Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 144:1
[A Psalm] of David. Blessed [be] the LORD my strength, which teacheth my hands to war, [and] my fingers to fight:
1. Blessed be Jehovah my rock] From Psa 18:46.
which teacheth my hands to war, and my fingers to fight ] An expansion of Psa 18:34 a. Hands and fingers are a common parallelism, but possibly fingers may refer particularly to the use of the bow. Cp. Psa 18:34 b.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
1, 2. Praise of Jehovah the Giver of victory.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Blessed be the Lord my strength – Margin, as in Hebrew, my rock. See the notes at Psa 18:46, where the same expression occurs in the Hebrew.
Which teacheth my hands to war – Hebrew, To the war. See the notes at Psa 18:34. The Hebrew is not precisely alike, but the sense is the same.
And my fingers to fight – Hebrew, my fingers to the fight. That is, he teaches my fingers so that I can skillfully use them in battle. Probably the immediate reference here is to the use of the bow – placing the arrow, and drawing the string.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Psa 144:1-9
Blessed be the Lord my strength, which teacheth my hands to war, and my fingers to fight.
The Lord teaching us to fight
I do not know what that Book of the Wars of the Lord was which is referred to once or twice in the Old Testament; but I apprehend the Book of Psalms was such a Book to the Israelites, and that it has been such a book to Christendom. We may call it a collection of prayers, hymns, thanksgivings,–what we please,–but a record of fights it assuredly is. And this sentence, which occurs in one of the latest portions of it, is a fit summary of its contents, and a kind of moral to be drawn from the whole of it. I am far from thinking that this sentence applies exclusively to what we designate spiritual conflicts. I should suppose that David, or whoever the writer of the psalm was, gave thanks that he had been able to fight with the Philistines and Ammonites. Nay, I should think he gave thanks that he had been obliged to fight with them; that he had not been allowed to rust in the ease which he would have chosen for himself. Man is made for battle. His inclination is to take his ease: it is God who will not let him sink into the slumber which he counts so pleasant, and which is so sure to end in a freezing death. Blessed be the Lord God, who teacheth the hands to war, and the fingers to fight!
1. This thanksgiving is one of universal application: there are some cases in which we shrink from using it, and yet in which we are taught by experience how much better we should be if we dared to use it in all its force and breadth. There are those who feel much more than others the power of fleshly lusts. To withstand these is with them, through education, or indulgence, such an effort as their nearest friends may know nothing of. Oh, what help, then, may be drawn from the text! There is One who does know exactly what I am, and what I can bear. The constitution, the circumstances, are understood by Him; He has ordained them for me. And yet He is not tempting me to sink; He is tempting me to rise. He has allowed me to enter into this conflict that I may come out of it a humbler, sadder, stronger man. He does not desire me to fall in it. The falls I have had are all so many motives and goads to put that trust in Him which they show me that I cannot put in myself.
2. Violent desires or passions remind us of their presence. The fashion of the world is hemming us in and holding us down without our knowing it. A web composed of invisible threads is enclosing us. It is not by some distinct influence that we are pressed, but by an atmosphere full of influences of the most mixed quality, hard to separate from each other. How natural it is to yield to these influences! how very mischievous the effort to resist them often appears,–yes, and is! For how many a man becomes impatient of the habits of that particular society in which he is born; fancies that the habits of some other must be better in themselves or be better for him; flings himself eagerly into it, and finds that the chain which bound him before is more closely about him now. If it galls him, that is something to be thankful for. Blessed be the God of Israel for this! since surely it must be He, and no other, who shows us that we do not want to be loose from government, but to be under a stricter and a more righteous government than that of accident and convention and the floating opinion of an age; that we do not want to be more but less under the yoke of our own fancies and conceits; that self-will and vanity have been the great destroyers of all freedom and manliness in us and in our race; that these have built up that false world which has become our prison-house. Blessed be the Lord God for this! since to such awakenings of the conscience in men we owe all great and earnest reformations, all victories over desperate abuses which private interests established and sustained.
3. Least of all is there any natural energy in us to contend against that enemy who is described in Scripture as going about seeking whom he may devour. There is a natural, and therefore a very general, impression of his existence; there is a sense in all men that in some form or other he is not far from them. But the impulse among rude people is to conciliate the adversary who, as their consciences tell them, has had, and still has, such dominion over them. He is a god whom it is worth while to persuade with litanies and sacrifices that he will spare his victims. By degrees, if there is no counteracting force, he is certain to become the god: he will demand all services for himself. Among the civilized it is otherwise. They are inclined to regard the devil as a fiction of the nursery; it is the shadow of a name which cannot be banished from conversation, nor quite from the thoughts, but it means nothing. Yet something steals over these refined people which they know not exactly how to describe. Apathy, loss of power, despondency,–these are some of the names which they invent for it. Is it not true, then, that the time which boasts to have outlived the evil spirit is the one which is most directly exposed to his assaults? May it not be that our progress, which is not to be denied, and for which we are to feel all gratitude, has brought us into a closer conflict with the spiritual wickedness in high places than our forefathers were ever engaged in? Our progress!–cause for thankfulness, if this is the result of it! Yes; blessed be the Lord God of Israel, who teacheth our hands to war, and our fingers be fight. Blessed is He for bringing us into immediate encounter with His own immediate enemies, that so we may know more than others did of His own immediate presence! It is a terrible thing indeed to have the spirits of indolence and indifference and vanity all about us, and to think that they are mere names and abstractions. But it is a glorious thing to be roused up to the apprehension of them as real enemies, from whom none but a real Friend, an actual Captain of the Lords host, can deliver us! (F. D. Maurice, M. A.)
God as our General
During the Jacobite rebellion of 1745, Colonel Gardiner, the friend of Dr. Doddridge, and Christian soldier, who was afterwards killed at the battle of Preston-pans, went to Stirling to a meeting of the gentlemen of that town to devise means of opposing the Highlanders, who were approaching under Prince Charles. Wishing to encourage his listeners to make every effort, he dwelt on the deficiencies of the opposing army, showed them its weaknesses, and somewhat boastfully declared that if he were only at the head of a certain regiment which he had formerly commanded he would not fear to encounter the whole rebel force, and he was sure he would then give a good account of them. Just then the Rev. Mr. Erskine, who stood by the Colonels side, whispered into his ear, Say under God, Colonel. At once Gardiner turned, and the hero of a hundred fights replied, Oh, yes, Mr. Erskine, I mean that, and with God as our General we must be conquerors. Christians should never forget that God is their General. It is He who is in command, and who brings the victory.
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
PSALM CXLIV
The psalmist praises God for his goodness, 1, 2.
Exclamations relative to the vanity of human life, 3, 4.
He prays against his enemies, 5-8;
and extols God’s mercy for the temporal blessings enjoyed by
his people, 9-15.
NOTES ON PSALM CXLIV
The Hebrew, and all the Versions, attribute this Psalm to David. The Vulgate, Septuagint, AEthiopic, and Arabic, term it, A Psalm of David against Goliath. The Syriac says, “A Psalm of David when he slew Asaph, the brother of Goliath.” Calmet thinks, and with much probability, that it was composed by David after the death of Absalom, and the restoration of the kingdom to peace and tranquillity. From a collation of this with Ps 18:1-50, of which it appears to be an abridgment, preserving the same ideas, and the same forms of expression, there can be no doubt of both having proceeded from the same pen, and that David was the author. There is scarcely an expression here of peculiar importance that is not found in the prototype; and for explanation I must refer generally to the above Psalm.
Verse 1. Teacheth my hands to war] To use sword, battle-axe, or spear.
And my fingers to fight] To use the bow and arrows, and the sling.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Who has given me that skill in military conduct, and that dexterity in the management of my weapons, which was wholly unsuitable to and much above my education and former course of life.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
Blessed [be] the Lord my strength,…. The author and giver of his natural strength of body, and of the fortitude of his mind, and of all the spiritual strength he had, to exercise grace, to bear up under afflictions and trials, to perform duty, and withstand enemies. It may be applied to Christ, the antitype of David, the man of God’s right hand, he has made strong for himself. It may be rendered, “my rock” c; to whom the psalmist fled for shelter, when in distress and overwhelmed; and on whom he built his faith, and hope of eternal salvation, as well as depended on him for all supplies of grace and strength, and for help and succour in all times of need. The Septuagint, Vulgate Latin, Ethiopic, and Arabic versions, render it, “my God”: and so the word “rock” is used for God, De 32:30;
which teacheth my hands to war, [and] my fingers to fight; he took him from being a shepherd, and made him a soldier; and from being the leader of a flock of sheep, to be a general of armies; and all his military skill in marshalling of troops, in leading them on to battle, and bringing them off as well as all his courage and success, were from the Lord: he whose hands and fingers had been used to the shepherd’s crook, and to the handling of the harp and lyre, were taught how to handle the sword, the bow, the shield, and spear. God is a man of war himself; and he teaches the art of war, as he does husbandry and other things; see Ex 15:3; and so the Lord furnishes his people, who are here in a militant state, with spiritual armour, to fight against their spiritual enemies; he teaches them how to put it on, and directs them how to make use of every piece of it; as well as gives them boldness to face their enemies, and victory over them.
c “rupes mea”, Montanus, Tigurine version, Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, &c. so Ainsworth.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
The whole of this first strophe is an imitation of David’s great song of thanksgiving, Ps 18. Hence the calling of Jahve “my rock,” Psa 18:3, Psa 18:47; hence the heaping up of other appellations in Psa 144:2, in which Psa 18:3 is echoed; but (with Lamed deprived of the Dagesh) follows the model of 2Sa 22:2. The naming of Jahve with is a bold abbreviation of in Psa 59:11, 18, as also in Jon 2:8 the God whom the idolatrous ones forsake is called . Instead of the Davidic Psalms also poetically say , Psa 55:22, cf. Psa 78:9. The expression “who traineth my hands for the fight” we have already read in Psa 18:35. The last words of the strophe, too, are after Psa 18:48; but instead of this poet says , from = (cf. Isa 45:1; Isa 41:2), perhaps under the influence of uwmoriyd in 2Sa 22:48. In Psa 18:48 we however read , and the Masora has enumerated Psa 144:2, together with 2Sa 22:44; Lam 3:14, as the three passages in which it is written , whilst one expects ( ), as the Targum, Syriac, and Jerome (yet not the lxx) in fact render it. But neither from the language of the books nor from the popular dialect can it be reasonably expected that they would say for in such an ambiguous connection. Either, therefore, we have to read ,
(Note: Rashi is acquainted with an otherwise unknown note of the Masora: ; but this Ker is imaginary.)
or we must fall in with the strong expression, and this is possible: there is, indeed, no necessity for the subduing to be intended of the use of despotic power, it can also be intended to God-given power, and of subjugating authority. David, the anointed one, but not having as yet ascended the throne, here gives expression to the hope that Jahve will grant him deeds of victory which will compel Israel to submit to him, whether willingly or reluctantly.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
| Grateful Acknowledgments of Divine Goodness; Prayer for Success against Enemies. | |
A psalm of David.
1 Blessed be the LORD my strength, which teacheth my hands to war, and my fingers to fight: 2 My goodness, and my fortress; my high tower, and my deliverer; my shield, and he in whom I trust; who subdueth my people under me. 3 LORD, what is man, that thou takest knowledge of him! or the son of man, that thou makest account of him! 4 Man is like to vanity: his days are as a shadow that passeth away. 5 Bow thy heavens, O LORD, and come down: touch the mountains, and they shall smoke. 6 Cast forth lightning, and scatter them: shoot out thine arrows, and destroy them. 7 Send thine hand from above; rid me, and deliver me out of great waters, from the hand of strange children; 8 Whose mouth speaketh vanity, and their right hand is a right hand of falsehood.
Here, I. David acknowledges his dependence upon God and his obligations to him, Psa 144:1; Psa 144:2. A prayer for further mercy is fitly begun with a thanksgiving for former mercy; and when we are waiting upon God to bless us we should stir up ourselves to bless him. He gives to God the glory of two things:–
1. What he was to him: Blessed be the Lord my rock (v. 1), my goodness, my fortress, v. 2. He has in the covenant engaged himself to be so, and encouraged us, accordingly, to depend upon him; all the saints, who by faith have made him theirs, have found him not only to answer but to out do their expectations. David speaks of it here as the matter of his trust, and that which made him easy, as the matter of his triumph, and that which made him glad, and in which he gloried. See how he multiplies words to express the satisfaction he had in God and his interest in him. (1.) “He is my strength, on whom I stay, and from whom I have power both for my work and for my warfare, my rock to build on, to take shelter in.” Even when we are weak we may be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. (2.) “My goodness, not only good to me, but my chief good, in whose favour I place my felicity, and who is the author of all the goodness that is in me, and from whom comes every good and perfect gift.” (3.) “My fortress, and my high tower, in whom I think myself as safe as ever any prince thought himself in a castle or strong-hold.” David had formerly sheltered himself in strong-holds at En-gedi (1 Sam. xxiii. 29), which perhaps were natural fastnesses. He had lately made himself master of the strong-hold of Zion, which was fortified by art, and he dwelt in the fort (2Sa 5:7; 2Sa 5:9), but he depends not on these. “Lord,” says he, “thou art my fortress and my high tower.” The divine attributes and promises are fortifications to a believer, far exceeding those either of nature or art. (4.) My deliverer, and, as it is in the original, very emphatically, my deliverer to me, “not only a deliverer I have interest in, but who is always nigh unto me and makes all my deliverances turn to my real benefit.” (5.) “My shield, to guard me against all the malignant darts that my enemies let fly at me, not only my fortress at home, but my shield abroad in the field of battle.” Wherever a believer goes he carries his protection along with him. Fear not, Abram, I am thy shield.
2. What he had done for him. He was bred a shepherd, and seems not to have been designed by his parents, or himself for any thing more. But, (1.) God had made him a soldier. His hands had been used to the crook and his fingers to the harp, but God taught his hands to war and his fingers to fight, because he designed him for Israel’s champion; and what God calls men to he either finds them or makes them fit for. Let the men of war give God the glory of all their military skill; the same that teaches the meanest husbandman his art teaches the greatest general his. It is a pity that any whose fingers God has taught to fight should fight against him or his kingdom among men. Those have special reason to acknowledge God with thankfulness who prove to be qualified for services which they themselves never thought of. (2.) God had made him a sovereign prince, had taught him to wield the sceptre as well as the sword, to rule as well as fight, the harder and nobler art of the two: He subdueth my people under me. The providence of God is to be acknowledged in making people subject to their prince, and so preserving the order and benefit of societies. There was a special hand of God inclining the people of Israel to be subject to David, pursuant to the promise God had made him; and it was typical of that great act of divine grace, the bringing of souls into subjection to the Lord Jesus and making them willing in the day of his power.
II. He admires God’s condescension to man and to himself in particular (Psa 144:3; Psa 144:4): “Lord, what is man, what a poor little thing is he, that thou takest knowledge of him, that thou makest account of him, that he falls so much under thy cognizance and care, and that thou hast such a tender regard to any of that mean and worthless race as thou hast had to me!” Considering the many disgraces which the human nature lies under, we have reason to admire the honours God has put upon mankind in general (the saints especially, some in a particular manner, as David) and upon the Messiah (to whom those words are applied, Heb. ii. 6), who was highly exalted because he humbled himself to be found in fashion as a man, and has authority to execute judgment because he is the Son of man. A question to this purport David asked (Ps. viii. 4), and he illustrated the wonder by the consideration of the great dignity God has placed man in (Ps. viii. 5), Thou hast crowned him with glory and honour. Here he illustrates it by the consideration of the meanness and mortality of man, notwithstanding the dignity put upon him (v. 4): Man is like to vanity; so frail is he, so weak, so helpless, compassed about with so many infirmities, and his continuance here so very short and uncertain, that he is as like as may be to vanity itself. Nay, he is vanity, he is so at his best estate. His days have little substance in them, considering how many of the thoughts and cares of an immortal soul are employed about a poor dying body; they are as a shadow, dark and flitting, transitory and finishing with the sun, and, when that sets, resolving itself into all shadow. They are as a shadow that passeth away, and there is no loss of it. David puts himself into the number of those that are thus mean and despicable.
III. He begs of God to strengthen him and give him success against the enemies that invaded him, v. 5-8. He does not specify who they were that he was in fear of, but says, Scatter them, destroy them. God knew whom he meant, though he did not name them. But afterwards he describes them (Psa 144:7; Psa 144:8): “They are strange children, Philistines, aliens, bad neighbours to Israel, heathens, whom we are bound to be strange to and not to make any leagues with, and who therefore carry it strangely towards us.” Notwithstanding the advantages with which God had blessed David’s arms against them, they were still vexatious and treacherous, and men that one could put no confidence in: “One cannot take their word, for their mouth speaketh vanity; nay, if they give their hand upon it, or offer their hand to help you, there is no trusting them; for their right hand is a right hand of falsehood.” Against such as these we cannot defend ourselves, but we may depend on the God of truth and justice, who hates falsehood, to defend us from them. 1. David prays that God would appear, that he would do something extraordinary, for the conviction of those who preferred their dunghill-deities before the God of Israel (v. 5): “Bow thy heavens, O Lord! and make it evident that they are indeed thine, and that thou art the Lord of them, Isa. lxvi. 1. Let thy providence threaten my enemies, and look black upon them, as the clouds do on the earth when they are thick, and hang very low, big with a storm. Fight against those that fight against us, so that it may visibly appear that thou art for us. Touch the mountains, our strong and stately enemies, and let them smoke. Show thyself by the ministry of thy angels, as thou didst upon Mount Sinai.” 2. That he would appear against his enemies, that he would fight from heaven against them, as sometimes he had done, by lightnings, which are his arrows (his fiery darts, against which the hardest steel is no armour of proof, so penetrating is the force of lightning), that he himself would shoot these arrows, who, we are sure, never misses his mark, but hits where he aims. 3. That he would appear for him, v. 7. He begs for their destruction, in order to his own deliverance and the repose of his people: “Send thy hand, thy power, from above, for that way we look for help; rid me and deliver me out of these great waters that are ready to overflow me.” God’s time to help his people is when they are sinking and all other helps fail.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
Psalms 144
Victory Anticipated
Scripture v. 1-15:
Verse 1 declares, “Blessed (worthy of praise) be the Lord my strength, (my rock, my refuge) which teacheth (continually) my hands to (do) war, and my finger to fight,” to deliver him from his enemies, as related to Psa 18:2; Psa 18:31; Psa 18:46; Psa 18:34; and as promised, 2 Samuel ch. 7.
Verse 2 asserts that the Lord of the Rock was David’s goodness, fortress, high tower, deliverer, and shield, in whom he trusted. David added, “who subdueth (continually) my people under me,” the God of his mercy, Psa 59:17; Psa 18:2; Psa 18:43; 2Sa 22:44; 1Pe 1:11-12, with some things in God’s plan, “hard to understand.”
Verse 3 Inquires, “Lord, Oust) what is man, that thou takest knowledge of him? or the ‘son of man, that thou makest account (continually keep a record) of him?” Psa 7:4. Why does God lavish such loving kindness on the creature “man?” amazes David, Job 7:17; Job 15:4; Psa 8:4; Heb 2:6. Man seems so frail, so insignificant, 2Sa 7:18-19; Isa 55:8. The answer is, he is God’s property, belongs to God, by creation, and His daily care for him, Eze 18:4-5; Act 17:28.
Verse 4 asserts that “man is like to vanity,” (Heb a vapor) adding, “His days are as a shadow that passeth (continually moves) away,” and in his frailness is soon gone. Nothing in sinful, frail, dying men merits the favor and goodness of God. At such David marveled, Psa 62:9; Psa 39:5-6; Psa 102:11; Psa 103:15; Rom 11:33.
Verse 5 exhorts then, “Bow thy heavens, O Lord, and come down,” to aid David, Israel, and their posterity, Psa 18:9; Isa 64:1; He continued, “Touch the mountains (in thy judgment wrath) and they shall smoke,” be consumed finally with fire, alluding to final Divine judgment against heathen world powers, Psa 104:32.
Verses 6, 7 appeal, “cast forth lightning, and scatter them,” (thine enemies) of v. 7,11, adding “shoot out thine arrows (of warfare and death) and destroy them,” Psa 18:13-14.
Verse 7 continues, “send thine hand (of judgment) from above; Rid me, and deliver me out of great waters, (masses of enemy and deep trouble) from the hand of strange children,” the sons of the heathen strangers, Psa 18:44-45.
Verse 8 adds, “whose mouth speaketh (continually) vanities, (hot air), and their right hand is a right hand of falsehoods,” of lying deceivers, oath, and promise-breakers, Psa 12:2; Psa 41:6; 2Ki 10:15; 2Ki 10:15; 2Sa 20:9, as “Jacob took Amasa by the right hand to kiss him, “then stabbed him to death.
Verse 9 Is a Davidic resolve, “I will sing a new song unto thee, O God: upon a psaltery and instruments of ten strings will I sing praises unto thee,” in gratitude and praise for His mercy and loving kindness, Psa 33:2-3. It will culminate in full and final victory for David and Israel, Psalms 145.
Verse 10 declares, “it is He that giveth salvation (victory) unto kings, who delivereth (continually) his servant (David and Israel) from the sword,” looking toward, guaranteeing the future redemption of natural Israel as David’s seed, Psa 18:50; Psa 33:16. David himself, the Lord’s servant, thus spoke, to express his past and anticipated future deliverances, Psa 143:2; Psa 143:12; Psa 22:20.
Verse 11 appeals a second time, as in v. 7,8 for the Lord for his (David’s) riddance of or deliverance from the hand of strange or heathen children, those who were idolators, not of Israel’s bloodline or faith. He added that their “mouth speaketh (continually) vanity,” meaning “hot air,” and “their right hand is a right hand of falsehood,” or lying, deceitful hope, Psa 12:2; Psa 41:6; 2Ki 10:15.
Verse 12 recounts that David desired this salvation from his enemies, “That our sons (of Israel) may be (exist) as plants grow up in youth,” where there is no oppression of enemies, under which conditions they grew up pale and sickly, half-starved, under-nourished, Psa 128:3. He added that “our daughters (of Israel) may be as corner stones, polished (cut) after the similitude of a palace,” lofty, graceful, and elegant, unhurt by heathen oppression, Zec 9:15; Eph 2:20.
Verse 13 continues, “That our garners (storehouses for food) may be full, affording all manner of store, that our sheep may bring fortes thousands and ten thousands in our streets,” literally, that they might have great prosperity in all their land, Jos 1:8; Psa 1:3; 1Ti 4:8.
Verse 14 explains, “that our oxen may be strong to labor; (to plow or to pull the harvest wagon) 1Ch 12:40, that there be no breaking in (no loss) nor going out; (by marauding thieves or plunderers stealing or carrying away their cattle, sheep, or livelihood) that there be no complaining of loss in our streets,” Such was David’s plea for God’s blessings upon and protection of his people Israel, Jdg 21:15; 2Sa 6:8; Isa 24:11.
Verse 15 declares “Happy (spiritually prosperous) is that people that is in such a case,” such a state or condition, as certified Deu 33:29; Psa 33:12; Psa 65:4; Psa 89:15; Psa 146:5. He concludes, “yea, happy is that people whose God is the Lord.” Such is spiritually prosperous, with a new nature, a new life, peace, joy, and liberty from fear of death, hell, and the judgment wrath of God, Heb 2:15; Rom 8:15; Deu 33:29.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
1. Blessed be Jehovah, my strength (257) It is very evident that David, since he celebrates the favor of God in such high terms, had not only obtained the kingdom, but gained signal victories. When he calls God his strength, he acknowledges that any courage he had was given him from above, not only because he had been made from a country shepherd a mighty warrior, but because the constancy and perseverance he had shown was signally a gift from God. This term answers better than were we to translate it rock; for, by way of explanation, he adds immediately afterwards, that he had been formed under God’s teaching for war. The words certainly imply an acknowledgment, that though of a warlike spirit, he was not born for warlike enterprises but needed to undergo a change. What kind of a commencement, for example, did he show in the case of Goliah? That attempt would have been preposterous on any other supposition than his being upheld by secret divine support, so as to be independent of mere human help. (1Sa 17:40.)
(257) “ Ou, mon rocher.” — Fr. marg. “Or, my rock.”
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
INTRODUCTION
This is a singularly composite Psalm. The earlier portion of it, to the end of Psa. 144:11, consists almost entirely of a cento of quotations, strung together from earlier Psalms; and it is not always easy to trace a real connection between them. The latter portion of the Psalm, Psa. 144:12-15, differs completely from the former. It bears the stamp of originality, and is entirely free from the quotations and allusions with which the preceding verses abound. It is hardly probable, however, that this concluding portion is the work of the poet who compiled the rest of the Psalm: it is more probable that he has here transcribed a fragment of some ancient poem, in which were portrayed the happiness and prosperity of the nation in its brightest days, under David, it may have been, or at the beginning of the reign of Solomon. His object seems to have been thus to revive the hopes of his nation, perhaps after the return from the exile, by reminding them how in their past history obedience to God had brought with it its full recompense.
Thus Dean Perowne writesrejecting the Davidic authorship, and bestowing no notice whatever on the superscription, which ascribes the Psalm to David. And Moll says, It is doubtful whether it should be assigned to David himself. But Hengstenberg says that it is one of Davids peculiarities to derive from his earlier productions a foundation for new ones. This Psalm can only have been composed by David. And Alexander: The Davidic origin of the Psalm is as marked as that of any in the Psalter. And Perowne, notwithstanding the passage above quoted, says, The language of Psa. 144:1-4, as well as the language of Psa. 144:10, is clearly only suitable in the mouth of a king, or some powerful and recognised leader of the nation; and it is difficult to find a person of rank in the later history in whose mouth such a Psalm as this would be appropriate. For ourselves we are inclined to accept the superscription, and regard the Psalm as a composition or compilation of Davids.
