Treasury of David

Charles Spurgeon

PSALM 144
 

Albeit that this Psalm is in some measure very similar to Psalm 18—yet it is a new song, and in its latter portion it is strikingly so. Let the reader accept it as a new psalm, and not as a mere variation of an old one, or as two compositions roughly joined together. It is true that it would be a complete composition if verses 12-15 were dropped; but there are other parts, of David's poems which might be equally self-contained if certain verses were omitted; and the same might be said of many uninspired sonnets. It does not, therefore, follow that the latter part was added by another hand, nor even that the latter part was a fragment by the same author, appended to the first song merely with the view of preserving it.

It seems to us to be highly probable that the Psalmist, remembering that he had trodden some of the same ground before, felt his mind moved to fresh thought, and that the Holy Spirit used this mood for his own high purposes. Assuredly the addendum is worthy of the greatest Hebrew poet, and it is so admirable in language, and so full of beautiful imagery, that people of taste who were by no means overloaded with reverence have quoted it times without number, thus confessing its singular poetical excellence.

To us the whole psalm appears to be perfect as it stands, and to exhibit such unity throughout that it would be a literary vandalism, as well as a spiritual crime, to rend away one part from the other.

TITLE. Its title is "Of David", and its language is of David, if ever language can belong to any man. As surely as we could say of any poem, "this is of Tennyson, or of Longfellow," we may say, "This is of David.' Nothing but the disease which closes the eye to manifest fact and opens it to imagine, could have led learned critics to ascribe this song to anybody but David. Alexander well says, "The Davidic origin of this psalm is as marked as that of any in the Psalter."

It is to God the devout warrior sings when he extols him as his strength and stay (verses 1-2).

Man he holds in small account, and wonders at the Lord's regard for him (verses 3-4).

But he turns in his hour of conflict to the Lord, who is declared to be "a man of war", whose triumphant interposition he implores (verses 5-8).

He again extols and entreats in verses 9-11, and then closes with a delightful picture of the Lord's work for his chosen people, who are congratulated upon having such a God to be their God, in verses 12-15.
 

EXPOSITION

Verse 1. Blessed be the LORD my strength. He cannot delay the utterance of his gratitude, he bursts at once into a loud note of praise. His best word is given to his best friend, "Blessed be Jehovah." When the heart is in a right state it must praise God, it cannot be restrained; its utterances leap forth as waters forcing their way from a living spring. With all his strength David blesses the God of his strength.

We ought not to receive so great a blessing as strength to resist evil, to defend truth, and to conquer error, without knowing who gave it to us, and rendering to him the glory of it. Not only does Jehovah give strength to his saints, but he is their strength. The strength is made theirs because God is theirs. God is full of power, and he becomes the power of those who trust him. In him our great strength lies, and to him be blessings more than we are able to utter. It may be read, "My Rock"; but this hardly so well consorts with the following words:

Who teaches my hands to war, and my fingers to fight. The word rock is the Hebrew way of expressing strength: the grand old language is full of such suggestive symbols. The Psalmist in the second part of the verse sets forth the Lord as teacher in the arts of war. If we have strength we are not much the better unless we have skill also. Untrained force is often an injury to the man who possesses it, and it even becomes a danger to those who are round about him; 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 tuition mentioned was very practical, it was not so much of the brain as of the hands and fingers; for these were the members most needful for conflict.

Men 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 could ever be. He who has to use a sling or a bow needs suitable training, quite as much as a scientific man or a classical professor.

Men are too apt to imagine that an artisan'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 at the first.

All wisdom and skill are from the Lord, and for them he deserves to be gratefully extolled. This teaching extends to the smallest members of our frame. The Lord teaches fingers as well as hands; indeed, it sometimes happens that if the finger is not well trained the whole hand is incapable.

David was called to be a man of war, and he 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 and the fight. 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; and then we will bless his name with even greater intensity of heart.

We will be pupils, and he shall be our Master, and if we ever accomplish anything we will give our Instructor hearty thanksgiving.

This verse is full of personality; it is mercy shown to David himself which is the subject of grateful song. It has also a presence about it; for 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, and full of the actual life of every day; for David's days were spent in camps and conflicts. 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"; but David has his own peculiar 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.

Verse 2. My goodness, and my fortress. Now our royal poet multiplies metaphors to extol his God. The word for goodness signifies mercy. Whoever we may be, and wherever we may be, we need mercy such as can only be found in the infinite God. It is all of mercy that he is any of the other good things to us, so that this is a highly comprehensive title.

