Bow your heavens, O LORD, and come down! Touch the mountains so that they smoke!
This psalm weaves praise and petition together. David extols God's mercies lavished on him, yet from experience of trials and wicked men still at large, he asks the Lord to sustain His favor to the end. Unlike Psalm 18, which triumphs with the kingdom subdued and prospering, this one mingles fear and anxiety; enemies remain to give him concern.
AI summary
Commenting on Psalm 144:1-15
Earth cries to heaven to stoop, and the Lord stoops. He has done it fully in Bethlehem, when the Word was made flesh; now He never refuses to come down to defend His beloved. Touch the mountains, and they smoke, the strongest pillars of earth cannot bear the weight of God's finger. All mortal power opposed to Him must end in smoke.
AI summary
A prayer for mercy begins rightly with thanksgiving for past mercy. David gives God glory for what He is to him: his strength to draw on for work and warfare, his chief good and the author of all goodness in him, his fortress and high tower. In weakness we are strong in the Lord and in the power of His might.
AI summary
Commenting on Psalm 144:1-8