Scripture Reading:

Psalm 144

1 Blessed be the Lord my strength which teacheth my hands to war, and my fingers to fight:

2 My goodness, and my fortress; my high tower, and my deliverer; my shield, and he in whom I trust; who subdueth my people under me.

3 Lord, what is man, that thou takest knowledge of him! or the son of man, that thou makest account of him!

4 Man is like to vanity: his days are as a shadow that passeth away.

5 Bow thy heavens, O Lord, and come down: touch the mountains, and they shall smoke.

6 Cast forth lightning, and scatter them: shoot out thine arrows, and destroy them.

7 Send thine hand from above; rid me, and deliver me out of great waters, from the hand of strange children;

8 Whose mouth speaketh vanity, and their right hand is a right hand of falsehood.

9 I will sing a new song unto thee, O God: upon a psaltery and an instrument of ten strings will I sing praises unto thee.

10 It is he that giveth salvation unto kings: who delivereth David his servant from the hurtful sword.

11 Rid me, and deliver me from the hand of strange children, whose mouth speaketh vanity, and their right hand is a right hand of falsehood:

12 That our sons may be as plants grown up in their youth; that our daughters may be as corner stones, polished after the similitude of a palace:

13 That our garners may be full, affording all manner of store: that our sheep may bring forth thousands and ten thousands in our streets:

14 That our oxen may be strong to labour; that there be no breaking in, nor going out; that there be no complaining in our streets.

15 Happy is that people, that is in such a case: yea, happy is that people, whose God is the Lord.

The Point:

We ask God for deliverance from the worldly powers that try to corrupt God’s people, in hopes that we might see blessings, and spiritual and physical health, in our family and our community.

How do we feel in the recitation of this Psalm?

In faith, we grasp the tremendous contrast between God’s almighty power and the weakness of men. While we are cognizant of the dangers and deceits of this world, we are far more impressed by the power of God. Then, we respond with gratefulness as we think of the blessings that come to families who are covenanted to God and are purged from the influences of the world. What a joy to see our children walking in the truth! What more blessed state can there be in this world than to witness generations of children and grandchildren faithfully serving the Lord?

What does this Psalm say?

Verses 1-2

This psalm brings together war and peace—the destruction of God’s enemies and the protection of God’s people—at the same time. These are not unusual themes, especially when we look at the history of redemption. At the Red Sea, there is both the destruction of God’s enemies and the preservation of God’s people. The same thing can be said for Noah’s ark and the worldwide flood. These are pictures of God’s redemption for the church.

This psalm introduces David as the great warrior whom God has taught to fight. Battle language is not unusual for God’s men. Towards the end of his life, the Apostle Paul claimed that he had “fought a good fight.” While it is true that God fights for us, He also teaches us to fight. We learn that our weaponry is not carnal (2 Cor. 10:4), and our enemy is not flesh and blood (Eph. 6:12). Between here and heaven, there is a battle to wage. Every Christian must face his Goliath in the Valley of Elah, and Apollyon in the Valley of the Humiliation. Our enemies are demonic powers, the rulers of the darkness of this world, and spiritual wickedness that dominates in powerful institutions of men.

We can only battle in the power of His might, in the strength that He gives us. If we attempt to take on these terrifying enemies in our own strength, we will most certainly be decimated. Any believer who has attempted it can testify to that. Although David is thankful for his ability to fight Israel’s battles, his focus is on God’s defense and intervention. Therefore, he refers to the Lord as his strength, fortress, high tower, shield, and deliverer.

Verses 3-4

When facing seemingly insurmountable enemies, it is good to contrast man with God. Whether it is yourself or powerful political enemies, it doesn’t matter. Man is hardly worth talking about. “What is man that you would even take notice of him?” These contemplations bring everything into proper perspective. These thoughts humble us and comfort us at the same time. Man is so fragile; he is mortal and extremely vulnerable to disease, emotional and mental breakdown, and death. The most powerful man in the world has dementia within five years of retiring from public office, and it isn’t long before he doesn’t even know his own name. “His days are as a shadow that passes away.”

Verses 5-11

Before reviewing the blessings of covenant community, we must go to war. In a temporal, physical sense, David goes to war against Israel’s enemies in hopes that there will be peace and prosperity for God’s people. However, it is clear that the psalm is speaking of spiritual conflict as well. The covenant community cannot exist if it is utterly controlled by the world, the flesh, and the devil. Many churches today have completely capitulated to the enemy so there is no war, no real casualties, and no suffering. However, a local church will never be truly part of Christ’s bride if it is completely dominated by flesh, pride, lust, and worldly ideas and practices.

David calls for God’s intervention in his battle. The enemy forces are defined in verses 7, 8, and 11.

They are foreigners who are known for speaking vanity and falsehood. Instantly, all of us should recognize this to be the very definition of “the world.” These false teachers were promoting anti-biblical ideologies and sinful patterns. In our day, they advocate the use of contraceptives with abortifacient capacities, and call it “choice.” They promote self-centeredness in sexuality, marriage, church, and worship. Their message comes through loud and clear via media, advertising, and entertainment, although they would not admit that they have this agenda. They undermine the sovereignty of God and the fear of God when they teach man-centeredness in astronomy, biology, history, and literature classes. The Christian community often accepts these inputs uncritically. They don’t realize these foreigners are speaking vanity and falsehoods, luring Christians into the idolatry of materialism by political agendas and speeches, glossy advertisements, storefront displays, educational systems, and success seminars. David reacts strongly against these powerful systems that specialize in marketing vanity and manufacturing lies. He rightly concludes that no mere human being can stand against the principalities and powers that rule over this ungodly age. The Christian church and the Christian family simply cannot survive where self-centeredness, self-aggrandizement, self-worship, and man-centeredness dominate.

