THRU THE BIBLE EXPOSITION

Psalms: Living By Faith In God

CXLIV. God’s Help In Our Relationship Conflicts

(Psalm 144:1-15)

Introduction: (To show the need . . . )

Though Romans 12:18 call us believers in Christ to do our best to live peaceably with all men, in today’s world, we face relationship conflicts on various fronts and sometimes to great degrees:

(1) We face them ideologically: Henry Olsen, a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, in his piece, “The Populist Surge Is Truly Global” (New York Post, November 3, 2025, p. 33), wrote, “Recent elections from around the world” show “(p)eople want conservative populism . . . (since) “(t)he globalist elite has failed to bring the peace, prosperity and cultural harmony it promised, and voters are increasingly turning to parties and leaders who can deliver the goods . . . This infuriates leftists . . . because they want more of the policies that have failed. They explain away their lack of success by saying their ideas haven’t been fully implemented or properly managed.”

(2) This ideological conflict exists in our politics: “‘(T)he Democratic Party is seeking to contain the fallout from Mamdani’s election (as New York City mayor) and ensuring the rest of the party is sufficiently insulated against the charge that he and his socialist politics are ascendant. In a dispatch in, of all places, MSNBC, Democratic political professionals lamented how difficult Mamdani is about to make their jobs.’” (Noah Rothman, “Mamdani Is the Future Face of the Democratic Party, Whether Democrats Like It or Not,” National Review Online, Nov. 4, cited in “Quotable,” Republican-American, November 5, 2025, p. A6)

(3) This ideological conflict is also intense: “More than one-third of Americans under the age of 45 agreed with the view that political violence can be justified, in certain cases, the Politico/Public First poll found . . .” (Victor Nava, “Scary number say political violence OK,” New York Post, op. cit., p. 14)

(4) Relationship conflicts affect people locally: Annie Lane’s “Dear Annie” column in the Republican-American recently highlighted such conflicts with titles like “Drawing the line with my daughter-in-law,” “Walking on eggshells” (with an adult daughter) and “When a mother’s ‘help’ hurts.”

(5) Relationship conflicts affect professing Christians: Several times in this year alone, believers in our Church have witnessed believers voicing concerns involving both minor and major conflicts between believers!

Need: So we ask, “Why do relationship conflicts abound today, and how can we gain God’s help in them?”

I. Psalm 144:1-15 addresses God’s help for king David in his relationship conflicts as Israel’s king:

A. As king, David’s divine calling was to fight the Gentile armies that attacked Israel, cf. 2 Samuel 11:1a.

B. For this reason, Psalm 144 is a “royal psalm” about God’s ministry of helping David in his conflicts with Israel’s national enemies (Ryrie Study Bible, KJV, 1978, ftn. to Psalm 144).

II. Accordingly, David praised God for giving him his past victories over his enemies, Psalm 144:1-2:

A. David blessed God, his figurative Rock Cliff (sur, Kittel, Bib. Heb., p. 1099) of high, dependable protective ground in conflicts (H. A. W., Theo. Wrdbk. of the O. T., 1980, vol. II, p. 762), Who trained his hands for war [in handling the spear] and his fingers [in handling a bow and arrow], Psalm 144:1.

B. God had been David’s Lord of “loyal love” (hesed, op. cit., Kittel; op. cit., H. A. W., vol. I, p. 305-307) in faithfully being his Fortress, his Stronghold, his Deliverer and his Personal Hand-held Shield (magen, op. cit., Kittel; Roland de Vaux, Ancient Israel: Volume 1 Social Institutions, 1965, p. 244-245) used in hand-to-hand combat, the God in Whom David took refuge and Who subdued Gentile enemies under him, Psalm 144:2.

III. David praised God for stooping to take note of people like him to help them even though they were lowly and lived relatively short lifespans, Psalm 144:3-4.

IV. Based on God’s commitment to him as proved by God’s past help in conflicts, David called on God to deliver him in his current conflicts with Gentiles, v. 5-11. In doing so, David figuratively alluded to pagan beliefs in the Canaanite Baal god’s alleged actions in thunderstorms, seeking to credit Israel’s true God with those activities that David hoped Israel’s true God would exert against his Gentile foes (as occurred in God’s deliverance of Israel from Philistine attackers in Samuel’s day in 1 Samuel 7:5-14).

V. David then anticipated God’s resulting blessings for these deliverances, Psalm 144:12-15:

A. He anticipated Israel’s next generation of young men and women enjoying God’s stable blessings, v. 12.

B. David anticipated Israel’s barns being filled with every kind of agricultural provision (v. 13a), her fields being full of multiplying livestock (v. 13b) and her oxen drawing heavy loads of agricultural produce (v. 14a).

C. David anticipated future rest from war with no enemies breaching Israel’s city walls, no one in Israel going into Gentile captivity and no cry of distress in the city streets due to invading Gentile armies, Psalm 144:14b.

