Psalm 144
The full text of Psalm 144 in the Trinity Bible Version — clear modern English, translated from the original Hebrew. Free to read.
Of David.
1 Blessed be the LORD, my rock,
who trains my hands for war,
and my fingers for battle;
2 he is my steadfast love and my fortress,
my stronghold and my deliverer,
my shield and he in whom I take refuge,
who subdues peoples under me.
3 O LORD, what is man that you regard him,
or the son of man that you think of him?
4 Man is like a breath;
his days are like a passing shadow.
5 Bow your heavens, O LORD, and come down!
Touch the mountains so that they smoke!
6 Flash forth the lightning and scatter them;
send out your arrows and rout them!
7 Stretch out your hand from on high;
rescue me and deliver me from the many waters,
from the hand of foreigners,
8 whose mouths speak lies
and whose right hand is a right hand of falsehood.
9 I will sing a new song to you, O God;
upon a ten-stringed harp I will play to you,
10 who gives victory to kings,
who rescues David his servant from the cruel sword.
11 Rescue me and deliver me
from the hand of foreigners,
whose mouths speak lies
and whose right hand is a right hand of falsehood.
12 May our sons in their youth
be like plants full grown;
may our daughters be like corner pillars
cut for the structure of a palace;
13 may our granaries be full,
providing all kinds of produce;
may our sheep bring forth thousands
and ten thousands in our fields;
14 may our cattle be heavy with young,
suffering no mishap or failure in bearing;
may there be no cry of distress in our streets!
15 Blessed are the people to whom such blessings fall!
Blessed are the people whose God is the LORD!
Translation notes (3)
- Psalm 144:2a The Leningrad Codex reads ammi ('my people'), but this translation follows the plural amim ('peoples'), attested in many Hebrew manuscripts, the Targum, and the Syriac, and matching the parallel in Psalm 18:47. The singular may reflect a copyist's loss of the final letter mem; a reference to subduing the king's own people fits the martial context poorly.
- Psalm 144:3a This verse reworks Psalm 8:4 with the vocabulary inverted: here adam, 'man', is paired with ben-enosh, 'son of man', whereas Psalm 8 has enosh with ben-adam. The verbs also differ; the Hebrew here reads yada, 'to know', and chashav, 'to think, reckon', where Psalm 8 speaks of remembering and attending. The echo turns Psalm 8's wonder at human dignity toward human frailty, as the next verse confirms.
- Psalm 144:12a Verse 12 opens with the ambiguous particle asher, 'who' or 'so that', leaving it unclear whether verses 12-14 continue the lying speech of the foreigners in verse 11 or begin a new petition; this translation takes them as the psalmist's own prayer for blessing. The rare zaviyyot, 'corner pillars' (זויות), occurs elsewhere only in Zechariah 9:15.
About this translation
You are reading the Trinity Bible Version (TBV) — an original 2026 translation made straight from the Hebrew, in clear modern English, exclusive to Trinity Bible. Every chapter of every book is free to read online. For the study edition — with Hebrew and Greek on every verse and the full translation notes — open Psalms in the Trinity Bible app.
Continue: Psalm 145 → · All of Psalms · About the TBV · Read Psalm 144 in the KJV
Get the app: iOS · Android · Trinity Plus