
Our Heavenly Resource
Psalm 144
Don Ruhl • Savage Street, Grants Pass, Oregon • January 27, In the year of our Lord Christ, 2019
Prelude:
- Brother Roy Deaver introduced Psalm 144 with this comment:
“Psalms 135 through 139 emphasize the power and the sufficiency of God. Psalms 140 through 143 stress the helplessness of man. Then, as a beautiful summary, THIS Psalm combines both these thoughts. Without God, man is helpless. With God, man can accomplish great and wonderful good” (p. 261).
- Notice the movement of this Psalm:
- Acknowledge who God is.
- Acknowledge who man is.
- Why man needs God.
- Celebrate God when He helps.
- Show God’s Blessings.
- One thing leads to the next.
- Knowing who God is and
- how man is nothing in comparison,
- makes it easy to see why we need Him.
- When we do call on Him in our need, and
- He answers,
- celebrate Him and
- announce His blessings.
Persuasion:
- Psalm 144.0 | A Man Who Knew God
0 A Psalm of David.
- David had known poverty and ______ as a shepherd, and
- he had known prestige and power as a king.
- Out of all those experiences,
- he wrote 75 psalms
- covering many issues of life.
- Read the Psalms,
- embrace the thinking of the psalmists, and
- your spirit shall be as rich as their spirits.
- Psalm 144.1–2 | Who Is the Lord?
1 Blessed be the LORD my Rock,
Who trains my hands for war,
And my fingers for battle—
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.
- See who and what God was to David:
- He was David’s rock.
- He was David’s trainer for battle and war.
- He was David’s lovingkindness.
- He was David’s fortress.
- He was David’s high tower.
- He was David’s deliverer.
- He was David’s shield.
- He was David’s refuge.
- He subdued David’s people under Him.
- Those were all battle images.
- As the king, the commander in chief,
- he needed all those things,
- including his people subdued to him,
- otherwise, how could he lead in battle?
- All the images David used to picture the Lord
- are things you want in battle.
- However, the Lord is better than the actual images.
- As a rock, the Lord is better than any rock on earth.
- As a shield, no shield of man compares to Him.
- See who and what God was to David:
- Psalm 144.3–4 | What Is Man?
3 LORD, what is man, that You take knowledge of him?
Or the son of man, that You are mindful of him?
4 Man is like a breath;
His days are like a passing shadow.
- In comparison to the Lord, man is nothing.
- The superiority of the Lord over man
- is infinitely greater than the superiority of man over a worm.
- That is what you need when in battle.
- That is why David won every time.
- Yet, that made David question
- why the Lord would take knowledge of man and
- why the Lord would be mindful of man.
- The Lord is
- a rock,
- a fortress,
- a high tower,
- a shield,
- a refuge.
- Whereas man is
- a breath and
- a passing shadow.
- How much attention do you give to every breath?
- When you walk, how impressed are you with the shadows?
- Yet, the rock fortress with a high tower and shields in place, acting as a refuge
- notes the breath and shadows that go by.
- He is mindful of all the breaths and shadows.
- He fights for them.
- He defends them.
- Wait until we get to the end of the Psalm and
- you see how he blesses all those breaths and shadows.
- Most of us are familiar with James 4.14:
14b What is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away (James 4.14b).
- You just saw Psalm 144.4 refer to man as a breath and a shadow.
- Here are some other similar pictures:
9 “For we were born yesterday, and know nothing,
Because our days on earth are a shadow.”
(Job 8.9)
2 “He comes forth like a flower and fades away;
He flees like a shadow and does not continue.”
(Job 14.2)
11 When with rebukes You correct man for iniquity,
You make his beauty melt away like a moth;
Surely every man is vapor.
(Psalm 39.11)
11 My days are like a shadow that lengthens,
And I wither away like grass.
(Psalm 102.11)
6 The voice said, “Cry out!”
And he said, “What shall I cry?”
“All flesh is grass,
And all its loveliness is like the flower of the field.
7 The grass withers, the flower fades,
Because the breath of the LORD blows upon it;
Surely the people are grass.
