Friday April 05
“Rescue Me and Deliver Me…”
Psalm 144:5-11
A Psalm of David.
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 vain words, And whose right hand is a right hand of falsehood.
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.
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—
Psalm 144 is one of the eight psalms that was written by David and placed by whoever complied or organized the psalms just before the last five psalms of the Book of Psalms. We can be sure that God sovereignly directed that these psalms be exactly where they are in the book so that His people would have these final words of encouragement and instructions from their great king and poet, King David.
In the first four verses, David acknowledges that Jehovah is his Rock, and is a loving God Who personally cares for His people. We are but mere men, and our lives are like a breath of air and a passing shadow, but our great creator God takes knowledge of us and has us in His mind (vs. 3-4).
David used the same vivid images of mountains smoking, with lightning and thunder that causes them to shake with the presence of Jehovah, in Psalm 18:8-9, 14-17, 45, and 50. The Jewish people would never forget God's dramatic appearance at Mount Sinai (Ex. 19:18-25 and 20:18-21), where God met with Moses and gave them the Law. But here in Psalm 144, the “mountains” and "great waters" seem to stand for the enemies of Israel (Psalm 104:32; Isa. 8:7; 59:19; 64:1-5; Mic. 1:4; Nah. 1:5; and Hab. 3:10).
Our problems and challenges that cause us to worry and fear and have doubts often appear as great mountains that are unmovable and floods of water that overwhelm us. They are like the enemies of David that were determined to destroy him and take him down. But David cried out to the LORD to “come down” and His touch would cause them to be like smoke that the wind would quickly drive away.
Today we should remember what Jesus told His disciples in Matthew 21:21 “…Assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what was done to the fig tree, but also if you say to this mountain, 'Be removed and be cast into the sea,' it will be done.” Mark 11:23 put it this way: “For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, 'Be removed and be cast into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says.”
What an awesome promise for us today as we face difficulties and problems that appear to be giant mountains that stand in our way and floods of water that would drown us. David’s life is a testimony to this great truth that God gives victory and deliverance to His people when they trust Him by faith!
The "foreigners" of verse 7 are the outsiders who attacked Israel. David mentions the “hand of foreigners” twice in verses 7 and 11. These “foreigners” tried to illegally get into the land of Israel and cause trouble (v. 11). They told lies and took oaths they never meant to keep. When they lifted their right hand in an oath, it was only deception. That might sound familiar to what we are dealing with today on our southern border.
So how did David respond? In verse 9, as he contemplated God's power and mercy, David sang a new song to the Lord, for he had experienced God's help in a new way, learned afresh the wonderful character of the Lord, and was making a new beginning as king of the nation. David had faith that the LORD would not only deliver him but also all the “kings” that followed him if they obeyed and put the LORD first!
May the LORD give us the grace we need today, to put our faith in God without doubting, so the mountains of trouble and trials we face will be victoriously overcome as we are “rescued” by God and experience His deliverance!
God bless!
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