Psalm 144

A Prayer for National Safety

144Of David.^a

¹Blessed be Yahweh, my rock,

the one who trains my hands for battle,

my fingers for war—

²my loyal love and my fortress,

my stronghold and my deliverer,

my shield, and one in whom I take refuge,

the one who subdues peoples^b under me.

³O Yahweh, what is humankind that you take knowledge of him,

or the son of man that you take thought of him?

⁴Humankind is like a breath,

his days like a passing shadow.

⁵O Yahweh, bow the heavens and come down;

touch the mountains so that they smoke.

⁶Flash forth lightning and scatter them;

dispatch your arrows and rout them.

⁷Stretch out your hands from on high;

Rescue me and deliver me from many waters,

from the hand of foreigners,

⁸whose mouth speaks falsely,

and their right hand is a false right hand.

⁹O God, I will sing a new song to you.

With a lyre of ten strings I will sing praise to you,

¹⁰who gives victory to kings,

who rescues David his servant

from the evil sword.

¹¹Rescue me and deliver me

from the hand of foreigners,

whose mouth speaks falsely,

and whose right hand is a false right hand,

¹²that our sons may be like plants,

full grown in their youth,

our daughters like corner pillars,

carved in the style of a palace,

¹³that our granaries may be full,

providing produce of all kinds,^c

that our sheep may produce by the thousands,

by the tens of thousands in our open fields,

¹⁴that our cattle may be pregnant;

that there be no breach in our walls,

and no going out in exile,

and no outcry in our plazas.

¹⁵Blessed are the people who have it thus.

Blessed are the people whose God is Yahweh.