Bible Commentaries
Psalms 144

Introduction

Thanks be to the Lord, my helper in all trouble, Psalms 144:1-2; thanks, that he should have so regarded a poor mortal, Psalms 144:3-4; Lord, manifest thyself to me now as a helper in trouble by giving deliverance from the wicked, my enemies, Psalms 144:5-8. I thank thee for the help, which is certified to me through faith, Psalms 144:9-10. Nay, deliver thou me from the hand of the sons of strangers, and let thy blessing return to rest on thy people, Psalms 144:11-12, Psalms 144:13-14. An epiphonem forms the close in Psalms 144:15.

The Psalm is ruled by the numbers ten and seven. Ten verses complete the first part of the whole, which falls into two divisions. This contains, in Psalms 144:1-2, ten predicates of God, three and seven, the last divided by four and three. In like manner, ten requests to God in Psalms 144:5-7, divided precisely as the predicates. To this significance of the number ten for the first part, allusion is pointedly made in Psalms 144:9.

The whole contains, apart from the epiphonem, which, as usual, stands outside the formal arrangement, seven strophes, each of two verses. Seven blessings are prayed for in the second part, four in Psalms 144:12-13 (valiant sons, beautiful daughters, full store-houses, numerous flocks), and three in Psalms 144:14 (labouring oxen, no breach and diminution, no cry).

The number of the names of God, Jehovah four times and Elohim once, corresponds to the number of verses in the second part (the Elohim for the epiphonem), and the strophe of the first part.

In unison with the superscription, David comes forth speaking, comp. especially Psalms 144:2, which alone suffices to dispose of the supposition, that Israel is the speaker here; and the declaration: who constrains my people under me, cannot, without great violence, be brought into accordance with that supposition. David, as the author, appropriates also from Psalms 18. It is an arbitrary supposition, that here a transference is made to Israel of what was then said originally of David. The confirmation which the superscription here derives from the contents, comes also in support of the whole cycle, to which the Psalm belongs. An objection has been brought against the Davidic authorship from the “traces of reading” it contains. But one would require to consider more exactly, what sort of reading is here to be thought of. It is only the Psalms of David which form the groundwork of this. But that it is one of David’s peculiarities to derive from his earlier productions a foundation for new ones, is evident from a variety of facts (comp. Introd. to Psalms 108), which, if any doubt might still be entertained on the subject, would obtain a firm ground to stand upon in this Psalm, which can only have been composed by David. Then the way and manner of the use made of such materials is to be kept in view. This is always of a spirited and feeling nature, and no trace anywhere exists of a dead borrowing. That we cannot think here of such an one, that the appropriation of the earlier did not proceed from spiritual impotence, but rests upon deeper grounds, is manifest from the consideration of the second part, where the dependance entirely ceases, and where even the opponents of the Davidic authorship have not been able to overlook the strong poetical spirit of the time of David. They betake to the miserable shift of affirming, that the Psalmist had borrowed this part from a much older poem now lost.

The situation is that of an oppression through mighty external enemies. As this Psalm rests upon Psalms 18, which was composed by David toward the end of his life, after he had obtained deliverance from all the perils of war, it cannot be referred to the personal relations of David; David rather transports himself here, as in the whole of the cycle, into the future of his race.

This Psalm forms the transition front the two prayer-Psalms, Psalms 142, Psalms 143, to the song of praise, Psalms 145. The cloud of adversity begins already to disperse, and the sun of salvation is on the eve of breaking forth. Psalms 144:9-10 show that the Psalmist already stands on the threshold of praise and thanksgiving. The cry from the deep has ceased; at the very commencement, the exclamation, “Let the Lord be praised,” etc. breathes the spirit of victory, and leads on to the: “I will praise thy name,” in Psalms 114.