The Psalmist recounts glorious victories in the past, complains that the nation is now beset by strange, i.e., barbarous enemies, so false and treacherous that no covenant can be kept with them, prays for deliverance from them by an interposition great and glorious as had been vouchsafed of old, and anticipates the return of a golden age of peace and plenty.
INSPIRING ASPECTS OF THE DIVINE BEING
(Psa. 144:1-2)
These verses are taken almost verbatim from different portions of Psalms 18. We regard them as presenting to us the Divine Being in certain inspiring aspects.
I. As the Author of human skill.
He teacheth my hands to war, my fingers to fight. The skill which the poet had in the use of the weapons of war, he attributes to the Lord. The abilities by which battles are planned and victories won come from Him. All beauty of design, and dexterity in labour, and success in achievement in human works, must be attributed to the Great God.
II. As the Protector of human life.
In several different forms the poet expresses this. Jehovah my rock. Two Hebrew words, which slightly differ in meaning, are translated by the word rock. The one which is employed here () suggests the ideas of strength and fixedness; Jehovah is a strong and steadfast refuge. My fortress, i.e., a strong place, generally difficult of access, and thus a secure retreat. My high tower, i.e., a place so high as to be out of the reach of danger, or some almost inaccessible crag affording safety to those who reached it. My deliverer, who rescues me from the power of my enemies. My shield, protecting me from the arrows of the enemies on the field of battle. Now these figures set forth a protection which is
1. Unchangeable, as a rock.
2. Enduring, as a rock.
3. Inviolable. The various figures which the poet employs suggest this fact. On the heaping together of epithets and titles of God Calvin remarks, that it is not superfluous, but designed to strengthen and confirm faith; for mens minds are easily shaken, especially when some storm of trial beats upon them. Hence, if God should promise us His succour in one word, it would not be enough; in fact, in spite of all the props and aids He gives us, we constantly totter and are ready to fall, and such a forgetfulness of His lovingkindness steals upon us, that we come near to losing heart altogether.Perowne. So these various figures are used to impress us with the invincibility of the Divine protection, and to inspire our confidence therein.
4. Ever available. The name of the Lord is a strong tower; the righteous runneth into it and is safe. By prayer, by the exercise of faith in Him, we can at any time avail ourselves of the inviolable protection of Jehovah. If God be for us, who can be against us?
III. As the Source of human authority.
Who subdueth my people under me. The Psalmist is not triumphing in the exercise of despotic power, but gratefully acknowledges that the authority he wields comes from God. David was chosen to be king by God, and in His providence all the tribes were led to submit to his government. Let every soul, saith St. Paul, be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God. For promotion cometh neither from the east, nor from the west, nor from the south. But God is the Judge; He putteth down one, and setteth up another.
IV. As the Object of human trust.
And He in whom I trust. Perowne translates: He in whom I find refuge. The idea is that the Psalmist confided in Him, sought unto Him for protection in times of peril, fled unto Him as His refuge in trouble. The Lord is an adequate object of trust for man, and the only one. They that trust in the Lord shall be as Mount Zion, which cannot be removed, but abideth for ever. Blessed are all they that put their trust in Him.
V. As the Supreme Good of human life.
My goodness. Margin: My mercy. Perowne: My lovingkindness. So also Conant. The idea seems to be that the Psalmist regarded the Lord as his Chief Good, as the Source of all his blessings. David frequently gives expression to this sentiment. There be many that say, Who will show us any good? Lord, lift Thou up the light of Thy countenance upon us. In His favour is life. Thy lovingkindness is better than life. And Asaph also: Whom have I in heaven but Thee? &c. In Him we have the supreme truth for the intellect, the supreme righteousness for the conscience, the supreme love for the heart, the supreme beauty for the soul.
VI. As the Recipient of human praise.
Blessed be Jehovah my rock, &c. The Psalmist here praises Jehovah for what He is to him, and for what He does for him.
1. Gratitude urges to this. Its language is, What shall I render unto the Lord for all His benefits toward me?
2. Reason urges to this. It is in the highest degree rational that He who is Supremely Good should be reverenced and loved; that our greatest Benefactor should be praised by us, &c.
3. This is blessed. He who sincerely blesses God finds blessing in so doing. True worship tends to purify and strengthen, to sanctify and gloriously transform the worshipper.
CONCLUSION.The people of God in this world are still a militant people; but the Lord their God is still their omnipotent Protector and their Supreme Good. Let them loyally trust Him, and heartily worship Him, and soon and for ever they shall become a triumphant people over all foes.
THE INSIGNIFICANCE AND GREATNESS OF MAN
(Psa. 144:3-4)
The connection of these verses with the preceding is correctly pointed out by Calvin: David remembers all that God has done for him, and then, like Jacob, thinks: Lord, I am too little for all Thy lovingkindness, and so contrasts his own nothingness and that of mankind generally with the greatness of such a gracious God. Thus the goodness of God produced humility in the poet; and the truest, deepest humility is always produced by the grace of God. The poet sets before us
I. The insignificance of human life.
Lord, what is man? Man is like to vanity; his days are as a shadow that passeth away. Here are two ideas:
1. Human life is unsubstantial. It is here compared to vanitymore correctly, a breathand a shadow. St. James also speaks of human life as a vapour. How unsubstantial are a breath and a shadow! So is human life. We may see this
(1.) In the objects for which men live. All the fret and stir, says Perowne, all the eager clamour and rivalry of men, as they elbow and jostle one another to obtain wealth and rank, and the enjoyments of life, are but a breath. With what idle dreams, what foolish plans, what vain pursuits, are they for the most part occupied! They undertake dangerous expeditions and difficult enterprises in foreign countries, and they acquire fame; but what is it?Vanity! They pursue deep and abstruse speculations, and give themselves to that much study which is a weariness of the flesh, and they attain to literary renown, and survive in their writings; but what is it?Vanity! They rise up early, and sit up late, and eat the bread of anxiety and care, and thus they amass wealth; but what is it?Vanity! They frame and execute plans and schemes of ambitionthey are loaded with honours and adorned with titlesthey afford employment for the herald, and form a subject for the historian; but what is it?Vanity! In fact, all occupations and pursuits are worthy of no other epithet, if they are not preceded by, and connected with, a deep and paramount regard to the salvation of the soul, the honour of God, and the interests of eternity. Oh, then, what phantoms, what airy nothings are those things that wholly absorb the powers and occupy the days of the great mass of mankind around us! Their most substantial good perishes in the using, and their most enduring realities are but the fashion of this world that passeth away.Dr. Raffles. The great majority of those who seek these things do not attain them; and the few who do attain them find them utterly unsatisfactory.
(2.) In life itself. How unsubstantial is our life as it appears here! How easily is the vital flame extinguished! A breath of air laden with disease may soon lay the most robust frame low in death. A draught of tainted water may quench the vital spark in the most beautiful body. A very little accident may still for ever the brain of the wisest man. Men dwell in houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust, which are crushed before the moth. They are destroyed from morning to evening; they perish for ever without any regarding it. Doth not their excellency which is in them go away? They die, even without wisdom.
2. Human life is transitory. As a shadow that passeth away. Come like shadows, so depart, seems to be a law of human life.
(1.) A shadow passeth away constantly. It is never stationary. As the sun advances the shadow moves onward. It cannot rest. So is it with human life.
Whateer we do, whereer we be,
Were travelling to the grave.
(2.) A shadow passeth away rapidly. How soon the sun sets, and the shadow is gone! But the sun may be obscured by clouds long before his setting; then also the shadow is gone. A striking illustration of the brevity of human life. If, like Jacob, a man lived an hundred and thirty years, like Jacob he would say, Few and evil have the days of the years of my life been. But the great majority of men do not live half so long as that. Much more rapidly do they pass away.
(3.) A shadow passeth away completely. The departing shadow leaves not a trace behind. Is it not so with almost all men? How few of all the millions that have lived in the past have any memorial upon earth now!
Some sink outright,
Oer them and oer their names the billows close,
To-morrow knows not they were ever born.
Others a short memorial leave behind;
Like a flag floating when the barks engulfed,
It floats a moment, and is seen no more.
One Csar lives; a thousand are forgot.
Young.
This aspect of life should humble human pride. Life is unsubstantial and transitory, as a mere breath or a passing shadow. It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.
Lifes but a walking shadowa poor player,
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more: it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.Shakespeare.
II. The greatness of human life.
Lord, what is man, that Thou takest knowledge of him? A son of man, that Thou makest account of him? Man is thought of, cared for, graciously regarded by God. This invests human nature with great importance and dignity. Gods regard for man is manifest
1. In the provision which He has made for us in nature. He has created all nature to minister to mans needs. Earth and sea, air and sky, all serve us. (Comp. Gen. 1:28-29.)
2. In His care over us in Providence. It was this protecting and sustaining providential care which led the Psalmist to inquire, Lord, what is man? &c. He guides and guards and sustains with tenderest care and infinite wisdom. (Comp. Psa. 40:17.)
3. In the redemption which He has wrought for us. He remembered us in our low estate, &c. (Psa. 136:23-24). God so loved the world, &c. God commendeth His love, &c.
4. In the home which He has provided for us. In My Fathers house are many mansions, &c. He hath begotten us again unto an inheritance incorruptible, &c. When man passeth away like a shadow, it is to enter upon an immortal and glorious life.
CONCLUSION.Let our lives harmonise with Gods regard for us.
MAN
(Psa. 144:3)
Lord, what is man?
I. What was man as he came from the hands of his Creator?
1. Rational.
2. Responsible.
3. Immortal.
4. Holy and happy.
II. What is man in his present condition?
1. He is fallen.
2. He is guilty.
3. He is sinful.
4. He is miserable, and helpless in his misery.
III. What is man when he has believed in Christ?
1. He is restored to a right relation to God.
2. He is restored to a right disposition toward God.
3. He enjoys the influences of the Holy Spirit.
4. He is in process of preparation for the heavenly world.
IV. What shall man be when he is admitted into heaven?
1. Free from gin and sorrow.
2. Advanced to the perfection of his nature.
3. Associated with angels.
4. Near to his Saviour and his God.
George Brooks.
HUMAN LIFE A SHADOW
(Psa. 144:4)
Man and his days are here compared to a shadow; and the propriety of the similitude is attested by the experience of all mankind. The resemblance lies in the following particulars:
I. A shadow is compounded of light and darkness; for when no object intercepts the light of the sun, or when the light of the sun is withdrawn, no shadow is produced. In like manner, the state of man in the present world is made up of joy and sorrow; while, as in the emblem, the latter greatly preponderates.
II. A shadow seems to be something, when in reality it is nothing. If you grasp it, you prove its emptiness. The pleasures, riches, and honours of the present world seem important to the eye of the carnal mind when viewed at a little distance; they attract attention, excite desire, and are eagerly pursued. But when, the object being attained, they are closely examined, how empty and unsatisfactory do they prove!
III. A shadow is the subject of continual changes, till at length it finally and suddenly ceases. In the morning, when the sun first rises above the horizon, it is weak and extended to a great length. Towards noon it gains strength, and is contracted in its dimensions. From thence to sunset it gradually becomes less distinct, and at last suddenly and wholly disappears. Man, survey in this emblem thy life! How lively and affecting the description! (Comp. Job. 14:1-2; Jas. 4:14.)
IV. A shadow cannot exist longer than the suns continuance above the horizon, and is every moment liable to annihilation by the intervention of a cloud. In like manner, human life generally lasts but three score years and ten, or four score years; and may, by a sudden accident or the power of disease, be much curtailed. We have no security for the protraction of life through another day or hour; and the probability that our life will not reach its customary limit is as great as that the shadow will cease before the evening arrives.
V. A shadow, when gone, leaves no track of its existence behind. This also is the case with the riches, pleasures, and honours of the world. We brought nothing into the world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. This world is no further substantial, or of importance, than as it stands connected with the next.The Christian Guardian.
A PRAYER OF THE GODLY FOR DELIVERANCE FROM THEIR ENEMIES
(Psa. 144:5-11)
In these verses we have the Psalmists prayer for the overthrow of his enemies, and for his own victory. Let us notice
I. His description of his enemies.
1. They were foreigners. The Psalmist speaks of them as strange children; or, taking Perownes rendering, sons of the alien (Psa. 144:7), and strange persons (Psa. 144:11). It seems that at this time David was engaged in warfare with some of the heathen nations; but with what people or peoples we know not. The spiritual enemies of the people of God are strangers both to Him and to them. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own, &c. (Joh. 15:18-21; Joh. 16:1-3.)
2. They were deceivers. Whose mouth speaketh vanity, and their right hand is a right hand of falsehood. Deception, or falsehood, would be a better rendering of the Hebrew than vanity. The right hand amongst the Jews was uplifted towards heaven in taking an oath. These enemies swore falsely; they were covenant-breakers; their most solemn engagements were not reliable. In the present day falsehood is rife. On every hand and in almost every province of life we are confronted with shams. The great enemy of God and man is the original liar, the arch deceiver. The devil abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him, &c. (Joh. 8:44). Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Let the godly be on their guard, lest Satan should get an advantage of us; for we are not ignorant of his devices. Let them be true in word and deed and life.
3. They caused him great trouble. The Psalmist represents himself as in great waters. This is a Scriptural figure for deep distress. All Thy waves and Thy billows are gone over me Thou hast afflicted me with all Thy waves. When Thou passest through the waters, &c. (Isa. 43:2). The people of God sometimes suffer sorely from their spiritual enemies.
II. His prayer for deliverance from his enemies. This is expressed in language which is vigorously and strikingly poetical; and which is very natural in so strong-winged a poet as David. Bow Thy heavens, O Jehovah, and come down, &c. The Psalmist longs for a Theophany, a coming of God to judgment, which he describes in language again borrowed from Psa. 18:9; Psa. 18:14-16. These poetic figures having been dealt with there, we need not dwell upon them here. He prays that he may be delivered
1. With Divine majesty. Bow Thy heavens, O Jehovah, and come down, &c. (Psa. 144:5). The ideas are doubtless those of awful majesty and irresistible power.
2. By Divine power. Cast forth lightnings, and scatter them; shoot out Thine arrows, and destroy them. Send Thine hand from above, &c. The lightnings are the Lords arrows. The poet prays that his deliverance may be accomplished by Divine power, as verily effected by the immediate presence and finger of God as if He had come down in visible form to accomplish it.
3. With Divine completeness. Scatter them; destroy them, or discomfit them. They whom God scatters and discomfits are utterly overthrown; they whom He delivers are triumphantly saved. The Lord is the glorious Deliverer of His people from their spiritual foes. The God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly. We are more than conquerors through Him that loved us. Thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
III. His resolution to praise God for deliverance from his enemies.
I will sing a new song unto Thee, O God, &c. (Psa. 144:9-10). Notice here
1. The assurance of deliverance. He speaks of God as a present Deliverer to him (Psa. 144:10), and he looks forward with confidence to singing the new song for the new victory. The people of God may well be assured of victory in their moral conflicts; for the purposes, the promises, and the power of God in Christ Jesus, unite to guarantee it unto them.
2. The basis of this assurance of deliverance. The Psalmist seems to have grounded His confidence upon Gods wonted doings. He giveth salvation unto kings; who delivereth David His servant from the hurtful sword. God was the great giver of victory to kings; many a time had He delivered David from the sword of his enemies. What He has done in the past, we may expect Him to do again in similar circumstances and to similar characters. Let His past deliverances be to us so many pledges of our full and final triumph.
3. The promised song of deliverance. I will sing a new song unto Thee, O God; upon a psaltery, an instrument of ten strings, will I sing praises unto Thee. More correctly: Upon a ten-stringed lute will I make music unto Thee. The goodness of God in the new victory shall be celebrated in a new song; and the new song shall be accompanied with the sweet strains of music.
Let new mercies evoke new gratitude; and let the new gratitude be expressed in new songs. Let us through our Lord Jesus Christ anticipate with confidence the new song of heaven: And they sang a new song, saying, Thou art worthy, &c. (Rev. 5:9-14).
A PICTURE OF A HAPPY PEOPLE
(Psa. 144:12-15)
We regard these verses as presenting a picture of prosperity which the poet desired for Israel. Let us look at its main features
I. The blessing of a noble offspring.
1. Sons characterised by strength. That our sons may be as plants grown up in their youth. The idea is that of young men of vigorous and well-proportioned growth. But the Psalmist certainly could not mean strength of body simply. We interpret his meaning to be vigorous young manhood, including physical, mental, and moral strength.
(1.) Physical strength is good.
(2.) Intellectual strength is better.
(3.) Moral strength is best. The strength of righteous principles, virtuous habits, holy attachments, and devout aspirationsthis it is which ennobles manhood. What greater blessing can be desired for any nation than that its manhood should be of this order?
2. Daughters characterised by beauty. Our daughters as corner-stones polished after the similitude of a palace. Conant translates: Our daughters as corner-pillars, sculptured after the structure of a palace. And Perowne: Our daughters as corner-pillars, sculptured to grace a palace. Some expositors discover here the idea of usefulness: useful as pillars supporting a building, or as corner-stones uniting an edifice. But the main idea is undoubtedly that of the gracefulness and beauty of the maidens. The Psalmist cannot mean external beauty merely.
(1.) Beauty of feature and of form is desirable. It is a gift of God.
(2.) Beauty of mind and of manner is much more desirable. It is of a higher order, and more lasting than that of feature and form.
(3.) Beauty of soul and temper is pre-eminently desirable. This is the highest, the divinest, the unfading, and immortal beauty. This is an unmixed, a pure blessing. Beauty of form and feature, when associated with mental weakness and vacuity, appears misplaced and incongruous; when associated with moral deformity it becomes repulsive and loathsome even. The highest visible beauty is that of the soul manifesting itself in the human face divine. I have come to the conclusion, says Professor Upham, if man, or woman either, wishes to realise the full power of personal beauty, it must be by cherishing noble hopes and purposes; by having something to do, and something to live for, which is worthy of humanity, and which, by expanding the capacities of the soul, gives expansion and symmetry to the body which contains it.
Whats female beauty, but an air divine
Through which the minds all-gentle graces Shine;
They, like the sun, irradiate all between;
The body charms, because the soul is seen.
Young.
Who does not wish that our daughters may shine in the beauty of meekness, gentleness, purity, piety, and love?
II. The blessing of secular prosperity.
That our garners may be full, &c. (Psa. 144:13-14). Several rare expressions occur in these verses, which are of very doubtful interpretation. It is certain that it is intended to set forth great temporal prosperity; and the entire picture contains three prominent features:
1. Well-stored granaries. Our garners full, affording all manner of store Heb. as in Margin: From kind to kind. Conant: Supplying of every kind. The idea is, abundance of all kinds of produce.
2. Fruitful flocks. Our sheep bringing forth thousands and ten thousands in our streets. More correctly, In our fields. A great part of the wealth of eastern peoples consisted of flocks of sheep.
3. Laden oxen. Our oxen strong to labour. Margin: Able to bear burdens, or loaden with flesh. The Hebrew is simply: Our oxen laden. But with what?
(1.) With fat and flesh, say some, and therefore strong to labour.
(2.) With young, say others, and interpret the clause as descriptive of the fruitfulness of the herds.
(3.) With the abundant produce of the fields, say others. Laden oxen presuppose a rich abundance of produce. The exact meaning is doubtful; but the interpretation last named appears to us the most probable. This however is certain, that the poet is setting forth the great temporal prosperity of an eastern people.
III. The blessing of settled peace.
No breaking in, nor going out, and no complaining in our streets. Perowne translates: No breach and no sallying forth, and no cry (of battle) in our streets. He says, No sallying forth, lit., going out, which has been interpreted either of going forth to war, or going forth into captivity. This and the previous expression, taken together, most naturally denote a time of profound peace, when no enemy lies before the walls, when there is no need to fear the assault through the breach, no need to sally forth to attack the besiegers. There are other interpretations of these clauses; but this seems to us the most probable. The image is that of security, peace, order, prosperity.
IV. These blessings are viewed as flowing from the favour of God.
Happy is the people that is in such a case; happy is the people whose God is Jehovah. It was common amongst the ancient Hebrews to regard temporal prosperity as an evidence of the Divine favour. National piety, says Matthew Henry, commonly brings national prosperity; for nations, in their national capacity, are capable of rewards and punishments only in this life. And Barnes: The worship of Jehovahthe religion of Jehovahis adapted to make a people happy, peaceful, quiet, blessed. Prosperity and peace, such as are referred to in the previous verses, are, and must be, the result of pure religion. Peace, order, abundance, attend it everywhere, and the best security for a nations prosperity is the worship of God; that which is most certain to make a nation happy and blessed, is to acknowledge God and to keep His laws.
But the Christian view of the evidences of the Divine blessing is truer, deeper, nobler than that of the ancient Hebrew. God has granted unto us a fuller and clearer revelation of Divine truth. We look for the evidences of His favour in our souls rather than in our circumstances; in inward joy rather than in outward happiness; not in well-stored granaries, but in the abounding fruit of the Spirit, in all goodness and righteousness and truth.
SOLICITUDE ON BEHALF OF SONS AND DAUGHTERS
(Psa. 144:12)
I. The objects of this solicitude.
First: Our sons are objects of solicitude. That our sons may be as plants grown up in their youth. The desire is
1. That our sons may be as plants of the right kind. We desire that they may possess right knowledge, right principles, right habits, and be found truly righteous in all they think, say, and do.
2. That our sons may be as plants in a good situation. There are honourable situations: such are the lawful callings of life, all stations of virtuous industry. There is one situation we covet for our sons. We mean that described in Psa. 92:13. We desire that our sons may value and enjoy religious ordinances, &c.
3. That our sons may be as plants rightly cultivated. Our sons, left to themselves, will grow wild, and bring forth the fruit of a depraved heart. A change of heart is indispensable before our youth can grow up as plants of righteousness. Training is absolutely necessary (Pro. 22:6). And with their training pruning is requisite.
4. That our sons may be as plants that flourish well. A good profession, with consistency, is a great ornament to character. They will flourish most who make Gods Word their study, &c. (Psa. 1:2-3).
5. That our sons may be as plants most fruitful and useful. The plants most admired are fruit-bearing. We would have our sons abound in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate, doing good to all men as they have means and opportunity.
6. That our sons may be as plants of perennial verdure and perpetual stability. The Psalmist speaks of the blessedness of those whose leaf shall not wither. He speaks also of the righteous bringing forth fruit in old age. So the prophet Jeremiah says, Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord, &c. (Jer. 17:7-8). Here is the perennial verdure and stability we desire. We would have piety adorn both youth and age. We would have our sons grow in grace as they grow in years.
Second: Our daughters are objects of solicitude. That our daughters may be as corner-stones, polished after the similitude of a palace.
1. That our daughters may be polished with sound education. If either of the sexes ought to have superior training, that privilege should be especially ceded to women. If you have ignorant women, you must have a large mass of foolish and depraved men; but, on the contrary, make the female portion of any nation intellectual, and the other sex must also be mentally improved.
2. That our daughters may be polished with good manners. Beauty of person, without good manners, is worthless. Favour is deceitful, &c (Pro. 31:30). Grace and affability are adornments to the female character. Urbanity, tenderness, sympathy, charity, a constant desire to promote universal happiness,are embellishments above the most splendid attire.
3. That our daughters may be polished with true piety. Piety is an adornment which all our daughters may possess. A polished education, and polished manners, in the sense in which these terms are understood in the fashionable and polite world, can be the lot of but few. But true piety is open to all (Jas. 2:5). Religion refines and elevates the character when all merely secular education fails. It adorns with a meek and quiet spirit, &c.
4. That our daughters may, as corner-stones, cement and adorn our families. Benjamin Parsons observes justly: In the character of companions, friends, sisters, wives, mothers, nursemaids, nurses, and domestic servants, there is a sphere of usefulness assigned to women which angels might envy. In a majority of cases the minds of youth of both sexes are formed by females. Girls are generally educated by their own sex, and boys, in most instances, have their character stamped before they leave the guardianship of mothers and governesses. Sisters may make home to be home to our sons, &c.
5. That our daughters may, as cornerstones, support and beautify the fabric of the state. Verily, it is of more importance to have an intelligent and moral population, than to have great capitalists or landowners. Wealth cannot make any nation great. Enlightened moral principle is the true glory of any kingdom or empire; but this dignity cannot be obtained apart from the due cultivation of all the powers of the human soul, and to accomplish this we must have the agency of mothers.
6. That our daughters may be as corner-stones in the Church of the living God. Our Sabbath-schools, our ignorant and destitute neighbourhoods, our sick-chambers, our walks of benevolence, can all yield spheres of usefulness for our daughters. But all this is preparatory to a higher state. The stones that are polished here are preparing to be built up in the heavenly Temple. Whilst, therefore, we may aim to promote their temporal interest, let us not overlook the infinitely more valuable inheritance of personal salvation and eternal glory.
II. The subjects of this solicitude. This desire may be considered as,
First: The cherished anxiety of all right-minded parents.
Second: That of the friends of the young. Among these are the Sabbath-school teachers of our land, &c.
Third: That of true patriots and genuine philanthropists.
Let us remember that without the Divine blessing all our efforts are in vain.J. Sayer.
THE GOD IN WHOM MAN IS BLESSED
(Psa. 144:15)
Happy is that people whose God is Jehovah.
Our text warrants two observations
I. That all peoples have a god.
This is clearly implied in the text. Man must have a god. The need of a god is constitutional, it is innate, in the case of man.