VI. David concluded that the people who enjoyed these bounties were blessed, the people whose Creator God (Elohim, op. cit., Kittel, p. 100) was the Lord (Yahweh, Ibid.), Israel’s covenant-keeping God, v. 15.

Lesson: David found God to be both gracious and faithful in exercising His loyal love toward him to be his Comprehensive Deliverer in conflict with unjust foes, so he looked to the Lord for continued deliverance in present and future conflicts with resulting long-term blessings.

Application: (1) May we trust in Christ Who died as our Atoning Sacrifice for sin that we might receive God's gift of eternal life, John 3:16; 1 Corinthians 15:1-11. (2) May we view God as both gracious and faithful to exercise His loyal love toward us in our current relationship conflicts as He has helped us in the past, anticipating future long-term blessings from the Lord.

Conclusion: (To illustrate the message and/or provide additional guidance . . .

Scripture provides more guidance and encouragement regarding relationship conflicts we face (as follows):

(1) The general reason why we face relationship conflicts today (a) is revealed in Ephesians 5:22-6:12: After dealing with marital relationships, family relationships and relationships in business realms in Ephesians 5:22-6:9, Paul taught that the “wrestling” we face in such relationships is due to the angelic conflict, Ephesians 6:10-12. (b) In our current era of a mini-Great Tribulation that we have often noted was predicted for our era in Revelation 3:21 with 7:17, we should expect such conflicts to occur in our sojourn on earth since the Evil One who is the god of this world (2 Corinthians 4:4) and who controls it (1 John 5:19 NIV, ESV) is active in wrath these latter days of Church History similar to what he will be in the future Great Tribulation (cf. Revelation 12:9-12). (c) To address such conflicts, we must apply Ephesians 6:13-19 of putting on the whole armor of God. The way to put on this armor according to the application of Ephesians 6:13-19 with Ephesians 5:18-22 involves the filling of the Holy Spirit by which we have success in the Ephesians 5:22-6:9 relationships. In other words, we need to rely on the Holy Spirit in dealing with all “wrestling” conflicts we face in relationships. (d) Also, 1 John 2:12-14 with 2 Timothy 2:24-26 and John 8:44 reveal that immature believers along with the unsaved can be taken captive by Satan to do his will of conflicting with godly people, so we must rely on the Holy Spirit as a regular function in life to handle relationship conflicts with anyone!

(2) Scripture also guides us in how to handle the specific issues mentioned in our introduction (as follows):

(a) As for the ideological conflict between globalist elitists and conservative populists as is also illustrated by the conflict over the election of Islamist-Marxist Zohran Mamdani to be mayor of New York City, Daniel 2:41-44 NIV predicted that Western nations, heirs of the Roman Empire, in the latter days will face unresolvable political divisions: the feet of the image Daniel saw of partly baked clay and partly of iron signals such division, v. 41a NIV. However, the strength of the iron, indicating military strength, will still be in Western nations along with weakness, v. 41b NIV in light of Daniel 2:40 NIV. The latter era of Western nations, noted in v. 42-44 NIV, indicates that the mix of strong iron with weak clay that occurs before the Rapture continues into the Great Tribulation era of the ten kings of the Revived Roman Empire (Revelation 17:12). Also, v. 43 NIV indicates that Western nations will have a mix of groups of people that will not unite with each other. The forced illegal immigration of many peoples has contributed to this state, along with the conflict of Marxist ideology with Judeo-Christian values and capitalism. Thus, the political, economic, ethnic, racial and ideological divides of today will continue after the rapture in the Tribulation Period to be resolved only by the return of Christ to the earth to establish His Kingdom, v. 44 NIV. Our role is to disciple people for Christ’s Kingdom and live godly lives as ambassadors for Christ in the world, Philippians 2:14-16.

(b) As for the challenge of the conflicts in today’s world threatening to become more violent, 2 Thessalonians 2:1-17 reveals that God will provide enough stability in today’s world that we believers will always have opportunity to abound in every good word and work. Our part is to trust God to equip us to live and to serve Him effectively.

(c) As for conflicts on the personal level with believers and other people, we know from Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43 with 2 Timothy 2:20-3:9 that Satan is planting unbelievers in churches under the cover of being immature or carnal believers so as to counter discipling ministries. Satan controls the unsaved (John 8:44), and he can also take carnal and immature believers captive to do his will in opposing those who disciple others (2 Timothy 2:20-3:9). Thus, those who disciple must not be distracted from preaching and teaching Scripture by Satan’s activities so that God might use His Word to disciple those who accept His truths (Matthew 13:51-52 with 13:43 and Daniel 12:3).

May we trust in Christ Who died as our Atoning Sacrifice for sin that we might receive God’s gift of eternal life. May we like David align with God’s agenda in Scripture to handle all of our relationship conflicts.