Genuine Health and Wealth/Psalm 144

Introduction

This psalm overlaps a good deal with what David prayed in Psalm 18, as well as in 2 Samuel 22, near the end of his life. His life had been one long series of battles and conflicts, and he certainly knew the truth of what he was expressing here. This is a psalm of jubilation, rejoicing in the sort of prosperity that only the deliverances of Jehovah can bring to a people. It begins with war, but concludes with the harvest of true peace.

The Text

“A Psalm of David. Blessed be the Lord my strength, which teacheth my hands to war, and my fingers to fight: 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. Lord, what is man, that thou takest knowledge of him! Or the son of man, that thou makest account of him! Man is like to vanity: His days are as a shadow that passeth away . . . Happy is that people, that is in such a case: Yea, happy is that people, whose God is the Lord” (Psalm 144).

Summary of the Text

David was a man of war, and he blessed the name of Yahweh, the one who had taught him how to fight (v. 1). In battle, the Lord was both his strength in fighting and his instructor on how to fight. God Himself was his goodness, and his fortress—high tower, deliverer, and shield (v. 2). The word for fortress here is masada, and it is possible the place that is still called Masada is in view. Why would the infinite God condescend to deal with man, who is a trifle (v. 3)? This echoes the sentiment found in Psalm 8. Man’s lifespan is like that of a mayfly, with an average life span of a day (v. 4) or, as the psalmist puts it here, his life is a shadow. The plea is for God to bend the heavens and come down (v. 5). David wants God to answer with volcanoes and lightning storms—he wants him to empty the divine quiver (v. 6).

David then prays for his Fortress God to undertake for him (v. 7), saving him from the strangers, from the aliens. All men are vanity, but these adversaries speak vanity (v. 8), and they lie with great dexterity (v. 8). David anticipates the resulting victory, and he promises to praise God with a new song (v. 9). God gives salvation even to kings, and so He delivers David (v. 10). He prays for deliverance again, and repeats his point about how his enemies speak vanity, and lies are their right-hand weapon (v. 11). What will the peace that follows this victory be like? Our sons will be strong and sturdy, like well-rooted plants (v. 12), and that our daughters will be the sort of cornerstones you would find in a palace (v. 12). In short, he anticipates that our sons would be strong and brave, and that our daughters would crucial and beautiful. His anticipation of goodness continues—that our storehouses might be full (v. 13), that our flocks would be abundant (v. 13), and that our oxen would be strong (v. 14). The crime rate would be low—no burglaries, no need to flee in a refugee column (v. 14). Under godly rule, the people rejoice and there is no complaining in the streets (v. 14). Such people would be happy (v. 15) . . . but then he catches and corrects himself. Such people are happy provided that God is their Lord (v. 15).

Don’t Waste Your Battles

The psalmist routinely assumes that God, when He intervenes in human affairs, does so in order to take sides. There is a fundamental division in the human race between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent. Remember this antithesis. Always remember the antithesis (Gen. 3:15). You have enemies. We all have enemies. And God instructs us to fight them, and to fight them in the way that He leads. He provides the strength to fight, and He teaches us the techniques of fighting.

This is one of the reasons we are to sing psalms. The psalms are filled with enemies, and in our music we are learning how to deal with them. The hymnody of the last few centuries is distinguished by its singular lack of enemies. If we ask how the Lord teaches us warfare, the answer is found in immersion in the Word. Read it, meditate on it, sing it, memorize it, use it in the liturgy, and read it some more. Sing it some more.  

The Greatness of God, the Breath That Is Man

When man, who is vanity itself, speaks of the greatness of God, he is doing so because God has placed eternity in his heart (Ecc. 3:11). But when man, who is vanity itself, takes up a lie in his right hand, he starts to speak vanity, which he has no business doing (vv. 8, 11). Vain men have no right to speak vanity. That is the last thing they should speak.

God is infinitely high, but we learn in Scripture that He is also infinitely condescending.

God dwells in two places. He inhabits eternity—He dwells in that high and holy place. That is one. But He also dwells in the hearts of the lowly. Men cease to be vanity when they acknowledge that they are vanity, and confess the greatness of Almighty God. A little speck of vanity cannot do much, but it can testify to the greatness of God.

When a mayfly puffs himself up in his own conceits, imagining himself to be the next Alexander or Bonaparte, it is clear that he has no scriptural map of the cosmos, and he has no x on that map indicating his actual position, or the actual state of affairs. Man is scarcely a breath . . . and yet, created in the image of God. And yet, despite this, the prayer of v. 5 was answered. Bow the heavens and come down, which is exactly what God did in the Incarnation.

Deuteronomic Blessings

And this brings us to a subject that is guaranteed to make the left eye of pietists everywhere twitch a little bit. It is quite easy for pietism to say that the simplistic “health and wealth” gospel is heretical, which it is. But it is equally true that the masochistic “sorrow and borrow” gospel is also a heresy. The former assumes that we are just so many swine, happy when the trough is full. The latter assumes that we are just emaciated swine, who ought to be happy with the occasional spiritual acorn.

Balance, always balance. Not Epicureanism, and not Gnosticism. What is the fruit here of learning how to fight with God as the instructor? What is the fruit of adoring the greatness of the Almighty? What happens when vain men repent of speaking vanities? The answer is that God exalts them, and this is not limited to the spiritual plane. I call these Deuteronomic blessings. But take care that when the blessings start to multiply that you do not forget the Lord your God (Dt. 8:7-14). Remember the conclusion of this psalm—this is all to the good provided that God is your covenanted Jehovah.

Remember Him . . . in the name of Christ, remember Him.