1. Man must trust. Every man does trust n some being or in some thing. The credulousness of man is amazing; and is often a great curse. Men are trusting in idols, in wealth, in friends, in priests, in themselves, in Jehovah.
2. Man must love. Some one to love is perhaps the deepest cry of the human heart. Every man loves, at least, some person or some thing,e.g., wealth, honour, self, friends, God. Every man loves some person or something pre-eminently; has some object of supreme love.
3. Man must worship. There are in each of us at times feelings of wonder, awe, and reverence, which compel us to worship. You hold your breath in the felt presence of mystery; you are silent in the presence of death; the realisation of the sublime fills you with awethese are signs of the working of the religious element and instincts of your being. Now, that which man chiefly trusts, supremely loves, and truly worships, is his god. All history testifies with unmistakable clearness to the fact that man must have a god.
II. That that people only is blessed whose God is Jehovah.
Happy is the people whose God is Jehovah.
1. He is the only adequate Object of trust. Idols, wealth, friends, priests, ourselves, each and all are terribly insufficient as objects on which the soul may repose its confidence. They are unstable, transient, and equal only to very few of the emergencies of life. Jehovah is all-sufficient;eternal, unchangeable, equal to every emergency, infinite in His resources, &c.
2. He is the only worthy Object of our supreme love. To love material things is degrading to the lover. To love relatives or friends or any created person supremely, is to seek our own disappointment and sorrow, because they are changeable, mortal, imperfect, &c. The object of our chief love should be a person perfectly lovable, true, good, beautiful, unchangeable, and ever-living. Jehovah is all this.
3. He is the only worthy Object of our worship. The worship of Jehovah is the only worship which purifies, strengthens, ennobles, and crowns our nature. The old idolatries were terribly degrading; they produced terror, cruelty, uncleanness, and other evils in the worshippers. Worship wealth, and you will degrade your being, &c. Make a relative or friend your god, and you are lost to progress, &c. Make self your god, and you forego all that is noble, &c. The object of our worship should be such as tends to educate, exalt, satisfy, and perfect our spiritual nature. In Jehovah, and in Him alone, have we such a God.
Happy the people whose God is Jehovah; because He is supremely good, unchangeable, and eternal, and He stands in covenant relation with His people. His wisdom and power, His goodness and faithfulness, are all pledged to them. If God be for us, who can be against us?
THE HAPPY PEOPLE
(Psa. 144:15)
Happy is that people whose God is Jehovah. Let us
I. Examine what is comprehended in the relation referred to. It refers
1. To God as the Object of religious worship.
2. To Him as the Author of every blessing.
3. To the covenant relation in which He condescends to stand to His peopleincluding Divine acceptance, delightful intercourse, pleasing satisfaction.
II. Confirm and illustrate the declaration itself. They are happy
1. Because all the Divine perfections are engaged in their behalf. Mercy to pardon their sins, and deliver them from guilt. Wisdom to direct and guide them through the intricate mazes of the world to heaven. Omnipresence to guard and defend them. Omnipresence to survey them in all conditions. Consummate goodness to supply their needs. And faithfulness to perform all that He has spoken.
2. Because in Him they are assured of finding a refuge in time of need.
3. Because they are warranted to expect every needful supply.
4. Because in Him they have a Friend that sticketh closer than a brother.
5. Because all the promises of the Gospel are yea and Amen in Christ Jesus.
6. Because they have a sure prospect of being with Him for ever.
LEARN.
1. How mistaken the men of the world are with respect to the people of God.
2. How insignificant is the worldlings portion.
3. How dangerous is the condition of those who have not the Lord for their portion.L s.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Psalms 144
DESCRIPTIVE TITLE
From Davids Psalms are Selected Strains, by one of his Sons,
Emboldening him to Plead for Deliverance from Foreigners.
An Appendix anticipates Happy Times.
ANALYSIS
Stanza I., Psa. 144:1-2, Blessing rendered to Jehovah in language taken from Psalms 18. Stanza II., Psa. 144:3-4, Confession of Mans Insignificance and Frailty, as found in Psalms 8, 39. Stanzas III. and IV., Psa. 144:7-11, Petitions for Deliverance from Foreigners in Terms Suggested by Psalms 18 and rising to Refrain fervour. Stanza V., Psa. 144:12-15, An Appendix, picturing the Temporal Benefits Resulting from the Realisation by a People that Jehovah is Their God.
(Lm.) By David.
1
Blessed be Jehovah my rock!
who teacheth my hands to war,
my fingers to fight:
2
My kindness and my fastness,
my lofty retreat and my deliverermine,
my shield and he in whom I have taken refuge,
who subdueth my people[855] under me.
[855] A sp. vr. (sevir): subdueth peoples (pl.). In some cod. (w. Aram. and Syr.): peoples is both written and read. Cp. Psa. 18:47Gn.
3
Jehovah! what was an earth-born that thou shouldst acknowledge him?
the son of a mere man that thou shouldst take account of him?[856]
[856] Cp. Psa. 8:4.
4
An earth-born resembleth a vapour,[857]
[857] Or: breath.
his days are like a shadow that passeth away.
5
Jehovah! bow thy heavens and come down,
touch the mountains that they smoke:
6
Flash forth a flash and scatter them,
send out thy arrows and confuse them:
7
Stretch forth thy hand[858] from on high:
[858] So (sing.) in some cod. (w. 1 ear. pr. edn., Aram., Sep., Syr., Vul.)Gn. M.T.: hands (pl.).
Snatch me away and rescue me
out of many waters,
out of the hand of the sons of a foreigner:
8
Whose mouth speaketh unreality,
and whose right-hand is a right-hand of falsehood.
9
O God! a song that is new would I fain sing unto thee;
with a lute of ten-strings would I fain play unto thee:
10
Who giveth victory[859] to kings,
[859] Or: salvation.
who snatched away David his servant from the hurtful sword.
11
Snatch me away and rescue me
out of the hands of the sons of a foreigner:
Whose mouth speaketh unreality,
and whose right-hand is a right-hand of falsehood.
12
When our sons are like plants well-grown while yet young,
Our daughters like corners carved according to the construction of a palace;
13
Our garners full pouring out from one kind to another,
Our flocks multiplying by thousands by myriads in the open fields,
14
Our kine great with young no premature births,[860]
[860] So Br. with probable correctness.
With no goings forth to war and no cries of alarm in our broad-ways
15
How happy the people when they have it thus!
How happy the people when Jehovah is their God!
(Nm.)
PARAPHRASE
Psalms 144
Bless the Lord who is my immovable Rock. He gives me strength and skill in battle.
2 He is always kind and loving to me; He is my fortress, my tower of strength and safety, my deliverer. He stands before me as a shield. He subdues my people under me.
3 O Lord, what is man that You even notice him? Why bother at all with the human race?[861]
[861] Literally, or the son of man that You take account of him?
4 For man is but a breath; his days are like a passing shadow.
5 Bend down the heavens, Lord, and come. The mountains smoke beneath Your touch.
6 Let loose Your lightning bolts, Your arrows, Lord, upon Your enemies, and scatter them.
7 Reach down from heaven and rescue me; deliver me from deep waters, from the power of my enemies.
8 Their mouths are filled with lies; they swear to the truth of what is false.
9 I will sing You a new song, O God, with a ten-stringed harp.
10 For You grant victory to kings! You are the one who will rescue Your servant David from the fatal sword.
11 Save me! Deliver me from these enemies, these liars, these treacherous men.
*
*
*
*
*
12, 13, 14, 15 Here is my description of[862] a truly happy land where Jehovah is God:
[862] Implied.
Sons vigorous and tall as growing plants.
Daughters of graceful beauty like the pillars of a palace wall.
Barns full to the brim with crops of every kind.
Sheep by the thousands out in our fields.
Oxen loaded down with produce.
No enemy attacking the walls, but peace everywhere.
No crime in our streets.
Yes, happy are those whose God is Jehovah.
EXPOSITION
This psalm is manifestly both adapted and composite. It is seen to be adapted: inasmuch as Stanzas I. and II. are based upon Davidic psalms, altered to suit a later set of circumstances than those to which the original psalms applied; and inasmuch as these are followed by special petitions, in Stanzas III. and IV., directly springing out of those altered conditions. On the face of it, the psalm is composite; the Appendix speaking for itself, as being, both in form and substance, disjointed from what has gone before, couched in a wholly different vein, with no formal allusions to anything which has preceded it, and not. only disconnected, but clearly incomplete, having no introduction of its own: nevertheless a most pleasing and worthy Appendix, with a reason for its present position which the thoughtful mind can easily supplyas much as to say, Only let our God answer our foregoing petitions, and then we may hope for the realisation of the happy state of things which the following extract so beautifully portrays.
We need not hesitate long before concluding that, in all likelihood, King Hezekiah was the adapteralmost the authorof Psa. 144:1-11; inasmuch as the emergency which prompts the prayer is evidently caused by the presence of the foreigner in the land. Not even the gathering of the surrounding nations against Jehoshaphat so well meets the case; for the extreme annoyance and humiliation caused by the boastful mouth and the tyrannous right-hand of the enemy are far more like the experience due to a present and persistent invader like the Assyrians, than would be the mere gathering of Moab and Ammon, however alarming that gathering might be.
Assuming, then, that here we see the adapting hand of Hezekiah, it is only due to him to observe how wisely and well he has done his adapting work. If the reader of this Exposition will only have well in mind the sources indicated in our Analysis he will be able to to appreciate the verifying observations which follow, though briefly expressed.
In Stanza I., the compiler simply pours forth adorations which suggest that he has just been reading the great triumphal song of his ancestor which we know as Psalms 18 : adorations calculated to inspire confidence in the urgent petitions he is now about to urge.
In Stanza II., we have a singular combination of allusions, well befitting the humility of one who realises his personal littleness and unworthiness, in view of the largeness of the mercies for which he is about to ask.
In Stanza III., we come to petitions proper, the boldness of the figures of speech in which would surprise us, even though we know Hezekiah to be a poet, were it not that we can see he has been dwelling on the extraordinary imagery of the 18th Psalm: not exactly quoting its language, which indeed first appeared as thanksgiving for victories and deliverances already vouchsafed, but remoulding it into the form of present petitions to suit the existing dire emergency. As if conscious that he had been drawing largely on an old song, the writer longs to launch upon a new song; and instantly bounds into the present by recognising victories heretofore granted to kings, and the snatching away of David, his servant, from the hurtful sword,a clear enough indication that it is not the language of David himself that we are now reading, but that of another, who finds inspiration in Davids memory.
QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION
1.
There are three previous psalms quoted in this one. Which ones? For what purpose?
2.
Who is the author of this psalm? Why not Jehoshaphat?
3.
What part of this psalm is a new song? Discuss its meaning.
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
(1) Strength.Rather, rock. Comp. Psa. 18:2; Psa. 18:46. LXX. and Vulg., my God.
Which teacheth.See Psa. 18:34. More literally,
Who traineth my hands for war,
My fingers for fight.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
1. My strength Hebrew, My rock, but clearly in a broad and figurative sense.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Thanksgiving and Prayer for Deliverance.
v. 1. Blessed be the Lord, my Strength, v. 2. my Goodness, v. 3. Lord, what is man that Thou takest knowledge of him, v. 4. Man is like to vanity, v. 5. Bow Thy heavens, O Lord, v. 6. Cast forth lightning, v. 7. Send Thine hand from above, v. 8. whose mouth speaketh vanity, v. 9. I will sing a new song unto Thee, v. 10. It is He that giveth salvation unto kings, v. 11. Rid me, v. 12. that our sons may be as plants grown up in their youth, v. 13. that our garners may be full, affording all manner of store, v. 14. that our oxen may be strong to labor, v. 15. Happy is that people that is in such a case,
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
EXPOSITION
A PSALM in which praise and prayer are commingled. Almost certainly Davidic:
1. From the title.
2. From the style.
3. From the way in which David is mentioned in Psa 144:10 (comp. Psa 61:6; Psa 63:11; and especially Psa 18:50).
Psa 144:1
Blessed be the Lord my strength; or, “my rock” (comp. Psa 18:2, Psa 18:46; Psa 31:3; Psa 62:7, etc.). Which teacheth my hands to war, dud my fingers to fight (comp. Psa 18:34).
Psa 144:2
My goodness, and my fortress; my high tower, and my deliverer; my shield, and he in whom I trust. The general resemblance to Psa 18:2 is striking, but there are peculiar and original touches which indicate the author, not the copyist. For instance, the expression, “my goodness,” occurs nowhere else. Who subdueth my people under me. Another reading gives, “Who subdueth peoples under me.” Either reading suits the circumstances of David, who had to subdue a great portion of his own people under him (2Sa 2:8-31; 2Sa 3:6-21), and also conquered many foreign nations (2Sa 8:1-14).
Psa 144:3
Lord, what is man, that thou takest knowledge of him! (comp. Job 7:17, Job 7:18; Psa 8:4). Or the sea of man, that thou makest account of him! It enhances our estimate of God’s goodness to consider the insignificance and unworthiness of the creatures on whom he bestows it.
Psa 144:4
Man is like to vanity; or, “to a breath” (comp. Psa 39:5; Psa 62:9). His days are as a shadow that passeth away (see Psa 102:11; Psa 119:23). And yet God has regard to this weak creature of an hour.
Psa 144:5
Bow thy heavens, O Lord, and come down. The strain changes. From praise of God’s loving-kindness and might, the psalmist proceeds to invoke his aid. Taking his metaphors from Psa 18:9. “Bow thy heavens, O Lord,” he says, “and come down” to earthappear in thy might, to the discomfiture of thy enemies and the relief of thy faithful ones. Touch the mountains, and they shall smoke. Do as thou wert pleased to do at Sinai, when thou showedst thyself”Touch the mountains, and let a smoke go up from them” (see Exo 19:16, Exo 19:18; Deu 4:11; Psa 18:7-14)a consuming fire, that shall burn up the ungodly.
Psa 144:6
Cast forth lightning, and scatter them: shoot out thins arrows, and destroy them (comp. Psa 18:14).
Psa 144:7
Send thine hand from above; literally, reach out thy hands from on high. Rid me; rather, rescue me. And deliver me out of great waters. “Great waters,” or “deep waters,” is a common metaphor in the Psalms for serious peril. David’s peril at this time was from the hand of strange children; literally, sons of strangers; i.e. foreign foes.
Psa 144:8
Whose mouth speaketh vanity; rather, fraud (comp. Psa 18:45). A feigned submission of some foreign enemy is probably glanced at. And their right hand is a right hand of falsehood. The right hand was lifted up in the taking of a solemn oath (see Eze 20:15).
Psa 144:9
I will sing a new song unto thee, O God. Another change of strain. The psalmist returns to his original theme of the praise of God (see Psa 144:1, Psa 144:2), and promises a “new song,” as in Psa 40:3. Upon a psaltery and an instrument of ten strings will I sing praises unto thee; rather, upon a psaltery of ten strings (see the Revised Version, and comp. Psa 33:2). Assyrian harps had commonly, in the earlier ages, either eight, nine, or ten strings.
Psa 144:10
It is he that giveth salvation unto kings. There has always been a belief, especially in the East, that “a divinity doth hedge a king.” Saul himself was regarded by David as sacrosanct, and to kill him, even at his own request, was a sacrilege (2Sa 1:14-16). Who delivereth David his servant from the hurtful sword. David speaks of himself by name, not only here, but in Psa 18:50; 2Sa 7:26.
Psa 144:11
Rid me, and deliver me from the hand of strange children, whose mouth speaketh vanity, and their right hand is a right hand of falsehood (see above, Psa 144:7, Psa 144:8). The passage is made a refrain, to terminate stanzas 2 and 3.
Psa 144:12
That our sons may be as plants. The stanza which these words introduce is a very remarkable one, having nothing at all corresponding to it in the rest of the Psalter. It has been thought by some to be an antique document, quoted by the writer of the psalm, as suited for a festal occasion. Our translation makes it a picture of the condition to which the writer hopes that Israel may one day come; but the best recent critics see in it a description of Israel’s actual condition in the writer’s day. Professor Cheyne translates, “Because our sons are as plants;” and Dr. Kay, “What time our sons are as plants.” Grown up in their youth; literally, grown large. The sons are compared to ornamental trees or shrubs, growing outside a building. That our daughters may be as cornerstones, polished (or, “carved”) after the similitude of a palace. The daughters are like carved pillars, lighting up the angular recesses of the structure.
Psa 144:13
That our garners may be full, affording all manner of store; or, “while our garners are full,” etc. That our sheep may bring forth; rather, and our sheep bring forth. Thousands and tea thousands in our streets; rather, in our fields. Khutsoth () is rendered “fields” by our translators in Job 5:10 and Pro 8:26.
Psa 144:14
That our oxen may be strong to labor; rather, and our oxen are heavily laden. A sign that an abundant harvest is being gathered in. That there be no breaking in, nor going out; literally, and there is no breach and no removal; i.e. no breach made in our walls, and no removal of our population into captivity. That there be no complaining in our streets; rather, and no wailing in our streets. Here the description of a happy time ends, and a burst of congratulation follows (see the next verse).
Psa 144:15
Happy is that people, that is in such a case! yea, happy is that people, whose God is the Lord! The cause of Israel’s prosperity is their faithfulness to Jehovah.
HOMILETICS
Psa 144:1-15
National piety and prosperity.
The latter part of this psalm seems hardly to belong to the former; but looking at it in the light of the last verses, we regard it as an utterance which has in view, from first to last, the well-being of the nation. Thus considered, we have
I. THE ONE TRUE SOURCE OF NATIONAL SECURITY. (Psa 144:1, Psa 144:2, Psa 144:10.) The writer is presumably David. He takes the position of a leader, of a warrior-king. And though we do not look upon war as the principal activity of nations, we must remember the times to which the psalm belongs, and must take into account the fact that national independence and prosperity were then determined by the sword. We need not be surprised or shocked that the psalmist thanks God for teaching him to be a successful soldier; that he calls God “iris Strength, his Goodness, his Fortress,” etc; in this connection. We, too, may thank God heartily for the great soldiers who achieved or preserved our national independence; for the courage and the patriotism which made us secure from all assault from without, and from all attempts to infringe liberty within our borders. We pray for” peace in our time;” we work and strive (if needful) for the maintenance of peace; we may be prepared to make some sacrifices for peace; but we shall not shrink from asking God to “go forth with our armies” when they defend our liberty; nor will we fail to ascribe their victories to him who is our Strength and Fortress, as he was Israel’s under David anti Hezekiah.
II. THE CONSTITUENTS OF NATIONAL PROSPERITY. Some of these are mentioned here. Let it be assumed that there is perfect security; that there is no danger of any breach being made in the wall of the city, or any crossing the border of the countryno “breaking in;” nor yet of any being led forth into captivity or exileno “going out.” Then there will be, or should be:
1. Industrial activity, with its full reward (Psa 144:13, Psa 144:14). Agricultural and pastoral pursuits are here mentioned; but, while including them, we naturally think of manufactures, of trade, of commerce, of miningof all those fields of labor and sources of wealth which are familiar to us. The wise king (Psa 144:10), the wise government, will give its first concern to the promotion of all kinds of activity, in which every one of its citizens may have his share.
2. The peaceful home. (Psa 144:12.) That country, whatever be its pastoral or mineral wealth, is poor indeed whose sons and daughters are not growing up in health, in wisdom, in virtue, in piety. However full the garners, or well stocked the fields, the great question is that of the home-life and the character of the young. We want our sons to be as plants or treesstrong, living, fruit-bearing, with power of growth, obedient to the laws of Heaven; and our daughters to be as “corner pillars“fair with the beauty of holiness and kindliness, helping to sustain, useful in the house in which they dwell. Where the children and the young people are declining, there the country is on its downward course; but where they are pure and beautiful and strong, there the country is secure, and its future is assured.
3. True, acceptable worship. “Whose God is the Lord” (Psa 144:15). The service of God is not only the source of national prosperity; it is an integral and important part of it. Then are the activities of a people most worthily employed, and then is its happiness of the best and truest orderwhen its citizens are engaged in worshipping the living God, in learning of the great Teacher, in communicating his holy will to the children in the home and in the school.
4. Happiness. (Psa 144:15.)
III. THE WAY TO SECURE IT. (Psa 144:1, Psa 144:5.) Praise and prayer. “Bless the Lord,” etc. “Bow thy heavens and come down.” As the king blesses God and prays for his presence, so also must the people. The recognition by all of the hand of God in past and present mercies, and the continual prayer for future blessing,this is the condition of Divine favor and the way to permanent enlargement.
IV. OUR INSIGNIFICANCE NO BAR TO OUR PRAYER OR OUR HOPE. (Psa 144:3, Psa 144:4.) “Will God in very deed dwell upon the earth?” Will he “bow the heavens and come down”? Will he take note of us on this small earth? Will he care about one section, one nation, on its surface? Is not frail man, who passes away like a flitting shadow, beneath his regard? The answer to that natural and repeated question is in the historical fact of the manifestation at Sinai; it is also in the much less imposing but immeasurably more affecting and convincing fact of the birth at Bethlehem. Then God came to visit us, to dwell with us, to show us how much he cared for us, to fill our hearts with the truth that not only every nation, but every human soul, is dear to the Father in heaven.
HOMILIES BY S. CONWAY
Psa 144:1-15
What the goodness of God does for me and in me.
This psalm is a string of quotations, mostly from Psa 18:1-50; as any reference Bible will show; and as that psalm is almost undisputedly one of David’s composition, therefore this, which owes so much to it, may be called his likewise. It is also one of the war-psalms, breathing the fierce and sometimes the truculent spirit, the presence of which in these psalms has so often perplexed the Christian reader. In order to understand such psalms, we need ourselves to live in war-times; to be strenuously engaged in it, and against an enemy who has done us much wrong, and whom, therefore, our souls abhor. There have been many such times; and when they come, psalms like this one, and many more, are easily understood and readily adopted as utterances both natural and justifiable. But when all that is said, we still feel, and ought to feel, that such psalms and the spirit of Christ are far removed from one another. We may, however, gain much help from these psalms if we transfer their thoughts and words to the spiritual conflictthose wars of the Lord in which we all have to engage. There its language is felt to be true, because in harmony both with Scripture and experience alike. Thus reading it, we may note what the psalmist tells of
I. THE GREAT GOODNESS AND MERCY OF GOD. He praises and blesses God:
1. For what God is to him. (Psa 18:1.) “My Strength.” Perpetual demand arose for strength. Fierce foes were all around, and as formidable as they were fierce. No mere weakling could possibly stand against them; strength was imperatively needed, and he found it in God. All this which was true of the psalmist is true of the spiritual warrior still. “My Goodness.” Whatever good there was in him, it was all of God. In the rough hurly-burly of war, character and all moral excellence had but hard times; deterioration was apt to set in. Therefore, if there were any goodness in him, it was from God. And is it not true of ourselves? Will any one dare say that his goodness is self-derived, his own production, due to his own power alone? “My Fortress” (cf. 1Sa 23:29 for local allusion). David knew well the value of such safe retreats. He had availed himself of them again and again. And for us all there is “the secret place of the Most High.” “My high Tower.” As in Central Europe, as you traverse its rivers, you see on the summits of the lofty hills, commanding the entrances and exits from the valleys beneath, the lofty towers and castles, mostly now in ruins, which warlike chieftains in bygone days erected, and within which they dwelt secure from attack, and from which they sallied forth to attack others. Such loftily placed towers were frequent in the hill-country of Palestine also, and were places of great strength. Now, of such advantage was the help of God to David, and so it is today to all who make the Lord their Refuge. From that high tower the movements of the enemy can be clearly discerned, guarded against, and aggression made upon them in a most successful way. “My Shield.” That which wards off from me the stroke of sword, the thrust of spear, the point of dart and arrow. So is God to the soul. Well may he say of the Lord, “It is he in whom I trust.”
2. For what God has done for himas his Teacher. (Psa 18:1.) “Which teacheth my hands to war, and,” etc. Literally, this has been true again and again. See Gideon before the Midianites, David before Goliath, etc. And wherever there has been warlike skill and the wisdom which commands success, devout men have confessed that it was God from whom all the wisdom and skill came. And yet more is this true in the holy warthe conflict we have to wage with the world, the flesh, the devil. Never was there a successful warrior there but owned at once and always that it was the Lord who taught him. “My Deliverer.” So was he, so is he, so will he be. David could recall instances not a few; and what servant of God, in looking back over his spiritual life, does not own, as he thinks of one trial and another that has befallen him, “Yes, the Lord was my Deliverer”? “Who subdueth my people under me.” This a yet greater mercy. Life might have been delivered, but enemies might have remained enemies still, ready to break out against him at the first chance that came. But over and above deliverance, there has been given the submission of the people. And God thus deals with his servants. Not only will he deliver them from their spiritual foes, but these foes he will subdue. The lawless passions, the evil propensities, the unhallowed temper, the uncontrolled craving,these God will subdue, so that the very desire for sin will cease. So great is God’s mercy, and so full his salvation.
3. For that God has done all this for the weak and unworthy. This seems to be the connection of Psa 18:3 and Psa 18:4 with what precedes. It is not for the great and good, the worthy and the strong, but for such as man, who is like to vanity and whose days are as a shadow. Truly it is wonderful that God should take knowledge of such a one, or make account of him at all. It is of a piece with our Lord’s declarations, that he had come to call, not the righteous, but sinners; to seek and to save, not the ninety and nine safe in the fold, but the wandering sheep away and lost in the wilderness. “God so loved the world”the mass of the unworthy.
