Table of Contents
Psalm 144
Psalm 144
1 Blessed be the Lord my strength which teacheth my hands to war, and my fingers to fight:
2 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.
3 Lord, what is man, that thou takest knowledge of him! or the son of man, that thou makest account 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: shoot out thine arrows, and destroy them.
7 Send thine hand from above; rid me, and deliver me out of great waters, from the hand of strange children;
8 Whose mouth speaketh vanity, and their right hand is a right hand of falsehood.
9 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.
10 It is he that giveth salvation unto kings: who delivereth David his servant from the hurtful sword.
11 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:
12 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:
13 That our garners may be full, affording all manner of store: that our sheep may bring forth thousands and ten thousands in our streets:
14 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.
15 Happy is that people, that is in such a case: yea, happy is that people, whose God is the Lord.
Notes
Cross Reference
Concordance
Commentary
Rashi
Verse 2
<html><b>Who flattens peoples beneath me</b> Who flattens and spreads out my people to rest in its place, as (Job 12:23): He spreads out (שוטח) the nations.” He makes them great. רוֹדֵד is the Aramaic translation of רוֹקַע, as the Targum renders (Exod. 39:3): וַיְרַקְעוּ, and they spread out; וְרַדִּידוּ. Others interpret הרודד, Who weakens peoples under me. But in an accurate revised version, [the reading is]: עמי, upon which the Masorah states: In three cases, the meaning is עמים, peoples, but the reading is עמי, and on תחתי, it says: the reading is תחתיו, under Him.</html>
Verse 3
<html><b>what is man</b> What are Persia [Esau, acc. to mss.] and Ishmael before You that You know them to lavish greatness upon them?</html>
Verse 4
<html><b>his days are as a fleeting shadow</b> Solomon said (Ecc. 6:12): “that he do them like a shadow,” but he did not explain whether [this refers to] the shadow of a palm or the shadow of a wall, which are permanent. His father already explained, “as a fleeting shadow,” the shadow of a flying bird.</html>
Verse 7
<html><b>deliver me</b> פצני, take me out. That is an expression of saving, and so is (verse 10): “Who delivers (הפוצה) David His servant.” (I found.)</html>
Verse 8
<html><b>Whose mouth speaks vanity, etc.</b> Scripture connects vanity with the mouth and falsehood with the right hand. When they come to tell with their mouth, they invent exaggerations of vanity, even to misrepresent what is known. If they come to stretch forth their right hand to swear, they refrain from vanity, lest they be caught as thieves, but they do swear falsely, for so is their lot.</html>
Verse 10
<html><b>Who gives salvation to kings</b> This speaks about the Rock of the Divisions, when David was close to being seized by Saul (I Sam. 23:27): “A messenger came to Saul, saying, ‘Make haste and go, etc.’” He saved Saul from shedding innocent blood, and David from being killed.</html>
Verse 11
<html><b>Deliver me and rescue me</b> As You delivered me then, so shall You deliver me now.</html>
Verse 12
<html><b>For our sons are, etc.</b> That is to say that now too this generation is righteous. <b>our sons are like saplings</b> which have no blemish, so pure are they from sin. (I found.) <b>grown up in their youth</b> with this good name, that they are like saplings in their youth, growing all their lives; and this praise cannot be substantiated except in the generation of Hezekiah. <b>our daughters</b> are of tall, beautiful stature like the cornerstones of a stone house, in which the cornerstones are placed exactly one opposite the other, and it ascends upward until the corners are even. <b>praised as the form of the Temple</b> Praised by those who see them and compare them to the form of the height of the Temple. Our Rabbis, however, explained: <b>Our daughters are like corners</b> Full of desire as the corners of the altar are full of blood, but they are intimate only with their husbands.</html>
Verse 13
<html><b>Our corners are full</b> The corners of our storehouses are full of goodness. <b>supplying from harvest to harvest</b> Supplying food from year to year. <b>from harvest to harvest</b> Heb. מזן אל זן, from the time of the ingathering of this year’s food until the time of the ingathering of next year’s food. זַן is gouvernayl in Old French, food, provisions. <b>produce thousands, yea, ten thousands</b> They produce offspring of thousands and ten thousands.</html>
Verse 14
<html><b>Our princes are borne</b> The great princes among us are borne by those smaller than they, for the small ones obey the greater ones, the result being that there is no breach among us. <b>nor rumor going out</b> No bad news goes far away. <b>nor is there a cry</b> There is no sound of the confusion of war.</html>
Verse 15
<html><b>Praiseworthy is the people that has this</b> That has all this good.</html>