Psalm 144
Let’s hear God’s word together.
This is Psalm 144. It’s a Psalm of David, and it
begins this way. Blessed be the Lord, my rock,
who trains my hands for war and my fingers for battle. He is
my steadfast love and my fortress, my stronghold and my deliverer,
my shield and he in whom I take refuge, who subdues peoples under
me. Oh Lord, what is man that you
regard him? Or the son of man that you think
of him? Man is like a breath. His days
are like a passing shadow. Bow your heavens, O Lord, and
come down. Touch the mountains so that they
smoke. Flash forth the lightning and
scatter them. Send out your arrows and rout
them. Stretch out your hand from on high. Rescue me and deliver
me from the many waters, from the hand of foreigners whose
mouths speak lies and whose right hand is a right hand of falsehood. I will sing a new song to you,
O God. Upon a ten-stringed harp I will
play to you, who gives victory to kings, who rescues David,
his servant, from the cruel sword. Rescue me and deliver me from
the hand of foreigners, whose mouths speak lies and whose right
hand is a right hand of falsehood. May our sons in their youth be
like plants full grown, our daughters like corner pillars cut for the
structure of a palace, May our granaries be full, providing
all kinds of produce. May our sheep bring forth thousands
and ten thousands in our fields. May our cattle be heavy with
young, suffering no mishap or failure in bearing. May there
be no cry of distress in our streets. Blessed are the people
to whom such blessings fall. Blessed are the people whose
God is the Lord. Amen. This is the word of the
living God for us. Well, after all David has been
through, we’ve seen a lot of cries of distress and, you know,
not all these Psalms are chronological, nor are their situations chronological. But you, I think, understand
pretty well the life of David. David was always in trouble. getting out of trouble or getting
back into trouble. He was the king of Israel, right?
He was pursued for years in his early kingship by Saul, who hated
his guts, wanted him dead. David lived in caves. He lived
among the Philistines. He was on the run from Saul for
some time. But this is a perspective of
his kingdom that looks forward to days of peace and quiet. Remember, David’s goal, his task
as king, was to expand the borders of Israel, really to finish the
conquest of the promised land, to route out all the enemies
so that the promised land would be a place of holiness and it
would be a place of peace. The people of Israel could live
their holy lives under God’s civil law, the theocracy of Israel. They could live ritualistic,
pure lives by following the Levitical law with Jerusalem as their place
of worship. And then they could live morally
upright laws by following the Decalogue, the Ten Commandments.
And so David looks forward to finishing the conquest, to finishing
routing all the enemies of God’s people and clearing out the land
so that Israel would be a sanctuary, a place where the people of God
could live a rich covenant life. And so this Psalm asks for God’s
help, in a sense, to finish the job. or to see David through
some further difficulty. And then he speaks of better
days ahead when the people will live in peace. There’s a couple
headings for this Psalm. We want to look at the Lord.
We wanna look at a prayer, and then we wanna look at the way
David sees Israel living after there’s peace. So let’s think
in verses one through four about the Lord. He says a lot about
the Lord in these verses. Blessed be the Lord, and follow
all the titles, all the attributes of God. Blessed be the Lord,
blessed be Yahweh, my rock. He trains my hands for war. He
trains my fingers for battle. Already there’s a couple of images
that pop in your mind, the rock. What was the rock in the wilderness? Touch the rock and water comes
gushing out. He trains my hands for war, holding
a sword, my fingers for battle. You probably think of a bow and
an arrow. He is my steadfast love. He is
my fortress, he is my stronghold, he is my deliverer, he is my
shield, and he is the one in whom I take refuge, and it is
he who subdues peoples under me. This is the Lord. He trained David for war personally. David was able in his time as
kingship to expand the borders as far as they could go, east,
west, north, and south, to the sea, to the river, to the mountains,
even to the greatest lands that God had promised his people.
It probably took from about the year 1400 or so, the conquest, under Joshua and all the commanders
of the Lord’s army until David’s time in the 900s. It took about
500 years for the land to be fully conquered, to be a haven,
a sanctuary for God’s people. And then it wasn’t very long
after David, just a few hundred years before they lost the promised
land because of their disobedience. All that work, all that hardship. But God, the Lord trained David
for war. David finished the conquest.
