Psalms 144

A Prayer for National Safety

1

Of David.

1 Blessed be Yahweh, my rock, the one who trains my hands for battle, my fingers for war--
2 my loyal love and my fortress, my stronghold and my deliverer, my shield, and [one] in whom I take refuge, the one who subdues peoples under me.
3 O Yahweh, what [is] humankind that you take knowledge of him, [or the] son of man that you take thought of him?
4 Humankind is like a breath, his days like a passing shadow.
5 O Yahweh, bow the heavens and come down; touch the mountains so that they smoke.
6 Flash forth lightning and scatter them; dispatch your arrows and rout them.
7 Stretch out your hands from on high; Rescue me and deliver me from many waters, from [the] hand of foreigners,
8 whose mouth speaks falsely, and their right hand [is] a false right hand.
9 O God, I will sing a new song to you. With a lyre of ten [strings] I will sing praise to you,
10 who gives victory to kings, who rescues David his servant from [the] evil sword.
11 Rescue me and deliver me from [the] hand of foreigners, whose mouth speaks falsely, and whose right hand [is] a false right hand,
12 that our sons [may be] like plants, full grown in their youth, our daughters like corner pillars, carved in the style of a palace,
13 [that] our granaries [may be] full, providing [produce] of all kinds, [that] our sheep [may] produce by the thousands, by the tens of thousands in our open fields,
14 [that] our cattle [may be] pregnant; [that there be] no breach [in our walls], and no going out [in exile], and no outcry in our plazas.
15 Blessed [are] the people who have [it] thus. Blessed [are] the people whose God [is] Yahweh.

Footnotes 3

  • [a]. The Hebrew Bible counts the superscription as the first verse of the psalm
  • [b]. Reading with many Hebrew manuscripts and versions; MT reads "my people"
  • [c]. Hebrew "from kind to kind"

Psalms 144 Commentaries

Scripture quotations marked (LEB) are from the Lexham English Bible. Copyright 2012 Logos Bible Software. Lexham is a registered trademark of Logos Bible Software.