Verses 1-10

Ver. 1. Of David. Praised be the Lord, my rock, who instructs my hands for battle, and my fingers for war. Ver. 2. My kindness and my fortress, my strong tower and my deliverer to me, my shield and on whom I trust, who constrains my people under me. Ver. 3. Lord, what is man, that thou takest knowledge of him, the son, of the mortal, that thou regardest him! Ver. 4. Man is like to vanity, his days are as a flying shadow. Ver. 5. Lord, bend thy heavens and come down: touch the mountains, that they may smoke. Ver. 6 Lighten with lightning, and scatter them, send forth thine arrows and confound them. Ver. 7. Stretch out thy hand from the height, redeem me, and deliver me from many waters, from the hand of the sons of the stranger. Ver. 8. Whose mouth speaks deceit, and whose right hand is a right hand of lies. Ver. 9. God, a new song will I sing to thee, upon the psaltery of ten strings will I play to thee. Ver. 10. Who gives salvation to kings, who redeems David his servant from the hurtful sword.

The words: Praised be my rock, Psalms 144:1, is taken from Psalms 18:46, comp. Psalms 144:2; the second member rests on Psalms 18:34. There the subject is not David as an individual, but the whole seed of David. Accordingly, we must here also translate, not instruct, but only instructs. In Psalms 144:1-2 the Psalmist lays a firm and solid foundation by pointing to the relation in which he stands to his God. On this, after he has celebrated in Psalms 144:3-4 the depth of the divine condescension, he grounds, in Psalms 144:5, the prayer, that he might act agreeably to that relation, as it had partly been confirmed by past experience, and partly by the promise in 2 Samuel 7, that he might beat down his enemies.

The Psalmist calls God, in Psalms 144:2, his kindness, because he was nothing but kindness toward him; comp.: my kindness-God, for my gracious God, in Psalms 59:17. The five following predicates, and therefore the half of the ten predicates in Psalms 144:1-2, are taken from Psalms 18:2, where the predicates of God, in like manner, as in this verse, are completed in the number seven. To מפלטי there is here, precisely as in the text in 2 Sam., added לי . The expression: and on whom I trust, is abbreviated from: my God is my rock, in whom I trust, which is found there. The designations of God, in Psalms 18:2, contain not only the expression of thanks for the past, but also that of hope for the future; they mark a standing relation, out of which the future salvation must, with like necessity, proceed, as the past had already done; hence we must explain here, not: the Lord was, but only: the Lord is. David had this great advantage, that what, had already been accomplished, had been in no respect obtained by his own power and prudence, but only through the help of God. And it was in this that the vitality of his hope respecting the future destiny of his race rooted itself. The last member rests on Psalms 18:43, “Thou deliverest me from the strivings of the people,” where in 2 Sam. we have my people, and, in Psalms 18:48, “and constrains peoples under me.” The עמי , my people, rendered certain by 2 Sam. only presents a difficulty when the Davidic composition is denied, and the idea is carried through at all hazards, that Israel speaks in the Psalm. In that case also, it is necessary to resort to the unfortunate supposition of a “rare plural form” (comp. on the contrary at Psalms 45:8), or of an error in the text. The reference to both passages at the same time shows, that here by the people of David his subjects generally are to be understood (comp. Psalms 2, where it is described, how God constrains the people of the anointed under him.) To the people of David belongs also, according to Psalms 18, a wide heathen territory; and that we are here to think pre-eminently of this, is manifest from the circumstance that the sentence before us forms the foundation for the subsequent prayer for victory in respect to “the sons of the stranger.”

The relation of Psalms 144:3-4 to Psalms 144:1-2, was already quite correctly and profoundly discerned by Calvin; while more recent expositors with their interpretation: “God be praised, who helps me—man without God is helpless” (where is this found?) have entirely missed the right view. David, after having declared what God was to him, considers, after the example of Jacob: Lord, I am too little for all thy loving-kindness, &c., what he himself is, and while he brings into view his own nothingness, and that of mankind generally, the adorable greatness of the divine grace first comes prominently into its proper light, and he can with full inwardness embrace it in his heart. Humility is the mother of confidence. That this view is the correct one, is plain from the original passage, Psalms 8:5, and from the beginning of David’s prayer in 2 Samuel 7 : “Who am I, Lord God, and what my house, that thou hast brought me so far; and that is still too little to thee, Lord God, and thou hast spoken to the house of thy servant for a long time yet to come, and thus thou dealest with the man, Lord God.” To know, is q. d., to take notice. For the first member of Psalms 144:4, comp. Psalms 62:9, Psalms 39:5-6; and for the second, Psalms 103:15, Psalms 102:11. He, whose being is confined within such narrow limits, cannot be anything great and glorious, he cannot have anything which could make him worthy of the divine favour and loving-kindness.