He brought peace into the expanded borders. Remember, Israel was
a small nation. Remember in Deuteronomy, I did
not choose you because you were great among the nations, but
I set my affection upon you because you were small. And so what does
God over and over and over and over and over do in the life
of Israel? He wins battles for them. A couple weeks ago, we
remembered the psalm where it speaks of Sihon, the mighty king
of the Amorites. It mentions the names of those
nasty warriors that brought great havoc upon Israel. Israel was
small and they were up against big, bad nations and big, bad
kings. And who always won for them?
Was it David? Was it the leaders of the army? No, it was always the Lord. It
was his army led by Yahweh, the Lord of hosts, or Joshua, or
Jesus, the commander of the Lord’s army as Joshua meets him in the
wilderness. And so the Lord trains David
for war. Is it up to David to win the
battles? Nope. Is it up to David to finish the
conquest? Nope, it’s up to God. Remember
in David’s old age, he committed a great sin against the Lord.
He counted as fighting men. And the word tells us Satan incited
him to do it. But that was a great offense
to God, to count as fighting men. I think of that sometimes
as a pastor. I was talking about this with my dad the other day
when we were doing some chores together. A lot of pastors love
to count nickels and noses, nickels and noses. And I was telling
him how I always think of that as David and his census. Can we make it as a church with
our numbers? Have we cracked 100? Have we
cracked 200? Do we have 300? What’s the tithes?
What are the offerings? Nickels and noses. That’s how
a lot of times we verify, is the church succeeding? But it’s
one soul at a time. It’s one life at a time. Never
despise small things, God’s word reminds us. But the Lord, it
is the Lord who trains David’s hands for war. And it is the
Lord who takes care of his church in this world surrounded by enemies. But notice what David says in
verses three and four about the Lord. And maybe more so about
himself. Oh Lord, what is man that you
regard him? What is the son of man that you
think of him? A little echo of Psalm 8. Man is a breath. Man’s days are like a passing
shadow. Why, maybe translate it this
way, why should the Lord even be on our side? Why shouldn’t
he just let us fall into the hands of our enemies and get
the judgment that is due us? He doesn’t. It’s a wonderful
thing. So there’s a glimpse of David’s
Lord, our Lord, the Lord of the church. Let’s think about the
second, uh, section, uh, versus, uh, we’ll look at five through
eight and nine through 11, but it falls under the category of
a prayer. We’ll look first at five through
eight, bow your heavens. Oh Lord. And come down, touch
the mountains. so that they smoke. Wouldn’t
you like to do that? Just take your finger and anything
you touch, it smokes, it’s gone. Flash forth the lightning and
scatter them. Speaking of his enemies, send
out your arrows. and rout them. Stretch out your
hand from on high. Rescue me and deliver me from
the many waters from the hand of foreigners whose mouth speak
lies and whose right hand is a right hand of falsehood.” Isn’t
it wonderful to know the outcome of a victory before you get into
the mess? Think of what kings and nations
go through in order to assess a war. Well, except our kings
and nations, we just get in endless wars. in foreign lands, at least
that’s what the politics say, right? But you look at your objective,
you look at your risk, you look at your men, you look at your
arms, you look at how long it’s gonna take, and you look at your
advantages and your disadvantages, and you wage war by counting
a cost. And so David for sure needed
to do those things. But with the Lord, we will do
valiantly. Some men trust in chariots, some
trust in horses, but our trust is in the name of the Lord, our
God. And so David prays, not that his arrows would fly, but
God’s arrows. He prays that God’s fingers,
I mean, he just said, God’s trained my fingers for war, but it’s
God’s fingers that will do the work of routing the enemies.
It’s God’s stretched out hands from on high that can rescue
and deliver. So there’s a prayer for victory. And what you see here is a showdown
between the gods of the nations around Israel and the God of
the nation of Israel. It’s Yahweh versus foreign gods. And isn’t that always the way
it is? We saw it this morning in our study of Luke’s gospel,
the greater Passover, God had a showdown with Pharaoh and his
magicians, the gods of Egypt. But God had a showdown with the
gods of the Canaanites. Remember Elijah and his showdown
at the mountain. They put the altar side by side. You see what your God can do.
