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].
BY DAVID. Blessed [is] YHWH my Rock, Who is teaching My hands for war, My fingers for battle.
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 kind one, and my bulwark, My tower, and my deliverer, My shield, and in whom I have trusted, Who is subduing 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.
YHWH, what [is] man that You know him? The son of man, that You esteem 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 has been like a breath, His days [are] as a shadow passing by.
5 Yahweh, (tear open/open up) the sky and come down! Touch the mountains in order that smoke will pour out from them!
YHWH, incline Your heavens and come down, Strike against mountains, and they 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 forth lightning, and scatter them, Send forth Your arrows, and trouble 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, Free me, and deliver me from many waters, From the hand of sons of a stranger,
8 who [SYN] [always] tell lies. [Even in a courtroom where they swear to tell the truth] they tell lies.
Because their mouth has spoken vanity, And their right hand [is] a right hand of falsehood.
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 sing to You a new song, I sing praise to You on a stringed instrument 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.
Who is giving deliverance to kings, Who is freeing His servant David from the sword of evil.
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].
Free me, and deliver me From the hand of sons of a stranger, Because their mouth has spoken vanity, And their right hand [is] a right hand of falsehood,
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.
Because our sons [are] as plants, Becoming great in their youth, Our daughters as hewn stones, Polished—the likeness of a palace,
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.
Our granaries [are] full, bringing out from kind to kind, Our flocks are bringing forth thousands, Ten thousands in our out-places,
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].
Our oxen are carrying, there is no breach, And there is no outgoing, And there is no crying in our broad places.
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!
O the blessedness of the people that is thus, O the blessedness of the people whose God [is] YHWH!
