Psalms 144
Butler1. BLESSED be the LORD my rock, Which teacheth my hands to war, And my fingers to fight :
2. My lovingkindness, 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 knowl- edge of him ? Or the son of man, that thou makest ac- count 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 ; Send out thine arrows, and discomfit them.
7. Stretch forth thine hand from above ; Rescue me, and deliver me out of great waters, Out of the hand of strangers ;
8. Whose mouth speaketh vanity, And their right hand is a right hand of false- hood.
THIS is a singularly composite Psalm. The earlier portion of it, to the end of v. 11, con- sists almost entirely of quotations strung to- gether from earlier Psalms ; and it is not al- ways easy to trace a real connection between them. The latter portion of the Psalm (vs. 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 an- cient poem, in which were portrayed the hap- piness and prosperity of the nation in its bright- est 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
9. I will sing a new song unto thee, O God : Upon a psaltery of ten strings will I sing praises unto thee.
10. It is he that giveth salvation unto kings : Who rescueth David his servant from the hurtful sword.
11. Rescue me, and deliver me out of the hand of strangers, Whose mouth speaketh vanity, And their right hand is a right hand of falsehood.
12. When our sons shall be as plants grown up in their youth ; And our daughters as corner stones hewn after the fashion of a palace ;
13. When our garners are full, affording all manner of store ; And our sheep bring forth thousands and ten thousands in our fields ;
14. When our oxen are well laden ; When there is no breaking in, and no going forth, And no outcry in our streets ;
15. Happy is the people, that is in such a case : Yea, happy is the people, whose God is the LORD.
from the exile, by reminding them how in their past history obedience to God had brought with it its full recompense. The Psalmist re- counts 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. P.
I, 2. The whole of this first group is an imi- tation of David’s great song of thanksgiving for victory (Psalm 18). D.—David acknowl- edges his dependence upon God and his obliga- tions to Him. 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. H.
3. This and the next verse are again borrowed from other passages. V. 3 is a variation of Psalm 8 : 4. V. 4 resembles Psalm 39 : 5, 6. P.
3. 4. Our days are not only few, but we ourselves are vanity. The words are weighty and full. It is not a problem or a doubtful thing; but a definition, and so it is here proven. What is man? He is like to vanity, and his days are as a shadow that passes away. His days do not only soon decline and pass away as a shadow, but also they are like vanity. While he appears to be something, he is nothing but the figure and picture of vanity. Every man, and that at his best estate as the word is, in his settled and fixed state; set him as sure and high as you will, yet he is not above that; he carries it about with him as he does his nature. Leighton.
5. Here begins the direct prayer for the overthrow of his enemies. The Psalmist longs for a theophany, a coming of God to judgment, which he describes in language again borrowed from Psalm 18 : 9, 14-16. P.
7. That Jehovah stretches out His hand from high heaven and rescues David out of great waters, is taken verbatim from Psalm 18 : 17; here the poet appends to the figure its interpretation. D.
8. Their right hand is falsehood. The right hand, as elsewhere, is power in its greatest activity. In the Hebrew there is an emphatic repetition, “their right hand is a right hand of falsehood.” Every activity is possessed, directed, and controlled by falsehood as the spirit that inspires it, the opposite of the description in Psalm 15 : 2, “the thought of whose heart is the truth.” This occurs again in v. 11. De Witt.
12. That our sons may be as grown-up plants even in youth. The fathers and the mothers want the sons in their homes. They are the beautiful staffs on which their parents would lean when sorrow comes, when old age comes. There is nothing more attractive or holy out of heaven than the reverence of a true son for his father—is not God our Father?—than the love of a pure boy for his mother. The boy to whom his father is a kind of elder brother—how holy is the epithet, since Jesus has hallowed it, by becoming ours; the boy to whom his mother is the ideal of all excellence. The Psalmist sees a period in the national history of his people when young men shall have a youth in their own homes, under the eyes of their father and near the heart of their mother. It is home training, home memories, home inspirations that are the hope of our youth. They are the qualities that go into their manhood.
That our daughters may be as corner-stones, polished after the similitude of a palace. Sons are out-door plants; daughters are in-door adornments. Sons grow up in out-door strength; daughters clothe a home with attractiveness and grace. The Psalmist passes from the growth of the out-door plant to the corner-carvings with which it was customary to decorate the inside of palaces. There is a beauty of inward character, a beauty of outward life which originates in that character, which even God desires. “So shall the King greatly desire thy beauty,” which, in God’s sight, is of great price. And I think that when the sacred writer in the text speaks of the daughters in our homes, he means this beauty. There are elements of material prosperity in this Psalm which are very beautiful. Peace brings rest to material things: to the valleys which are clothed with verdure or grain; to the hills which are covered over with flocks; fills the garners to overflowing; makes traffic in towns and commerce on the seas; puts an end to all disturbances. But the most beautiful and touching element in it is this allusion to home-life, in which young men and maidens have an opportunity to develop in all the symmetry and beauty characteristic of each in its best estate. “That our sons may be as plants grown up in their youth; and that our daughters may be as corner-stones, polished after the similitude of a palace;” as though the sons graced the exterior of a home, as the plant does, and the daughters the interior. J. E. Rankin.
