Psalms 144:3-13

3 Lord, why are people important to you? Why do you even think about human beings?

4 People are like a breath; their lives are like passing shadows.

5 Lord, tear open the sky and come down. Touch the mountains so they will smoke.

6 Send the lightning and scatter my enemies. Shoot your arrows and force them away.

7 Reach down from above. Save me and rescue me out of this sea of enemies, from these foreigners.

8 They are liars; they are dishonest.

9 God, I will sing a new song to you; I will play to you on the ten-stringed harp.

10 You give victory to kings. You save your servant David from cruel swords.

11 Save me, rescue me from these foreigners. They are liars; they are dishonest.

12 Let our sons in their youth grow like plants. Let our daughters be like the decorated stones in the Temple.

13 Let our barns be filled with crops of all kinds. Let our sheep in the fields have thousands and tens of thousands of lambs.

Psalms 144:3-13 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO PSALM 144

\\<>\\. This psalm was written by David; not on account of the return of the Jews from the Babylonish captivity, by a spirit of prophecy, as Theodoret; but on his own account, after he was come to the throne, and was king over all Israel; and was delivered from the was between him and Israel, and from the war of the Philistines, as Kimchi observes, having gained two victories over them: or it was written between the two victories, and before he had conquered all his enemies; since he prays to be delivered from the hand of strange children, Ps 144:7,11. R. Obadiah thinks it was written on the account of his deliverance from Absalom and Sheba; but the former is best. Some copies of the Septuagint, and also the Vulgate Latin, Ethiopic, and Arabic versions, have in their titles these words, ``against Goliath;'' and so Apollinarius; as if it was written on account of his combat with him, and victory over him; but this clause is not in the Hebrew Bibles; nor could Theodoret find it in the Septuagint in the Hexapla in his time. The Syriac inscription is still more foreign to the purpose, ``a psalm of David, when he slew Asaph the brother of Goliath.'' R. Saadiah Gaon interprets this psalm of the times of the Messiah; and there are several things in it which are applicable to him.