By David.
144:1 The Lord, my protector, 2 deserves praise 3 –
the one who trains my hands for battle, 4
and my fingers for war,
144:2 who loves me 5 and is my stronghold,
my refuge 6 and my deliverer,
my shield and the one in whom I take shelter,
who makes nations submit to me. 7
144:3 O Lord, of what importance is the human race, 8 that you should notice them?
Of what importance is mankind, 9 that you should be concerned about them? 10
144:4 People 11 are like a vapor,
their days like a shadow that disappears. 12
144:5 O Lord, make the sky sink 13 and come down! 14
Touch the mountains and make them smolder! 15
144:6 Hurl lightning bolts and scatter them!
Shoot your arrows and rout them! 16
144:7 Reach down 17 from above!
Grab me and rescue me from the surging water, 18
from the power of foreigners, 19
144:8 who speak lies,
and make false promises. 20
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
3 tn Heb “blessed [be] the
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.
5 tn Heb “my loyal love,” which is probably an abbreviated form of “the God of my loyal love” (see Ps 59:10, 17).
6 tn Or “my elevated place.”
7 tn Heb “the one who subdues nations beneath me.”
8 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.
9 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.
10 tn Heb “take account of him.” The two imperfect verbal forms in v. 4 describe God’s characteristic activity.
11 tn Heb “man,” or “mankind.”
12 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.
13 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
14 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.
15 tn Heb “so they might smolder.” The prefixed verbal form with vav (ו) conjunctive indicates purpose after the preceding imperative.
16 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).
17 tn Heb “stretch out your hands.”
18 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).
19 tn Heb “from the hand of the sons of foreignness.”
20 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).