II. THE CONFIDENCE THAT GOD‘S MERCY CREATES. (Psa 18:5-8.) The psalmist is encouraged by what God has done to ask for yet greater things. Hence he asks:
1. That God would manifestly appear on his behalf against his enemies. Reminiscences of the old Hebrew history float before his mind: the terror and discomfiture of Pharaoh; the awful display of God’s majesty at Sinaithe thunder-roll, the lightning-blaze.
2. He feels that only God can give him victory, or deliver him out of the great waters of trouble by which he is well-nigh overwhelmed. (Psa 18:7.) The barbarous, cruel, and lying strangers who were against him were too many for him, and hence he turns to God (Psa 18:7, Psa 18:8, Psa 18:11). But what God has done for him encourages him thus to pray.
III. THE GRATITUDE IT INSPIRES. (Psa 18:9, Psa 18:10.)
IV. THE BRIGHT HOPE WHICH IT FOSTERS AND SUSTAINS. (Psa 18:11-15.) Many regard these verses as belonging not to this psalm at all; but it seems better to look on them as declaring the motive both of its gratitude and its prayers. The hope which it expresses was cherished with longing desire, and underlaid the whole psalm. The verses point to the golden age of Hebrew history, and pray for its return.
1. It concerns their childrenthat they might be vigorous, strong, goodly.
2. The prosperity of their land.
3. Freedom from invasion and capture. Then happy should they be, for God would be their Lord.S.C.
Psa 144:11, Psa 144:12
Children who are a sorrow and shame, and those who are our unspeakable joy.
In these verses we have contrasted the children concerning whom we pray, “Rid and deliver us,” with those who are such as every godly man desires and craves of God that his own sons and daughters may be. The prayer of our text, it has been repeatedly remarked, is the prayer which may well come from every prince, patriot, and parent. The interests and well-being of each depend upon its being answered. As is the character of our sons and daughters, so will be the happiness of the throne, the nation, the home. But especially is it the godly parents’ prayer. Consider
I. THE STRANGE CHILDREN HERE SPOKEN OF. (Psa 144:11.) From them the psalmist prays, “Rid and deliver us.”
1. Who are they?
(1) The children of foreigners, or the foreigners themselves; the heathen peoples around them, and especially those with whom they were in conflict;these may be meant.
(2) Or the evil children of God-fearing parents. There are, alas! such children, and many a home is saddened and shamed by them. They are rightly called “strange children.” Literally they are so, if the children of strangers; but rightly too, if they are the offspring of saintly parents. For they are strangers to their father’s God, their father’s thoughts and ways, their father’s joys and blessed anticipations, their father’s holy character. They are out of sympathy with the spirit of their home, and their influence in it is of a hostile and most hurtful nature.
(3) Or wicked children generally.
2. Their characteristics are given. “Their mouth speaketh vanity.” No wholesome, helpful speech is heard from their lips, but only that which is worthless or worse, and which comes from and leads to no good. What a miserable amount of such speech there is in one day, heard or read, spoken, written, or printed! and what incalculable mischief it has worked, and must ever work! The strange children, the foreign speech as read in their literaturewhat an amount of uncleanness and ungodliness is not that responsible for! And “their right hand is a right hand of falsehood.” This is another of the characteristics of the “strange children.” The meaning seems to be that they are unfaithful to their covenants, false in their dealings; they cannot be trusted or relied upon at all. Further, their conduct is such as, by its influence upon men, leads to the denial of God’s existence, authority, and Word, and to the belief of the falsehood that this world is everything, and is alone worthy of our care. They are utterly ungodly both in speech and deed.
3. Bible instances of such strange children. Cain, Esau, Jacob’s sons, Absalom, and apparently all David’s sons, and many more.
4. The motives that should lead to the prayer in our text concerning them. We would not have such children, for we remember what their end must be; what the sorrow they bring upon those who love them (see David’s sorrow about Absalom); what the disastrous influence they exert upon others; what the dishonor they bring upon God. Let all this quicken our prayers, as parents, for our children’s real conversion to God, and our endeavors to bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.
II. THE CHILDREN THAT ARE LIKE THE TRIBES AND THE POLISHED PILLARS OR CORNER–STONES. (Psa 144:12.) These are the sons and daughters that the psalmist longed to behold and to possess; and such may well be our longing likewise. Note the imagery employed. In both, the metaphors here, though they are manifestly unlike, as a stone is unlike a plant, yet they have some common characteristics, and these seem to have been in the psalmist’s mind.
1. The grown-up plant. As such, so it is prayed, may our sons be in their youththat is, whilst yet young. It is the grown-up plant, not the root; because that is out of sight, and the psalmist would have their godly character a visible thing. And not the tender plant, for that would be wanting in strength, and strength of character is another blessing desired. Hence the ideas suggested by the metaphor seem to be thesethat, as the grown-up plant, the moral character of their sons may have root. Rootless plants never abide or come to full maturity; therefore there must be the inward principle and spring of life. Then, visibility. All can see the grown-up plant; it attracts attentionis evident to all. So should our son’s character benot only inward, but outward and visible. Beautiful, too, as the grown-up plant, whether tree, or herb, or flower. There should be about the godly character what too often is conspicuous only by its absencesymmetry, attractiveness, loveliness, and spiritual beauty. The matured flower, how beautiful it is! “So,” etc. Then, further, there should be strength. The vigor of the plant is when it is grown up. And how essential is it that our children’s character should be strengthened with all might by the Spirit in the inner man (Eph 3:16)! “Be strong ‘ is a perpetual charge in the apostolic writings, and they ever point us to the one Source of strength. And there is yet one other idea suggestedlight of God. The plant is no man-made or man-matured thing; it is of God. And so with that character which we so craveit must be of God. He must create, he must sustain, he must perfect it. Character that is simply man-made, that relies on self alone, what a sad contrast it offers to that which is depicted here! how much it always and inevitably lacks!
2. The polished pillar or cornerstone. This is the other metaphor. In the courts of the Lord’s house we know there were trees. Josephus plainly tells us so, and Psa 84:1-12, implies it when it speaks of the home of the birds there. And in the palaces of the great, in the quadrangles around which they were built, there were generally many beautiful plants; and there would be also conspicuous the beautifully worked and decorated stones, placed at the angles of the building, or the polished pillars on which they rested. So, prays the psalm, may our daughters be. Here the same ideas are suggested by this metaphor as by the other. The cornerstone rests on its foundation as the plant springs from its root. St. Paul speaks in Eph 3:1-21. as if he had these verses in his memory, of “being rooted and grounded in love;” rooted like the plant, grounded as is the foundation of a building. So must character bebased on firm foundation. Then the idea of visibility is common both to the matured plant and the polished pillar. Beauty also is even more suggested by this second figure than by the first. St. Paul teaches the same lesson when he speaks of our comprehending “with all saints what is the breath, and length, and depth, and height.” It is the fair proportion and the beautiful comeliness and completeness of the Christian character which he desiderates so earnestly. Strength, again, is in this metaphor, as in the other. Both pillar and corner-stone would alike need to be strong. Some have regarded the word as pointing to “the Caryatides, the exquisitely sculptured forms of maidens which adorned the corners of some magnificent hall or chamber of a palace” (Perowne). But, with all their beauty, these pillars supporting the angles, of the building must have strength. But inasmuch as the Prayer-book Version, and other authorities beside, give the meaning of “temple” rather than “palace,” and as such rendering is more in harmony with this devout utterance, we accept it, and find in it that suggestion of God in the character here spoken of which is also found in the emblem of the plant (Psa 92:13). Added on to the idea of strength and beauty which belonged to the temple of God there is that of godlinessconsecration and devotion to him, without which no character is perfect and complete.
III. How WHAT IS SO DESIRED MAY BE SECURED.
1. Parents, and all who have charge of children, must pray for it; and the prayer must be endorsed by appropriate action.
2. Believe in God‘s willingness to bestow this. He would not have inspired such prayer else.
3. Our young people must yield themselves up to God. They must renounce sin, and surrender their all to him, and then continually trust and expect the blessing sought.
IV. THE GREAT EXAMPLE OF THIS BEAUTIFUL CHARACTER. Our Lord Jesus Christ.
V. WHY YOU, OUR SONS AND DAUGHTERS, SHOULD THUS PRAY.
1. For the sake of the Lord, who calls you to this blessed life.
2. And for the sake of those who love you, and long that you may be the Lord’s.
3. And of those whom you must influence for good or ill.
4. And for your own sake. Oh, how many have mourned, and are mourning now, that they have not lived this true life! But never one who did so live has done other than be profoundly grateful for God’s grace that led him thereto.S.C.
HOMILIES BY R. TUCK
Psa 144:1, Psa 144:2
War-figures of God’s relations.
“The psalmist recounts glorious victories in the past; complains that the nation is now beset by strange, i.e. barbarous, enemies, so false and treacherous that no covenant can be kept with them; prays for deliverance from them by an interposition great and glorious as had been vouchsafed of old; and anticipates the return of a golden age of peace and plenty” (Perowne). If it ever has been right, the manifest duty of the hour, for a man to engage in war, it must be right to associate God with that doing of duty. No man would venture to say that it never has been right to engage in war. Till human nature is wholly renewed and sanctified, war will probably continue to be one of the forces which help collective humanity to make right triumph over wrong. And God may be thought of as the Trainer of soldiers for the wars of righteousness.
I. HE WHO TRAINS FOR WAR TRAINS ONLY FOR WARS OF WHICH HE CAN APPROVE. It is usual to say that defensive wars may be necessary, but offensive wars never are; but this is to take a very limited view of life, facts of history, and Divine dealings with men. God has commissioned nations to carry out his purposes of judgment and mercy by offensive wars. War as a scourge of organized societies, of nations, has been, and may still be, used by God in execution of his judgments, and even in the movement of the locations of men to different parts of the globe. Old Testament history distinctly associates God with aggressive war. Israel invaded Palestine for God. Assyria invaded Palestine as God’s servant. Mere dynastic wars are selfish wars, and wholly wrong. Wars that are really race-movements may be right. There is a good end in all war of which God approves.
II. HE WHO TRAINS FOR WAR PUNISHES THOSE WHO USE TRAINED POWERS FOR THEIR OWN ENDS. And this is the thing to which nations, and rulers of nations, are continually tempted. It is illustrated by God’s dealing with Assyria, which was the rod to execute his anger against his people, but proceeded to serve its own ends, and so brought upon itself the judgments of God.R.T.
Psa 144:3, Psa 144:4
The transitoriness of man.
“The occasion of the introduction of these sentiments here is not quite clear. It may be the humility of the warrior who ascribes all success to God instead of to human prowess; or it may be a reflection uttered over the corpses of comrades; or, perhaps, a blending of the two.”
I. THE VANITY OF MAN CREATES SURPRISE AT GOD‘S CARE. “Lord, what is man, that thou takest knowledge of him?” This is an exclamation of surprise, which is repeated by every devout soul when the frailty of man is brought impressively before him. It is not merely the brevity of life that is in view, nor its uncertainty; it is the smallness of all human doings and aims. Relative to the size of the globe, the highest mountain is but a slight and scarcely perceptible ridge. Relative to the mountain, a single man is scarcely as big as a pin’s head. And what can man accomplish? His mightiest achievements are but as the triumphs of the ants whose work he despises; and he is seldom permitted folly to achieve anything, for he is usually cut off before the thing he intended can be completed. Man is a smaller being than some of the animals, and it is hard to conceive of his doing anything that is really worthy of Divine notice. And yet God does care for man as he cares for nothing else that he has made. We can only wonder over the fact, glory in it, and let it bring home to our hearts the mystery”God is love.”
II. THE VANITY OF MAN SHOULD LEAD HIM TO PUT HIMSELF INTO GOD‘S CARE. For it is not enough that God should care for us. The joy of that care is not realized until we care that God should thus care. It may be a fact, but it is no helpful, comforting fact until we respond to the fact, accept the care, and voluntarily put ourselves entirely into it. The psalmist here speaks as one who had mastered the depressing influence of his own sense of frailty, by assuring his heart of God’s personal care. That brings to man a sense of dignity which more than matches the sense of frailty. Man may be “crushed before the moth;” but it is also true, he is only “a little lower than the angels,” for Godyes, the great, eternal Godis mindful of him.R.T.
Psa 144:5
God’s intervention is his condescension.
“Bow thy heavens, and come down.” This prayer follows on the acknowledgment of man’s frailty and transitoriness. His sphere is altogether below God, who must stoop down to help him. God’s intervention involving his condescension may be illustrated in several spheres. To create material things; to remedy the disturbance of things; to provide for the wants of things; to recover self-ruined things;all involve the Divine condescension.
I. TO CREATE MATERIAL THINGS. We want the mind of a Hindu philosopher in order to conceive of God as an absolute, uncaused, unrelated, independent existence; eternally and infinitely happy in himself, without what we call “personality,” because without relations. Just in the measure in which we can conceive such a being, we can realize his condescension in coming out of the abstract into the concrete, and making, and putting himself into relation with, a world of things.
II. TO REMEDY THE DISTURBANCE OF THINGS. Once let things be in any sense separate from himself; once let there be forces (which we call laws) in nature, and free-will in man, and God’s order will be sure to get disturbed. But he may be sublimely indifferent to the disorder in his creation. It is his condescension that he is the constant Rectifier of the difficulties and disasters which come in his creation.
III. TO PROVIDE FOR THE WANTS OF THINGS. What impresses us so greatly is the minuteness of attention which creation daily needs. We bow ourselves to do a thousand insignificant but necessary things in our households. How God must bow himself to guard the life of every grass-blade, and to feed every gnat that hums in the summer evening!
IV. TO RECOVER RUINED THINGS. This brings to view the havoc which man’s sin has made in individual lives and in God’s fair world of things. For there is a ruin of the world which answers to the self-ruin of man. Why should not God let things go, and leave men to ruin themselves, and the world in which they dwell, if they please to do so? He is not bound to intervene. If he does, it can only be in condescending love.R.T.
Psa 144:7, Psa 144:8
The known God and the unknown foe.
“Stretch forth thine hand from above; rescue me out of the hand of strangers.” This is but saying, “I do not know those who trouble me, but I do know thee.”
I. ALL AROUND US IS THE UNKNOWN.
1. There is so little that we can understand. Spite of all the attainments of science, the “known” today bears no comparison at all to the “unknown.” The philosopher has but scooped up in his shell a little of the water of the great ocean of truth. The mute a man knows, the more he feels how little he knows. We need not be philosophers, and argue that man never does know more than phenomena, the accidents of things; it is enough to see that, concerning almost everything, a child can ask questions which the wisest man cannot answer.
2. There is so much that never comes into the field of human thought at all. For we have no right to say that the laws which we apprehend as controlling the movements of nature are the only laws that control them. We are constantly baffled by intimations of the working of laws of which we know nothing at all.
3. And the human experience through which we have to pass is hopelessly unknown to us. Known to no man are his coming positions, relations, friends, or foes. Every day every man has to say to himself, “I have not gone this way heretofore.” It just has to be accepted as the fact for every life, “We are of yesterday, and know nothing.”
II. UP ABOVE US IS THE KNOWN. In a recent exhibition there was a very touching picture of an old farm-laborer, dressed in his smock-frock, and with a lined, wearied face that told of a long life of troubles, but over the seams and lines seemed to spread a soul-smile as, looking away through the clouds, he said, “Up beyond is the blue sky.” It may be thus with every man. For the mind there is no rest; there is nothing but a fretful worrying with the surrounding unknown. But for the soul there is rest. It does not look around; it looks up, and knows Godknows as love can know, knows as trust can know. And that is the only satisfying knowledge. A man can only be an agnostic till his soul finds God; then he knows as souls only can know.R.T.
Psa 144:10
The first stage of salvation is deliverance.
“Who rescueth David his servant from the hurtful sword.” This describes what is involved in “giving salvation unto kings.” An act of deliverance is always the beginning of salvation; but such act of deliverance is only a beginning.
I. AN ACT OF DELIVERANCE IS THE BEGINNING OF SALVATION. This is the truth of a fact that is once for all illustrated in the history of Israel. God would saw that people in a large sense of saving. He must begin by a formal act of deliverance, in bringing his people out from bondage in Egypt. That truth once presented in so large a way, is afterwards presented again and again in more limited spheres. In the time of the Judges, when God would save his people, he began the salvation by a formal act of deliverance, as is seen strikingly in the case of Gideon. When God would save his people from captivity in Babylon, he began by the formal act of liberation made by Cyrus. And it was the same with the great spiritual salvation of men. Its beginning is that sublime act of sacrifice which is man’s rescue from the thraldom of sin. The formal act of surrender made on the cross was Christ’s triumph over man’s sin, his “leading captivity captive.” And so in personal experience salvation begins in that act of consecration to Christ which we make, and which is met by Christ’s act of delivering us from the power of self and sin.
II. SUCH AN ACT OF DELIVERANCE IS ONLY THE BEGINNING. The deliverance of Israel from Egypt was only a beginning of God’s dealings in their salvation. Gideon’s overthrow of the Midianites was only a beginning. Cyrus’s decree was only a beginning. Our Lord’s sacrifice was only a beginning. Our consciousness of acceptance is only a beginning. The salvation of a nation is a large and comprehensive thing; so is the salvation of a man. But in every case God’s beginning is the pledge that he will carry on the work and perfect it.R.T.
Psa 144:12-15
True national prosperity.
“It is only a narrow and one-sided religion that can see anything out of place in this beatitude of plenty and peace.” “As plants: this figure marks the native strength and vigor and freedom of the youth of the land. As corner-pillars: marks the polished gracefulness, the quiet beauty, of the maidens; who are like exquisitely sculptured forms (Caryatides) which adorned the corner of some magnificent hall or chamber of a palace.” (It does not, however, seem probable that at any time sculptured figures were allowed in Hebrew houses or palaces.) Ornamentation and various coloring of pillars may be referred to. Three things make up temporal prosperity. Family joys; business success; social security. The sense of God’s gracious relations sanctifies all three.
I. FAMILY JOYS. From Eastern points of view, large families were desirable; but usually in the East daughters are despised. Two things are noticeable in these verses.
1. Daughters are spoken of as honorably as sons.
2. It is the growing up, developing character of children, that is the chief source of family joy.
II. BUSINESS SUCCESS. Dealt with in the psalm from the strictly agricultural point of view. The figures employed all belong to farm-life. This may give indication of the date of the psalm; but we may take it as illustrative of all the ways in which men work for their living. Harvest is the key to the prosperity of the year, and that is in God’s hand. Times of confidence and enterprise bring national prosperity.
III. SOCIAL SECURITY. This is suggested by the sentence, “That there be no breaking in nor going out.” Security is the condition of business enterprise. Men will not work for what they have no hope of keeping when it is gained. Social security is imperiled by fear of attack from national foes, and also by the restlessness of sections within the nation (nihilists, and extravagant socialists, etc.). But family joys, business success, and social security are, in a way, merely material things. Back of them all there must be this secret of happinessthe “nation’s God is the Lord.”R.T.
HOMILIES BY C. SHORT
Psa 144:12-15
A golden age.
“The psalmist recounts glorious victories in the past; complains that the nation is now beset by barbarous enemies, so false and treacherous that no covenant can be kept with them; prays for deliverance from them by an interposition great and glorious as had been vouchsafed of old; and anticipates the return of a golden age of peace and plenty.” The people who have Jehovah for their God, who obey his will and are governed by his laws, will be distinguished in the following ways.
I. BY THE CHARACTER OF ITS YOUNG MEN AND WOMEN. (Psa 144:12.)
1. They will be beautiful. In body and mind. Like plants, the young men, with vigor and freedom and beauty. Like polished corners, the maidensor corner-pillars, with exquisitely sculptured figures.
2. They will be vigorous. As a consequence of their purity and health.
3. They will be free. The plant has the freedom of all the air of heaven; nothing between it and heaven.
II. BY THE WEALTH OF ITS POSSESSIONS.
1. Rich in merchandise. (Psa 144:13.) Full garners. A free, healthy, pure people are bound to prosper.
2. Rich in agricultural and pastoral possessions. (Psa 144:13.) Sheep and oxen multiplied.
III. BLESSED WITH THE PROSPERITIES OF PEACE. (Psa 144:14.) “No sallying forth from our walls, and no cry of battle in our streets.” A state of war destructive of all kinds of prosperity.S.
Fuente: The Complete Pulpit Commentary
Psalms 144.
David blesseth God for his mercy: he prayeth that God would powerfully deliver him from his enemies: he promiseth to praise God: he prayeth for the happy estate of the kingdom.
A Psalm of David.
Title. ledavid. This is evidently a psalm of triumph, probably upon the same occasion with the 118th. I guess so, says Mudge, partly from the particular deliverance of David from the evil sword of Ishbibenob; and partly for that it seems to be a victory over the Philistines, (for them I take to be the sons of the stranger, as the LXX. calls them ; and being in a manner mixed with the sons of Israel, it was natural by way of distinction to call them so;) who by their everlasting wars against Saul and David, certainly in breach of treaties, seem to be truly characterised by persons whose mouth speaketh falsehood, &c. From the victory the author takes occasion to describe the happiness of those people who live under the protection of God.
Psa 144:1. Which teacheth my hands, &c. Who hath taught my hands; and so in Psa 144:2. Who hath subdued, or made my people subject to my will. Green renders it, Who reduceth nations to my obedience.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Psalms 144
A Psalm of David
Blessed be the Lord my strength,
Which teacheth my hands to war,
And my fingers to fight:
2My goodness, and my fortress;
My high tower, and my deliverer;
My shield, and he in whom I trust;
Who subdueth my people under me.
3Lord, what is man, that thou takest knowledge of him!
Or the son of man, that thou makest account of him!
4Man is like to vanity:
His days are as a shadow that passeth away.
5Bow thy heavens, O Lord, and come down:
Touch the mountains, and they shall smoke.
6Cast forth lightning, and scatter them:
Shoot out thine arrows, and destroy them.
7Send thine hand from above;
Rid me, and deliver me out of great waters,
From the hand of strange children;
8Whose mouth speaketh vanity,
And their right hand is a right hand of falsehood.
9I will sing a new song unto thee, O God:
Upon a psaltery and an instrument of ten strings will I sing praises unto thee.
10It is he that giveth salvation unto kings:
Who delivereth David his servant from the hurtful sword.
11Rid me, and deliver me from the hand of strange children,
Whose mouth speaketh vanity,
And their right hand is a right hand of falsehood:
12That our sons may be as plants
Grown up in their youth;
That our daughters may be as corner stones,
Polished after the similitude of a palace:
13That our garners may be full,
Affording all manner of store;
That our sheep may bring forth thousands
And ten thousands in our streets:
14That our oxen may be strong to labor;
That there be no breaking in, nor going out;
That there be no complaining in our streets.
15Happy is that people, that is in such a case:
Yea, happy is that people, whose God is the Lord.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
Contents and Composition.The Psalmist, who evidently speaks as a king (see Psa 144:2), begins by praising God for help experienced personally in various ways in battle and in distress (Psa 144:1-2). The recollection of the comforting truth that God does indeed in love take notice of perishing man (Psa 144:3-4) leads him to utter the prayer that God would personally display from heaven His irresistible power to deliver him from great peril prepared for him by powerful and faithless strangers (Psa 144:5-8). With this he connects a promise of a new song referring to Gods manner of dealing with David His servant both generally and specially, and then turns back to the prayer by repeating, like a refrain, the description of his enemies (Psa 144:9-11). The Chald. Paraphrase explains the evil sword (Psa 144:10) as being that of Goliath, and some manuscripts of the Sept. have as an addition to the superscription: in reference to Goliath. This event of Davids life may perhaps have given occasion to the poem; but it is doubtful whether it should be assigned to David himself (Hengst.), especially as the portion just discussed consists entirely of fragments of other psalms, and is particularly rich in expressions found in Psalms 18. It is mere hypothesis to suppose that these verses were recorded in an ancient historical book and expressed the feelings with which David went into battle, being drawn from his declaration in 1Sa 17:27 (Del.). Theodoret already has referred it to the Maccaban period, and Hitzig assigns it specially to Alexander Jannus.Attached to this first portion is a section (Psa 144:12-15) which is entirely dissimilar in thought, mode of expression, and linguistic character, and is connected with it loosely and perhaps violently by , which is capable of so many meanings. This passage praises the prosperity of the people as a blessed result of their having Jehovah as their God. It appears to be a fragment of another Psalm whose origin is entirely unknown.
[Hengstenberg: It is only the Psalms of David which form the ground-work of this. But that it is one of Davids peculiarities to derive from his earlier productions a foundation for new ones, is evident from a variety of facts, which, if any doubt might still be entertained on the subject, would obtain a firm ground to rest upon in this Psalm; for it can only be the work of David. Then the way and manner of the use made of such materials must be kept in view. This is always of a spirited and feeling nature; and no trace anywhere exists of a lifeless borrowing. That we cannot assume such borrowing here, that the appropriation of earlier materials did not proceed from spiritual impotence, but rests upon deeper grounds, is manifest if we consider the second part, where the dependence entirely ceases, and where the opponents of the Davidic authorship have not been able to overlook the strong poetical spirit of the time of David. They resort to the wretched expedient of affirming that the Psalmist had borrowed this portion from a much older poem now lost.Alexander: The Davidic origin of the Psalm is as marked as that of any in the Psalter. Noyes and Perowne are disinclined to follow the superscription. The rest of the English expositors, so far as I know, accept its authenticity.J. F. M.]
