The Meaning of Psalms 144:5 Explained

Psalms 144:5

KJV: Bow thy heavens, O LORD, and come down: touch the mountains, and they shall smoke.

YLT: Jehovah, incline Thy heavens and come down, Strike against mountains, and they smoke.

Darby: Jehovah, bow thy heavens, and come down; touch the mountains, that they smoke;

ASV: Bow thy heavens, O Jehovah, and come down: Touch the mountains, and they shall smoke.

KJV Reverse Interlinear

Bow  thy heavens,  O LORD,  and come down:  touch  the mountains,  and they shall smoke. 

What does Psalms 144:5 Mean?

Context Summary

Psalms 144:1-15 - God's People Are Happy
This psalm savors of the rocky caverns from which David and his men emerged to fight. Each day the chieftain asked God to teach him to fight, and realized that all his need would be met. The names he gives to God indicate that all-sidedness which becomes the complement of every conceivable necessity on our part.
What a striking conception opens in Psalms 144:4! Saul was but a "breath"! r.v., margin. The persecuting bands were as the shadows that pass across the hills! From them all he appealed to God to bow the heavens and come, to touch the mountains, and to rescue him from the rising waters. And when the storm has passed he sings his new glad song, Psalms 144:9. Psalms 144:12-15 were probably added at a later time, when David was established in his kingdom. They describe a summer afternoon of prosperity, when sons have grown from plants to trees, and daughters resemble the carved figures which support the beams of a palace. No breaking in of the foe, no need to go forth to fight, no outcry of oppression or want; but the halcyon sunset of a well-spent life. [source]

Chapter Summary: Psalms 144

1  David blesses God for his mercy both to him and to man
5  He prays that God would powerfully deliver him from his enemies
9  He promises to praise God
11  He prays for the happy state of the kingdom

What do the individual words in Psalms 144:5 mean?

Yahweh Bow down Your heavens and come down Touch the mountains and they shall smoke
יְ֭הוָה הַט־ שָׁמֶ֣יךָ וְתֵרֵ֑ד גַּ֖ע בֶּהָרִ֣ים וְֽיֶעֱשָֽׁנוּ

יְ֭הוָה  Yahweh 
Parse: Proper Noun, masculine singular
Root: יהוה 
Sense: the proper name of the one true God.
הַט־  Bow  down 
Parse: Verb, Hifil, Imperative, masculine singular
Root: נָטָה 
Sense: to stretch out, extend, spread out, pitch, turn, pervert, incline, bend, bow.
שָׁמֶ֣יךָ  Your  heavens 
Parse: Noun, masculine plural construct, second person masculine singular
Root: שָׁמַיִם  
Sense: heaven, heavens, sky.
וְתֵרֵ֑ד  and  come  down 
Parse: Conjunctive waw, Verb, Qal, Conjunctive imperfect, second person masculine singular
Root: יָרַד  
Sense: to go down, descend, decline, march down, sink down.
גַּ֖ע  Touch 
Parse: Verb, Qal, Imperative, masculine singular
Root: נָגַע  
Sense: to touch, reach, strike.
בֶּהָרִ֣ים  the  mountains 
Parse: Preposition-b, Article, Noun, masculine plural
Root: הַר  
Sense: hill, mountain, hill country, mount.
וְֽיֶעֱשָֽׁנוּ  and  they  shall  smoke 
Parse: Conjunctive waw, Verb, Qal, Conjunctive imperfect, third person masculine plural
Root: עָשַׁן  
Sense: to smoke, be angry, be wroth.