Psalm 144

The peril of the sword

Read/pray the psalm. (Full text at bottom.)

• Is there any verse in this psalm without a symbol that we have discussed in this space, several times? It’s overflowing with symbolic meaning.

• But let’s return to the sword, before the grand finale of praise in Psalms 145-150.

  • Of the “simple machines,” the wedge is often considered the most fundamental, and prerequisite to the others.

  • It is a point, distributed.

  • “Keeping and cultivating the garden” supposes a wedge, a sharpened tool of some kind:

    • for digging (plowing)

    • for cutting (pruning)

    • (Even digging with hands, or breaking a branch, say, at a specific point, supposes this mechanical principle.)

• But when humankind falls, tools become weapons.

  • We get thorns—the ground itself rebelling against the rebels, tiny swords fighting back.

  • And God places the cherubim to guard the entrance with a sword, the first mention of this weapon.

• Once again, the interpretation of the symbol depends on where we stand in relationship to God:

  • We know the vision of “swords to plowshares, spears to pruning hooks.”

  • But with sin, note, the reverse can happen also! “Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruning hooks into spears….” [Joel 3:10]

• Sadly, in this fallen world, war is common.

  • May we never provoke it!

  • And if we must go to war, may we align always with God’s purposes, and means, in conducting it!¹

• (There is so much more on every point so far.)

So…

• Look at your dominant hand, usually our “right hand,” mentioned in the psalm—your primary gardening hand, and your sword hand.

• Pray:

Teach my hands and fingers, "that our storehouses may be full and plenteous with all manner of grain...." [13]
But if we must, "teach my hands to war and my fingers to fight...." [1]

Psalm 144
Benedictus Dominus

1	Blessed be the Lord my strength, *
		who teaches my hands to war and my fingers to fight,
2	My hope and my fortress, my stronghold and deliverer, my defender in whom I trust, *
		who subdues the peoples under me.
3	O Lord, what is man, that you have shown such respect to him, * 
		or the son of man, that you so regard him?
4	Man is like a thing of nought; *
		his time passes away like a shadow.
5	Bow your heavens, O Lord, and come down; * 
		touch the mountains, and they shall smoke.
6	Cast forth your lightning and scatter them; * 
		shoot out your arrows and consume them.
7	Send down your hand from above; *
		deliver me, and take me out of the great waters, from the hand of strangers,
8	Whose mouth talks of vain things, *
		and whose right hand is a right hand of falsehood.
9	I will sing a new song unto you, O God, *
		and sing praises unto you upon a ten-stringed lute.
10	You have given victory to kings, *
		and have delivered David your servant from the peril of the sword.
11	Save me, and deliver me from the hand of strangers, * 
		whose mouth talks of vain things, and whose right hand is a right hand of falsehood;
12	That our sons may grow up as young plants, *
		and that our daughters may be as the polished corners of the temple,
13	That our storehouses may be full and plenteous with all manner of grain, *
		that our sheep may bring forth thousands and ten thousands in our fields,
14	That our oxen may be strong to labor, that there be no decay, * 
		no leading into captivity, and no outcry in our streets.
15	Happy are the people of whom this is so; *
		indeed, blessed are the people who have the Lord for their God.

New Coverdale Psalter

1. The most important biblical text concerning “just war theory” is Romans 13:1-7.

The most foundational texts of theology are:

• Augustine, The City of God, Book 19, Chapters 7, 12-15

• Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica II-II Question 40, Article 1