Written by David

144 I praise Yahweh, who is like an overhanging rock under which I ◄get refuge/am protected►!

He trains my hands so that I can use them to fight battles;

he trains my fingers so that I can shoot arrows in a war.

2 He is the one who protects me;

he is like a fortress [DOU] in which I am safe,

he protects me like shields protect soldiers [MET],

and he gives me refuge.

He defeats other nations and then puts them under my power.

3 Yahweh, we people are very insignificant/unimportant, so why ◄are you concerned/do you care about us► [RHQ]?

It is amazing to me that you pay attention to humans.

4 The time that we live is as short as [SIM] a puff of wind;

our time to live disappears like a shadow does.

5 Yahweh, ◄tear open/open up► the sky and come down!

Touch the mountains in order that smoke will pour out from them!

6 Cause lightning to flash with the result that your enemies will run away!

Shoot your arrows at them and cause them to ◄run away/scatter►.

7 It is as though my enemies surround me like a flood;

reach your hand down from heaven

and rescue me from them [SYN].

They are men from other countries

8 who [SYN] always tell lies.

Even in a courtroom where they swear to tell the truth

they tell lies.

9 God, I will sing a new song to you,

and I will play my ten-stringed harp while I sing to you.

10 You enable kings to defeat their enemies;

and you rescued me, your servant David, from being killed by my enemies’ swords.

11 So I ask you to save me from being killed by the swords that those evil people carry.

Rescue me from the power [MTY] of those foreigners

who [SYN] always tell lies,

and who raise their right hands in courtrooms when they solemnly declare that they will tell the truth.

12 I wish/hope that our young sons will grow up to be like strong plants [SIM],

and I wish/hope that our daughters will grow up to be straight and tall

like the pillars [SIM] that stand in the corners of palaces.

13 I wish/hope that our barns will be full of many different crops.

I wish/hope that the sheep in our fields will give birth to tens of thousands of baby lambs.

14 I wish/hope that our cows will give birth to many calves

without having any miscarriages or deaths when they are born (OR, that no enemies will break through our city walls and take us ◄into exile/to their own countries►).

I wish/hope that there will not be a time when the people in our streets cry out in distress

because foreign armies are invading.

15 If good things like that happen to a nation,

the people will be very happy.

The people whose God is Yahweh are the ones who will be happy!