For those who may wish to ‘study’ this chapter, the following simple resources are provided for you. Each passage has a four-Part approach to help you take in and think further about what you have read.

Passage:  Psa 144:1-8

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.

A. Find Out

1. How does David identify the Lord? v.1,2
2. What does the Lord do for him? v.1,2
3. What does David marvel over? v.3
4. Why? v.4
5. What does he ask the Lord to do? v.5
6. Why, with what end? v.6-8

B. Think:

1. What lifestyle of David is revealed in these verses?
2. How does the present a problem for David?
3. What is his solution?

C. Comment:

                So many of David’s psalms are written in the context of warfare. This psalm is laden with such language: war, battle (v.1), subdues peoples (v.2), enemies (v.6), foreigners (v.8) and even puts battle language on the Lord (v.6,7).

                He first praises the Lord for giving him abilities in battle (v.1) and he sees the Lord as his security (v.2)  in such language as fortress, stronghold, shield, refuge, deliverer. But more than simply being a place of security, the Lord gives him the ability to vanquish other peoples (v.2c) who are presumably against him.

                But as he thinks about the Lord, he marvels that the Lord bothers with human beings and cares for them (v.3) because after all, the human being is here one minute and gone the next, as temporary as a breath and soon gone (v.4).

                Yet he has described the Lord as loving (v.2a) and being his place of security he calls on Him to come and intervene in his affairs, in the battles he is involved in. Come down from heaven with your holy fire, he cries (v.5,6) and deal with my enemies, reach down from heaven and deliver me from them (v.7), from these foreigners who are alien to the people of God, for they are a people who do not speak truth and who are deceitful (v.8). His enemies will be God’s enemies (implied).

D. Application:

1. The Lord HAS comes as a conquering King and captured our hearts.
2. His Son now rules over us, His subjects but it is a good rule!

Passage: Psa 144:9-15

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.

A. Find Out

1. What will David do and why? v.9,10
2. Again what does he ask? v.11
3. How will that affect their family life? v.12
4. How will that affect their general provision? v.13
5. And what will it stop? v.14
6. So what does he conclude? v.15

B. Think:

1. How are verses 9 & 10 a turning point?
2. Yet how does verse 11 link into the first half of the psalm?
3. What is the significance of the last part of the psalm?

C. Comment:

                The link to the earlier part of the psalm is in verse 11, crying to the Lord to deal with foreigners who lie and are deceitful, which is what he asked earlier in verses 7 & 8. But this comes after he seems to have a burst of faith in the belief that God will do this and his heart lifts in the desire to sing praise of the Lord (v.9) as he affirms that the Lord is the one who will give him victory (v.10). So perhaps the second call to deliver him from aliens is one that comes now out of faith.

                In this new attitude of faith he foresees what the land would be like after the Lord has come and delivered them from their enemies. Their children (v.12) will grow well without the fear of invaders (implied). Well nurtured plants grow tall and strong. Carved pillars speak of beauty and serenity. Both these things can only come about in the absence of fear and strife.

                But then he things about their farming provision (v.13). Their barns will be filled because the fields will not be ravaged by enemy armies, and their sheep and cattle will flourish similarly. Their buildings and cities will not be broken down (v.14) and there will not be wailing at distress at loss when men are taken off into captivity.

                Indeed, his conclusion goes on, this is true of a people who are blessed by God (v.15), the God of Israel, the ‘I AM’ the Eternal One.

D. Application:

1. God’s blessing means that goodness comes to us.
2. God’s blessing is on all His obedient children.