Psalms 144:4-8

144:4 People ¹  are like a vapor,

their days like a shadow that disappears. ² 

144:5 O Lord, make the sky sink ³  and come down! ⁴ 

Touch the mountains and make them smolder! ⁵ 

144:6 Hurl lightning bolts and scatter them!

Shoot your arrows and rout them! ⁶ 

144:7 Reach down ⁷  from above!

Grab me and rescue me from the surging water, ⁸ 

from the power of foreigners, ⁹ 

144:8 who speak lies,

and make false promises. ¹⁰ 

[144:4]  ¹ tn Heb “man,” or “mankind.”

[144:4]  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.

[144:5]  ³ 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]  ⁴ 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]  ⁵ tn Heb “so they might smolder.” The prefixed verbal form with vav (ו) conjunctive indicates purpose after the preceding imperative.

[144:6]  ⁶ 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).

[144:7]  ⁷ tn Heb “stretch out your hands.”

[144:7]  ⁸ 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).

[144:7]  ⁹ tn Heb “from the hand of the sons of foreignness.”

[144:8]  ¹⁰ 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).