Psalms 144

1 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].

[A Psalm] of David concerning Goliad. Blessed [be] the Lord my God, who instructs my hands for battle, [and] my fingers for war.

2 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.

My mercy, and my refuge; my helper, and my deliverer; my protector, in whom I have trusted; who subdues my people under me.

3 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.

Lord, what is man, that you are made known to him? or the son of man, that you take account of him?

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

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

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

O Lord, bow your heavens, and come down: touch the mountains, and they shall smoke.

6 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).

Send lightning, and you shall scatter them: send forth your arrows, and you shall discomfit them.

7 [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

Send forth your hand from on high; rescue me, and deliver me out of great waters, out of the hand of strange children;

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

whose mouth has spoken vanity, and their right hand is a right hand of iniquity.

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

O God, I will sing a new song to you: I will play to you on a lute of ten strings.

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

[Even] to him who gives salvation to kings: who redeems his servant David from the hurtful sword.

11 [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].

Deliver me, and rescue me from the hand of strange children, whose mouth has spoken vanity, and their right hand is a right hand of iniquity;

12 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.

whose children are as plants, strengthened in their youth: their daughters are beautiful, sumptuously adorned after the similitude of a temple.

13 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.

Their garners are full, and bursting with one kind of store after another; their sheep are prolific, multiplying in their streets.

14 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].

Their oxen are fat: there is no falling down of a hedge, nor going out, nor cry in their folds.

15 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!

Men bless the people to whom this lot belongs, [but] blessed is the people whose God is the Lord.