Psalm 144
144:1. Blessed be the LORD my strength. He bursts at once into a loud note of praise. When the heart is in a right state it must praise God. We ought not to receive strength to resist evil, to defend truth, and to conquer error without knowing who gave it to us, and rendering to him the glory. God is full of power, and he becomes the power of those who trust him. It may be read “My Rock,” but this hardly so well consorts with the following words: Which teacheth my hands to war, and my fingers to fight. The word “rock” is the Hebrew way of expressing strength. If we have strength we are not much the better unless we have skill also. Untrained force is often an injury to the possessor, and even becomes a danger to those round about, and therefore the psalmist blesses the Lord as much for teaching as for strength. Let us also bless Jehovah if he has in anything made us efficient. The instruction mentioned was not so much of the brain as of the hands and fingers. People with little scholastic education should be grateful for deftness and skill in their handicrafts. To a fighting man the education of the hands is of far more value than mere book-learning. People are too apt to fancy that a worker’s efficiency is to be ascribed to himself, but this is a popular fallacy. A clergyman may be supposed to be taught of God, but people do not allow this to be true of weavers or workers in brass; yet these callings are specially mentioned in the Bible as having been taught to holy women and earnest men when the tabernacle was set up. All wisdom and skill are from the Lord. David was eminently successful in his battles; he does not trace this to his good generalship or valor, but to his being taught and strengthened for the war. If the Lord deigns to have a hand in such unspiritual work as fighting, surely he will help us to proclaim the Gospel and win souls.
Jehovah is now his strength, and is still teaching him; we ought to make a point of presenting praise while yet the blessing is on the wing. The verse is also preeminently practical. Some of us who are grievously tormented with rheumatism might cry, “Blessed be the Lord, my Comforter, who teaches my knees to bear in patience, and my feet to endure in resignation.” Others who are on the look-out to help young converts might say, “Blessed be God who teaches my eyes to see wounded souls, and my lips to cheer them.” David has his own especial help from God, and praises him accordingly. This tends to make the harmony of heaven perfect when all the singers take their parts; if we all followed the same score, the music would not be so full and rich.
144:2. My goodness, and my fortress. The word for goodness signifies “mercy.” It is all of mercy that God is any of the other good things to us, so that this is a highly comprehensive title. So is he himself also our fortress and safe abode: we cannot be driven out, or starved out, for our fortress is prepared for a siege.
My high tower, and my deliverer. As from a lofty watch-tower the believer, trusting in the Lord, looks down upon his enemies. He is out of bow-shot; he dwells on high. Jehovah is our Deliverer as well. These different figures set forth the varied benefits which come to us from our Lord. He is every good thing which we can need for this world or the next. He not only places us out of harm’s way full often, but when we must be exposed, he comes to our rescue.
My shield, and he in whom I trust. The believer opposes the Lord to the blows of the enemy, and finds himself secure.
Who subdueth my people under me. People who rule others should thank God if they succeed in the task. The victories of peace are as much worthy of joyful gratitude as the victories of war. Leaders in the Christian church cannot maintain their position except as the Lord preserves to them the mighty influence which insures obedience and evokes enthusiastic loyalty. For every particle of influence for good which we may possess let us magnify the name of the Lord.
144:3. LORD, what is man, that thou takest knowledge of him! The psalmist turns from the glorious all-sufficiency of God to the insignificance and nothingness of man. Man is too feeble and too fickle to be relied upon. The psalmist’s wonder is that God should stoop to know him. God knows his people with a tender intimacy, a constant, careful observation: he foreknew them in love, he knows them by care, he will know them in acceptance at last.
Or the son of man, that thou makest account of him! The son of man is a weaker being still—so the original word implies. He is not so much man as God made him, but man as his mother bore him. The Lord thinks much of man, and in connection with redeeming love makes a great figure of him: this can be believed, but it cannot be explained. It is meet for us to be humble and to distrust ourselves, but all this should make us the more grateful to the Lord, who knows man better than we do, and yet communes with him, and even dwells in him. If God makes account of man it is not for us to despise our own kind.
144:4. Man is like to vanity. He is actually vain, and resembles a puff, a bubble. Yet he is not vanity, but only like it. He is not so substantial as that unreal thing.
His days are as a shadow that passeth away. He is short-lived; his life is only like to a shadow, which is a vague resemblance, an absence of something rather than in itself an existence. Human life is not only as a shade, but as a shade which is about to depart. It is a mere mirage. How is it that the Eternal should make so much of mortal man, who begins to die as soon as he begins to live?
144:5. Bow thy heavens, O LORD, and come down. The Lord has often done this, and never more fully than when in Bethlehem the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. He never refuses to come down to defend his chosen ones.
Touch the mountains, and they shall smoke. It was so when the Lord appeared on Sinai. If Jehovah appeared, nothing could stand before him; all mortal power which is opposed to the Lord must end in smoke.
144:6. Cast forth lightning, and scatter them. The artillery of heaven soon puts the enemy to flight: a single bolt sets the armies running hither and thither in utter rout. Shoot out thine arrows, and destroy them. It was no common faith which led the poet-king to expect the Lord to use his thunderbolts on behalf of a single member of that race which he had just now described as “like to vanity.” A believer in God may without presumption expect the Almighty Lord to use on his behalf all the stores of his wisdom and power. When we have once mastered the greater difficulty of the Lord’s taking any interest in us, it is but a small thing that we should expect him to exert his great power on our behalf.
144:7. Send thine hand from above. Let thy long and strong arm be stretched out till thine hand seizes my foes, and delivers me from them.
Rid me, and deliver me out of great waters. Make a Moses of me—one drawn out of the waters. My foes pour in upon me like torrents; they threaten to overwhelm me. save me from their force and fury; take them from me, and me from them.
