Christianity
Psalms 144Who Teacheth My Hands to War
Summary
Psalm 144, attributed to David, is a royal psalm that blesses the LORD as rock, fortress and shield, who trains the king's hands for battle. It pauses to ask what man is that God should take notice of him, since human life is like vanity and a passing shadow. It asks God to bow the heavens and rescue the king from strange children with lying mouths, and ends with a picture of thriving sons, daughters, barns and flocks: happy is the people whose God is the LORD.
Key verse
“Happy is that people, that is in such a case: yea, happy is that people, whose God is the LORD.”
Psalms 144:15
Themes
- God as Fortress
- Human Frailty
- Deliverance of the King
- A Blessed Nation
Text
Blessed be the LORD my strength, which teacheth my hands to war, and my fingers to fight:
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.
LORD, 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.
Bow thy heavens, O LORD, and come down: touch the mountains, and they shall smoke.
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;
Whose mouth speaketh vanity, 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 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:
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:
That our garners may be full, affording all manner of store: that our sheep may bring forth thousands and ten thousands in our streets:
That our oxen may be strong to labour; that there be no breaking in, nor going out; 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.
Text: King James Version (1611/1769), public domain.
Across traditions
Christianity
Psalm 18: The LORD Is My RockMuch of Psalm 144:1 to 11 reworks lines from Psalm 18, David's song of victory, including the images of rock, fortress, shield and bowed heavens.
Christianity
Psalm 8: What Is Man?Psalm 144:3 asks what man is that God takes knowledge of him, a question also posed in Psalm 8:4, though Psalm 8 answers with human glory and Psalm 144 with human frailty.
Judaism
Psalm 144 in the JPS 1917 TanakhThe final verse of Psalm 144, on the happiness of the people whose God is the LORD, is the second line of the Ashrei prayer, recited before Psalm 145.
Questions about Psalms 144
What does 'man is like to vanity' mean in Psalm 144?
Psalm 144:4 compares human life to a breath and a shadow that passes away. The point is not worthlessness but brevity, which makes God's attention to humans all the more remarkable.
Who are the 'strange children' in Psalm 144?
Psalm 144:7 and 11 use the phrase for foreigners or hostile outsiders whose mouths speak vanity and whose oaths are false. The king asks to be rescued from their power.