Bible Strands
Psalms 144:10
to Him who gives victory to kings, who frees His servant David from the deadly sword.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The psalmist addresses God directly, moving from the declaration of praise in the preceding verse into a specific petition for rescue. This shift occurs within a structured song of thanksgiving that transitions into a plea for deliverance from foreign adversaries.
The words — The Hebrew noun תְּשׁוּעָ֗ה (te.shu'ah) means deliverance or victory, paired with the participle הַ/פּוֹצֶה (Ha./potzeh), which literally denotes one who sets free or breaks out. These terms anchor the verse in concrete military rescue rather than abstract favor.
The thread — This pattern of God delivering kings and David appears in Psalms 18:50, where salvation is brought to His anointed, and in Psalms 33:16, which notes that no king is saved by his army. The rescue from the sword motif also aligns with the plea in Psalms 140:7.
Why it lands — The text demands recognition that survival against armed threats depends solely on divine action, not human strategy. It instructs the reader to direct petitions for safety toward God as the active agent of deliverance.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
It is he that giveth salvation unto kings: who delivereth David his servant from the hurtful sword.
Cross-references
- Psalms 18:50 Great salvation He brings to His king. He shows loving devotion to His anointed, to David and his descendants forever.
- Psalms 140:7 O GOD the Lord, the strength of my salvation, You shield my head in the day of battle.
- Psalms 33:16 No king is saved by his vast army; no warrior is delivered by his great strength.
- 1 Samuel 17:45 But David said to the Philistine, “You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the LORD of Hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied.
- 2 Samuel 5:19 So David inquired of the LORD, “Should I go up against the Philistines? Will You deliver them into my hand?” “Go up,” replied the LORD, “for I will surely deliver the Philistines into your hand.”
- 2 Samuel 8:6 Then he placed garrisons in Aram of Damascus, and the Arameans became subject to David and brought him tribute. So the LORD made David victorious wherever he went.
- 2 Samuel 21:16 Then Ishbi-benob, a descendant of Rapha, whose bronze spear weighed three hundred shekels and who was bearing a new sword, resolved to kill David.
- Isaiah 45:1 This is what the LORD says to Cyrus His anointed, whose right hand I have grasped to subdue nations before him, to disarm kings, to open the doors before him, so that the gates will not be shut:
- 2 Kings 5:1 Now Naaman, the commander of the army of the king of Aram, was a great man in his master’s sight and highly regarded, for through him the LORD had given victory to Aram. And he was a mighty man of valor, but he was a leper.
- Jeremiah 27:6 So now I have placed all these lands under the authority of My servant Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon. I have even made the beasts of the field subject to him.