Psalms 144:2-12

2 My mercy and my fortress, my high tower and my deliverer, my shield and he in whom I trust, who subdueth my people under me!

3 Jehovah, what is man, that thou takest knowledge of him, the son of man, that thou takest thought of him?

4 Man is like to vanity; his days are as a shadow that passeth away.

5 Jehovah, bow thy heavens, and come down; touch the mountains, that they smoke;

6 Cast forth lightnings, and scatter them; send forth thine arrows, and discomfit them:

7 Stretch out thy hands from above; rescue me, and deliver me out of great waters, from the hand of aliens,

8 Whose mouth speaketh vanity, and their right hand is a right hand of falsehood.

9 O God, I will sing a new song unto thee; with the ten-stringed lute will I sing psalms unto thee:

10 Who givest salvation unto kings; who rescuest David thy servant from the hurtful sword.

11 Rescue me, and deliver me from the hand of aliens, whose mouth speaketh vanity, and their right hand is a right hand of falsehood.

12 That our sons may be as plants grown up in their youth; our daughters as corner-columns, sculptured after the fashion of a palace:

Psalms 144:2-12 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.

Footnotes

• [a]. See Note, Ps. 59.10.
• [b]. Adam as Gen. 1.26.
• [c]. Enosh. Note here, first 'Adam,' then 'son of Enosh,' i.e. just the converse of Ps. 8.4. Here it is sinful man's fragility and impotence, there what God does in grace in exalting the 'SON OF MAN' (Adam).
• [d]. Or 'a breath,' as Ps. 62.9; 94.11: see Note b, Gen. 4.2: in vers; 8,11 the word is as 'falsehood' in Ps. 12.2, where see Note g.
• [e]. Or 'victory.'