Study

a Bible passage

Click a verse to see commentary
Select a resource above

Psalm 144

Prayer for National Deliverance and Security

Of David.

1

Blessed be the L ord, my rock,

who trains my hands for war, and my fingers for battle;

2

my rock and my fortress,

my stronghold and my deliverer,

my shield, in whom I take refuge,

who subdues the peoples under me.

 

3

O L ord, what are human beings that you regard them,

or mortals that you think of them?

4

They are like a breath;

their days are like a passing shadow.

 

5

Bow your heavens, O L ord, and come down;

touch the mountains so that they smoke.

6

Make the lightning flash and scatter them;

send out your arrows and rout them.

7

Stretch out your hand from on high;

set me free and rescue me from the mighty waters,

from the hand of aliens,

8

whose mouths speak lies,

and whose right hands are false.

 

9

I will sing a new song to you, O God;

upon a ten-stringed harp I will play to you,

10

the one who gives victory to kings,

who rescues his servant David.

11

Rescue me from the cruel sword,

and deliver me from the hand of aliens,

whose mouths speak lies,

and whose right hands are false.

 

12

May our sons in their youth

be like plants full grown,

our daughters like corner pillars,

cut for the building of a palace.

13

May our barns be filled,

with produce of every kind;

may our sheep increase by thousands,

by tens of thousands in our fields,

14

and may our cattle be heavy with young.

May there be no breach in the walls, no exile,

and no cry of distress in our streets.

 

15

Happy are the people to whom such blessings fall;

happy are the people whose God is the L ord.


15. Happy the people, etc. He thus concludes that the divine favor had been sufficiently shown and manifested to his people. Should any object that it breathed altogether a gross and worldly spirit to estimate man’s happiness by benefits of a transitory description, I would say in reply that we must read the two things in connection, that those are happy who recognize the favor of God in the abundance they enjoy, and have such a sense of it from these transitory blessings as leads them through a persuasion of his fatherly love to aspire after the true inheritance. There is no impropriety in calling those happy whom God blesses in this world, provided they do not show themselves blinded in the improvement and use which they make of their mercies, or foolishly and supinely overlook the author of them. The kind providence of God in not suffering us to want any of the means of life is surely a striking illustration of his wonderful love. What more desirable than to be the objects of God’s care, especially if we have sufficient understanding to conclude from the liberality with which he supports us he is our Father? For everything is to be viewed with a reference to this point. Better it were at once to perish for want than have a mere brute satisfaction, and forget the main thing of all, that they and they only are happy whom God has chosen for his people. We are to observe this, that while God in giving us meat and drink admits us to the enjoyment of a certain measure of happiness, it does not follow that those believers are miserable who struggle through life in want and poverty, for this want, whatever it be, God can counterbalance by better consolations.


VIEWNAME is study