to give · definite article + verb, qal active participle, masculine singular absolute
salvation
תְּשׁוּעָ֗הte.shu.'Ah
H8668
rescue (literal or figurative · noun, common feminine singular absolute
kings
לַמְּלָ֫כִ֥יםla.me.La.Khim
H4428
a king · preposition with the article + noun, common masculine plural absolute
delivereth
הַ֭פּוֹצֶהHa.po.tzeh
H6475
to rend · definite article + verb, qal active participle, masculine singular absolute
David
דָּוִ֥דda.Vid
H1732
David · proper noun, a man's name
servant
עַבְדּ֗וֹav.Do
H5650
a servant · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
hurtful
רָעָֽהra.'Ah
H7451
bad or (as noun) evil (natural or moral) · adjective, feminine singular absolute
sword
מֵחֶ֥רֶבme.Che.rev
H2719
drought · preposition + noun, common feminine singular absolute
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Psalms 18:50 Great deliverance giveth he to his king; and sheweth mercy to his anointed, to David, and to his seed for evermore.
Psalms 140:7 O GOD the Lord, the strength of my salvation, thou hast covered my head in the day of battle.
Psalms 33:16-18 There is no king saved by the multitude of an host: a mighty man is not delivered by much strength.
1 Samuel 17:45-46 Then said David to the Philistine, Thou comest to me with a sword, and with a spear, and with a shield: but I come to thee in the name of th…
2 Samuel 5:19-25 And David enquired of the LORD, saying, Shall I go up to the Philistines? wilt thou deliver them into mine hand? And the LORD said unto Davi…
2 Samuel 8:6-14 Then David put garrisons in Syria of Damascus: and the Syrians became servants to David, and brought gifts. And the LORD preserved David whi…
2 Samuel 21:16-17 And Ishbi-benob, which was of the sons of the giant, the weight of whose spear weighed three hundred shekels of brass in weight, he being gi…
Isaiah 45:1-6 Thus saith the LORD to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have holden, to subdue nations before him; and I will loose the loins of k…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Psalms 144:9–end
The method is the same in this latter part of the psalm as in the former; David first gives glory to God and then begs mercy from him.
I. He praises God for the experiences he had had of his goodness to him and the encouragements he had to expect further mercy from him, Psa 144:9, Psa 144:10. In the midst of his complaints concerning the power and treachery of his enemies, here is a holy exultation in his God: I will sing a new song to thee, O God! a song of praise for new mercies, for those compassions that are new every morning. Fresh favours call for fresh returns of thanks; nay, we must praise God for the mercies we hope for by his promise as well as those we have received by his provide…
It is he that giveth salvation to kings,.... Which is the reason of singing the new song to the Lord, or this is the matter of it. The Lord is the Preserver of men and beasts, the Saviour of all men, and especially of them that believe; who are in a spiritual sense kings and priests unto God; and in a temporal sense he saves high and low, rich and poor: but there is a particular providence respecting kings; who, as they are the powers ordained of God, and are his vicegerents on earth, and represent him, so they are preserved by him; were they not, there would soon be an end to all public order and government: they cannot save themselves; nor are they saved by their bodyguards about them; nor…
Psalm 144:9-11
9. O God! I will sing a new song to thee: upon the nablum, upon the psaltery, [265] I will sing psalms to thee. 10. Giving salvation to kings, delivering David his servant from the hurtful sword. 11. Deliver me, and rescue me from the hand of the sons of the stranger, whose mouth hath spoken falsehood, and their right hand is a right hand of deceit.
9. O God! I will sing a new song to thee. He again sets himself, with self-possession, to the exercise of praising God, not doubting but he would continue those mercies which he had once bestowed. I have taken notice in another place that by a new song is meant one of a singular or uncommon kind; and we are left from this to infe…
The Church Fathers
Who gives salvation to kings. To what kings? 'The heart of the king is in the hand of God.' Even of Julian the persecutor, and of Nero, and of Decius? The heart of the king is in the hand of God. Those who reign over their own body, who subject their body and reduce it to servitude, lest, while preaching to others, they themselves be found reprobate. These are the kings of whom wisdom says in Proverbs: 'She gives a kingdom to kings.'
"Who giveth salvation to kings, who redeemeth David His servant" (ver. 10). Ye know who David is; be yourselves David. Whence "redeemeth He David His servant"? Whence redeemeth He Christ? Whence redeemeth He the Body of Christ? "From the sword of ill intent deliver me." "From the sword" is not sufficient; he addeth, "of ill intent." Without doubt there is a sword of good intent. What is the sword of good intent? That whereof the Lord saith, "I came not to send peace on earth, but a sword." For He was about to separate believers from unbelievers, sons from parents, and to sever all other ties, while the sword cut off what was diseased, but healed the members of Christ. Of good intent then is the sword twice sharpened, powerful with both edges, the Old and New Testaments, with the narration of the past and the promise of the future. That then is the sword of good intent: but the other is of ill intent, wherewith they talk vanity, for that is of good intent, wherewith God speaketh verity. For truly "the sons of men have teeth which are spears and arrows, and their tongue is a sharp sword."
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Sword, The · Described as: Hurtful — Described as: Hurtful
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
With the exception of Psa 108:1-13, which is composed of two Davidic Elohim-Psalms, the Elohim in Psa 144:9 of this strophe is the only one in the last two Books of the Psalter, and is therefore a feeble attempt also to reproduce the Davidic Elohimic style. The "new song" calls to mind Psa 33:3; Psa 40:4; and נבל עשׂור also recalls Psa 33:2 (which see). The fact that David mentions himself by name in his own song comes about in imitation of Ps 18:51. From the eminence of thanksgiving the song finally descends again to petition, Psa 144:7-8, being repeated as a refrain. The petition developes itself afresh out of the attributes of the Being invoked (Psa 144:10), and these are a pledge of its…
The psalmist prays for God’s intervention against his enemies (cp. 18:7-19).
Spurgeon's Treasury of David on Psalms 144:10
It is he that giveth salvation unto kings: who delivereth David his servant from the hurtful sword.
It is he that giveth salvation unto kings. Those whom the Lord sets up he will keep up. Kings, from their conspicuous position, are exposed to special danger, and when their lives and their thrones are preserved to them they should give the Lord the glory of it. In his many battles David would have perished had not almighty care preserved him. He had by his valour wrought salvation for Israel, but he lays his laurels at the feet of his Lord and Preserver. If any men need salvation kings do, and if they get it the fact is so astonishing that it deserves a verse to itself in the psalm of praise…
