Psalm 144

¹Blessed be the Lord my rock! *who trains my hands to fight and my fingers to battle;

²My help and my fortress, my stronghold and my deliverer, *my shield in whom I trust, who subdues the peoples under me.

³O Lord, what are we that you should care for us? *mere mortals that you should think of us?

⁴We are like a puff of wind; *our days are like a passing shadow.

⁵Bow your heavens, O Lord, and come down; *touch the mountains, and they shall smoke.

⁶Hurl the lightning and scatter them; *shoot out your arrows and rout them.

⁷Stretch out your hand from on high; *rescue me and deliver me from the great waters, from the hand of foreign peoples,

⁸Whose mouths speak deceitfully *and whose right hand is raised in falsehood.

⁹O God, I will sing to you a new song; *I will play to you on a ten-stringed lyre.

¹⁰You give victory to kings *and have rescued David your servant.

¹¹Rescue me from the hurtful sword *and deliver me from the hand of foreign peoples,

¹²Whose mouths speak deceitfully *and whose right hand is raised in falsehood.

¹³May our sons be like plants well nurtured from their youth, *and our daughters like sculptured corners of a palace.

¹⁴May our barns be filled to overflowing with all manner of crops; *may the flocks in our pastures increase by thousands and tens of thousands; may our cattle be fat and sleek.

¹⁵May there be no breaching of the walls, no going into exile, *no wailing in the public squares.

¹⁶Happy are the people of whom this is so! *happy are the people whose God is the Lord!