The Meaning of Psalms 144:6 Explained

Psalms 144:6

KJV: Cast forth lightning, and scatter them: shoot out thine arrows, and destroy them.

YLT: Send forth lightning, and scatter them, Send forth Thine arrows, and trouble them,

Darby: Cast forth lightnings, and scatter them; send forth thine arrows, and discomfit them:

ASV: Cast forth lightning, and scatter them; Send out thine arrows, and discomfit them.

KJV Reverse Interlinear

Cast forth  lightning,  and scatter  them: shoot out  thine arrows,  and destroy  them. 

What does Psalms 144:6 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 144:6 mean?

Flash forth lightning and scatter them Shoot out Your arrows and destroy them
בְּר֣וֹק בָּ֭רָק וּתְפִיצֵ֑ם שְׁלַ֥ח חִ֝צֶּ֗יךָ וּתְהֻמֵּֽם

בְּר֣וֹק  Flash  forth 
Parse: Verb, Qal, Imperative, masculine singular
Root: בָּרַק  
Sense: (Qal) to flash lightning, cast forth (lightning).
בָּ֭רָק  lightning 
Parse: Noun, masculine singular
Root: בָּרָק  
Sense: lightning.
וּתְפִיצֵ֑ם  and  scatter  them 
Parse: Conjunctive waw, Verb, Hifil, Conjunctive imperfect, second person masculine singular, third person masculine plural
Root: פּוּץ 
Sense: to scatter, be dispersed, be scattered.
שְׁלַ֥ח  Shoot  out 
Parse: Verb, Qal, Imperative, masculine singular
Root: שָׁלַח  
Sense: to send, send away, let go, stretch out.
חִ֝צֶּ֗יךָ  Your  arrows 
Parse: Noun, masculine plural construct, second person masculine singular
Root: חֵץ  
Sense: arrow.
וּתְהֻמֵּֽם  and  destroy  them 
Parse: Conjunctive waw, Verb, Qal, Conjunctive imperfect, second person masculine singular, third person masculine plural
Root: הָמַם 
Sense: to move noisily, confuse, make a noise, discomfit, break, consume, crush, destroy, trouble, vex.