1Blessed be the Lord my Rock,
Who trains my hands for war,
And my fingers for battle—
2My lovingkindness and my fortress,
My high tower and my
deliverer,
My shield and the One in whom
I take refuge,
Who subdues my people under
me.
3Lord, what is man,
that You take knowledge of him?
Or the son of man, that You
are mindful of him?
4Man is like a breath;
His days are like a passing
shadow.
5Bow down Your heavens,
O Lord, and come down;
Touch the mountains, and they
shall smoke.
6Flash forth lightning and scatter them;
Shoot out Your arrows and
destroy them.
7Stretch out Your hand from above;
Rescue me and deliver me out
of great waters,
From the hand of foreigners,
8Whose mouth speaks lying words,
And whose right hand is a
right hand of falsehood.
9I will sing a new song to You, O God;
On a harp of ten strings
I will sing praises to You,
10The One who gives salvation to kings,
Who delivers David His servant
From the deadly sword.
11Rescue me and deliver me from the hand of foreigners,
Whose mouth speaks lying
words,
And whose right hand is a
right hand of falsehood—
12That our sons may be as plants grown up in their youth;
That our daughters may be as
pillars,
Sculptured in palace style;
13That our barns may be full,
Supplying all kinds of
produce;
That our sheep may bring forth
thousands
And ten thousands in our
fields;
14That our oxen may be well laden;
That there be no breaking in
or going out;
That there be no outcry in our
streets.
15Happy are the people who are in such a state;
Happy are the people whose God
is the Lord!
Commentary
Vs.
1
“Blessed be the Lord
my Rock,
Who trains my hands for war,
And my fingers for battle—”
David’s opens this psalm by blessing the Lord our Rock, for He alone is the One on whom we stand and are made to stand justified in the Presence of God. In blessing the Lord, David declares how it is the Lord who trains his hands for war and his fingers for battle. For it is the Lord our God and Savior Jesus Christ who makes us into His new creations In Christ, giving us the Spirit gifts and talents that we will need for the work that He wants us to do, and all the battles we will face. In David’s case this began early on in his life as his role as a shepherd for his own father really was God also preparing him to be a man of war, to fight the Lord’s battles, and ultimately lead His people during some of their most hostile times. These abilities though were not readily apparent until that faithful day when David slew the Philistine giant before he would go on to lead Israel's forces and then the nation. And so David upon reflection can now see how the Lord has done this for him, how He continues to grow and develop him to fight His battles by giving him all the skills and abilities that he needs to vanquish the foe. David then is gratefully delighting in the Lord our God who has made all things possible for him and us, (consider Phil. 4:13). There is then nothing that our God asks us to do that He has not also first given us the abilities and capabilities to do. It is then our responsibility to develop those gifts and talents He has now given us and use them thoroughly for the churches edification in love (consider Matt. 25:14-30; Luke 19:12-27; Eph. 4:7-16).
Vs. 2 “My lovingkindness and my fortress,
My high tower and my
deliverer,
My shield and the One in whom
I take refuge,
Who subdues my people under
me.”
David’s personalization of the Lord's Person here towards himself should be our own also, especially his delighting in Him, for the Lord Jesus Christ is also my lovingkindness; my fortress. my high tower and my deliver, my shield and the One in whom I take refuge, The military metaphors are plentiful here, and as such God is first our lovingkindness, for it is God our Father who in His love for us has saved us. As such He is also our fortress, our protection, our watchtower, our deliverer, our shield, when we are exposed to the enemy’s forces in the battlefield of our lives, He is the One in whom we take refuge in, when either they or our lives circumstances seek to overwhelm us.
Vs. 3-4 3Lord, what is man, that You take knowledge of him?
Or the son of man, that You
are mindful of him?
4Man is like a breath;
His days are like a passing
shadow.
David now marvels that our Great God who is so Holy and so Supreme in everyway and in everything, would even take note of us. And yet He always takes knowledge of us all. For He does not Exist and Rule in indifference to us, rather He takes note of us, everyone of us, even though we are so fragile and temporal, for we all are like a breath ever so briefly seen on a cold day before it soon vanishes away. Indeed, all our days are like a passing shadow before Him. And if He chose to look away we would all be gone, lost forever. Nonetheless as the Scripture says, He takes note of us so that we can continue on with Him, whether as individuals or His nation.
Vs. 5-8 5Bow down Your heavens,
O Lord, and come down;
Touch the mountains, and they shall smoke.
6Flash forth lightning and scatter them;
Shoot out Your arrows and
destroy them.
7Stretch out Your hand from above;
Rescue me and deliver me out
of great waters,
From the hand of foreigners,
8Whose mouth speaks lying words,
And whose right hand is a
right hand of falsehood.