Psa 144:1-6.[Translate Psa 144:1 : Blessed be Jehovah, my Rock, &c. Comp. Psa 18:35; Psa 18:47.J. F. M.]. My mercy [Psa 144:2, E. V.: my goodness], i.e. my merciful God (Ps. 59:11, 18, comp. Jon 2:9). Since it is not extension of power (Chald., Isaaki, Kimchi, Calvin) that is mentioned, but compulsion or really subjugation, there would be expected here, instead of , my people, the plural nations. This reading does occur in some manuscripts, but is only inserted as serving to facilitate the rendering. The Syr., Chald., and Jerome express it in their translations, and others in their interpretations. The difficulty disappears if it be remembered that it is not the despotic authority of the king that is meant, but the controlling power of God, to which those must submit who oppose the king chosen by God. Psa 18:48 does not decide for us, for the verbs in the two passages are different. If the writer had that passage in mind, he altered it intentionally, as we find that in other cases the imitation is not a mere copying or simple repetition. So Psa 144:3, in imitation of Psa 8:5, and Psa 144:4, partly from Psa 39:6; Psa 39:11, partly from Psa 102:12. [The connection between Psa 144:1-4 is shown by Calvin. David remembers all that God has done for him, and then, like Jacob, thinks: Lord, I am too little for all thy loving-kindness, and so contrasts his own nothingness and that of mankind generally with the greatness of such a gracious God. With Psa 144:5 comp. Psa 18:10; Psa 104:32. With Psa 144:6, Psa 18:15; 2Sa 22:15.J. F. M.]
Psa 144:7-11It is worthy of remark that , which in Psa 22:14; Psa 66:16, is used of the gaping of the mouth, has here in Psa 144:7 the meaning of snatching out [E. V.: rid], as in the Arabic and Aramaic. The right hand of falsehood [Psa 144:8] parallel to the tongue of falsehood (Psa 109:2) is the hand raised in taking a false oath. It alludes here to covenant-breaking. The designation Elohim, suddenly addressed to Jehovah in Psa 144:9, is unusual in the last two books of the Psalter. [It occurs besides in Psalms 108. The second member of the verse should be translated: Upon a lyre of ten (strings) will I make music to Thee.J. F. M.] The expression also in Psa 144:10 : evil sword, is peculiar. It hardly means that the sword is employed in the service of an evil man (Delitzsch), but rather that it causes evil and misfortune. The mention of David in a Psalm ascribed to him follows the example of Ps. 18:51.
Psa 144:12.Both the peculiar contents and the expression of the following sentences, and the connection with the preceding by , create difficulty. Following the contents of the passage, it is first mentioned that the children are thriving at home, that the fruits of the field and the herds of large and small cattle are flourishing, and that the inhabitants of the city are prosperous, and finally the people so situated are felicitated. It is in the highest degree improbable that Israel, whose God is Jehovah, in contrast to a nation rich in earthly blessings, is, in the last line, pronounced happy, and that therefore there is presented a contrast between individual prosperity and spiritual blessings. If we look at the passages which promise a blessing to the people of God, Deu 7:13; Deu 28:4; Deu 28:8; Deu 28:51, and compare also the description of the blessing in Psa 92:13 f.; Psa 128:2 f., we cannot doubt that the prosperity of Israel under the blessing of God is described here also. The several peculiar words and phrases cannot alter this actual relation. Consequently the relative is not to be referred to enemies=whose sons (Sept., et al.). Nor can we supply , and referring to the words of falsehood, Psa 144:8; Psa 144:11, regard the passage as quoting the terms in which the children of the world boast of their possessions (Geier, Clericus). On account of the structure of the sentence, it would be a very forced construction to refer the relative to God, who causes our sons to be, &c. So also with the assumption that the new song promised in Psa 144:9 is given here (Venema, Kster). In this case we would have to strike out Psa 144:11 (Olsh.), which, however, would be better than to change into , I will pronounce happy (Doederlein, Dathe). Some expositors pass over this connecting word. It must be taken, however, as a relative conjunction, but not as meaning: that, in order that they may be so (Hengst. and most), as a consequence of the deliverance mentioned in Psa 144:11, or as introducing a prayer, whether the word: grant, be supplied or not, but as meaning: because, since (Delitzsch, Hitzig), as supporting the prayer for deliverance. There is still, however, something harsh and forced in the transition to a passage so peculiar in contents and expression. It has therefore been conjectured that a later insertion has been made here (most of the moderns since Knapp), whether a gloss of a copyist (Hitzig), or an addition by the Psalmist himself (Maurer), or borrowed from some other composition, and here awkwardly attached by (Hupfeld), or interpolated in some corruption of the text (Olsh., Kamphausen). [Hengstenberg gives the connection between this strophe and the preceding briefly, and in a manner satisfying to those who hold the Davidic authorship: I thank Thee for the help which is assured to me through faith, Psa 144:9-10. Nay more, deliver Thou me from the hands of the sons of strangers, and let Thy blessing return to rest upon Thy people, Psa 144:11-14.J. F. M.]
The phrase grown up, of trees (Isa 44:14) transferred to sons (Isa 1:2; Isa 23:4; Hos 9:12) represents the vigorous and well-proportioned growth to which the young men had attained. For youth is designated here by a word which excludes the idea of childhood. The rendering: projectures (Luther, Hengstenberg) instead of: corners (Zec 9:15) cannot be justified. So with: corner-pillars (Geier and most), which sense has been assumed through a supposed reference to Caryatides, especially because it was supposed that the following word must have the meaning: hewn out. But is employed everywhere (according to Wetzstein in Delitzsch) only of the preparation of fuel. Yet through the Arabic it may have the sense: streaked, variegated (Pro 7:16). And, while the Syrian and Palestinian architecture, so far as known, exhibits no corner-pillars, corners with carved work of gay colors, are found at the present day in the reception-hall of every house of pretension in Damascus (Lane, Manners and Customs of the modern Egyptians, Psa 50:11). Wetzstein inclines to the opinion that an architectural ornament of this kind, formed with much taste and elaborate workmanship out of carved wood, glistening with gold and brilliant colors, and covering the upper portion of the corner, is employed here to illustrate the beauty, brilliant attire, and rich ornaments of the women; perhaps, also, because they are not only modest and chaste, but are also, like the children of the upper class, concealed from sight.
Psa 144:13-15. As many rare expressions occur here, it cannot appear surprising that in Psa 144:14 the oxen are not named as in Psa 8:8, but , which in an older stage of the language, meant: princes. But it would be strange here to translate: our princes are set up (Maurer, Kster, Von Lengerke, Frst) after Ezr 6:3, that is: are standing upright, as a sign of confidence and strength. The latter word means also strictly: burdened, not: strong for bearing burdens (Chald., Kimchi), or: laden with the abundance of produce (Hengstenberg), or: with fat and flesh, and therefore = fat and strong (Sept., Syr., Jerome, Geier, et al.) but laden with young, gravida (Bochart, J. H. Mich., and most of the recent expositors) The word therefore does not express capacity for work (Luther). In Psa 144:13 b does not mean: store, or provision (Geier, Venema, et al.), but is an Aramaic term denoting: class, kind. From class to class, i.e., of all kinds. The expressions for breach and falling out are so general, that they are not to be referred specially to miscarrying, (Syr., Kimchi), or to breaches in the folds where the flocks might break out (Sept., Geier), or to breaches in the city wall (Aben Ezra, Calvin, Hupf.), and losses in war (De Wette), but to injury and deficiency, misfortune and loss generally.[The authors translation of Psa 144:13-14, accordingly is: Our garners full, supplying of all kinds, our sheep multiplying by thousands, by tens of thousands in our pastures; our cattle laden (with young); no breach and no falling off, and no cry of complaint in our streets.J. F. M.] On the last line the combination of the shortened form of the relative with the qua-driliteral into one word is remarkable. There is no ground for taking the copula adversatively: but (Luther). The expression is found also in Sol. Son 5:9.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
It is not an unessential matter to a people how its king stands with relation to God the Lord, nor to a king, whether he has religious and obedient subjects.Even temporal blessings come from the living God of revelation; but for a man to have God Himself as his God, is the highest privilege and an eternal good.To consider seriously what God is and what we are, begets humility, but also trust in God.
Starke: Pious soldiers learn best how to fight in the school of the Holy Spirit.By protection and victory over our enemies, Gods glory is well-extended.Christ wars and triumphs in His believers.It is a great favor of God to have respect, fear, and obedience in subjects. When He is angry He poureth contempt upon princes.To know our human nothingness rightly, gives us humility. Assiduous meditation upon Gods infinite pre-eminence is the best means of gaining this object. Where God takes from man as His own possession what a man possesses, nothing but a shadow remains; therefore the glory belongs to God in whatever a man is or has.The help of the Christian must come from heaven, either through means or without them.Every doctrine which has not in view Gods honor and mans blessedness is false.Thoughts, words, demeanor, works, all must accord in the praise of God, must sound forth nothing but Christ, and extol His victory and blessing.The external prosperity of the true Church and of a country depends upon the continuance of pious kings and religious rulers.A pious and grateful heart does not take into account the Divine benefits which have been experienced by itself alone, but also those which He has bestowed upon others, and thanks Him for both.According as faith is in the heart, so is also the life directed.The blessing of many children is a great gift of God, and an ornament to a house, especially if they follow after the fear of God and virtue.Daughters that are trifling, vain, and decked out after the fashion of the world, are like fair palaces in which the world dwells, and not God.He who seeks first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, will receive from Him just as much as He knows will be profitable for him.The prosperity of the ungodly is like glass; when it seems clearest it breaks; but the prosperity of the righteous will endure; for it rests on a good foundation.The true happiness of men consists in their union and communion with God in Christ.
Frisch: God, thy friend, is great in counsel, and mighty in working.Rieger: It is easy to say in dejection: Man is as nothing! But it is better to do so in humility; in humility which then does not hide itself away, but clings to the gracious hand of God in Christ, held out to the upright.Diedrich: If Gods people are still in conflict with malignant enemies, they have still the victory and all blessings.Taube: It is the depth of Divine condescension towards the son of the dust, which gives him to discover the glory of grace in its clearest light.
[Matt. Henry: Wherever a believer goes he carries his protection along with him.Mans days have little substance in them, considering how many of the thoughts and cares of an immortal soul are employed about a poor, dying body; they are as a shadow, dark and flitting, and finishing with the sun, and when that sets, resolving itself into all shadow.Living plentifully, we should not live luxuriously, for then we abuse our plenty, but cheerfully and usefully, that, having abundance, we may be thankful to God, generous to our friends, and charitable to the poor. Otherwise what profit is it to have our garners full? Jam 5:3.National piety commonly brings national prosperity, for nations, as such, are capable of rewards and punishments only in this life.Happy is the people that have Gods favor, and love, and grace, according to the tenor of the covenant, though they have not abundance of this worlds goods. As all this and much more, cannot make us happy, unless the Lord be our God; so the want of this, the loss of this, nay, the reverse of this, cannot make us miserable if He be.Bp. Horne: The righteous are distinguished from the wicked by the use which they make of the good things of this life when given, and by their meek resignation of them when taken away.Whatever be the will of God concerning our having or wanting these outward comforts, we know that we have, as the faithful servants of God have had in every age before us, greater and more precious promises, a better and more enduring substance, pleasures that fade not, and riches that fly not away, reserved for us in a heavenly country, and a city which hath foundations.Scott: Happy are they whom the Lord teaches to fight the good fight of faith, and to whom He gives that noblest victory and rule, the conquest and dominion over their own spirits!The daughters of this land are indeed sufficiently polished, with exterior beauty and embellishment and every superficial accomplishment; but few of them have the polishing of a corner-stone, as qualifying them to be the ornament of families, the cement of society, and a blessing to the land and the next generation, by an attentive, judicious, and virtuous performance of the duties of domestic life, and still fewer are possessed of that adorning which the word of God almost exclusively recommends.Hengstenberg: Humility is the mother of confidence (Psa 144:1-4).J. F. M.]
Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange
CONTENTS
This Psalm hath much in it concerning Christ. If we read it wholly with reference to him and his church, we shall find it to be a very delightful hymn, suited to the times of the gospel.
A Psalm of David.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
These military expressions are all suited to the spiritual warrior. Jesus, the great Captain of our salvation, had a personal conflict with Satan, and having been taught of Jehovah how to fight and overcome, he now is conquering him in and by all his members. Hence Christ is our shield, our fortress, our tower; and in his name we conquer: while of Jesus himself, it may and must be said, that what the Father engaged, the Father fully performed, and did beat down all his foes before his face, Psa 89:20-23 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Psa 144:12
David is not praying that the youth of the land should have any abnormal precociousness; the picture before his mind is that of vigorous, healthful, upright, manly and ingenuous youth.
I. A Healthful Frame; a Strong, Robust, Vigorous Physique. It has been said that, as righteousness is the health of the soul, so health is the righteousness of the body. All very true; but we must not run into the opposite error of encouraging the notion that thoughtful, refined, cultured, religious men must be pale-faced and delicate, and with a supreme contempt of a sound physical development.
II. A Solid Character. I know it has been said that the weak side of young men is very weak. Youth is prone to excess, and, on the sunny side of twenty, there is a tendency to carry more sail than ballast. It is a fine thing to see a young man with some solidity about him; some moral backbone; to see stamped upon such an one’s face and gait and manner, the self-respect that accompanies truthfulness, integrity, and goodness.
III. A Hidden Life. Doubtless, what chiefly struck the eye of the Psalmist, as he looked on those young trees, was their exuberant vitality. That life came from God. Man’s power is marvellous, but it stops short of this. He can neither understand or impart life. Personal and saving religion is no development from within, no product of moral evolution; it is something whose germ must be imparted to you by the Holy Spirit; and without which germ you are, in the sight of God, absolutely dead. ‘One thing thou lackest.’ And that one thing God only can give you.
J. Thain Davidson, The City Youth, p. 238.
References. CXLIV. 12. W. Walters, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxi. p. 338. CXLV. 1, 2. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxii. No. 1902.
Fuente: Expositor’s Dictionary of Text by Robertson
PSALMS
XI
AN INTRODUCTION TO THE BOOK OF PSALMS
According to my usual custom, when taking up the study of a book of the Bible I give at the beginning a list of books as helps to the study of that book. The following books I heartily commend on the Psalms:
1. Sampey’s Syllabus for Old Testament Study . This is especially good on the grouping and outlining of some selected psalms. There are also some valuable suggestions on other features of the book.
2. Kirkpatrick’g commentary, in “Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges,” is an excellent aid in the study of the Psalter.
3. Perowne’s Book of Psalms is a good, scholarly treatise on the Psalms. A special feature of this commentary is the author’s “New Translation” and his notes are very helpful.
4. Spurgeon’s Treasury of David. This is just what the title implies. It is a voluminous, devotional interpretation of the Psalms and helpful to those who have the time for such extensive study of the Psalter.
5. Hengstenburg on the Psalms. This is a fine, scholarly work by one of the greatest of the conservative German scholars.
6. Maclaren on the Psalms, in “The Expositor’s Bible,” is the work of the world’s safest, sanest, and best of all works that have ever been written on the Psalms.
7. Thirtle on the Titles of the Psalms. This is the best on the subject and well worth a careful study.
At this point some definitions are in order. The Hebrew word for psalm means praise. The word in English comes from psalmos , a song of lyrical character, or a song to be sung and accompanied with a lyre. The Psalter is a collection of sacred and inspired songs, composed at different times and by different authors.
The range of time in composition was more than 1,000 years, or from the time of Moses to the time of Ezra. The collection in its present form was arranged probably by Ezra in the fifth century, B.C.
The Jewish classification of Old Testament books was The Law, the Prophets, and the Holy Writings. The Psalms was given the first place in the last group.
They had several names, or titles, of the Psalms. In Hebrew they are called “The Book of Prayers,” or “The Book of Praises.” The Hebrew word thus used means praises. The title of the first two books is found in Psa 72:20 : “The prayers of David the son of Jesse are ended.” The title of the whole collection of Psalms in the Septuagint is Biblos Psalman which means the “Book of Psalms.” The title in the Alexandrian Codex is Psalterion which is the name of a stringed instrument, and means “The Psalter.”
The derivation of our English words, “psalms,” “psalter,” and “psaltery,” respectively, is as follows:
1. “Psalms” comes from the Greek word, psalmoi, which is also from psallein , which means to play upon a stringed instrument. Therefore the Psalms are songs played upon stringed instruments, and the word here is used to apply to the whole collection.
2. “Psalter” is of the same origin and means the Book of Psalms and refers also to the whole collection.
3. “Psaltery” is from the word psalterion, which means “a harp,” an instrument, supposed to be in the shape of a triangle or like the delta of the Greek alphabet. See Psa 33:2 ; Psa 71:22 ; Psa 81:2 ; Psa 144:9 .
In our collection there are 150 psalms. In the Septuagint there is one extra. It is regarded as being outside the sacred collection and not inspired. The subject of this extra psalm is “David’s victory over Goliath.” The following is a copy of it: I was small among my brethren, And youngest in my father’s house, I used to feed my father’s sheep. My hands made a harp, My fingers fashioned a Psaltery. And who will declare unto my Lord? He is Lord, he it is who heareth. He it was who sent his angel And took me from my father’s sheep, And anointed me with the oil of his anointing. My brethren were goodly and tall, But the Lord took no pleasure in them. I went forth to meet the Philistine. And he cursed me by his idols But I drew the sword from beside him; I beheaded him and removed reproach from the children of Israel.
It will be noted that this psalm does not have the earmarks of an inspired production. There is not found in it the modesty so characteristic of David, but there is here an evident spirit of boasting and self-praise which is foreign to the Spirit of inspiration.
There is a difference in the numbering of the psalms in our version which follows the Hebrew, and the numbering in the Septuagint. Omitting the extra one in the Septuagint, there is no difference as to the total number. Both have 150 and the same subject matter, but they are not divided alike.
The following scheme shows the division according to our version and also the Septuagint: Psalms 1-8 in the Hebrew equal 1-8 in the Septuagint; 9-10 in the Hebrew combine into 9 in the Septuagint; 11-113 in the Hebrew equal 10-112 in the Septuagint; 114-115 in the Hebrew combine into 113 in the Septuagint; 116 in the Hebrew divides into 114-115 in the Septuagint; 117-146 in the Hebrew equal 116-145 in the Septuagint; 147 in the Hebrew divides into 146-147 in the Septuagint; 148-150 in the Hebrew equal 148-150 in the Septuagint.
The arrangement in the Vulgate is the same as the Septuagint. Also some of the older English versions have this arangement. Another difficulty in numbering perplexes an inexperienced student in turning from one version to another, viz: In the Hebrew often the title is verse I, and sometimes the title embraces verses 1-2.
The book divisions of the Psalter are five books, as follows:
Book I, Psalms 1-41 (41 chapters)
Book II, Psalms 42-72 (31 chapters)
Book III, Psalms 73-89 (17 chapters)
Book IV, Psalms 90-106 (17 chapters)
Book V, Psalms 107-150 (44 chapters)
They are marked by an introduction and a doxology. Psalm I forms an introduction to the whole book; Psa 150 is the doxology for the whole book. The introduction and doxology of each book are the first and last psalms of each division, respectively.
There were smaller collections before the final one, as follows:
Books I and II were by David; Book III, by Hezekiah, and Books IV and V, by Ezra.
Certain principles determined the arrangement of the several psalms in the present collection:
1. David is honored with first place, Book I and II, including Psalms 1-72.
2. They are grouped according to the use of the name of God:
(1) Psalms 1-41 are Jehovah psalms;
(2) Psalms 42-83 are Elohim-psalms;
(3) Psalms 84-150 are Jehovah psalms.
3. Book IV is introduced by the psalm of Moses, which is the first psalm written.
4. Some are arranged as companion psalms, for instance, sometimes two, sometimes three, and sometimes more. Examples: Psa 2 and 3; 22, 23, and 24; 113-118.
5. They were arranged for liturgical purposes, which furnished the psalms for special occasions, such as feasts, etc. We may be sure this arrangement was not accidental. An intelligent study of each case is convincing that it was determined upon rational grounds.
All the psalms have titles but thirty-three, as follows:
In Book I, Psa 1 ; Psa 2 ; Psa 10 ; Psa 33 , (4 are without titles).
In Book II, Psa 43 ; Psa 71 , (2 are without titles).
In Book IV, Psa 91 ; Psa 93 ; Psa 94 ; Psa 95 ; Psa 96 ; Psa 97 ; Psa 104 ; Psa 105 ; Psa 106 , (9 are without titles).
In Book V, Psa 107 ; III; 112; 113; 114; 115; 116; 117; 118; 119; 135; 136; 137; 146; 147; 148; 149; 150, (18 are without titles).
The Talmud calls these psalms that have no title, “Orphan Psalms.” The later Jews supply these titles by taking the nearest preceding author. The lack of titles in Psa 1 ; Psa 2 ; and 10 may be accounted for as follows: Psa 1 is a general introduction to the whole collection and Psa 2 was, perhaps, a part of Psa 1 . Psalms 9-10 were formerly combined into one, therefore Psa 10 has the same title as Psa 9 .
QUESTIONS
1. What books are commended on the Psalms?
2. What is a psalm?
3. What is the Psalter?
4. What is the range of time in composition?
5. When and by whom was the collection in its present form arranged?
6. What the Jewish classification of Old Testament books, and what the position of the Psalter in this classification?
7. What is the Hebrew title of the Psalms?
8. Find the title of the first two books from the books themselves.
9. What is the title of the whole collection of psalms in the Septuagint?
10. What is the title in the Alexandrian Codex?
11. What is the derivation of our English word, “Psalms”, “Psalter”, and “Psaltery,” respectively?
12. How many psalms in our collection?
13. How many psalms in the Septuagint?
14. What about the extra one in the Septuagint?
15. What is the subject of this extra psalm?
16. How does it compare with the Canonical Psalms?
17. What is the difference in the numbering of the psalms in our version which follows the Hebrew, and the numbering in the Septuagint?
18. What is the arrangement in the Vulgate?
19. What other difficulty in numbering which perplexes an inexperienced student in turning from one version to another?
20. What are the book divisions of the Psalter and how are these divisions marked?
21. Were there smaller collections before the final one? If so, what were they?
22. What principles determined the arrangement of the several psalms in the present collection?
23. In what conclusion may we rest concerning this arrangement?
24. How many of the psalms have no titles?
25. What does the Talmud call these psalms that have no titles?
26. How do later Jews supply these titles?
27. How do you account for the lack of titles in Psa 1 ; Psa 2 ; Psa 10 ?
XII
AN INTRODUCTION TO THE BOOK OF PSALMS (CONTINUED)
The following is a list of the items of information gathered from the titles of the psalms:
1. The author: “A Psalm of David” (Psa 37 ).
2. The occasion: “When he fled from Absalom, his son” (Psa 3 ).
3. The nature, or character, of the poem:
(1) Maschil, meaning “instruction,” a didactic poem (Psa 42 ).
(2) Michtam, meaning “gold,” “A Golden Psalm”; this means excellence or mystery (Psa 16 ; 56-60).
4. The occasion of its use: “A Psalm of David for the dedication of the house” (Psa 30 ).
5. Its purpose: “A Psalm of David to bring remembrance” (Psa 38 ; Psa 70 ).
6. Direction for its use: “A Psalm of David for the chief musician” (Psa 4 ).
7. The kind of musical instrument:
(1) Neginoth, meaning to strike a chord, as on stringed instruments (Psa 4 ; Psa 61 ).
(2) Nehiloth, meaning to perforate, as a pipe or flute (Psa 5 ).
(3) Shoshannim, Lilies, which refers probably to cymbals (Psa 45 ; Psa 69 ).
8. A special choir:
(1) Sheminith, the “eighth,” or octave below, as a male choir (Psa 6 ; Psa 12 ).
(2) Alamoth, female choir (Psa 46 ).
(3) Muth-labben, music with virgin voice, to be sung by a choir of boys in the treble (Psa 9 ).
9. The keynote, or tune:
(1) Aijeleth-sharar, “Hind of the morning,” a song to the melody of which this is sung (Psa 22 ).
(2) Al-tashheth, “Destroy thou not,” the beginning of a song the tune of which is sung (Psa 57 ; Psa 58 ; Psa 59 ; Psa 75 ).
(3) Gittith, set to the tune of Gath, perhaps a tune which David brought from Gath (Psa 8 ; Psa 81 ; Psa 84 ).
(4) Jonath-elim-rehokim, “The dove of the distant terebinths,” the commencement of an ode to the air of which this song was to be sung (Psa 56 ).
(5) Leannoth, the name of a tune (Psa 88 ).
(6) Mahalath, an instrument (Psa 53 ); Leonnoth-Mahaloth, to chant to a tune called Mahaloth.
(7) Shiggaion, a song or a hymn.
(8) Shushan-Eduth, “Lily of testimony,” a tune (Psa 60 ). Note some examples: (1) “America,” “Shiloh,” “Auld Lang Syne.” These are the names of songs such as we are familiar with; (2) “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing” and “There Is a Fountain Filled with Blood,” are examples of sacred hymns.
10. The liturgical use, those noted for the feasts, e.g., the Hallels and Hallelujah Psalms (Psalms 146-150).
11. The destination, as “Song of Ascents” (Psalms 120-134)
12. The direction for the music, such as Selah, which means “Singers, pause”; Higgaion-Selah, to strike a symphony with selah, which means an instrumental interlude (Psa 9:16 ).
The longest and fullest title to any of the psalms is the title to Psa 60 . The items of information from this title are as follows: (1) the author; (2) the chief musician; (3) the historical occasion; (4) the use, or design; (5) the style of poetry; (6) the instrument or style of music.