“The polished corners of the temple,” rather “the sculptured angles, the ornament, of a palace.” Great care and much ornament were bestowed by the ancients upon the angles of their splendid palaces. It is remarkable that the Greeks made use of pilasters, called Caryatides (carved after the figure of a woman dressed in long robes), to support the entablatures of their buildings. Cresswell.—When we see our daughters well established, and stayed with wisdom and discretion, as corner-stones are fastened in the building; when we see them by faith united to Christ, as the chief corner-stone, adorned with the graces of God’s Spirit, which are the polishing of that which is naturally rough, and “become women professing godliness;” when we see them purified and consecrated to God as living temples, we think ourselves happy in them. H.
Among the Hebrews the instruction of children in the history of the nation and in the precepts and principles of the law, was early, solemnly, and repeatedly prescribed. The whole community guarded each child; and the independent will of the father was not supreme, under the restraining Hebraic legislation. The prosperity of the city was then only conceived as perfect, when, with old men and old women dwelling in it, it should also “be full of boys and girls playing in the streets thereof.” The hope and prayer of the devout was, that “their sons might be as plants grown up in their youth, and their daughters as corner-stones, polished after the similitude of a palace.” It was only natural, under such a religion, that children should be accounted the heritage of the Lord; that for them, at different stages of their growth, the language should furnish many general names of a tender significance; that they should be presented with thank-offerings in the temple; that some of the most touching and memorable passages in Hebrew literature should be those recounting the grief of parents when the infant of days had died; and that the sweetest and grandest thought, one may almost say, which prophecy itself ever delivered, was that which came from the sublimest of Hebrew seers, that the fierce and warring elements on earth shall be subdued in the reign of the Messiah, that the wolf and the lamb shall dwell together, and the leopard with the kid, and that “a little child shall lead them all.” That word is like the point of light in the eye of a portrait, illuminating the scheme of the prophetic economy. R. S. S.
The public state of religion in the world must entirely depend on the care bestowed on the cultivation of it in private families. Such as the families are of which congregations, churches, and kingdoms are composed, such will be the flourishing or the decayed state of religion in these larger communities. And consequently it is as clear as noon-day, that the disregard shown to God in our households is the fatal source of corruption of manners. Would you, then, put a stop to abounding iniquity and promote the cause of God and religion, begin at home, and let your Maker have that honor in your families to which He is entitled. R. Walker.
13,14. This Psalm is the language of a prince who wished his people’s prosperity; that their “garners might be full of all manner of stores;” that their “sheep might bring forth thousands and ten thousands in their streets;” that their “oxen” might be fat for slaughter or “strong for labor;” that there might be neither robbery nor beggary in their streets; no oppressive magistrates nor complaining people; and as if all these blessings were to be derived from the character of the people, and the character of the people from the education they had received, our text is a prayer for the youth of Judea. R. Robinson.
14. No sallying forth; literally, “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. The whole passage (vs. 12-15) is a picture of the most perfect, undisturbed peace and tranquillity. P.—An uninterrupted peace. That there be no war; no breaking in of invaders, no going out of deserters. Let not our enemies break in upon us; let us not have occasion to march out against them. War brings with it abundance of mischiefs, whether it be offensive or defensive. That there be no oppression or faction, no outcry in our streets. H.
15. Happy is that people. It is only a narrow and one-sided religion that can see anything out of place in this beatitude of plenty and peace. If we could rejoice with the Psalms fully and without misgiving in the temporal blessings bestowed by heaven, we should the more readily and sincerely enter into the depths of their spiritual experience. And the secret of this lies in the full comprehension and contemplation of the beautiful and pleasant as the gift of God. Aglen.—Whose God is the Lord. This comes in as an explanation of their prosperity. Those who worship the happy God become a happy people. Happy was the nation in its families, in its prosperity, and in the possession of peace; but yet more in enjoying true religion and worshipping Jehovah, the only living and true God. S.
The last verse of this Psalm leads us to reflect wherein the peculiar happiness doth now principally consist, of “that people, whose God is the Lord.” Their happiness consists in something far above riches and outward greatness; it consists in having the Lord Himself, the Supreme Governor of the world, to take care of them, and to provide all things needful for them. They have His wisdom to instruct them; His power to protect them; His mercy to pardon them; His grace to adorn them here, and His glory to crown them forever; and all because they have the Lord Himself for their God, not only for their light, their life, their hope, their help, their strength, their tower, their sun, their shield, and their exceeding
great reward, but for their God; which is infinitely more than can be couched under any other expression whatsoever. What can those persons lack who are thus related to, and interested in, Him that is all things in Himself? Bishop Beveridge.