Psalm 144 - Come down

Read: Psalm 144 vs 1-15

So what has been happening in the lives of the psalmists? Today we come to Psalm 144, a lot has been written, a lot has been said, by this stage in the book. Different expect different things from life, but one of the things you can’t miss as you read the psalms is this sense that life is a battle, that the Way that Jesus calls us to is a life of struggle. This theme runs through the Bible. Remember how, in Genesis, when God called Jacob He gave him the name ‘Israel’ which means ‘he struggles with God’ (Genesis 32:28). Then in the final book of the Bible, Revelation, entering into the new creation is pictured as ‘resting’ from all the labours of life (Revelation 14:13).

Embracing the Way of Jesus we find our eyes opened to the fact that the life of faith is a struggle. Psalm 144 acknowledges this when in vs 1 it pictures the believer as someone who is fighting a war. But in this same verse we realise that the Bible doesn’t just simply open our eyes to what life is like, but more than that, through His word God wants to train and equip us to fight and to keep going in the battle we face:

‘Praise be to the LORD my Rock, 

Who trains my hands for war, my fingers for battle.’ (vs 1)

The image of someone being trained is an image picked up and developed in the New Testament. Jesus Himself called ‘disciples’ (a disciple is a ‘leaner’) and Paul, writing to his younger friend Timothy, encourages him to ‘train’ himself ‘to be godly.’ So as life goes on we expect struggle, we expect ‘a fight’ (2 Timothy 4:7) but we also expect to find that God trains and equips us. We never move beyond Him being our deliverer (vs 11). This is our daily expectation and in this we find true blessing (vs 15).

Prayer: Father, You are my loving God. Deliver me from everything today that would seek to harm me or weaken my trust in You. May I find protection and joy in You this day and this week. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.