Psalms 144

1 Blessed be the Lord my God, who teacheth my hands to fight, and my fingers to war.

I praise Yahweh, who is [like an overhanging] rock [under which I] ([get refuge/am protected])! He trains my hands so that I can use them to fight battles; he trains my fingers so that I can [shoot arrows in a war].

2 My mercy, and my refuge: my support, and my deliverer: My protector, and I have hoped in him: who subdueth my people under me.

He is the one who protects me; he is [like] a fortress [DOU] in which I am safe, he protects me [like] [protect soldiers] [MET], and he gives me refuge. He defeats [other] nations and [then] puts them under my power.

3 Lord, what is man, that thou art made known to him? or the son of man, that thou makest account of him?

Yahweh, [we] people are [very insignificant/unimportant], so why (are you concerned/do you care about us) [RHQ]? [It is amazing to me that] you pay attention to humans.

4 Man is like to vanity: his days pass away like a shadow.

[The time that we live is as short] as [SIM] a puff of wind; our time to live disappears like a shadow does.

5 Lord, bow down thy heavens and descend: touch the mountains and they shall smoke.

Yahweh, (tear open/open up) the sky and come down! Touch the mountains in order that smoke will pour out from them!

6 Send forth lightning, and thou shalt scatter them: shoot out thy arrows, and thou shalt trouble them.

Cause lightning to flash with the result that [your enemies] will run away! Shoot your arrows [at them] and cause them to (run away/scatter).

7 Put forth thy hand from on high, take me out, and deliver me from many waters: from the hand of strange children:

[It is as though my enemies surround me like] a flood; reach your hand down from heaven and rescue me from them [SYN]. They are men from other countries

8 Whose mouth hath spoken vanity: and their right hand is the right hand of iniquity.

who [SYN] [always] tell lies. [Even in a courtroom where they swear to tell the truth] they tell lies.

9 To thee, O God, I will sing a new canticle: on the psaltery and an instrument of ten strings I will sing praises to thee.

God, I will sing a new song to you, and I will play my ten-stringed harp [while I sing] to you.

10 Who givest salvation to kings: who hast redeemed thy servant David from the malicious sword:

You enable kings to defeat [their enemies]; and you rescued me, your servant David, from [being killed by] my enemies’ swords.

11 Deliver me, And rescue me out of the hand of strange children; whose mouth hath spoken vanity: and their right hand is the right hand of iniquity:

[So I ask you to] save me from [being killed by] the swords [that those] evil [people carry]. Rescue me from the power [MTY] of those foreigners who [SYN] [always] tell lies, and [who raise] their right hands [in courtrooms when they solemnly declare that they will tell the truth].

12 Whose sons are as new plants in their youth: Their daughters decked out, adorned round about after the similitude of a temple:

I wish/hope that our young sons will grow up to be like strong plants [SIM], and I wish/hope that our daughters will [grow up to] be [straight and tall] like the pillars [SIM] that stand in the corners of palaces.

13 Their storehouses full, flowing out of this into that. Their sheep fruitful in young, abounding in their goings forth:

I wish/hope that our barns will be full of many different crops. I wish/hope that the sheep in our fields will give birth to tens of thousands of baby lambs.

14 Their oxen fat. There is no breach of wall, nor passage, nor crying out in their streets.

I wish/hope that our cows will give birth to many calves without having any miscarriages or deaths when they are born (OR, that no enemies will break through our city walls and take us (into exile/to their own countries)). I wish/hope that [there will not be a time when the people in] our streets cry out in distress [because foreign armies are invading].

15 They have called the people happy, that hath these things: but happy is that people whose God is the Lord.

If good things like that happen to a nation, the people will be very happy. The people whose God is Yahweh are the ones who will be happy!