Thankfully, the world’s stranglehold was broken at the cross. As the Apostle Paul explains, it is through the cross that “the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world” (Gal. 6:14). Our Lord Jesus Christ made a show of the principalities and powers in His cross (Col. 2:15). The prince of this world was cast out, and our Lord got Himself the victory there! Before Christ comes, we are under the control of the prince of the power of the air, the evil spirit that works in the children of disobedience (Eph. 2:2). We walk according to the course of this world and we are children of wrath, “even as others” (Eph. 2:3). Whereas David saw the enemy in the form of the dark and deceived nations that surrounded Israel, we have a clearer understanding of the real enemy because of these New Testament passages.

David sings a battle song of victory, praising God for His deliverance from these virulent enemies. There is a celebratory air in this psalm, as we come away with the true sense of our victory. “This is the victory that overcomes the world, even our faith.”

Verses 12-15

The remainder of the psalm describes the blessing of the covenant community and the generational faithfulness that comes when the world’s influence is quelled. Instead of rebellion, lust, deceit, covetousness, drunkenness, and strife, we find sons and daughters whose God is the Lord. Our sons bear fruit unto righteousness even in their youth. They do not feel the need to take four years to test out the world’s party scene in drunkenness and debauchery at college. Our daughters are stable, solid, and beautiful stones from which come many faithful generations of believers. While this vision is a far cry from the pattern of generational rebellion that is so common today, we need to claim these promises and pray this vision to God. It is a test of our faith to pray like this. Every church needs to plead with God as David does in the first part of this psalm—that He would overcome the worldly influences that so easily corrupt our children and destroy our covenant communities in the present day. Every day, let us pray for children who are faithful to the covenant.

The blessings listed in verses 13 and 14 speak of spiritual blessings as well as material. If the church is distinct from the world, the divorce rate in the church will be much less than that which is seen in the world. The church’s rate of illegitimate births will be a fraction of the world’s. Of course, we will find in the church repentant sinners who have turned away from their former lifestyle. Those who aborted their children in the past now count children a blessing, and they may even adopt orphans. Those Christian nations populated with tens of thousands of biblical churches really have been blessed over the years.

Organizations like the Heritage Foundation and Transparency International have identified the most prosperous nations, the freest nations, and the most honest nations in their annual surveys. Almost without exception, these are Christian nations or at least nations with strong Christian heritage. The vision contained in these verses (and in Deuteronomy 28) has been realized in recent history.

Individual families must be careful not to apply verses 13 and 14 directly to themselves. Some teachers in our day promote a health and wealth gospel—that each Christian must and will live in material prosperity. A more careful consideration of this passage cannot draw such a conclusion. References to “streets” point rather to a corporate blessing. Generally, God blesses entire communities and nations that are faithful to Him. Most of the Western nations today have huge debt-to-GDP ratios, unsalvageable birth implosions, and unsustainable economic and agricultural systems because they have rejected God. They have unleashed perverted and destructive forms of science in genetic engineering, created weapons of mass destruction, and conducted stem cell research using aborted fetuses because they do not fear God or worship Him. This new science has become exceedingly dangerous.

Nonetheless, the true people of God, the church should be a sharp contrast to the world, even in these days. In this set-apart covenant body we will find a people who are blessed with godly children and love for one another. These are the ones who have walked out of Sodom. By the grace of God, they have walked away from its sexual nihilism of pornography addictions and homosexuality. They do not gorge on a materialistic lifestyle of debt and voluntary enslavement. The last verse provides the basis for these blessings. Blessed will be the nation, or the family, that rejects idolatry and embraces the true and living God as their God. “Happy is that people whose God is the Lord!”

How do we apply this Psalm to our lives?

“Come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord” (2 Cor. 6:17). Too many professing Christians love the world and hate their brother. They speak excitedly of the latest blockbuster movies produced by ungodly men where the Lord’s name is blasphemed and fornication is committed with impunity. Then, they create division in the churches and refuse to bear all things, believe all things, and endure all things in love for the brother and sister. In this demonstration of their true affections, they prove themselves not to be followers of Christ. “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world,” says John. That means we pray against the world, we avoid all fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, and we do not touch the unclean thing.

Let us also desire children who are fruitful for the kingdom of God. We want to raise our children in the greenhouse of Christ, in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. First, we must have a vision or a desire for it. Then, we must pray fervently for God’s blessings of sons and daughters who hunger and thirst after righteousness in their youth. Too many young people raised in Christian homes want to dally with the world. It is a supernatural act of the Holy Spirit of God whenever there is a child who remembers his Creator in the days of his youth.

How does this Psalm teach us to worship God?

Pastors and teachers in the church should preach and pray against the world’s idolatries and ideas. This includes a wise understanding of what the “foods offered to idols” are in our society today. What are the cultural symbols that represent the ideas and idolatries of the day? To mindlessly accept every worldly idea, and every cultural practice and symbol will create a synthesis with the world. This will destroy the church, as we have seen many times over the last two hundred years. Though most of the nations around the world may be in rebellion against God now, the true church will always be a special place, blessed by God, and different from the world.

Questions:

1. How does this psalm speak of war and peace?

2. Who is David fighting against? What is the word he uses to describe them? What is it that we fight?

3. How did Christ break the stranglehold that the world had on us?

4. Provide several examples of how the world can infiltrate a local church and destroy it.

5. What are the blessings of the true people of God, who are protected from the influences of the world?

6. How do verses 13 and 14 not support the “health and wealth gospel?”

Family Discussion Questions:

1. Provide several examples of worldly ideas that are both vain and deceitful.

2. What are some specific prayer requests we can raise concerning our own family and our own church community? How could we pray for a more spiritually-vibrant church community? How can we pray for our children, in reference to the blessings iterated in verse 12?