The parts of these superscriptions which most concern us now are those indicating author, occasion, and date. As to the historic value or trustworthiness of these titles most modern scholars deny that they are a part of the Hebrew text, but the oldest Hebrew text of which we know anything had all of them. This is the text from which the Septuagint was translated. It is much more probable that the author affixed them than later writers. There is no internal evidence in any of the psalms that disproves the correctness of them, but much to confirm. The critics disagree among themselves altogether as to these titles. Hence their testimony cannot consistently be received. Nor can it ever be received until they have at least agreed upon a common ground of opposition.
David is the author of more than half the entire collection, the arrangement of which is as follows:
1. Seventy-three are ascribed to him in the superscriptions.
2. Some of these are but continuations of the preceding ones of a pair, trio, or larger group.
3. Some of the Korahite Psalms are manifestly Davidic.
4. Some not ascribed to him in the titles are attributed to him expressly by New Testament writers.
5. It is not possible to account for some parts of the Psalter without David. The history of his early life as found in Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, and 1and 2 Chronicles, not only shows his remarkable genius for patriotic and sacred songs and music, but also shows his cultivation of that gift in the schools of the prophets. Some of these psalms of the history appear in the Psalter itself. It is plain to all who read these that they are founded on experience, and the experience of no other Hebrew fits the case. These experiences are found in Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, and 1 and 2 Chronicles.
As to the attempt of the destructive critics to rob David of his glory in relation to the Psalter by assigning the Maccabean era as the date of composition, I have this to say:
1. This theory has no historical support whatever, and therefore is not to be accepted at all.
2. It has no support in tradition, which weakens the contention of the critics greatly.
3. It has no support from finding any one with the necessary experience for their basis.
4. They can give no reasonable account as to how the titles ever got there.
5. It is psychologically impossible for anyone to have written these 150 psalms in the Maccabean times.
6. Their position is expressly contrary to the testimony of Christ and the apostles. Some of the psalms which they ascribe to the Maccabean Age are attributed to David by Christ himself, who said that David wrote them in the Spirit.
The obvious aim of this criticism and the necessary result if it be Just, is a positive denial of the inspiration of both Testaments.
Other authors are named in the titles, as follows: (1) Asaph, to whom twelve psalms have been assigned: (2) Mosee, Psa 90 ; (3) Solomon, Psa 72 ; Psa 127 ; (4) Heman, Psa 80 ; (5) Ethem, Psa 89 ; (6) A number of the psalms are ascribed to the sons of Korah.
Not all the psalms ascribed to Asaph were composed by one person. History indicates that Asaph’s family presided over the song service for several generations. Some of them were composed by his descendants by the game name. The five general outlines of the whole collection are as follows:
I. By books
1. Psalms 1-41 (41)
2. Psalms 42-72 (31)
3. Psalms 73-89 (17)
4. Psalms 90-106 (17)
5. Psalms 107-150 (44)
II. According to date and authorship
1. The psalm of Moses (Psa 90 )
2. Psalms of David:
(1) The shepherd boy (Psa 8 ; Psa 19 ; Psa 29 ; Psa 23 ).
(2) David when persecuted by Saul (Psa 59 ; Psa 56 ; Psa 34 ; Psa 52 ; Psa 54 ; Psa 57 ; Psa 142 ).
(3) David the King (Psa 101 ; Psa 18 ; Psa 24 ; Psa 2 ; Psa 110 ; Psa 20 ; Psa 20 ; Psa 21 ; Psa 60 ; Psa 51 ; Psa 32 ; Psa 41 ; Psa 55 ; Psa 3:4 ; Psa 64 ; Psa 62 ; Psa 61 ; Psa 27 ).
3. The Asaph Psalms (Psa 50 ; Psa 73 ; Psa 83 ).
4. The Korahite Psalms (Psa 42 ; Psa 43 ; Psa 84 ).
5. The psalms of Solomon (Psa 72 ; Psa 127 ).
6. The psalms of the era of Hezekiah and Isaiah (Psa 46 ; Psa 47 ; Psa 48 )
7. The psalms of the Exile (Psa 74 ; Psa 79 ; Psa 137 ; Psa 102 )
8. The psalms of the Restoration (Psa 85 ; Psa 126 ; Psa 118 ; 146-150)
III. By groups
1. The Jehovistic and Elohistic Psalms:
(1) Psalms 1-41 are Jehovistic;
(2) Psalms 42-83 are Elohistic Psalms;
(3) Psalms 84-150 are Jehovistic.
2. The Penitential Psalms (Psa 6 ; Psa 32 ; Psa 38 ; Psa 51 ; Psa 102 ; Psa 130 ; Psa 143 )
3. The Pilgrim Psalms (Psalms 120-134)
4. The Alphabetical Psalms (Psa 9 ; Psa 10 ; Psa 25 ; Psa 34 ; Psa 37 ; 111:112; Psa 119 ; Psa 145 )
5. The Hallelujah Psalms (Psalms 11-113; 115-117; 146-150; to which may be added Psa 135 ) Psalms 113-118 are called “the Egyptian Hallel”
IV. Doctrines of the Psalms
1. The throne of grace and how to approach it by sacrifice, prayer, and praise.
2. The covenant, the basis of worship.
3. The paradoxical assertions of both innocence & guilt.
4. The pardon of sin and justification.
5. The Messiah.
6. The future life, pro and con.
7. The imprecations.
8. Other doctrines.
V. The New Testament use of the Psalms
1. Direct references and quotations in the New Testament.
2. The allusions to the psalms in the New Testament. Certain experiences of David’s life made very deep impressions on his heart, such as: (1) his peaceful early life; (2) his persecution by Saul; (3) his being crowned king of the people; (4) the bringing up of the ark; (5) his first great sin; (6) Absalom’s rebellion; (7) his second great sin; (8) the great promise made to him in 2Sa 7 ; (9) the feelings of his old age.
We may classify the Davidic Psalms according to these experiences following the order of time, thus:
1. His peaceful early life (Psa 8 ; Psa 19 ; Psa 29 ; Psa 23 )
2. His persecution by Saul (Psa 59 ; Psa 56 ; Psa 34 ; Psa 7 ; Psa 52 ; Psa 120 ; Psa 140 ; Psa 54 ; Psa 57 ; Psa 142 ; Psa 17 ; Psa 18 )
3. Making David King (Psa 27 ; Psa 133 ; Psa 101 )
4. Bringing up the ark (Psa 68 ; Psa 24 ; Psa 132 ; Psa 15 ; Psa 78 ; Psa 96 )
5. His first great sin (Psa 51 ; Psa 32 )
6. Absalom’s rebellion (Psa 41 ; Psa 6 ; Psa 55 ; Psa 109 ; Psa 38 ; Psa 39 ; Psa 3 ; Psa 4 ; Psa 63 ; Psa 42 ; Psa 43 ; Psa 5 ; Psa 62 ; Psa 61 ; Psa 27 )
7. His second great sin (Psa 69 ; Psa 71 ; Psa 102 ; Psa 103 )
8. The great promise made to him in 2Sa 7 (Psa 2 )
9. Feelings of old age (Psa 37 )
The great doctrines of the psalms may be noted as follows: (1) the being and attributes of God; (3) sin, both original and individual; (3) both covenants; (4) the doctrine of justification; (5) concerning the Messiah.
There is a striking analogy between the Pentateuch and the Psalms. The Pentateuch contains five books of law; the Psalms contain five books of heart responses to the law.
It is interesting to note the historic controversies concerning the singing of psalms. These were controversies about singing uninspired songs, in the Middle Ages. The church would not allow anything to be used but psalms.
The history in Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, and 1 and 2 Chronicles, and in Ezra and Nehemiah is very valuable toward a proper interpretation of the psalms. These books furnish the historical setting for a great many of the psalms which is very indispensable to their proper interpretation.
Professor James Robertson, in the Poetry and Religion of the Psalms constructs a broad and strong argument in favor of the Davidic Psalms, as follows:
1. The age of David furnished promising soil for the growth of poetry.
2. David’s qualifications for composing the psalms make it highly probable that David is the author of the psalms ascribed to him.
3. The arguments against the possibility of ascribing to David any of the hymns in the Hebrew Psalter rests upon assumptions that are thoroughly antibiblical.
The New Testament makes large use of the psalms and we learn much as to their importance in teaching. There are seventy direct quotations in the New Testament from this book, from which we learn that the Scriptures were used extensively in accord with 2Ti 3:16-17 . There are also eleven references to the psalms in the New Testament from which we learn that the New Testament writers were thoroughly imbued with the spirit and teaching of the psalms. Then there are eight allusions ‘to this book in the New Testament from which we gather that the Psalms was one of the divisions of the Old Testament and that they were used in the early church.
QUESTIONS
1. Give a list of the items of information gathered from the titles of the psalms.
2. What is the longest title to any of the psalms and what the items of this title?
3. What parts of these superscriptions most concern us now?
4. What is the historic value, or trustworthiness of these titles?
5. State the argument showing David’s relation to the psalms.
6. What have you to say of the attempt of the destructive critics to rob David of his glory in relation to the Psalter by assigning the Maccabean era as the date of composition?
7. What the obvious aim of this criticism and the necessary result, if it be just?
8. What other authors are named in the titles?
9. Were all the psalms ascribed to Asaph composed by one person?
10. Give the five general outlines of the whole collection, as follows: I. The outline by books II. The outline according to date and authorship III. The outline by groups IV. The outline of doctrines V. The outline by New Testament quotations or allusions.
11. What experiences of David’s life made very deep impressions on his heart?
12. Classify the Davidic Psalms according to these experiences following the order of time.
13. What the great doctrines of the psalms?
14. What analogy between the Pentateuch and the Psalms?
15. What historic controversies concerning the singing of psalms?
16. Of what value is the history in Samuel, 1 Kings and 2 Chronicles, and in Ezra and Nehemiah toward a proper interpretation of the psalms?
17. Give Professor James Robertson’s argument in favor of the Davidic authorship of the psalms.
18. What can you say of the New Testament use of the psalms and what do we learn as to their importance in teaching?
19. What can you say of the New Testament references to the psalms, and from the New Testament references what the impression on the New Testament writers?
20. What can you say of the allusions to the psalms in the New Testament?
XVII
THE MESSIAH IN THE PSALMS
A fine text for this chapter is as follows: “All things must be fulfilled which were written in the Psalms concerning me,” Luk 24:44 . I know of no better way to close my brief treatise on the Psalms than to discuss the subject of the Messiah as revealed in this book.
Attention has been called to the threefold division of the Old Testament cited by our Lord, namely, the Law, the Prophets, and the Psalms (Luk 24:44 ), in all of which were the prophecies relating to himself that “must be fulfilled.” It has been shown just what Old Testament books belong to each of these several divisions. The division called the Psalms included many books, styled Holy Writings, and because the Psalms proper was the first book of the division it gave the name to the whole division.
The object of this discussion is to sketch the psalmist’s outline of the Messiah, or rather, to show how nearly a complete picture of our Lord is foredrawn in this one book. Let us understand however with Paul, that all prophecy is but in part (1Co 13:9 ), and that when we fill in on one canvas all the prophecies concerning the Messiah of all the Old Testament divisions, we are far from having a perfect portrait of our Lord. The present purpose is limited to three things:
1. What the book of the Psalms teaches concerning the Messiah.
2. That the New Testament shall authoritatively specify and expound this teaching.
3. That the many messianic predictions scattered over the book and the specifications thereof over the New Testament may be grouped into an orderly analysis, so that by the adjustment of the scattered parts we may have before us a picture of our Lord as foreseen by the psalmists.
In allowing the New Testament to authoritatively specify and expound the predictive features of the book, I am not unmindful of what the so-called “higher critics” urge against the New Testament quotations from the Old Testament and the use made of them. In this discussion, however, these objections are not considered, for sufficient reasons. There is not space for it. Even at the risk of being misjudged I must just now summarily pass all these objections, dismissing them with a single statement upon which the reader may place his own estimate of value. That statement is that in the days of my own infidelity, before this old method of criticism had its new name, I was quite familiar with the most and certainly the strongest of the objections now classified as higher criticism, and have since patiently re-examined them in their widely conflicting restatements under their modern name, and find my faith in the New Testament method of dealing with the Old Testament in no way shattered, but in every way confirmed. God is his own interpreter. The Old Testament as we now have it was in the hands of our Lord. I understand his apostle to declare, substantially, that “every one of these sacred scriptures is God-inspired and is profitable for teaching us what is right to believe and to do, for convincing us what is wrong in faith or practice, for rectifying the wrong when done, that we may be ready at every point, furnished completely, to do every good work, at the right time, in the right manner, and from the proper motive” (2Ti 3:16-17 ).
This New Testament declares that David was a prophet (Act 2:30 ), that he spake by the Holy Spirit (Act 1:16 ), that when the book speaks the Holy Spirit speaks (Heb 3:7 ), and that all its predictive utterances, as sacred Scripture, “must be fulfilled” (Joh 13:18 ; Act 1:16 ). It is not claimed that David wrote all the psalms, but that all are inspired, and that as he was the chief author, the book goes by his name.
It would be a fine thing to make out two lists, as follows:
1. All of the 150 psalms in order from which the New Testament quotes with messianic application.
2. The New Testament quotations, book by book, i.e., Matthew so many, and then the other books in their order.
We would find in neither of these any order as to time, that is, Psa 1 which forecasts an incident in the coming Messiah’s life does not forecast the first incident of his life. And even the New Testament citations are not in exact order as to time and incident of his life. To get the messianic picture before us, therefore, we must put the scattered parts together in their due relation and order, and so construct our own analysis. That is the prime object of this discussion. It is not claimed that the analysis now presented is perfect. It is too much the result of hasty, offhand work by an exceedingly busy man. It will serve, however, as a temporary working model, which any one may subsequently improve. We come at once to the psalmist’s outline of the Messiah.
1. The necessity for a Saviour. This foreseen necessity is a background of the psalmists’ portrait of the Messiah. The necessity consists in (1) man’s sinfulness; (2) his sin; (3) his inability of wisdom and power to recover himself; (4) the insufficiency of legal, typical sacrifices in securing atonement.
The predicate of Paul’s great argument on justification by faith is the universal depravity and guilt of man. He is everywhere corrupt in nature; everywhere an actual transgressor; everywhere under condemnation. But the scriptural proofs of this depravity and sin the apostle draws mainly from the book of the Psalms. In one paragraph of the letter to the Romans (Rom 3:4-18 ), he cites and groups six passages from six divisions of the Psalms (Psa 5:9 ; Psa 10:7 ; Psa 14:1-3 ; Psa 36:1 ; Psa 51:4-6 ; Psa 140:3 ). These passages abundantly prove man’s sinfulness, or natural depravity, and his universal practice of sin.
The predicate also of the same apostle’s great argument for revelation and salvation by a Redeemer is man’s inability of wisdom and power to re-establish communion with God. In one of his letters to the Corinthians he thus commences his argument: “For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this world? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? -For after that in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preach-ing to save them that believe.” He closes this discussion with the broad proposition: “The wisdom of this world is foolishness with God,” and proves it by a citation from Psa 94:11 : “The Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise, that they are vain.”
In like manner our Lord himself pours scorn on human wisdom and strength by twice citing Psa 8 : “At that time Jesus answered and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and hast revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father: for so it seemed good in thy sight” (Mat 11:25-26 ). “And when the chief priests and scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children that were crying in the temple and saying, Hosanna to the Son of David; they were sore displeased, and said unto him, Hearest thou what these say? And Jesus saith unto them, Yea; have ye never read, Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise?” (Mat 21:15-16 ).
But the necessity for a Saviour as foreseen by the psalmist did not stop at man’s depravity, sin, and helplessness. The Jews were trusting in the sacrifices of their law offered on the smoking altar. The inherent weakness of these offerings, their lack of intrinsic merit, their ultimate abolition, their complete fulfilment and supercession by a glorious antitype were foreseen and foreshown in this wonderful prophetic book: I will not reprove thee for thy sacrifices; And thy burnt offerings are continually before me. I will take no bullock out of thy house, Nor he-goat out of thy folds. For every beast of the forest is mine, And the cattle upon a thousand hills. I know all of the birds of the mountains; And the wild beasts of the field are mine. If I were hungry, I would not tell thee; For the world is mine, and the fulness thereof. Will I eat the flesh of bulls, Or drink the blood of goats? Psa 50:8-13 .
Yet again it speaks in that more striking passage cited in the letter to the Hebrews: “For the law having a shadow of good things to come, not the very image of the things, can never with the same sacrifices year by year, which they offer continually, make the comers thereunto perfect. For then would they not have ceased to be offered? because that the worshipers, once purged should have no more consciousness of sins. But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance made of sins year by year. For it is impossible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sins. Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldst not, But a body didst thou prepare for me; In whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hadst no pleasure: Then said I, Lo, I am come (In the roll of the book it is written of me) To do thy will, O God. Saying above, Sacrifice and offering and whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou wouldst not, neither hadst pleasure therein, (the which are offered according to the law), then hath he said, Lo, I am come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second” (Heb 10:1-9 ).
This keen foresight of the temporary character and intrinsic worthlessness of animal sacrifices anticipated similar utterances by the later prophets (Isa 1:10-17 ; Jer 6:20 ; Jer 7:21-23 ; Hos 6:6 ; Amo 5:21 ; Mic 6:6-8 ). Indeed, I may as well state in passing that when the apostle declares, “It is impossible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins,” he lays down a broad principle, just as applicable to baptism and the Lord’s Supper. With reverence I state the principle: Not even God himself by mere appointment can vest in any ordinance, itself lacking intrinsic merit, the power to take away sin. There can be, therefore, in the nature of the case, no sacramental salvation. This would destroy the justice of God in order to exalt his mercy. Clearly the psalmist foresaw that “truth and mercy must meet together” before “righteousness and peace could kiss each other” (Psa 85:10 ). Thus we find as the dark background of the psalmists’ luminous portrait of the Messiah, the necessity for a Saviour.
2. The nature, extent, and blessedness of the salvation to be wrought by the coming Messiah. In no other prophetic book are the nature, fullness, and blessedness of salvation so clearly seen and so vividly portrayed. Besides others not now enumerated, certainly the psalmists clearly forecast four great elements of salvation:
(1) An atoning sacrifice of intrinsic merit offered once for all (Psa 40:6-8 ; Heb 10:4-10 ).
(2) Regeneration itself consisting of cleansing, renewal, and justification. We hear his impassioned statement of the necessity of regeneration: “Behold, I was shapen in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me. Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts,” followed by his earnest prayer: “Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me,” and his equally fervent petition: “Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. Purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean; wash me and I shall be whiter than snow” (Psa 51 ). And we hear him again as Paul describes the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputes righteousness without works, saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, And whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not reckon sin Psa 32:1 ; Rom 4:6-8 .
(3) Introduction into the heavenly rest (Psa 95:7-11 ; Heb 3:7-19 ; Heb 4:1-11 ). Here is the antitypical Joshua leading spiritual Israel across the Jordan of death into the heavenly Canaan, the eternal rest that remaineth for the people of God. Here we find creation’s original sabbath eclipsed by redemption’s greater sabbath when the Redeemer “entered his rest, ceasing from his own works as God did from his.”
(4) The recovery of all the universal dominion lost by the first Adam and the securement of all possible dominion which the first Adam never attained (Psa 8:5-6 ; Eph 1:20-22 ; Heb 2:7-9 ; 1Co 15:24-28 ).
What vast extent then and what blessedness in the salvation foreseen by the psalmists, and to be wrought by the Messiah. Atoning sacrifice of intrinsic merit; regeneration by the Holy Spirit; heavenly rest as an eternal inheritance; and universal dominion shared with Christ!
3. The wondrous person of the Messiah in his dual nature, divine and human.
(1) His divinity,
(a) as God: “Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever” (Psa 45:6 and Heb 1:8 ) ;
(b) as creator of the heavens and earth, immutable and eternal: Of old didst thou lay the foundation of the earth; And the heavens are the work of thy hands. They shall perish, but thou shalt endure; Yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment; As a vesture shalt thou change them, and they shall be changed. But thou art the same, And thy years shall have no end Psa 102:25-27 quoted with slight changes in Heb 1:10-12 .
(c) As owner of the earth: The earth is the Lord’s and the fulness thereof; The world, and they that dwell therein, Psa 24:1 quoted in 1Co 10:26 .
(d) As the Son of God: “Thou art my Son; This day have I begotten thee” Psa 2:7 ; Heb 1:5 .
(e) As David’s Lord: The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, Until I make thine enemies thy footstool, Psa 110:1 ; Mat 22:41-46 .
(f) As the object of angelic worship: “And let all the angels of God worship him” Psa 97:7 ; Heb 1:6 .
(g) As the Bread of life: And he rained down manna upon them to eat, And gave them food from heaven Psa 78:24 ; interpreted in Joh 6:31-58 . These are but samples which ascribe deity to the Messiah of the psalmists.
(2) His humanity, (a) As the Son of man, or Son of Adam: Psa 8:4-6 , cited in 1Co 15:24-28 ; Eph 1:20-22 ; Heb 2:7-9 . Compare Luke’s genealogy, Luk 3:23-38 . This is the ideal man, or Second Adam, who regains Paradise Lost, who recovers race dominion, in whose image all his spiritual lineage is begotten. 1Co 15:45-49 . (b) As the Son of David: Psa 18:50 ; Psa 89:4 ; Psa 89:29 ; Psa 89:36 ; Psa 132:11 , cited in Luk 1:32 ; Act 13:22-23 ; Rom 1:3 ; 2Ti 2:8 . Perhaps a better statement of the psalmists’ vision of the wonderful person of the Messiah would be: He saw the uncreated Son, the second person of the trinity, in counsel and compact with the Father, arranging in eternity for the salvation of men: Psa 40:6-8 ; Heb 10:5-7 . Then he saw this Holy One stoop to be the Son of man: Psa 8:4-6 ; Heb 2:7-9 . Then he was the son of David, and then he saw him rise again to be the Son of God: Psa 2:7 ; Rom 1:3-4 .
4. His offices.
(1) As the one atoning sacrifice (Psa 40:6-8 ; Heb 10:5-7 ).
(2) As the great Prophet, or Preacher (Psa 40:9-10 ; Psa 22:22 ; Heb 2:12 ). Even the method of his teaching by parable was foreseen (Psa 78:2 ; Mat 13:35 ). Equally also the grace, wisdom, and power of his teaching. When the psalmist declares that “Grace is poured into thy lips” (Psa 45:2 ), we need not be startled when we read that all the doctors in the Temple who heard him when only a boy “were astonished at his understanding and answers” (Luk 2:47 ); nor that his home people at Nazareth “all bear him witness, and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth” (Luk 4:22 ); nor that those of his own country were astonished, and said, “Whence hath this man this wisdom?” (Mat 13:54 ); nor that the Jews in the Temple marveled, saying, “How knoweth this man letters, having never learned?” (Joh 7:15 ) ; nor that the stern officers of the law found their justification in failure to arrest him in the declaration, “Never man spake like this man” (Joh 7:46 ).
(3) As the king (Psa 2:6 ; Psa 24:7-10 ; Psa 45:1-17 ; Psa 110:1 ; Mat 22:42-46 ; Act 2:33-36 ; 1Co 15:25 ; Eph 1:20 ; Heb 1:13 ).
(4) As the priest (Psa 110:4 ; Heb 5:5-10 ; Heb 7:1-21 ; Heb 10:12-14 ).
(5) As the final judge. The very sentence of expulsion pronounced upon the finally impenitent by the great judge (Mat 25:41 ) is borrowed from the psalmist’s prophetic words (Psa 6:8 ).
5. Incidents of life. The psalmists not only foresaw the necessity for a Saviour; the nature, extent, and blessedness of the salvation; the wonderful human-divine person of the Saviour; the offices to be filled by him in the work of salvation, but also many thrilling details of his work in life, death, resurrection, and exaltation. It is not assumed to cite all these details, but some of the most important are enumerated in order, thus:
(1) The visit, adoration, and gifts of the Magi recorded in Mat 2 are but partial fulfilment of Psa 72:9-10 .
(2) The scripture employed by Satan in the temptation of our Lord (Luk 4:10-11 ) was cited from Psa 91:11-12 and its pertinency not denied.
(3) In accounting for his intense earnestness and the apparently extreme measures adopted by our Lord in his first purification of the Temple (Joh 2:17 ), he cites the messianic zeal predicted in Psa 69:9 .
(4) Alienation from his own family was one of the saddest trials of our Lord’s earthly life. They are slow to understand his mission and to enter into sympathy with him. His self-abnegation and exhaustive toil were regarded by them as evidences of mental aberration, and it seems at one time they were ready to resort to forcible restraint of his freedom) virtually what in our time would be called arrest under a writ of lunacy. While at the last his half-brothers became distinguished preachers of his gospel, for a long while they do not believe on him. And the evidence forces us to the conclusion that his own mother shared with her other sons, in kind though not in degree, the misunderstanding of the supremacy of his mission over family relations. The New Testament record speaks for itself:
Son, why hast thou thus dealt with us? behold, thy father and I sought thee sorrowing. And he said unto them. How is it that ye sought me? Knew ye not that I must be in my Father’s house? And they understood not the saying which he spake unto them Luk 2:48-51 (R.V.).
And when the wine failed, the mother of Jesus saith unto him, They have no wine. And Jesus saith unto her, Woman, what have I to do with thee? Mine hour is not yet come. Joh 2:3-5 (R.V.).
And there come his mother and his brethren; and standing without; they sent unto him, calling him. And a multitude was sitting about him; and they say unto him. Behold, thy mother and thy brethren without seek for thee. And he answereth them, and saith, Who is my mother and my brethren? And looking round on them that sat round about him, he saith, Behold, my mother and my brethren) For whosoever shall do the will of God, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother Mar 3:31-35 (R.V.).
