Psalms 144:1-6

Psalm 144 ¹ 

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 

[144:1]  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.

[144:1]  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.

[144:1]  ³ tn Heb “blessed [be] the Lord, my rocky summit.”

[144:1]  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.

[144:2]  ⁵ tn Heb “my loyal love,” which is probably an abbreviated form of “the God of my loyal love” (see Ps 59:10, 17).

[144:2]  ⁶ tn Or “my elevated place.”

[144:2]  ⁷ tn Heb “the one who subdues nations beneath me.”

[144:3]  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.

[144:3]  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.

[144:3]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “take account of him.” The two imperfect verbal forms in v. 4 describe God’s characteristic activity.

[144:4]  ¹¹ tn Heb “man,” or “mankind.”

[144:4]  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.

[144:5]  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 Lord causes the sky, pictured as a dome or vault, to sink down as he descends in the storm. See Ps 18:9.

[144:5]  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.

[144:5]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “so they might smolder.” The prefixed verbal form with vav (ו) conjunctive indicates purpose after the preceding imperative.

[144:6]  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).