O how truly has the Lord been mercy to many of us in a thousand ways! He is goodness itself, and he has been unbounded goodness to us. We have no goodness of our own, but the Lord has become goodness to us. So is he himself also our fortress and safe abode. In him we dwell as behind impregnable ramparts and immovable bastions. We cannot be driven out, or starved out; for our fortress is prepared for a siege; it is stored with abundance of food, and a well of living water is within it. Kings usually think much of their fenced cities, but King David relies upon his God, who is more to him than fortresses could have been.

My high tower, and my deliverer. As from a lofty watchtower the believer, trusting in the Lord, looks down upon his enemies. They cannot reach him in his elevated position. He is out of bow shot; he is beyond their scaling ladders; he dwells on high.

Nor is this all; for Jehovah is our Deliverer as well as our Defender. 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, he raises the siege, routs the foe, and sets us in joyous liberty!

My shield, and he in whom I trust. When the warrior rushes on his adversary, he bears his shield upon his arm, and thrusts death aside; thus does the believer oppose the Lord to the blows of the enemy, and finds himself secure from harm. For this and a thousand other reasons our trust rests in our God for everything. He never fails us, and we feel boundless confidence in him.

Who subdues my people under me. He keeps my natural subjects subject, and my conquered subjects peaceful under my sway. Men who rule others, should thank God if they succeed in the task. Such strange creatures are human beings, that if a number of them are kept in peaceful association under the leadership of any one of the Lord's servants, he is bound to bless God every day for the wonderful fact. 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 ensures obedience and evokes enthusiastic loyalty. For every particle of influence for good which we may possess, let us magnify the name of the Lord.

Thus has David blessed Jehovah for blessing him. How many times he has appropriated the Lord by that little word MY! Each time he grasps the Lord, he adores and blesses him; for the one word BLESSED runs through all the passage like a golden thread. He began by acknowledging that his strength for fighting foreign enemies was of the Lord, and he concluded by ascribing his domestic peace to the same source. All around as a king he saw himself to be surrounded by the King of kings, to whom he bowed in lowly homage, doing suit and service on bent knee, with grateful heart admitting that he owed everything to the Rock of his salvation.

Verse 3. O LORD, what is man, that you take knowledge of him? What a contrast between Jehovah and man! The Psalmist turns from the glorious all-sufficiency of God to the insignificance and nothingness of man. He sees Jehovah to be everything, and then cries, "Lord, what is man!" What is puny man in the presence of the Infinite God? What can he be compared to? He is too little to be described at all; only God, who knows the most minute object, can tell what man is. Certainly man is not fit to be the rock of our confidence—he is at once too feeble and too fickle to be relied upon. The Psalmist's wonder is that God should stoop to know him, and indeed it is more remarkable than if the greatest archangel should make a study of emmets, or become the friend of mites.

God knows his people with a tender intimacy, a constant, careful observation. He foreknew them in love, he knows them by care, and he will know them in acceptance at last. Why is this? What has man done? What has he been? What is he now that God should know him, and make himself known to him as his goodness, fortress, and high tower?

This is an unanswerable question. Infinite condescension can alone account for the Lord stooping to be the friend of man. That he should make man the subject of election, the object of redemption, the child of eternal love, the darling of infallible providence, the next of kin to Deity—is indeed a matter requiring more than the two notes of exclamation found in this verse.

Or the son of man, that you make 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; and how can the Lord think of him, and write down such a cipher in his accounts?

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. Adoring wonder makes us each one cry out: Why do you take knowledge of me?

We know by experience how little man is to be reckoned upon, and we know by observation how greatly he can vaunt himself, it is therefore 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.

Every trace of the misanthrope should be hateful to the believer; for if God makes account of man, then it is not for us to despise our own kind.

Verse 4. Man is like to vanity. Adam is like to Abel. He is like that which is nothing at all. He is actually vain, and he resembles that unsubstantial empty thing which is nothing but a blown up nothing—a puff, a bubble. Yet he is not vanity, but only like it. He is not so substantial as that unreal thing; he is only the likeness of it. Lord, what is a man? It is astonishing that God should think of such a pretentious insignificance.

His days are as a shadow that passes away. He is so short lived that he scarcely attains to years, but exists by the day; like the ephemera, whose birth and death are both seen by the self-same sun. His life is only like a shadow, which is in itself a vague resemblance, an absence of something, rather than in itself an existence.

Observe that human life is not only as a shadow, but as a shadow which is about to depart. It is a mere mirage, the image of a thing which is not, an illusion which melts back into nothing. How is it that the Eternal should make so much of mortal man, who begins to die as soon as he begins to live?

The connection of the two verses before us with the rest of the psalm is not far to seek: David trusts in God and finds him to be everything; he looks to man and sees him to be nothing; and then he wonders how it is that the great Lord can condescend to take notice of such a piece of folly and deceit as man.

