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].
Of David. Blest be the Lord my rock, who trains my hands for war, my fingers for fighting.
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 rock and my fortress, my tower, my deliverer, my shield, behind whom I take refuge, who lays nations low at my feet.
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 are mortals that you care for them, humans, that you think of them?
4 [The time that we live is as short] as [SIM] a puff of wind; our time to live disappears like a shadow does.
They are like a breath, their days as a shadow that passes.
5 Yahweh, (tear open/open up) the sky and come down! Touch the mountains in order that smoke will pour out from them!
Lord, bow your heavens and come down: touch the hills, so that 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).
Flash forth lightning and scatter them, your arrows send forth and confound 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
Stretch out your hand from on high; pluck me out of the mighty waters, out of the hands of foreigners,
8 who [SYN] [always] tell lies. [Even in a courtroom where they swear to tell the truth] they tell lies.
who speak with the mouth of falsehood, and lift their right hand to swear lies.
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, a new song I would sing you, on a ten-stringed harp make you music.
10 You enable kings to defeat [their enemies]; and you rescued me, your servant David, from [being killed by] my enemies’ swords.
For to kings you give the victory, and David your servant you save.
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].
Snatch me from the cruel sword, rescue me from the hand of foreigners, who speak with the mouth of falsehood, and lift their right hand to swear lies.
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.
May our sons in their youth be as plants well tended: our daughters like cornices carved as in palaces.
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.
May our barns be bursting with produce of all kinds. In the fields may our sheep bear by thousands and ten thousands.
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].
May our cattle be fat, our walls unbreached, may no cry of distress ring in our streets.
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!
Happy the people who fares so well: and so fares the people whose God is the Lord.
