Or “my elevated place.”

³ tn Heb “the one who subdues nations beneath me.”

NET Notes: Psa 144:3

¹ tn Heb “What is mankind?” The singular noun אֱנוֹשׁ (’enosh) is used here in a collective sense and refers to the human race. See Ps 8:5.

² tn Heb “and the son of man.” The phrase “son of man” is used here in a collective sense and refers to human beings. For other uses of the phrase in a collective or representative manner, see Num 23:19; Ps 146:3; Isa 51:12.

³ tn Heb “take account of him.” The two imperfect verbal forms in v. 4 describe God’s characteristic activity.

NET Notes: Psa 144:4

¹ tn Heb “man,” or “mankind.”

² tn Heb “his days [are] like a shadow that passes away,” that is, like a late afternoon shadow made by the descending sun that will soon be swallowed up by complete darkness. See Ps 102:11.

NET Notes: Psa 144:5

¹ tn The Hebrew verb נָטָה (natah) can carry the sense “to [cause to] bend; to [cause to] bow down.” For example, Gen 49:15 pictures Issachar as a donkey that “bends” its shoulder or back under a burden. Here the Lord causes the sky, pictured as a dome or vault, to sink down as he descends in the storm. See Ps 18:9.

² tn Heb “so you might come down.” The prefixed verbal form with vav (ו) conjunctive indicates purpose after the preceding imperative. The same type of construction is utilized in v. 6.

³ tn Heb “so they might smolder.” The prefixed verbal form with vav (ו) conjunctive indicates purpose after the preceding imperative.

NET Notes: Psa 144:6

¹ sn Arrows and lightning bolts are associated in other texts (see Pss 18:14; 77:17-18; Zech 9:14), as well as in ancient Near Eastern art (see R. B. Chisholm, “An Exegetical and Theological study of Psalm 18/2 Samuel 22” [Th.D. diss., Dallas Theological Seminary, 1983], 187).

NET Notes: Psa 144:7

¹ tn Heb “stretch out your hands.”

² tn Heb “mighty waters.” The waters of the sea symbolize the psalmist’s powerful foreign enemies, as well as the realm of death they represent (see the next line and Ps 18:16-17).

³ tn Heb “from the hand of the sons of foreignness.”

NET Notes: Psa 144:8

¹ tn Heb “who [with] their mouth speak falsehood, and their right hand is a right hand of falsehood.” The reference to the “right hand” is probably a metonymy for an oath. When making an oath, one would raise the hand as a solemn gesture. See Exod 6:8; Num 14:30; Deut 32:40. The figure thus represents the making of false oaths (false promises).

NET Notes: Psa 144:10

¹ tn Heb “grants deliverance to.”

² tn Heb “harmful.”

NET Notes: Psa 144:11

¹ tn Heb “from the hand of the sons of foreignness.”

² tn Heb “who [with] their mouth speak falsehood, and their right hand is a right hand of falsehood.” See v. 8 where the same expression occurs.