What the Lord is for David, that it behoves him now to prove by fact; hence the prayer in the two strophes, Psalms 144:5-6, and Psalms 144:7-8. The first member of Psalms 144:5 rests upon Psalms 18:9: “And he bowed the heavens and came down.” The preterite there lays an excellent foundation for the imperative here. What the Lord had once done for him during the persecution from Saul, formed a pledge for what he here prays the Lord still to perform. In reference to the second member, comp. on the dependant passage, Psalms 104:32. The mountains are here also brought into notice as the symbol of kingdoms.

Psalms 144:6 rests on Psalms 18:11: “and he sent out his arrows and scattered them, lightnings (here, the singular as in Sam.; the Psalmist has throughout both texts before him, which may also be regarded as a proof, that both must have proceeded from David), much, and confounded them.” The allusion rests also here upon the consideration, that all God’s acts are prophecies. The verb ברק occurring only here, was probably formed for the occasion.

Psalms 144:7 rests on Psalms 18:16: “He sends from the height, takes me, draws me out of many waters.” Peculiar here is the: thy hands, and the פצה , elsewhere to open, here in the rare sig. of setting free, which is elsewhere found only in the dialects. The sons of the stranger, is an expression taken from Psalms 18:44-45.

On the first member of Psalms 144:8, comp. Psalms 12:2, Psalms 41:6. By the right hand every one thinks primarily, not of an oath, but of shaking hands, 2 Kings 10:15, and to this points also here the parallel passage, as the deceit of the mouth, mentioned there, also consists in false assurances of friendship. We may compare: “the sons of the stranger feign to me,” in Psalms 18:44, conceal their hatred under the appearance of love. This representation of the character of the sons of the stranger rests upon many personal experiences through which David had passed.

Psalms 144:9 rests on Psalms 33:2-3: “Sing praise to him on the psaltery with ten strings. Sing to him a new song.” The new song must here be a song of thanksgiving to the Lord for the new manifestations of favour which David had already received in faith: the church of God, which in faith anticipates the future, possesses the great privilege of being able to thank God even before the benefit has been actually received, and to celebrate his praise, comp. on Psalms 75. Everywhere, when a new song is spoken of, the song itself is meant in which the expression is found. And so here also the new song is primarily our Psalm, which begins at the very outset with “God be praised,” and is full of triumphant confidence; so that, behind the prayer, thanksgiving everywhere discovers itself; and in the last strophe it comes freely out. But the continuation and completion of the new song is given in Psalms 145. The mention of the psaltery of ten strings—comp. on Psalms 33—contains an allusion to the formal arrangement of the Psalm: on every string a verse.

The words: thou who givest salvation to kings, Psalms 144:10, signify, in accordance with 33:16, “a king is not helped by his great might,” that it is from God, not from their own power, that all the salvation flows which is experienced by kings. It forms the preparation for the second member: thou who, since it is from thee that all salvation comes which is obtained by kings, the supposed gods of the earth, &c. We must not translate with the Vulgate: thou who hast redeemed, but only: thou who redeemest. The redemption is a continued one, comp. Psalms 144:1-2; and here it is spoken of in reference to a still future preservation; פצה alludes to the פצני in Psalms 144:7 and Psalms 144:11. Already, on account of the parallel נותן , the participle can only indicate the present. That the phrase: David his servant, stands for me his servant, is abundantly manifest from the: of David, in the superscription, and from Psalms 144:1-2, according to which no other than David speaks here. The Psalmist expresses his name David, so that it might be clear from the first that the song composed by him, according to the superscription, also spoke of him. Precisely in the same manner does David speak of himself in the third person in Psalms 61:6, Psalms 63:11, and especially in Psalms 18:50, 2 Samuel 7:26. The expression: his servant, joins on to Psalms 143:2, Psalms 143:12, and contains the ground of the deliverance. In regard to the sword, comp. on Psalms 22:20.

