My Rock, My Refuge
Of David.
David begins with hands trained for war and immediately admits how slight a man is — a breath, a passing shadow. He asks his Father to bend the sky down and to rescue him from liars, then describes the peace he wants: full barns and thriving children.
144 1Blessed be my Father, my rock, who trains my hands for war, my fingers for battle, 2my covenant love and my fortress, my stronghold and my deliverer, my shield in whom I take refuge, who subdues peoples under me.
3My Father, what is man that you take notice of him, the son of man that you think of him? 4Man is like a breath; his days are like a passing shadow.
5My Father, bow your heavens and come down; touch the mountains, and they will smoke. 6Flash your lightning and scatter them; shoot your arrows and rout them. 7Stretch out your hand from on high; rescue me and deliver me from the mighty waters, from the hand of foreigners, 8whose mouths speak lies and whose right hand swears falsely.
9My Father, I will sing a new song to you; on a ten-stringed harp I will make music to you, 10to the one who gives victory to kings, who rescues David his servant from the cruel sword.
11Rescue me and deliver me from the hand of foreigners, whose mouths speak lies and whose right hand swears falsely.
12Then our sons will be like plants grown tall in their youth, our daughters like corner pillars carved for a palace. 13Our barns will be full, supplying every kind of produce; our flocks will increase by thousands, by tens of thousands in our fields; 14our cattle heavy with young, with no breaching of walls, no going into captivity, and no cry of distress in our streets. 15Blessed are the people to whom such things belong; blessed are the people who have our Father as their own.