David now envisions the Lord Mightily Coming to save him, bowing down His heavens and touching the mountains so that smoke, (blinding then the enemy to his presence), flashing forth great thunder bolts of lightening so as to strike great fear in the hearts of all his adversaries. For David has called upon our God to deliver him from his enemies, from the Lord’s enemies, by His striking a mighty blow upon them all. This then is not our God working through a man or nation to accomplish His purposes on earth to vanquish the wicked from it, but His directly striking them down by His using His power in His creation (vs. 6). Now in asking the Lord to strike down our enemies, David also asks the Lord to stretch out His hand and rescue and deliver him out of great waters (a metaphor for his being rescued from the perils of the deep, from troubles that he cannot escape on his own), from the hands of foreign invaders, who have invaded God’s land, whose mouths only speak lying words, (and this they do with hypocritical smiles on their faces), whose right hand is full of falsehood. Whether this means their religious idols, (and thus their belief systems), or they' re shaking hands with you in a pledge, David knows all to well that they're promise to you is "a swamp", as Bruce Coburn would say.
Vs. 9-10 9I will sing a new song to You, O God;
On a harp of ten strings
I will sing praises to You,
10The One who gives salvation to kings,
Who delivers David His servant
From the deadly sword.
Knowing our God and Savior David can even now resound with joy in the Lord. For he knows that our God is with him; so much so that his heart wants to sing a new song to our God. To begin composing new and glorious worship songs to Him. Therefore he will (we will) sing our praises to the One who gives salvation to kings, (to all His Godly leaders and rulers), for David knows that our God will deliver him, His servant from the deadly sword. For truly it is God’s delight to uphold the righteous in his battles. Therefore, David can boldly say this, because he himself has experienced God’s deliverance time and again from the deadly sword in his own life.
Whose mouth speaks lying
words,
And whose right hand is a
right hand of falsehood—
12That our sons may be as plants grown up in their youth;
That our daughters may be as
pillars,
Sculptured in palace style;
13That our barns may be full,
Supplying all kinds of
produce;
That our sheep may bring forth
thousands
And ten thousands in our
fields;
14That our oxen may be well laden;
That there be no breaking in
or going out;
That there be no outcry in our
streets.
15Happy are the people who are in such a state;
Happy are the people whose God
is the Lord!
Once again David’s prayer is that the Lord our God rescue him from the hands of foreigners, whose mouths speak lying words, and whose right hand is a right hand of falsehood (vs. 11); meaning they are hypocritical liars, deal breakers, who smilingly shake hands in a pledge of peace with you on the one hand while working with those who seek your ruin on the other. Now this is Israel’s ongoing dilemma with their hostile neighbors, who down through the ages, even when they are at “peace” with them, still want them gone. In this consider Sihon king of the Amorites aggression towards Israel and Japheth’s response to him (see Judges 11:12-28). Therefore, David knows that the only one who can make true lasting peace for all of Israel is the Lord our God, but this cannot occur until Israel comes back to Him and receives His Son Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. For they will not know peace until the Prince of Peace Reigns. The rest of the verses then (like so many of the prophecies in Isaiah and elsewhere) give a very picturesque image of Israel at that time, Verse twelve, their sons will be grow up amongst them like flourishing plants, healthy, strong, and full of vitality, while all their daughters will be beautiful and lovely, all of them finely arrayed, elegant, and dignified, they will be most pleasing to one’s eye, like the sculptured pillars of a palace.
Vs. 13 Their land itself will also bear exceedingly much fruit and abundance, for all their barns will overflow from the Lord’s blessing them, their flocks and herds will increase, and livestock will fill the hills and the pasture ranges, everything they lay their hands on will prosper during the Lord’s Jesus Christ’s Reign over them.
Vs.
14 Their oxen will be well laden which is indicating that Israel’s abundance will be so great that whatever they
take to market will be a heavy burden on their oxen. As for society as a whole, there will be no crime amongst them, and no foreign invaders will ever again enter their land and take them hostages, and no foreign armies
will ever lead them collectively into captivity again. There will be no outcries in the
streets, for the land will be most just, people will not protest, nor raise up a raucous,
the Lord Jesus Christ’s Reign and Government will be the Most Just and Fair towards
all.
Vs. 15 “Happy are the people who are in such a state;
Happy are the people whose God
is the Lord!”
Are you listening Israel? Do you hear the voice of your great leader and king David? For he himself lived his life and ruled God’s people with an earnest expectation and desire to meet and see the Lord Jesus Christ his Lord and Savior. Therefore David by God’s Holy Spirit wrote about Him in his Psalms so that his people, all people, would also believe in Him. For by God’s Holy Spirit within him he foretold of the Lord Jesus Christ’s Crucifixion death (see Psalm 22), as well as Israel’s rejection of him in spite of it (see Psalm 69:20-23). Do not then be like those ancient Jews who rejected the Word of the Lord who came to them first, for ultimately they chose a murderer for themselves rather than Him (Matt 27:15-25), who descendants have thus have reaped the consequences down through the ages of their rejecting Him (Matt. 27:25). That said their is still God's Redemption waiting for Israel to return to Him for they will collectively have it when they receive the Lord Jesus Christ and say to Him, “Blessed is He who comes in the Name of the Lord.” Psalm 118:26 (please see Matt. 23:37-39 to understand).
Scripture Quotations
New King James (1982): Thomas Nelson.
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