8 The grass withers, the flower fades,
But the word of our God stands forever.”
(Isaiah 40.6–8)
First Peter 1.24–25 quotes Isaiah
- In comparison to the Lord, man is nothing.
- Psalm 144.5–8 | Bow Down the Heavens
5 Bow down Your heavens, O LORD, and come down;
Touch the mountains, and they shall smoke.
6 Flash forth lightning and scatter them;
Shoot out Your arrows and destroy them.
7 Stretch out Your hand from above;
Rescue me and deliver me out of great waters,
From the hand of foreigners,
8 Whose mouth speaks lying words,
And whose right hand is a right hand of falsehood.
- David took references from the Lord’s appearance on Mount Sinai:
16 Then it came to pass on the third day, in the morning, that there were thunderings and lightnings, and a thick cloud on the mountain; and the sound of the trumpet was very loud, so that all the people who were in the camp trembled (Exodus 19.16).
- David was simply asking the Lord to make a great display of His power.
- Then David explained what the problem was:
- He was caught in great waters, and
- he told us what he meant by that,
- foreigners or aliens, people who were not of the Lord.
- What were they doing to David?
- They were speaking lies.
- They were creating falsehood.
- He was drowning in their lies.
- It was like a vehement storm,
- raging against him, ready to destroy him.
- He was caught in great waters, and
- David took references from the Lord’s appearance on Mount Sinai:
- Psalm 144.9–10 | Sing a New Song
9 I will sing a new song to You, O God;
On a harp of ten strings I will sing praises to You,
10 The One who gives salvation to kings,
Who delivers David His servant
From the deadly sword.
- Look at the sudden shift from verse 8 to verse 9!
- An enemy was lying about him,
- spreading falsehood,
- so much so that it was about to destroy him.
- The situation was bad enough that he needed God’s power to defeat it.
- Then at the snap of a finger,
- David said that he would sing a new song to God,
- David would sing praises to God on a harp of ten strings.
- Why would David do so?
- God gives salvation to kings and
- would deliver David from the deadly sword,
- to which he would be subject,
- if people believed the lies.
- Deaver:
“The Psalmist speaks in confidence that peace and prosperity will be given him” (Page 262).
- This is also typical of the Psalms.
- The psalmist has a problem, and
- he prays to God about it, but
- the psalmist is so confident of
- God hearing him, and
- God answering him,
- that before the deliverance even happens,
- the psalmist starts planning a celebration of the Lord!
- Then David made one more plea for help.
- Look at the sudden shift from verse 8 to verse 9!
- Psalm 144.11–15 | The Happy People
11 Rescue me and deliver me from the hand of foreigners,
Whose mouth speaks lying words,
And whose 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 pillars,
Sculptured in palace style;
13 That our barns may be full,
Supplying all kinds of produce;
That our sheep may bring forth thousands
And ten thousands in our fields;
14 That our oxen may be well laden;
That there be no breaking in or going out;
That there be no outcry in our streets.
15 Happy are the people who are in such a state;
Happy are the people whose God is the LORD!
- David wanted rescue and deliverance
- from these liars,
- not just for his sake, but
- for the sake of his nation.
- If the Lord delivered from the spreader of falsehoods, they could have:
- sons grown up as plants,
- daughters as sculptured pillars in palace style,
- barns full of produce,
- sheep multiplying,
- oxen that have large loads to carry, and
- no cry of distress in the streets.
- Because the church has had freedom in America,
- this is how we have been blessed also.
- To me, David said it all with the last two lines:
- Such a people are happy with that abundance, and
- such people are happy because their God is Yahweh.
- David wanted rescue and deliverance
Exhortation:
- God is our unlimited source for all good things.
- Whatever troubles, temptations, trials, or tribulations we experience He is the One who gives us the victory.
- The Psalm teaches (main points from Wiersbe, Bible Commentary: Old Testament, p. 407)
- “Let God train you before the battle (vv. 1–4).”
- “Let God help you in the battle (vv. 5–8).”
- “Sing God’s praises after the battle (vv. 9–15).”
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