Verse 5. Bow your heavens, O LORD, and come down. The heavens are the Lord's own, and he who exalted them can bow them. His servant is struggling against bitter foes, and he finds no help in men, therefore he entreats Jehovah to come down to his rescue. It is, indeed, a coming down for Jehovah to interfere in the conflicts of his tried people. Earth cries to Heaven to stoop; nay, the cry is to the Lord of Heaven to bow the Heaven, and appear among the sons of earth.

The Lord has often done this, and never more fully than when in Bethlehem the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us: now he never refuses to come down to defend his beloved ones.

David would have the real presence of God to counterbalance the mocking appearance of boastful man: eternal verity could alone relieve him of human vanity.

Touch the mountains, and they shall smoke. It was so when the Lord appeared on Sinai; the strongest pillars of earth cannot bear the weight of the finger of God. He is a consuming fire, and his touch kindles the peaks of the Alps, and makes them smoke. If Jehovah would appear, nothing could stand before him; if the mighty mountains smoke at his touch, then all mortal power which is opposed to the Lord must end in smoke.

How longsuffering he is to his adversaries, whom he could so readily consume. A touch would do it; God's finger of flame would set the hills on fire, and consume opposition of every kind.

Verse 6. Cast forth lightning, and scatter them. The Eternal can hurl his lightnings wherever he pleases, and effect his purpose instantaneously. 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 your arrows, and destroy them. Jehovah never misses his mark; his arrows are fatal to his foes when he goes forth to war. 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: even the terrible forces of tempest shall be marshaled to the fight, for the defense of the Lord's chosen. 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. This is far from being the only time in which this believing warrior had thus prayed: Psalm 18 is specially like the present; the godly man was not abashed at his former boldness, but here repeats himself without fear.

Verse 7. Send your hand from above. Let your long and strong arm be stretched out until your hand seizes my foes, and delivers me from them.

Rescue 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; men strange to me and you, who therefore must work evil to me, and rebellion against yourself.

Those against whom he pleaded were out of covenant with God; they were Philistines and Edomites; or else they were men of his own nation of black heart and traitorous spirit, who were real strangers, though they bore the name of Israel.

Oh to be rid of those infidel, blaspheming beings who pollute society with their false teachings and hard speeches! Oh to be delivered from slanderous tongues, deceptive lips, and false hearts! No wonder these words are repeated, for they are the frequent cry of many a tried child of God, "Rescue me, and deliver me." The devil's children are strange to us: we can never agree with them, and they will never understand us: they are aliens to us, and we are despised by them. O Lord, deliver us from the evil one, and from all who are of his race.

Verse 8. Whose mouth speaks vanity. No wonder that men who are vanity speak vanity. "When he speaks a lie, he speaks of his own." They cannot be depended upon, let them promise as fairly as they may: their solemn declarations are light as the foam of the sea, in no way to be depended upon. Godly men desire to be rid of such characters: of all men deceivers and liars are among the most disgusting to true hearts.

And their right hand is a right hand of falsehood. So far their hands and their tongues agree, for they are vanity and falsehood. These men act as falsely as they speak, and prove themselves to be all of a piece. Their falsehood is right-handed, they lie with dexterity, they deceive with all their might. It is a dreadful thing when a man's expertness lies more in lies than in truth; when he can neither speak nor act without proving himself to be false. God save us from lying mouths, and hands of falsehood.

Verse 9. I will sing a new song unto you, O God. Weary of the false, I will adore the true. Fired with fresh enthusiasm, my gratitude shall make a new channel for itself. I will sing as others have done; but it shall be a new song, such as no others have sung. That song shall be all and altogether for my God. I will extol none but the Lord, from whom my deliverance has come.

Upon a psaltery and an instrument of ten strings will I sing praises unto you. His hand should aid his tongue, not as in the case of the wicked, cooperating in deceit; but his hand should unite with his mouth in truthful praise. David intended to tune his best instruments as well as to use his best vocal music. The best is all too poor for so great a God, and therefore we must not fall short of our utmost. He meant to use many instruments of music, that by all means he might express his great joy in God.

The Old Testament dispensation abounded in types, and figures, and outward ritual, and therefore music dropped naturally into its 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, the true music is that of the soul. When music drowns the voice, and 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, though we ourselves greatly prefer to do without them, since it seems to us that the utmost simplicity of praise is far more congruous with the spirit of the gospel than pomp of organs.

The private worshiper, singing his solo unto the Lord, has often found it helpful to accompany himself on some familiar instrument, and of this David in the present psalm is an instance, for he says, "I will sing praise unto you"—that is, not so much in the company of others as by himself alone. He says not "we", but "I."

