Psalms Reading – 5.14.2022
Psalm 144
Of David.
1 Praise be to the Lord my Rock, who trains my hands for war, my fingers for battle.
2 He is my loving God and my fortress, my stronghold and my deliverer,
my shield, in whom I take refuge, who subdues peoples under me.
3 Lord, what are human beings that you care for them,
mere mortals that you think of them?
4 They are like a breath; their days are like a fleeting shadow.
5 Part your heavens, Lord, and come down; touch the mountains, so that they smoke.
6 Send forth lightning and scatter the enemy; shoot your arrows and rout them.
7 Reach down your hand from on high; deliver me and rescue me
from the mighty waters from the hands of foreigners
8 whose mouths are full of lies, whose right hands are deceitful.
9 I will sing a new song to you, my God; on the ten-stringed lyre I will make music to you,
10 to the One who gives victory to kings, who delivers his servant David.
From the deadly sword 11 deliver me; rescue me from the hands of foreigners
whose mouths are full of lies, whose right hands are deceitful.
12 Then our sons in their youth will be like well-nurtured plants,
and our daughters will be like pillars carved to adorn a palace.
13 Our barns will be filled with every kind of provision.
Our sheep will increase by thousands, by tens of thousands in our fields;
14 our oxen will draw heavy loads. There will be no breaching of walls,
no going into captivity, no cry of distress in our streets.
15 Blessed is the people of whom this is true; blessed is the people whose God is the Lord.
King David pleads for God to defeat his foreign foes. In verses 1-11, David recognizes his dependence on the Lord and cries out to him to gain victory. In verses 12-15, he considers the blessings that would flow from such a victory.
Many of the dominant themes throughout the Psalms appear here: the Lord as refuge, the request for divine intervention, the rescue from enemies, and the focus on David, the king. These themes closely parallel Psalm 2 where the Lord grants victory over the ruler’s enemies and His own. In both psalms, the Lord is a refuge where God and the king enjoy an extremely close relationship as they oppose outsiders.
In verses 3-4, we have seen this theme before. David marvels at the fact that as small as we are in comparison to God and as brief as our lives are, why does God even take notice of us? Not only does God notice us, but He cares for us. How God can be so transcendent to create the massively immense universe while at the same time know and be concerned for each of us, is a theme we have seen several times in the Psalms. It addresses one of the beautiful mysteries of just how great and amazing our God is.
We see this fully demonstrated in Jesus’ coming, his death, and resurrection. For God so loved us that He was willing to come to us. This should humble and cause us to shout out praise to God!
Memory Verse: Psalm 139:5, You hem me in behind and before, and you lay your hand upon me.
Question(s) to Consider: Do you ever wonder, like David, how the God of the universe can know and care about each of us individually? Like David, does it lead you to deeper faith and greater appreciation for just how amazing our God is?