Now the feast of the Jews, the feast of tabernacles, was at hand. His brethren therefore said unto him, Depart hence, and go into Judea, that thy disciples also may behold thy works which thou doest. For no man doeth anything in secret, and himself seeketh to be known openly. If thou doest these things, manifest thyself to the world. For even his brethren did not believe on him. Jesus therefore saith unto them, My time is not yet come; but your time is always ready. The world cannot hate you; but me it hateth, because I testify of it, that its works are evil. Go ye up unto the feast: I go not up yet unto this feast; because my time is not fulfilled. Joh 7:2-9 (R.V.).
These citations from the Revised Version tell their own story. But all that sad story is foreshown in the prophetic psalms. For example: I am become a stranger unto my brethren, And an alien unto my mother’s children. Psa 69:8 .
(5) The triumphal entry into Jerusalem was welcomed by a joyous people shouting a benediction from Psa 118:26 : “Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord” (Mat 21:9 ); and the Lord’s lamentation over Jerusalem predicts continued desolation and banishment from his sight until the Jews are ready to repeat that benediction (Mat 23:39 ).
(6) The children’s hosanna in the Temple after its second purgation is declared by our Lord to be a fulfilment of that perfect praise forecast in Psa 8:2 .
(7) The final rejection of our Lord by his own people was also clear in the psalmist’s vision (Psa 118:22 ; Mat 21:42-44 ).
(8) Gethsemane’s baptism of suffering, with its strong crying and tears and prayers was as clear to the psalmist’s prophetic vision as to the evangelist and apostle after it became history (Psa 69:1-4 ; Psa 69:13-20 ; and Mat 26:36-44 ; Heb 5:7 ).
(9) In life-size also before the psalmist was the betrayer of Christ and his doom (Psa 41:9 ; Psa 69:25 ; Psa 109:6-8 ; Joh 13:18 ; Act 1:20 ).
(10) The rage of the people, Jew and Gentile, and the conspiracy of Pilate and Herod are clearly outlined (Psa 2:1-3 ; Act 4:25-27 ).
(11) All the farce of his trial the false accusation, his own marvelous silence; and the inhuman maltreatment to which he was subjected, is foreshown in the prophecy as dramatically as in the history (Mat 26:57-68 ; Mat 27:26-31 ; Psa 27:12 ; Psa 35:15-16 ; Psa 38:3 ; Psa 69:19 ).
The circumstances of his death, many and clear, are distinctly foreseen. He died in the prime of life (Psa 89:45 ; Psa 102:23-24 ). He died by crucifixion (Psa 22:14-17 ; Luk 23 ; 33; Joh 19:23-37 ; Joh 20:27 ). But yet not a bone of his body was broken (Psa 34:20 ; Joh 19:36 ).
The persecution, hatred without a cause, the mockery and insults, are all vividly and dramatically foretold (Psa 22:6-13 ; Psa 35:7 ; Psa 35:12 ; Psa 35:15 ; Psa 35:21 ; Psa 109:25 ).
The parting of his garments and the gambling for his vesture (Psa 22:18 ; Mat 27:35 ).
His intense thirst and the gall and vinegar offered for his drink (Psa 69:21 ; Mat 27:34 ).
In the psalms, too, we hear his prayers for his enemies so remarkably fulfilled in fact (Psa 109:4 ; Luk 23:34 ).
His spiritual death was also before the eye of the psalmist, and the very words which expressed it the psalmist heard. Separation from the Father is spiritual death. The sinner’s substitute must die the sinner’s death, death physical, i.e., separation of soul from body; death spiritual, i.e., separation of the soul from God. The latter is the real death and must precede the former. This death the substitute died when he cried out: “My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me.” (Psa 22:1 ; Mat 27:46 ).
Emerging from the darkness of that death, which was the hour of the prince of darkness, the psalmist heard him commend his spirit to the Father (Psa_31:35; Luk 23:46 ) showing that while he died the spiritual death, his soul was not permanently abandoned unto hell (Psa 16:8-10 ; Act 2:25 ) so that while he “tasted death” for every man it was not permanent death (Heb 2:9 ).
With equal clearness the psalmist foresaw his resurrection, his triumph over death and hell, his glorious ascension into heaven, and his exaltation at the right hand of God as King of kings and Lord of lords, as a high Driest forever, as invested with universal sovereignty (Psa 16:8-11 ; Psa 24:7-10 ; Psa 68:18 ; Psa 2:6 ; Psa 111:1-4 ; Psa 8:4-6 ; Act 2:25-36 ; Eph 1:19-23 ; Eph 4:8-10 ).
We see, therefore, brethren, when the scattered parts are put together and adjusted, how nearly complete a portrait of our Lord is put upon the prophetic canvas by this inspired limner, the sweet singer of Israel.
QUESTIONS
1. What is a good text for this chapter?
2. What is the threefold division of the Old Testament as cited by our Lord?
3. What is the last division called and why?
4. What is the object of the discussion in this chapter?
5. To what three things is the purpose limited?
6. What especially qualifies the author to meet the objections of the higher critics to allowing the New Testament usage of the Old Testament to determine its meaning and application?
7. What is the author’s conviction relative to the Scriptures?
8. What is the New Testament testimony on the question of inspiration?
9. What is the author’s suggested plan of approach to the study of the Messiah in the Psalms?
10. What the background of the Psalmist’s portrait of the Messiah and of what does it consist?
11. Give the substance of Paul’s discussion of man’s sinfulness.
12. What is the teaching of Jesus on this point?
13. What is the teaching relative to sacrifices?
14. What the nature, extent, and blessedness of the salvation to be wrought by the coming Messiah and what the four great elements of it as forecast by the psalmist?
15. What is the teaching of the psalms relative to the wondrous person of the Messiah? Discuss.
16. What are the offices of the Messiah according to psalms? Discuss each.
17. Cite the more important events of the Messiah’s life according to the vision of the psalmist.
18. What the circumstances of the Messiah’s death and resurrection as foreseen by the psalmist?
Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible
Psa 144:1 [A Psalm] of David. Blessed [be] the LORD my strength, which teacheth my hands to war, [and] my fingers to fight:
A Psalm of David ] The Greek addeth, against Goliath; and the Chaldee, for the hurtful sword, Psa 144:10 , hath Goliath’s sword.
Ver. 1. Blessed be the Lord my strength ] See Psa 18:1 , and observe how this psalm suiteth with that.
Which teacheth my hands
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
This psalm blesses Jehovah in confidence and bright expectation. Why should man (Adam) son of enosh, weak and faint, stay blessing through divine judgment? For so Israel always expects, whatever the mercy also. The Christian stands in grace and looks into heaven, to which he belongs as in Christ. This psalm looks for judgment, not the gospel.
Fuente: William Kelly Major Works (New Testament)
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Psa 144:1-4
1Blessed be the Lord, my rock,
Who trains my hands for war,
And my fingers for battle;
2My lovingkindness and my fortress,
My stronghold and my deliverer,
My shield and He in whom I take refuge,
Who subdues my people under me.
3O Lord, what is man, that You take knowledge of him?
Or the son of man, that You think of him?
4Man is like a mere breath;
His days are like a passing shadow.
Psa 144:1-4 This strophe uses numerous military allusions. This is obviously a royal Psalm. YHWH acts on behalf of His people to assure their survival because He has a universal redemptive plan involving national Israel (the descendants of Abraham). See Special Topic: YHWH’s Eternal Redemptive Plan .
Psa 144:3-4 is surprising in that the focus moves from Israel to all humans.
1. they are the object of YHWH’s special care (cf. Psa 8:4) because they are made in His image and likeness (cf. Gen 1:26-27)
2. however, because of Genesis 3 they are frail and finite (cf. Psa 90:5; Psa 103:15; Psa 104:14; Isa 40:6-8; 1Pe 1:24)
Psa 144:1 Blessed See Special Topic: Blessing (OT).
my rock This (BDB 849) is a recurrent title for Israel’s God. See notes online at Deu 32:4 and Psa 18:1-3. Everything changes but God does not. He is the anchor that does not fail, the fortress that cannot fall. Note the powerful, emotional string of descriptive nouns in Psa 18:2!
trains my hands for war There is obviously a literary relationship between Psalms 18 and Psalms 144. Note the parallels.
1. Psa 144:1 – Psa 18:2; Psa 18:34; Psa 18:46
2. Psa 144:2 – Psa 18:2; Psa 18:47
3. Psa 144:3 – Psa 18:4
4. Psa 144:5 – Psa 18:9
5. Psa 144:6 – Psa 18:14
6. Psa 144:7 – Psa 18:16-17; Psa 18:44
7. Psa 144:10 – Psa 18:50
8. Psa 144:11 – Psa 18:44
Psa 144:2 My lovingkindness YHWH is faithful in His covenant commitments. See SPECIAL TOPIC: LOVINGKINDNESS (HESED) .
Notice the number of personal pronouns in the NASB of Psa 144:1-2 (six). The psalmist knows and trusts YHWH.
NASB, NKJV,
LXXWho subdues my people under me
NRSV, TEV,
Targums,
Peshitta,
Vulgatewho subdues the peoples under me
NJBHe makes the peoples submit to me
The difference is only a final mem. The UBS Text Project (p. 436) gives my people a B rating (some doubt). This line of poetry either
1. asserts the king’s authority over the covenant people (i.e., he is YHWH’s under shepherd)
2. asserts Israel’s victory by YHWH’s power over the pagan nations
The UBS Text Project (p. 437) gives under me an A rating (very high probability). If this is the correct text, then option #1 above is the correct phrase.
Psa 144:3 Notice the synonymous parallelism.
1. man – Adam (BDB 9)
2. son of man – ben enosh (BDB 60)
In the parallel in Psalms 8 the Hebrew words for man are reversed, but the intent is the same. These terms are speaking of a human person. See SPECIAL TOPIC: THE SON OF MAN (from Dan 7:13).
take knowledge This is the Hebrew verb know (BDB 393, KB 390, Qal imperfect with waw). See Special Topic: Know .
Psa 144:4 This verse highlights the finitude of mankind (cf. Job 8:9; Job 14:2; Psa 39:5-6; Psa 102:11; Psa 109:23; Ecc 6:12; Ecc 8:12) and although not specifically stated, the eternality of YHWH is highlighted.
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
Title, of David = by David. The Septuagint adds “concerning Goliath.” This may be because Psalm 8, which relates to David and Goliath, has the same words in Psa 8:4 as in Psa 144:3. In any case, Psalm 144 is peculiarly appropriate to David’s victory (1 Samuel 17). Not a “compilation” of “fragments” of some “lost Psalms”, but a perfect whole with a perfect design, as shown by the Structure.
Blessed. Figure of Speech Benedictio (App-6.). Not Beatitudo as in Psa 144:15.
the LORD. Hebrew. Jehovah. App-4.
strength = rock, or fortress. Compare Deu 32:4. 1Sa 2:2; 2Sa 22:47. 2Sa 18:2, 2Sa 18:31, 2Sa 18:46; 2Sa 19:14; 2Sa 28:1; 2Sa 62:2, 2Sa 62:6.
to war . . . to fight. Not merely generally, but specially in the case of Goliath (1Sa 17). See Title.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Chapter 144
Blessed be the LORD my strength, which ( Psa 144:1 )
Now this is a psalm of David, and of course, some people get upset with this psalm because David thanks God for making him such a tough fighter.
Blessed be the LORD my strength, which teaches my hands to war, and my fingers to fight: my goodness, my fortress; my high tower, my deliverer; my shield, and he in whom I trust; who subdues my people under me. LORD, what is man, that you take knowledge of him! or the son of man, that you take him into account! ( Psa 144:1-3 )
Interesting question. “What is man, that God should take knowledge of him?” This carries us back to an earlier psalm when David said, “When I consider the heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon, the stars which Thou hast ordained, what is man?” ( Psa 8:3 , Psa 8:4 ) Looking at the universe and in light of the universe and the vastness of the universe, what is man? This little speck of dust walking around on this little planet Earth. Way off in this corner of the solar system, or way off in this corner of the Milky Way galaxy; in one of the billions of galaxies in the universe. And here I am. And yet, the God who created the entire universe is mindful of me. But not in the general sense, in a very particular sense.
Jesus said that God is so mindful of His creation that there is not a sparrow that falls to the ground but what God is not mindful of it. How much more you, His children? Jesus said He knows the very number of hairs of your head. God is mindful of intricate details about your life. Nothing escapes His attention. What is man? Who am I that God should be mindful of me? The son of man that God should take me into account? Man is nothing.
Man is like to [nothing,] vanity [or nothing, emptiness]: his days are as a shadow that passes away ( Psa 144:4 ).
Like the sundial that has gone down. Life is so short. I’m here for such a short time. Living a life of vanity. And yet, God is mindful of me. I’m important to Him.
Bow thy heavens, O LORD, and come down: touch the mountains, and they shall smoke. Cast forth lightning, and scatter them: shoot out your arrows, and destroy them. Send your hand from above; rid me, and deliver me out of the great waters, and from the hand of strange children; Whose mouth speak emptiness, and their right hand is a right hand of falsehood. I will sing a new song unto thee, O God: upon a psaltery and an instrument of ten strings will I sing praises unto thee. It is he that giveth salvation unto kings: who delivered David his servant from the hurtful sword. Rid me, and deliver me from the hand of strange children, whose mouth speaks emptiness, and their right hand is a right hand of falsehood: That our sons may be as plants grown up in their youth; that our daughters may be as corner stones, polished after the similitude of the palace: That our garners may be full ( Psa 144:5-13 ),
Now asking God to deliver from the hand of the enemy. To place His hand of blessing upon us that our sons might have the opportunity to grow up, that our daughters might be like polished corner stones, that our garners (shelves) might be full.
affording all manner of food; that our sheep may bring forth thousands and ten thousands in our streets: That our oxen may be strong to pull the plow; that there be no breaking in, nor going out; and there be no complaining in our streets. Happy is that people, who are in such a case: yes, happy is that people, whose God is Yahweh ( Psa 144:13-15 ). “
Fuente: Through the Bible Commentary
A Psalm of David. No doubt written after some great victory, and also before another severe struggle. The Christian man seldom escapes from one difficulty without falling into another. Thanks be unto God, he that is with us in six troubles will not forsake us in the seventh!
Psa 144:1. Blessed be the LORD my strength, which teacheth my hand to war, and my fingers to fight:
David does not ascribe any honour to himself. Human strength is from within, from the nerves, and sinews, and muscles, but the believers strength is from without: Blessed be Jehovah my strength. Now, if Jehovah be our strength, then nothing can be too difficult for us, for he whose strength is the omnipotence of God can do all things. Which teacheth my hands to war: just as the young soldier was, as it were, bound apprentice to the old warrior, went out to learn the drill, and afterwards was taken by him into the battle, so does the Lord by providence and by experience train his peoples hands to war, and their fingers to fight.
Psa 144:2. My goodness, and my fortress; my high tower, and my deliverer; my shield, and he in whom I trust;
Here are six names, or rather, five titles of God, and then an inference from them: He in whom I trust. Oh! I know, ye people of God, you can say of Jehovah, He is the One in whom I trust. Rely upon anyone else, and your hopes are doomed to disappointment, as a bowing wall shall he be, and as a tottering fence. Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his refuge! Mind that ye stand to this, and never depart from it.
Psa 144:2. Who subdueth my people under me.
Probably this Psalm was written after the crushing out of the great revolt under Absalom, and well might David ascribe to the divine hand his deliverance from that trial. It seemed as if the kingdom had gone from him; his ungrateful son had stolen the peoples hearts, and yet God was pleased to give him back his kingdom, and to set him upon his throne yet more firmly than before: Who subdueth my people under me. Christian, say that it is God who subdues your troubles, God who conquers your sins, God who enlightens your darkness, God who doeth all things for you; give him all the praise for every deliverance.
Psa 144:3. LORD, what is man, that thou takest knowledge of him! or the son of man, that thou makest account of him!
Have you not often felt like this? You have said, Lord, how couldst thou have bestowed such favors upon me, so utterly unworthy, so insignificant, so unknown, so worthless? What is man, that thou takest knowledge of him!
Psa 144:4. Man is like to vanity: his days are as a shadow that passeth away.
You know that a shadow is nothing; it is rather the absence of something than anything in itself. Shadow is the absence of light; and what is man but, as it were, the absence of light, the absence of anything that is substantial? He is but the fleeting shadow of some earthly object, which soon passes away. Having thus magnified God for the past, and marvelled at his loving-kindness, the psalmist now turns to prayer:
Psa 144:5. Bow thy heavens, O LORD, and come down: touch the mountains, and they shall smoke.
God did but set one foot upon Mount Sinai, and it became altogether on a smoke. The hills melted like wax at the presence of the Lord. Well, believer, you have many mountains; but you can ask God to touch the mountains, and they shall smoke. No matter what the mountains may be; high as the heavens your troubles may ascend, till they even seem to block up your pathway to the skies, yet one touch of the divine finger shall make them melt away, like wax before the fire, and you shall march on triumphantly to your God.
Psa 144:6-7. Cast forth lightning, and scatter them: shoot out thine arrows, and destroy them. Send thine hand from above; rid me, and deliver me out of great waters, from the hand of strange children;
Moses, you know, was called one drawn out of the water, so are all Gods people, they are drawn out of floods of tribulation. They are surrounded by those floods as though deserted, and left there to perish; but keen is the eye that watches over them, strong is the hand that preserves them, and sure is the arm that delivers them.
Psa 144:8. Whose mouth speaketh vanity, and their right hand is a right hand of falsehood.
They swear, but they perjure themselves; they lift up the right hand, but they lie all the while. Rid me, O God, from such men; for, of all enemies, those that can lie are the worst, for you never know where you are with such people. Snakes in the grass are the most dangerous reptiles and enemies who will do any evil thing in order to ruin you, and who will tell any lie in the world in order to injure you, are just the hardest to overthrow.
Psa 144:9-11. I will sing a new song unto thee, O God: upon a psaltery and an instrument of ten strings will I sing praises unto thee. It is he that giveth salvation unto kings: who delivereth David his servant from the hurtful sword. Rid me, and deliver me from the hand of strange children, whose mouth speaketh vanity, and their right hand is a right hand of falsehood:
You see, good men sometimes repeat their prayers; they present the same petition over again, and they thus follow the example of Christ, who prayed three times, saying the same words.
Psa 144:12. That our sons may be as plants grown up in their youth; that our daughters may be as corner stones, polished after the similitude of a palace:
Or, rather, of a temple. This should be the prayer of every parent, that his sons may be bringing forth fruit unto God, that his daughters may be fixed as polished stones in the Church of God, to form a part of the great spiritual temple.
Psa 144:13. That our garners may be full, affording all manner of store:
When this is the case spiritually, when there is milk for babes, meat for strong men, and not a little of each, but more than enough for all, then are we very happy. Spiritual fertility is a blessed thing, when each Christian, each of the Lords sheep, becomes prolific in increasing Christs flock.
Psa 144:14. That our oxen may be strong to labour;
That the ministers of God may be mighty; that Sabbath-school teachers, and all earnest labourers, may have strength given to them.
Psa 144:14. That there be no breaking in, nor going out;
That there be no wolves to destroy by breaking in; and that there be no sheep to suffer injury by going astray.
Psa 144:14-15. That there be no complaining in our street. Happy is that people, that is in such a case: yea, happy is that people, whose God is the LORD.
May this be our case! And if it is our case, then the Lord is our God even at this day.
Psa 144:13. That our sheep may bring forth thousands and ten thousands in our streets:
Spiritual fertility is a blessed thing, when each Christian, each of the Lords sheep, becomes prolific in increasing Christs flock.
Psa 144:14. That our oxen may be strong to labour:
That the ministers of God may be mighty; that Sabbath-school teachers, and all earnest labourers, may have strength given to them.
Psa 144:14. That there be no breaking in, nor going out;
That there be no wolves to destroy by breaking in; and that there be no sheep to suffer injury by going astray.
Psa 144:14-15. That there be no complaining in our streets. Happy is that people, that is in such a case: yea, happy is that people, whose God is the LORD.
May this be our case! And if that is our case, then the Lord is our God even at this day. Now let us read about two interesting incidents in Davids warrior life.
This exposition consisted of readings from Psalms 144, And 2Sa 5:17-25.
Fuente: Spurgeon’s Verse Expositions of the Bible
Psa 144:1-4
Psalms 144
THANKSGIVING FOR ISRAEL’S HAPPY AND PROSPEROUS MORNING`
This glorious hymn of thanksgiving came upon the realization of David and all Israel that “the morning” he had so earnestly prayed for in the preceding psalm (Psa 143:8) had indeed dawned. A united, happy Israel were enjoying great prosperity and peace following the defeat and death of Absalom. Upon the horizon of Israel’s future, there still appeared the external threat of foreign enemies; and the psalmist includes a prayer unto God for their defeat (Psa 144:5-8).
There is no doubt whatever of the Davidic authorship as stated in the superscription. We have lost all patience with unreasonable denials of this and with arbitrary dating of the psalm in “post-exilic times. The exuberant happiness and prosperity of this psalm absolutely forbid its assignment to times after the captivity. Never one time in those long post-exilic centuries did Israel enjoy the prosperity visible here.
We deplore the near-unanimous clamor of critics denying all of this last group of Davidic psalms to their true author. Such views might have been tenable in the first quarter of this century, prior to the torpedo that shot down the myth that Aramaisms are a sign of post-exilic date. However, after the discoveries of the Ras Shamra expedition have been well-known for half a century, here come the die-hard critics alleging late dates on the basis that, “The vocabulary contains Aramaic … elements.
“Nothing but the disease that closes the eyes to fact and opens them to fancy could have led learned critics to ascribe this psalm to anyone except David. What is that disease? In some instances, it might very well be the “darkening,” “hardening” or “blinding” mentioned by Paul in Romans 1.
AUTHORSHIP. Of course, we accept the Davidic authorship of Psalms 144, and shall here outline our reasons for doing so.
(1) The superscription so ascribes it; and the ancient superscriptions are at least as dependable as the speculative guesses of modern critics.
(2) Mitchell Dahood ascribed the language of this psalm, based upon technical observations, “To the tenth century B.C. Those, of course, were the times of David.
(3) The psalm is freely admitted to be “A Royal Psalm.” That fact alone eliminates the post-exilic period as a possible date, because Israel never had anything that even resembled a king following their return from exile.
(4) As noted above, the prosperity of Israel as revealed in the psalm, came not in the post-exilic period but in the days of the monarchy.
(5) In Psa 144:10, the psalmist refers to himself as “David”; and only one of Israel’s kings ever bore that name. Furthermore, the name “David” does not mean “some member of the Davidic dynasty.”
(6) In Psa 144:9, the psalmist promised to sing a new song, accompanying himself on a harp with ten strings. What other king in the whole history of Israel was either a singer or a proficient player on the harp? The silence of the critics on this point is deafening! Only David could have made such a promise.
(7) The style, language, thought-patterns, etc. are David’s and only his. The critical device for meeting this argument is their unsupported, unprovable and ridiculous postulation that “some imitator” carefully put together a “mosaic” of known Davidic sayings to produce this psalm. They realize, of course, that the psalm contains a great deal of new, original material found nowhere else. How do they get around that? Dummelow tells us how! Psa 144:12-15,” are supposed to be, “A quotation from a lost Psalm, possibly by David. The remarkable thing here is that the critics have no trouble at all ascribing that `lost psalm’ to David. Behold here the genius of criticism which boldly ascribes some psalm that was never seen, or never heard of, to David, but, contrary to all the evidence, insists that David is NOT the author here! We do not hesitate to say that that is ridiculous.
Every weapon in the arsenal of criticism is forced into action against this psalm. Briggs called it, “A composite, finding two separate compositions and a “fragment” (Psa 144:1-15). However, Spurgeon’s view on this is correct. He wrote, “The whole psalm is perfect as it stands. It exhibits such unity that it is literary vandalism as well as a spiritual crime to rend away one part from another.
Psa 144:1-4
“Blessed be Jehovah my rock,
Who teacheth my hands to war,
And my fingers to fight:
My lovingkindness, and my fortress;
My high tower, and my deliverer,
My shield, and he in whom I take refuge;
Who subdueth my people under me.
Jehovah, what is man, that thou takest knowledge of him?
Or the son of man, that thou makest account of him?
Man is like to vanity:
His days are as a shadow that passeth away.”
“My rock … lovingkindness … fortress … high tower … deliverer … shield … refuge” (Psa 144:1-2).. All of these metaphors for God are used frequently in the Davidic psalms, as we have often noted.
“Who teacheth … to war … to fight” (Psa 144:1). This acknowledges on David’s part that God had instructed and helped him in the long struggles that had brought him to the throne and preserved him through the rebellion of Absalom.
“Who subdueth my people under me” (Psa 144:2). This speaks of a period of tranquillity in the kingdom. The rebellion had been ruthlessly put down; its leaders were dead; its armies had been defeated with the slaughter of tens of thousands of them; and the people were then content to settle down and enjoy the prosperity of David’s kingship.
The whole paragraph here (Psa 144:1-4) was paraphrased by Delitzsch: “Praise be to Jahve who teaches me to fight and conquer (Psa 144:1-2), me, the feeble mortal who am strong only `in Him’ (Psa 144:3-4).
Baigent also has a beautiful word on this paragraph:
“Such martial skills and exploits as he (David) achieved are gratefully traced back to God, their only source. `Every virtue’ he possesses, and `every victory won’ are God’s alone. He is a kindred spirit of Paul, who wrote, `By the grace of God, I am what I am.’ (1Co 15:16).