Verse 10. It is he who gives 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. In his many battles David would have perished, had not almighty care preserved him. He had by his valor wrought salvation for Israel, but he lays his laurels at the feet of his Lord and Preserver.

If any men need salvation kings do, and if they get it the fact is so astonishing that it deserves a verse to itself in the psalm of praise.

Who delivers 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—delivers, for this was an act which covered his whole life. He puts his name to the confession of his indebtedness: it is David who owns without demur to mercy given to himself. He styles himself the Lord's servant, accepting this as the highest title he had attained or desired.

Verse 11. Because of what the Lord had done, David returns to his pleading. He begs deliverance from him who is ever delivering him. Rescue me, and deliver me from the hand of strange children. This is in measure the refrain of the song, and the burden of the prayer. He desired to be delivered from his open and foreign adversaries, who had broken compacts, and treated treaties as vain things.

Whose mouth speaks vanity, and their right hand is a right hand of falsehood. He would not strike hands with those who carried a lie in their right hand: he would be quit of such at once, if possible. 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, and well he might, for his deceitful enemies, with remarkable unanimity, were with one mouth and one hand seeking his destruction. 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 man.

Verse 12. That our sons may be as plants grown up in their youth. God's blessing works wonders for a people. Our sons are of first importance to the state, since men take a leading part in its affairs. He desires that they may be like strong, well rooted, young trees, which promise great things. If they do not grow in their youth, when will they grow? If in their opening manhood they are dwarfed, they will never get over it.

O the joys which we may have through our sons! And, on the other hand, what misery they may cause us! Plants may grow crooked, or in some other way disappoint the planter, and so may our sons. But when we see them developed in holiness, what joy we have of them!

That our daughters may be as corner-stones, polished after the similitude of a palace. We desire a blessing for our whole family, daughters as well as sons. For the girls to be left out of the circle of blessing would be unhappy indeed. Daughters unite families as corner-stones join walls together, and at the same time they adorn them as polished stones garnish the structure into which they are built. Home becomes a palace when the daughters are maids of honor, and the sons are nobles in spirit; then the father is a king, and the mother a queen, and royal residences are more than outdone. A city built up of such dwellings is a city of palaces, and a state composed of such cities is a republic of princes.

Verse 13. That our garners may be full, affording all manner of store. A household must exercise thrift and forethought: it must have its granary as well as its nursery. Husbands should husband their resources; and should not only furnish their tables but fill their garners. Where there are happy households, there must needs be plentiful provision for them, for famine brings misery even where love abounds. It is well when there is plenty, and that plenty consists of "all manner of store."

We have occasionally heard murmurs concerning the abundance of grain, and the cheapness of the poor man's loaf. A novel calamity! We dare not pray against it. David would have prayed for it, and blessed the Lord when he saw his heart's desire.

When all the fruits of the earth are plentiful, the fruits of our lips should be joyful worship and thanksgiving. Plenteous and varied may our products be, that every form of want may be readily supplied. That our sheep may bring forth thousands and ten thousands in the fields.

A teeming increase is here described. Adam tilled the ground to fill the garner, but Abel kept sheep, and watched the lambs. Each occupation needs the divine blessing. The second man who was born into this world was a shepherd, and that trade has ever held an important part in the economy of nations. Food and clothing come from the flock, and both are of first consideration.

Verse 14. That our oxen may be strong to labor; so that the ploughing and cartage of the farm may be duly performed, and the husbandman's work may be accomplished without unduly taxing the cattle, or working them cruelly.

That there be no breaking in, nor going out; no marauders, and no forced emigration; no burglaries and no evictions.

That there be no complaining in our streets; no secret dissatisfaction, no public riot; no fainting of poverty, no clamor for rights denied, nor concerning wrongs unredressed.

The state of things here pictured is very delightful. All is peaceful and prosperous; the throne is occupied efficiently, and even the beasts in their stalls are the better for it.

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. There ministers and workers are in full vigor, and the people are happy and united. May the Lord make it so in all our churches evermore.

Verse 15. Happy is that people who are in such a case. Such things are not to be overlooked. 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. Yes, 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: when Jehovah was their God they were a nation enriched and flourishing.

This sentence is also a sort of correction of all that had gone before; as if the poet would say that 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. Then if we have not the silver of earth, we have the gold of Heaven, which is better still.

In this psalm David ascribes his own power over the people, and the prosperity which attended his reign, to the Lord himself. Happy was the nation which he ruled; happy in its king, in its families, in its prosperity, and in the possession of peace; but yet more in enjoying true religion and worshiping Jehovah, the only living and true God.