Verses 11-15

Ver. 11. Redeem me and deliver me from the hand of the sons of the stranger, whose mouth speaks deceit, and whose right hand is a right hand of lies. Ver. 12. That our sons may be as plants, vigorously shooting up in their youth, our daughters like projectures, hewn as a palace. Ver. 13. That our garners may be full, supplying one kind after another, our sheep increased to thousands, to ten thousands in our streets. Ver. 14. That our yoke-oxen may be loaded, no breaking and no loss, and no cry in our streets. Ver. 15. Happy the people with whom it goes thus, happy the people of whom the Lord is its God.

The beginning of the second strophe, Psalms 144:11, is from Psalms 114:7-8. The אשר in Psalms 144:12, in the sig. of so that, comp. Deuteronomy 4:40, Ew. § 327, a. Hence, everything which is mentioned in this and the next verse, must be regarded as a consequence of the deliverance from the enemies, in Psalms 144:11. In times of war there are pale countenances and emaciated forms, sickly and dying children. Remarks, such as those of Amyrald, “All these things are to be chiefly referred by Christians to spiritual blessings,” have truth in them, but would have found little response in such periods as those of the thirty years’ war. A false spiritualism has led various expositors of name into the monstrous supposition, that Psalms 144:12-14 form a discourse of worldly-minded strangers! That the comparison with plants refers to the fresh vigorous increase, appears from מגדלים , not educati, but made, or become great, powerful. As this refers to the sons, so must מחטבות refer to the daughters, not to the corners—comp. the זָ?וִ?ית in Zechariah 9:15 (falsely some: corner pillars); hewn = as hewn. The comparison indicates the beauty. Palace is the general, corners the particular: after the fashion (comp. the תבנית in Psalms 106:20) of a beautiful palace with its fine projectures, the shining points of its beauty. The comparison is of the simplest kind possible.—זן in Psalms 144:13, kind, sort.—סבל in Psalms 144:14 always means to bear, therefore in Pi., to make to bear, to load, in Pü. to be laden. Oxen were not only used for ploughing, thrashing, and drawing, but also for bearing burdens, comp. 1 Chronicles 12:40, which passage is peculiarly fitted to throw light on the verse before us. Laden oxen presuppose a rich abundance of produce. The exposition: that our cattle may be prolific, vanishes before the one consideration, that אלוף does not signify oxen or cattle in general, but only taught oxen. The rendering: that our princes might be upright, is quite arbitrary. Along with the sheep oxen are very fitly named, as in Psalms 8, but not princes; nor does אלוף mean prince in general, but it is the peculiar designation of the Edomite princes, and occurs only in Zechariah, when the language had become dead, catachrestically in a general signification, Zechariah 9:7, Zechariah 12:5-6—see Christol. there; the meaning of standing upright is taken from the air. What is said positively in the first member: All abundance and fulness, is said negatively in the second: no disastrous loss. פרץ is never used of breaking in, but always of breaking, or breach in the passive sense, also in Job 16:14. Here, as in Judges 21:15, 2 Samuel 6:8, breaking, rent, is = hurt; Geier: infortunium quo felicitatis nostrae integritas laceratur. Nothing going out, is, according to the connection with פרץ , with which it forms a member, and according to the following, as much as, no diminution or loss. It is not allowable to supply a definite noun to it. No cry, over breach and diminution, comp. Isaiah 24:11: “There is a cry over the (failing) wine on the streets.”

The Epiphonem in Psalms 144:15 rests upon Psalms 33:12. The relation of both members to each other, which is quite missed by Luther, who shoves in a but at the beginning of the second, is clear when one supplies at the end: for to those, with whom it thus goes well, though it may be through many tribulations, there shall be a blessed state at last. Ven.: “There is subjoined a celebration of the blessedness of a people rejoicing in these benefits, and, at the same time, the fountainhead of this felicity is indicated.”