144:3 O Lord, of what importance is the human race, 1 that you should notice them?
Of what importance is mankind, 2 that you should be concerned about them? 3
144:4 People 4 are like a vapor,
their days like a shadow that disappears. 5
144:5 O Lord, make the sky sink 6 and come down! 7
Touch the mountains and make them smolder! 8
144:6 Hurl lightning bolts and scatter them!
Shoot your arrows and rout them! 9
144:7 Reach down 10 from above!
Grab me and rescue me from the surging water, 11
from the power of foreigners, 12
144:8 who speak lies,
and make false promises. 13
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 14 kings,
and rescued David his servant from a deadly 15 sword.
144:11 Grab me and rescue me from the power of foreigners, 16
who speak lies,
and make false promises. 17
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.
4 tn Heb “man,” or “mankind.”
5 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.
7 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
8 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.
9 tn Heb “so they might smolder.” The prefixed verbal form with vav (ו) conjunctive indicates purpose after the preceding imperative.
10 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).
13 tn Heb “stretch out your hands.”
14 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).
15 tn Heb “from the hand of the sons of foreignness.”
16 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).
19 tn Heb “grants deliverance to.”
20 tn Heb “harmful.”
22 tn Heb “from the hand of the sons of foreignness.”
23 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.