From the hand of strange children. From foreigners of every race, people strange to me and thee, who therefore must work evil to me, and rebellion against thyself. Those against whom he pleaded were out of covenant with God; they were Philistines and Edomites, or else people of his own nation of black heart and traitorous spirit. Oh to be delivered from deceptive lips and false hearts! No wonder these words are repeated, for they are the frequent cry of many a tried child of God—Rid me and deliver me. The devil’s children are strange to us: we can never agree with them, and we are despised by them. O Lord, deliver us from the evil one, and from all who are of his race.
144:8. Whose mouth speaketh vanity. They cannot be depended upon; their solemn declarations are as light as the foam of the sea. Of all people deceivers and liars are among the most disgusting to true hearts.
And their right hand is a right hand of falsehood. They act as falsely as they speak. It is a dreadful thing when a person’s expertness dwells more in lies than in truth.
144:9. I will sing a new song unto thee, O God. Weary of the false, I will adore the true. Fired with fresh enthusiasm, my gratitude will make a new channel for itself. I will sing as others have done; but it will be a new song, such as no others have sung. I will extol none but the Lord, from whom my deliverance has come.
Upon a psaltery and an instrument often strings will I sing praises unto thee. His hand should aid his tongue, not as in the case of the wicked, cooperating in deceit, but his hand would unite with his mouth in truthful praise. Music dropped naturally into place in the “worldly sanctuary,” but after all it can do no more than represent praise, and assist our expression of it; the real praise is in the heart. When artistic skill takes a higher place than hearty singing, it is time that instruments were banished from public worship; but when they are subordinate to the song, as here, it is not for us to prohibit them, or condemn those who use them. The private worshiper, singing his solo unto the Lord, has often found it helpful to accompany himself on some familiar instrument, and David says, “I will sing praise unto thee,” that is, not so much in the company of others as by himself alone.
144:10. It is he that giveth salvation unto kings. Those whom the Lord sets up he will keep up. Kings, from their conspicuous position, are exposed to special danger, and when their lives and their thrones are preserved to them they should give the Lord the glory of it. David had by his valor wrought salvation for Israel, but he lays his laurels at the feet of his Lord.
Who delivereth David his servant from the hurtful sword. He traces his escape from death to the delivering hand of God. Note, he speaks in the present tense, for this was an act which covered his whole life. He styles himself the Lord’s servant, accepting this as the highest tide he had attained or desired.
144:11. He begs deliverance from him who is ever delivering him.
Rid me, and deliver me from the hand of strange children. This is the refrain of the song, the burden of the prayer.
Whose mouth speaketh vanity, and their right hand is a hand of falsehood. Those who are surrounded by such serpents know not how to deal with them, and the only available method seems to be prayer to God for a riddance and deliverance. David in verse 7, according to the original, had sought the help of both the Lord’s hands; his deceitful enemies, with remarkable unanimity, were with one mouth and one hand seeking his destruction.
144:12–15. Riddance from the wicked and the gracious presence of the Lord are sought with a special eye to the peace and prosperity which will follow thereupon. The sparing of David’s life would mean the peace and happiness of a whole nation. We can scarcely judge how much of happiness may hang upon the Lord’s favor to one person.
144:12. God’s blessing works wonders for a people.
That our sons may be as plants grown up in their youth. What the young men are the older men will be. If in their opening manhood they are dwarfed, they will never get over it. But when we see them developed in holiness, what joy we have of them!
That our daughters may be as comer stones, polished after the similitude of a palace. Daughters unite families as cornerstones join walls together, and they adorn them as polished stones garnish the structure into which they are built.
144:13. That our garners may be full, affording all manner of store. Where there are happy households, there must be plentiful provision for them, for famine brings misery where love abounds. When all the fruits of the earth are plentiful, the fruits of our lips should be joyful worship and thanksgiving.
That our sheep may bring forth thousands and ten thousands in our streets, or rather in the open places, the fields, and sheep-walks where lambs should be born. A teeming increase is here described. Food and clothing come from the flock, and both are of first consideration.
144:14. That our oxen may be strong to labor, so that the plowing and cartage of the farm may be duly performed, and the farmer’s work accomplished without unduly taking the cattle, or working them cruelly.
That there be no breaking in, nor going out; no marauders, no forced emigration, no burglaries, no evictions.
That there be no complaining in our streets; no secret dissatisfaction, no public riot; no fainting from poverty, no clamor for rights denied, nor concerning wrongs unredressed. This has been the condition of our own country, and if it should now be changed, who can wonder, for our ingratitude well deserves to be deprived of blessings which it has despised.
These verses may with a little accommodation be applied to a prosperous church, where the converts are growing and beautiful, the Gospel stores abundant, and the spiritual increase most cheering. The ministers and workers are in full vigor, and the people are happy and united.
144:15. Happy is that people, that is in such a case. Temporal blessings are not trifles, for the miss of them would be a dire calamity. It is a great happiness to belong to a people so highly favored. Yea, happy is that people, whose God is the LORD. This comes in as an explanation of their prosperity. Under the Old Testament Israel had present earthly rewards for obedience. This sentence is also a sort of correction of all that had gone before, as if the poet would say, all these temporal gifts are a part of happiness, but still the heart and soul of happiness lies in the people being right with God, and having a full possession of him. Those who worship the happy God become a happy people. Then if we have not temporal mercies literally we have something better.
Happy was the nation which David ruled: happy in its king, its families, its prosperity, and in the possession of peace; but yet more in enjoying true religion and worshiping Jehovah.
Excerpt from:
The Treasury of David by Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834-1892)
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