We’ll see what our God can do. He poured water on his. Nothing
happened. Maybe your God is taking a break. Maybe he’s around the corner.
in private, relieving himself. Remember Elijah taunted? Well,
this is, again, Yahweh versus foreign gods, foreign nations.
David needs physical help, but this is spiritual help, too.
Notice the two characteristics of the enemies. Their mouths
speak lies, and their right hands are a right hand of falsehood.
And that’s our spiritual battle, isn’t it? We are surrounded by
spiritual enemies. We are surrounded by those who
hate the Lord. They hate the church. They hate
Christ. They hate the gospel. And so
we need God’s help to win the victory. And so there’s the prayer
that God would do the fighting in verse eight. But there’s a
promise in this prayer, verses nine, 10, and 11. I will sing
a new song to you, O God. I will sing upon a 10-string
harp. I will play to you. For you give victories to kings. You rescue David, his servant,
from the cruel sword. You rescue, you deliver from
the hand of foreigners. And so David’s prayer is there
before us. Now the last part of the psalm
is, I think, one of the best. Some will say that verses 12
through 15 are just smacked on the end. These folks who don’t
think David wrote the psalm to begin with, and they say, oh,
12 to 15. 12 to 15 doesn’t fit, but let me
tell you why it fits. First of all, it fits because
we believe the Bible’s true, and the Holy Spirit inspired
David to write this psalm, and David wrote, under the inspiration
of the Holy Spirit, all 15 verses. So to say that these verses are
out of place is not to recognize the Spirit’s work. But think
about the structure of the psalms. if you will, all the Psalms of
David are coming to an end. And yes, they’re scattered through
the Psalter, but there’s a pattern in the Psalter. Every time there
are stretches of Psalms with a certain theme, it usually ends
with a one to two Psalm burst. And so Psalms 144 and 145 are
a ending or a burst of hymnody to the Lord through the pen of
King David by the power of the Holy Spirit. But something else
we’re going to see in just a moment, Psalm 144 are prayers to God,
especially these verses 12 to 15. And something we’re going
to see in a moment that’s very interesting. These prayers are
reflected on by old King David in Psalm 18. And you say, well,
Psalm 18 was before this. Well, it was before this in the
Psalter, but maybe not before this chronologically. So I wanna
think about this section, verses 12 to 15, under the title Redeemed
to Live. Why does God save people? Why
does God bring Israel out of Egypt? Why does God bring you
out of sin and misery and into a life as a new creation? He
brings you from death to life that you might live for him.
He brings Israel out of Egypt into the promised land to serve
the living God, but also to prosper. And we see the hints, the strong
words, ideas of prosperity in verses 12 to 15. But why does
God bring us out of slavery, out of bondage, out of darkness?
Why does he bring us into the light? It’s so that we’ll worship.
It’s so that we’ll learn and strengthen our faith and it’s
so that we’ll live for him. And that was true in the promised
land. Israel was to be a nation under Yahweh, living for him,
worshiping him, serving him, and they were to be a light to
the surrounding nations. Now we’ve become Christians and we
are a light to the world wherever we are. But David’s role as king
over Israel was to create and to build and to protect a set
of borders that would allow within those borders covenant living,
a holy nation, a holy priesthood, no foreigners, no God haters,
no idol worshipers. And we can think of this in the
same way with church life. Why do we gain entrance into
the church? Is it to look like the world?
No, it’s to be set apart. It’s to be called out of Ur of
the Chaldeans, to live by faith in the promised land. And it’s
to live for God. So I want to think about some
of these themes for just a moment. May our sons and their youth
be like plants full grown. May our daughters, like corner
pillars, be cut for the structure of a palace. May our granaries
be full, providing all kinds of produce. May our sheep bring
forth thousands and ten thousands in our fields. May our cattle
be heavy with young, suffering no mishap or failure in bearing.