“Psa 144:2 here has marked resemblances to Psa 18:2, but there are peculiar and original touches which indicate the author, and not the copyist.”
E.M. Zerr:
Psa 144:1. Blessed be the Lord denotes that all blessings were to be credited to him. Among those blessings was the instruction on how to wage successful and righteous warfare against such wicked foes as were threatening David.
Psa 144:2. This verse crowds in a goodly number of good things the Lord meant to David. My goodness really meant the goodness bestowed on the Psalmist, and the context indicates that it was the good mercy of God that David had in mind. A fortress is a fortified place equipped with the means of shelter and defense.
Psa 144:3. The language and thought of this verse is similar to that in Psa 8:4.
Psa 144:4. The frailty of man was what caused David to marvel at the honors that God had bestowed upon, him throughout the whole arrangement of creation.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
This is a song of triumphant assurance. Its placing at this point in the book suggests the invincible experience of trusting souls. In order to appreciate all its value, the nine psalms immediately preceding must be borne in mind. Five of them celebrate the sufficiency of God. These are followed by four which declare the utter helplessness of man. The present one immediately follows, and in it the two facts are present; but the Divine sufficiency is seen encompassing the human helplessness until it is so lost sight of as hardly to be discoverable.
The opening affirmations thrill with the singers confidence of ability in the might of Jehovah. There is a conflict, but fear is banished, because Jehovah teaches the hands to war and the fingers to fight; and He is all that the soul in conflict needs. This affirmation is followed by an exclamation of surprise that Jehovah so high, should take any account of man, who by comparison, is vanity. There is no shadow of doubt in the exclamation, for the song immediately becomes a prayer for the operation of Jehovahs might, for the rescue of the trusting soul. It then climbs to the higher level of praise in the new song of confidence which ends in a repetition of the prayer for rescue. Finally the singer describes the peace and prosperity of the people whose God is Jehovah.
Fuente: An Exposition on the Whole Bible
Gods People Are Happy
Psa 144:1-15
This psalm savors of the rocky caverns from which David and his men emerged to fight. Each day the chieftain asked God to teach him to fight, and realized that all his need would be met. The names he gives to God indicate that all-sidedness which becomes the complement of every conceivable necessity on our part.
What a striking conception opens in Psa 144:4! Saul was but a breath! r.v., margin. The persecuting bands were as the shadows that pass across the hills! From them all he appealed to God to bow the heavens and come, to touch the mountains, and to rescue him from the rising waters. And when the storm has passed he sings his new glad song, Psa 144:9. Psa 144:12-15 were probably added at a later time, when David was established in his kingdom. They describe a summer afternoon of prosperity, when sons have grown from plants to trees, and daughters resemble the carved figures which support the beams of a palace. No breaking in of the foe, no need to go forth to fight, no outcry of oppression or want; but the halcyon sunset of a well-spent life.
Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary
Psa 144:1
I am far from thinking that this sentence applies exclusively to what we designate spiritual conflicts. I should suppose that David, or whoever the writer of the Psalm was, gave thanks that he had been able to fight with the Philistines and the Ammonites. No one who had learned Jewish history by heart would attempt an artificial division between national wars and spiritual wars. The first supposed the last; the visible enemy was permitted to put forth his strength that the spiritual strength which was dormant might be called forth to withstand him. Man is made for battle. His inclination is to take his ease; it is God who will not let him sink into the slumber which he counts so pleasant, and which is so sure to end in a freezing death.
I. I have spoken of this thanksgiving as of universal application; there are some cases in which we shrink from using it, and yet in which we are taught by experience how much better we should be if we dared to use it in all its force and breadth. There are those who feel much more than others the power of that first enemy of which I have spoken. To withstand the lusts of the flesh, not to be completely overpowered by them, is with them, through constitution, or education, or indulgence, such an effort as their nearest friends may know nothing of. What help then may be drawn from the words, “Blessed be the Lord God, who has taught my hands to war, and my fingers to fight”!
II. Violent desires or passions remind us of their presence. The fashion of the world is hemming us in and holding us down without our knowing it. A web composed of invisible threads is enclosing us. It is not by some distinct influence that we are pressed, but by an atmosphere full of influences of the most mixed quality, hard to separate from each other. “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, who stirs the hands to war, and the fingers to fight,” for the Divine order which He has established, and not man. Blessed be that Lord God for not allowing His creature, His child, to lie buried under the weight of opinions, maxims, traditions, which is crushing him; for giving him visions of a city which has foundations, of which He is the Builder and Maker; for giving him the assurance that he may, and that he must, beat down all obstacles that hinder him from possessing its glorious privileges.
III. Least of all is there any natural energy in us to contend against that enemy who is described in Scripture as going about seeking whom he may devour. Is it not true that the time which boasts to have outlived the evil spirit is the one which is most directly exposed to his assaults? May it not be that our progress has brought us into a closer conflict with the spiritual wickedness in high places than our forefathers were ever engaged in? Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, who teacheth our hands to war, and our fingers to fight. Blessed be He for bringing us into immediate encounter with His own immediate enemies, that so we may know more than others did of His own immediate presence.
F. D. Maurice, Sermons, vol. i., p. 317.
References: Psa 144:4.-R. W. Evans, Parochial Sermons, vol. i., p. 162, and vol. ill., p. 133. Psa 144:5.-S. Baring-Gould, Village Preaching for a Year, vol. ii., p. 88.
Psa 144:12
I. These two figures express, in different ways, the notions of fixity and substance. Both plant and column are fixed and steady. The plant is fixed by its roots into the earth, the column fixed into the building. Life must be rooted in fixed belief in God and the way of reconciliation and fellowship with Him. This belief alone gives meaning, and purpose, and substance to life. It is great truths believed that nourish the soul.
II. Growth and permanence are both set forth in the text. Growth belongs just as necessarily to the conception of a plant as permanence does to that of a column. Growth of soul and spirit is the result of holding firmly to great central truths and drawing the very pith of them into the being. While man represents progress and woman permanence, the true ideal life includes both equally.
III. In the plant and the column we have represented individualism, separateness, independence, and, on the other hand, combination, unity, and mutual help and support.
IV. The text speaks of two different kinds of beauty: that of the plant, the beauty of nature; that of the sculptured column, the beauty of culture. We are reminded that all beauty of soul must be the result both of nature and cultivation. (1) That the soul may be beautiful, it must be a living soul, living by contact with the infinite, in fellowship with God. This is truly the beauty of nature, the deepest nature. (2) Think of the sculpturing of that stone. If the substance had had feeling, at what cost that beautiful form would have been obtained! Human souls are shaped into beauty often through great suffering and trial. Let us not forget that. But let us specially consider that we must wield the chisel and mallet on ourselves, strike off the evil, and seek that the ideal of our nature should come out.
J. Leckie, Sermons Preached at Ibrox, p. 178.
Psa 144:12
David is not praying that the youth of the land should have any abnormal precociousness, or should be in any way ahead of their years; but the picture before his mind is that of vigorous, healthful, upright, manly, and ingenuous youth: and he feels that this, if realised, would be the highest glory of the land. For the young men of his country he desired:-
I. A healthful frame; a strong, robust, vigorous physique. It has been said that as righteousness is the health of the soul, so health is the righteousness of the body.
II. A solid character. A quaint writer says, “If a man is to grow, he must grow like a tree; there must be nothing between him and heaven.” It is an old adage that knowledge is power, but it is still more true to say that character is power.
III. A hidden life. Each of you needs that which no human power can communicate, and without which the fairest religious profession is only a painted corpse. Personal and saving religion is no development from within, no product of moral evolution; it is something whose germ must be imparted to you by the Holy Spirit, and without which germ you are in the sight of God absolutely dead.
J. Thain Davidson, The City Youth, p. 239.
References: Psa 144:12.-W. Walters, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxi., p. 338. Psa 144:15.-F. W. Farrar, Ibid., vol. xix., p. 33; W. M. Arthur, Ibid., vol. xxvii., p. 200. Psa 145:1.-Preacher’s Monthly, vol. ii., p. 295. Psa 145:1, Psa 145:2.-Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxxii., No. 1902.
Fuente: The Sermon Bible
my strength: Heb. my rock, Psa 18:2, Psa 18:31, Psa 71:3, Psa 95:1, Deu 32:30, Deu 32:31, Isa 26:4, *marg. Isa 45:24
teacheth: Psa 18:34, Psa 44:3, Psa 44:4, Psa 60:12, 2Sa 22:35, 2Co 10:4, Eph 6:10, Eph 6:11
to war: or, to the war, etc.
Reciprocal: Gen 14:20 – blessed Deu 8:18 – he that Deu 20:4 – to fight 2Sa 8:6 – the Lord 2Sa 18:28 – Blessed 2Ki 13:16 – Elisha 1Ch 14:11 – God 1Ch 29:12 – give strength Psa 18:1 – I will Psa 18:29 – by thee Psa 33:20 – he is Psa 108:13 – Through Psa 138:7 – thou shalt stretch Isa 28:26 – For his God Jer 16:19 – my strength Eze 30:24 – I will Nah 1:7 – strong hold Zec 9:13 – made Zec 12:5 – The inhabitants Heb 11:33 – through
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
IF GOD BE FOR ME, WHO CAN BE AGAINST ME?
Blessed be the Lord my strength, which teacheth my hands to war, and my fingers to fight.
Psa 144:1
I am far from thinking that this sentence applies exclusively to what we designate spiritual conflicts. I should suppose whoever the writer of the Psalm was, gave thanks that he had been able to fight with the Philistines and the Ammonites. No one who had learned Jewish history by heart would attempt an artificial division between national wars and spiritual wars. The first supposed the last; the visible enemy was permitted to put forth his strength that the spiritual strength which was dormant might be called forth to withstand him. Man is made for battle. His inclination is to take his ease; it is God who will not let him sink into the slumber which he counts so pleasant, and which is so sure to end in a freezing death.
I. I have spoken of this thanksgiving as of universal application; there are some cases in which we shrink from using it, and yet in which we are taught by experience how much better we should be if we dared to use it in all its force and breadth. There are those who feel much more than others the power of that first enemy of which I have spoken. To withstand the lusts of the flesh is with them, through constitution, or education, or indulgence, such an effort as their nearest friends may know nothing of. What help then may be drawn from the words, Blessed be the Lord God, who has taught my hands to war, and my fingers to fight!
II. Violent desires or passions remind us of their presence.The fashion of the world is hemming us in and holding us down without our knowing it. A web composed of invisible threads is enclosing us. It is not by some distinct influence that we are pressed, but by an atmosphere full of influences of the most mixed quality, hard to separate from each other. Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, who stirs the hands to war, and the fingers to fight, for the Divine order which He has established, and not man. Blessed be that Lord God for not allowing His creature, His child, to lie buried under the weight of opinions, maxims, traditions, which is crushing him; for giving him visions of a city which has foundations, of which He is the Builder and Maker; for giving Him the assurance that he may, and that he must, beat down all obstacles that hinder him from possessing its glorious privileges.
III. Least of all is there any natural energy in us to contend against that enemy who is described in Scripture as going about seeking whom he may devour.Is it not true that the time which boasts to have outlived the evil spirit is the one which is most directly exposed to his assaults? May it not be that our progress has brought us into a closer conflict with the spiritual wickedness in high places than our forefathers were ever engaged in? Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, who teacheth our hands to war, and our fingers to fight. Blessed be He for bringing us into immediate encounter with His own immediate enemies, that so we may know more than others did of His own immediate presence.
Rev. F. D. Maurice.
Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary
The Helper of Israel.
[A psalm] of David.
{Verse 2 ‘peoples’: “Ammim is the reading of ninety-one Hebrew MSS. the Chaldee, Syriac, Arabic and Roman Vulgate and of the parallel passages, Psa 18:47; 2Sa 22:48.” (Coleman.)}
“God only” is still the moral of the psalm that follows. He is owned here as the sole Helper of Israel, in language much of which recalls to mind the eighteenth, but with five verses added which give the blessing of Israel now with God, and prepare the way for the praises of that which follows, and which ends the series. Man as before is put in the balance before God, and what is he? The answer is a very different one from that given in the eighth psalm; the stand-point being altogether different.
1. Israel is yet in conflict, but strong in God, and confident of the issue. Jehovah is their Rock and teaches their hands to war and their fingers to fight. He is the real Deliverer in whom they take refuge, and who subdues the peoples under them. Before Jehovah what is man, that He should make account of him? This is, of course, looking at him as the would-be thwarter of God’s purposes. Yet he is merely like a breath; his days are like a passing shadow.
2. God is besought, therefore, to come down and destroy their enemies, sending from heaven to deliver them from the hand of strangers, men speaking vanity and acting falsehood. Then would they sing a new song to Him; the giver of victory to kings (and not their own might), and rescuing David His servant from the hurtful sword. If this speak typically of any in the latter day, it is suggested by another that “it would be ‘the prince’ [of Eze 44:1-31; Eze 45:1-25; Eze 46:1-24]; for there will be a house of David on the earth” at that time (Zec 13:1-9). Messiah is of course the true Head; but the language seems more naturally to refer to a merely human ruler.
3. The psalm ends with describing the portion of Israel as the people of Jehovah, beginning with Jehovah’s intervention in power for them: righteously, because of the character of their enemies. This would bring them into the fullness of earthly blessing according to announcements of the law, but of which the law was incompetent to give them possession. “Happy the people in such a case -a people whose God is Jehovah.”
Fuente: Grant’s Numerical Bible Notes and Commentary
Psa 144:1-2. Blessed be the Lord my strength On whom I rely, and from whom I have power to withstand and subdue my enemies, and to perform the duties of my place and station; who teacheth my hands to war, &c. Who gives me that skill in military affairs, and that dexterity in the management of my weapons, which is much above my education and former course of life; my goodness Or, my mercy, or the God of my mercy, as God is called, Psa 59:10; Psa 59:17. He who is exceedingly good or merciful to me, as goodness itself; who subdueth the people under me Who disposes my peoples hearts to receive and obey me as their king. What David here acknowledges, with regard to his victories, and that skill or might by which they were obtained, should be likewise acknowledged by all earthly kings and generals in the day of battle and conquest.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
This, and the six following psalms, are all eucharistical, and seem to have been composed when Davids sorrows were changed to joys. He here praises God for past mercies, and asks grace for the future, with confidence that prosperity would crown the industry of a happy people with smiling affluence.
Psa 144:3. What is man, frail man. See the note on Psa 8:4.
Psa 144:9. Upon a psaltery, a little portable harp of sweet sound, generally used in psalmody.
Psa 144:12. Our sons as plants. A plantation of young and flourishing trees, for youth should be as trees that promise the growth and fruitfulness of a future age.Our daughters as corner-stones. As statues of illustrious persons, that adorn the angles and battlements of palaces and temples. He is a wise and happy prince, who does this for his subjects.
Psa 144:13. That our sheep may bring forth thousands and ten thousands in our streets. In many oriental towns, between the houses of the rich, there were the hovels of the poor, and farm houses where sheep were penned at night, for safety from the wolves.
REFLECTIONS.
David wrote this psalm on his accession to the throne. His first object and warmest wish was to thank the Lord, who of a poor shepherd had made him a general and a king. When the rich mercy and grace of God smile around the soul, his glory and perfections are heightened in their beauty, and the expanded heart is lost in gratitude and love.
Being surrounded with a belt of foes, Psalms 83., David entreats the Lord to bow his heavens, and go forth for Zion, as he came down with fire and with arrows, against the ancient foes. The allusion is to the Lords descent in a cloud on mount Sinai, where he overshadowed and defended his people.
After the victory he asks the covenant blessings which Moses had promised on their children, on their cattle, and on their lands. Deu 28:29. Happy indeed are the people who are in such a case, having the Lord for their God. Christ in like manner went forth against his foes, the Jews, on coming to the mediatorial throne; and so every believer should pray the Lord that every sentiment of this psalm may be written on his heart. Then he shall war against all his spiritual foes with confidence, and sing a new song to the Lord, who hath raised him up to sit in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.
Fuente: Sutcliffe’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
CXLIV. Ascribed by LXX and also by T. to David against Goliath, but without any shadow of reason.
Psa 144:1-11 is really a mosaic chiefly taken from Psalms 18, but also from Psalms 8, 33, 104. It is a song of anticipated triumph. The Psalmist is in conflict with foreign enemies (strangers (Psa 144:7) can only mean foreigners). God teaches his fingers to fight, for it is the fingers which grasp the bow and subdue peoples (not my people) under him. He prays that a display in storm and lightning may discomfit his foes. They can be bound by no treaty, for the right hand (Psa 144:8), which is raised in taking an oath, is false and treacherous. But the Psalmists triumph is secure. David (Psa 144:10) is an erroneous gloss on his servant.
Psa 144:12-15 is a Ps., or more probably the fragment of a Ps., describing the blessed lot of Yahwehs people. Observe that the blessing is wholly material. When (Psa 144:12) has in Heb. no intelligible meaning, and may have belonged to the original continuation of Psa 144:1-11. The daughters of the Jews in Psa 144:12 are compared, according to one interpretation with corner pillars carved after the fashion of a palace. But there is no authority for the rendering pillars, and it is unlikely that the Psalmist knew anything of Caryatides.
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
PSALM 144
The godly man comforts his soul in the thought of the greatness of the Lord in contrast to the frailty of men by whom he is opposed.
(vv. 1-2) The psalmist, in the presence of his enemies, finds comfort in the blessedness of the Lord, in whom he finds all his resource. The Lord is his strength in weakness; his teacher in conflict; his mercy in the presence of needs; his fortress for a refuge in the storm; his high tower from which to keep watch; his deliverer in trouble; and his shield for a defence; the One who will subdue the peoples (Grant) under him.
(vv. 3-4) Having contemplated the greatness of the Lord, the psalmist realizes the feebleness of man. What is man (Adam), or the son of man (Enosh) – man in all his frailty and feebleness, that the Lord should take account of him. He is but vanity, and his days as a shadow that pass away.
(vv. 5-8) Seeing the greatness of the Lord and the frailty of man, who dares to exalt himself against God, why should the judgment be delayed? Hence the psalmist beseeches the Lord to intervene in judgment upon the enemies of His people, and thus bring the godly out of their deep distress – the great waters, and deliver them from the power of strangers who are marked by corruption.
(vv. 9-10 Thus delivered, the godly will find a fresh occasion for praise to God who gives salvation, and rescues His servant from the sword.
(vv. 11-15) Thus rid of all their enemies the godly will reach the earthly blessing of millennial days, when men will be blessed in their children, and prospered in their circumstances. Complaints and discontent will no longer be heard amidst a people made happy in the acknowledgement of the Lord as their God.
Fuente: Smith’s Writings on 24 Books of the Bible
144:1 [[A Psalm] of David.] Blessed [be] the LORD my strength, which {a} teacheth my hands to war, [and] my fingers to fight:
(a) Who out of a poor shepherd has made a valiant warrior and mighty conqueror.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Psalms 144
This is a prayer that asks for deliverance during war. David praised God for granting victory in past battles and requested success in a present military encounter with an enemy. He was confident that God would save His people.
"This psalm is a mosaic, not a monolith; most of its material, short of the final verses, is drawn from other psalms of David, most substantially Psalms 18." [Note: Kidner, Psalms 73-150, p. 477.]
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
1. Rejoicing over the Victor 144:1-2
David began this prayer by praising God for training him to be a successful warrior and for granting him victories in the past. He used many synonyms to describe the Lord as his protector and deliverer.
"Egyptian reliefs picture gods teaching the king how to shoot a bow." [Note: The NET Bible note on 144:1.]
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
Psa 144:1-15
THE force of compilation could no further go than in this psalm, which is, in the first eleven verses (Psa 144:1-11)simply a rechauffe of known psalms, and in Psa 144:12-15 is most probably an extract from an unknown one of later date. The junctions are not effected with much skill, and the last is tacked on very awkwardly (Psa 144:12). It is completely unlike the former part, inasmuch as there the speaker is a warlike king praying for victory, while in the latter the nation sings of the tranquil blessings of peaceful expansion. The language of the later portion is full of late forms and obscurities. But the compilers course of thought is traceable. He begins by praising Jehovah, who has taught him warlike skill; then adoringly thinks of his own weakness, made strong by Gods condescending regard; next prays for complete victory, and vows fresh praises for new mercies; and closes with a picture of the prosperity which follows conquest, and is secured to Israel because Jehovah is its God.
Psa 144:1-2 are echoes of Psa 18:2; Psa 18:34; Psa 18:46, with slight variations. The remarkable epithet “My lovingkindness” offends some critics, who emend so as to read “My stronghold”; but it has a parallel in Jon 2:9, and is forcible as an emotional abbreviation of the fuller “God of my lovingkindness”. {Psa 59:10} The original passage reads “people,” which is the only appropriate word in this connection, and should probably be read in Psa 144:2 c.
Psa 8:1-9 supplies the original of Psa 144:3-4, with a reminiscence of Psa 39:5, and of Psa 102:11, from which comes the pathetic image of the fleeting shadow. The link between this and the former extract seems to be the recognition of Gods condescension in strengthening so weak and transient a creature for conflict and conquest.
The following prayer for further Divine help in further struggles is largely borrowed from the magnificent picture of a theophany in Psa 18:9; Psa 18:14-16. The energetic “Lighten lightning” is peculiar to this psalm, as is the use of the word for “Pluck out.” The description of the enemies as “sons of the alien” is like Psa 18:44-45. As in many other psalms, the treachery of the foe is signalised. They break their oaths. The right hand which they had lifted in swearing is a lying hand. The vow of new praise recalls Psa 33:2-3; Psa 96:1; Psa 98:1. Psa 144:10 is a reproduction of Psa 18:50. The mention of Davids deliverance from the “evil sword” has apparently been the reason for the LXX referring the psalm to the victory over Goliath an impossible view. The new song is not here sung; but the psalm drops from the level of praise to renew the petition for deliverance, in the manner of a refrain caught up in Psa 144:11 from Psa 144:7. This might make a well-rounded close, and may have originally been the end of the psalm.
The appended fragment (Psa 144:12-15) is attached to the preceding in a most embarrassing fashion. The first word of Psa 144:12 is the sign of the relative. The LXX accordingly translates “Whose sons are,” etc., and understands the whole as a description of the prosperity of the enemies, which view necessarily involves the alteration of “our” into “their” in the following clauses. Others supply an antecedent to the relative by inserting save us or the like expression at the beginning of the verse. Others, again-e.g., Ewald, followed by Perowne-connect the relative with Psa 144:15 : “We whose sons are,” etc “Happy is the people,” etc. Delitzsch takes the relative to signify here “because,” and compares Jdg 9:17; Jer 16:13. The prosperity subsequently described would then be alleged as the occasion of the enemies envy. Others would slightly emend the text so as to read, “I pronounce happy,” or “Happy are we.” The latter, which makes all smooth, and corresponds with Psa 144:15, is Graetzs proposal. The rendering of the A.V. “that” or “in order that,” has much in its favour. The word which is the sign of the relative is a component of the full expression usually so rendered, and stands alone as equivalent to it in Deu 4:40, Gen 11:7. It is true, as Delitzsch objects to this rendering that the following verbs are usually finite, while here they are participles; but that is not a fatal objection. The whole that follows would then be dependent on the petition of Psa 144:11, and would describe the purpose of the desired deliverance. “This is, in fact, the poets meaning. He prays for deliverance from enemies, in order that the happy condition pictured in Psa 144:12 sqq. may come to pass” (Baethgen). On the whole, that rendering presents least difficulty, but in any case the seam is clumsy.
The substance of the description includes three things-a vigorous, growing population, agricultural prosperity, and freedom from invasion. The language is obscure, especially in Psa 144:14, but the general drift is plain. The characteristic Jewish blessing of numerous offspring is first touched on in two figures, of which the former is forcible and obvious, and the latter obscure. The comparison of the virgin daughters of Israel to “corners” is best understood by taking the word to mean “corner pillars,” not necessarily caryatides, as is usually supposed-an architectural decoration unknown in the East. The points of comparison would then be slender uprightness and firm grace. Delitzsch prefers to take the word as meaning cornices, such as, to the present day, are found in the angles of Eastern rooms, and are elaborately carved in mazy patterns and brightly coloured. He would also render “variegated” instead of “carved.” But such a comparison puts too much stress on gay dresses, and too little on qualities corresponding to those of the “well-grown” youths in the former clause.
The description of a flourishing rural community is full of difficult words. “Granaries” is found only here, and “kind” is a late word. “Fields” is the same word as is usually rendered “streets”; it literally means “places outside,” and here obviously must refer to the open pastures without the city, in contrast to the “open spaces” within it, mentioned in the next verse. In that verse almost every word is doubtful. That rendered “kine” is masculine in form, but is generally taken as being applicable to both sexes, and here used for the milky mothers of the herd. The word translated above “heavy with young” means laden, and if the accompanying noun is masculine, must mean laden with the harvest sheaves; but the parallel of the increasing flocks suggests the other rendering. The remainder of Psa 144:14 would in form make a complete verse, and it is possible that something has fallen out between the first clause and the two latter. These paint tranquil city life when enemies are far away. “No breach”-i.e., in the defences by which besiegers could enter; “No going forth”-i.e., sally of the besieged, as seems most probable, though going forth as captured or surrendering has been suggested; “No cry”-i.e., of assailants who have forced an entrance, and of defenders who make their last stand in the open places of the city.
The last verse sums up all the preceding picture of growth, prosperity, and tranquillity, and traces it to the guardian care and blessing of Jehovah. The psalmist may seem to have been setting too much store by outward prosperity. His last word not only points to the one Source of it, but sets high above the material consequences of Gods favour, joyous as these are, that favour itself, as the climax of human blessedness.