May there be no cry of distress in our streets. These are the
covenant life blessings that God can provide for Israel. He does provide for Israel. Under
Solomon, the kingdom got better. And then after that, there was
a downhill turn with the split of the kingdom, the unfaithfulness
of many of the kings. But there’s some wonderful word
pictures here. May our sons and their youth
be like plants full grown. If you walk down just below our
house, they’ve cut down all the big oaks along the Davis Street
corridor. They were grown into the road
and a lot of them were heart dead. Some of them had even fallen
on houses. So they came through the city,
the arborists studied them, they cut down all the trouble ones,
which were I think most of them, and in the last two years they
planted these little bitty saplings. Last week there was a big windstorm
and I noticed a bunch of the saplings that were two years
old and had promise, they just popped. They just broke about
a couple feet off the ground. It’s kind of a sad thing. But
when we plant a tree, we stake it. And during those vulnerable
years where the wind blows, the stakes and the wires or strings,
they hold it in place so that as that little sapling grows,
its roots can spread and it can have a stable stable life. But your hope is, your goal is
for those saplings to turn into giant trees that provide strength
and shade and all the rest. And that’s what David says about
our sons and their youth. May they have opportunity because
there’s peace in the land to be nurtured in the fear of the
Lord. And the same for the daughters.
They have a different purpose in life. Buildings were built
and say, if you looked in each corner of a building, there would
be a corner pillar and that corner pillar would hold the walls together. often very tall walls, but it
would also hold the roof structure together so that the building
wouldn’t sway and spread apart and the roof collapse inwardly. But often these corner pillars
were decorated. They were for strength, but also
for beauty. And so there’s this vision, not
only for the sons, but a vision for the daughters as well. We want strong, mighty sons and
graceful daughters. who are, in a sense, helpers. What does a pillar do? It provides
strength. A pillar that is noble in appearance, but strong in
its structure. Tall, beautiful, and supportive. And then what does he go on to
say? May our granaries be full. Don’t you hear echoes of famines? When were the granaries full?
It was under the work of Joseph in Egypt when he provided for
the whole Middle East. They are sheep bring forth thousands. You get another picture in the
Bible of, uh, was it Jacob who served Laban so many years for
one wife got tricked and got the ugly one. So he worked another
number of years and got the pretty one. Um, the one he wanted in
the first place, there was all that tricking and conniving from
Jacob and Esau and then Jacob and Laban. But now, uh, Jacob
returns to the promised land with a whole bunch of sheep. God prospered him. The lambs
gave baby lambs. Maybe there’ll be 10,000 in our
fields. May our cattle be heavy with
young suffering, no mishap, no miscarriage. And then importantly,
may there be no cry of distress in the streets, the Philistines
are coming, or the Canaanites are in the camp, or some misfortune
from outside enemies. And notice the blessing here
at the end. Blessed are the people to whom such blessings fall.
Blessed are the people whose God is the Lord. I think it was
Wednesday night we were talking about Genesis chapter three,
the curses of sin, the effects of the fall. And isn’t it wonderful
how God still gives us a blessed life, even in a cursed world?
And one of the things we said in summary Wednesday night was
that a Christian family ought to center their lives around
church and home. Yes, there’s got to be work,
you gotta have income, but you center your life around church
and home, the covenant blessings will come. I want you to flip
to Psalm 18. This is David reflecting as an
old man. We can’t read the whole thing.
The whole thing’s really long. This is David after a battle
with Saul. He says, I love you, oh Lord,
my strength. This is I love you, O Lord, my
strength. The Lord is my rock, my fortress,
my deliverer, my God, in whom I take refuge, my shield, the
horn of my salvation, my stronghold. I call upon the Lord who is worthy
to be praised. I am saved from my enemies. Notice all the past
tense. The cords of death encompassed
me. In my distress, verse six, I called upon the Lord. From
his temple, he heard my voice. My cry reached his ears. The
earth reeled and rocked. See, in Psalm 144, he’s saying,
you touch the mountains with your fingers and they’ll smoke.
You do these things that need to be done. Now he’s saying,
you did, the earth reeled, the earth rocked, the foundations.
He bowed the heavens, verse nine. He came down. Thick darkness
was under his feet. And on and on, you can read through
that Psalm and see God was faithful to answer many of David’s prayers.
And God was good. But think of the blessing, verse
15. Blessed are the people to whom such blessings fall. Blessed are the people whose
God is the Lord. Let’s say a prayer together.
Father, we pray that you would bless us with knowledge of you,
that you would train us for the spiritual wars that face us.
Let us know the great words of Ephesians six, the whole armor
of God, and know that it is you who win these wars for us and
with us. And we want to be blessed. And
so we ask for your help and grace in Christ’s name. Amen.