“The Lord is my high ridge, 1 my stronghold, 2 my deliverer.
3:3 But you, Lord, are a shield that protects me; 3
you are my glory 4 and the one who restores me. 5
For the music director; a psalm of David.
21:1 O Lord, the king rejoices in the strength you give; 7
he takes great delight in the deliverance you provide. 8
48:3 God is in its fortresses;
he reveals himself as its defender. 9
89:26 He will call out to me,
‘You are my father, 10 my God, and the protector who delivers me.’ 11
91:2 I say this about the Lord, my shelter and my stronghold,
my God in whom I trust –
144:10 the one who delivers 12 kings,
and rescued David his servant from a deadly 13 sword.
1 tn Traditionally “is my rock”; CEV “mighty rock”; TEV “is my protector.” This metaphor pictures God as a rocky, relatively inaccessible summit, where one would be able to find protection from enemies. See 1 Sam 23:25, 28.
2 tn Traditionally “my fortress”; TEV “my strong fortress”; NCV “my protection.”
3 tn Heb “a shield round about me.”
4 tn Heb “my glory,” or “my honor.” The psalmist affirms that the
5 tn Heb “[the one who] lifts my head.” This phrase could be understood to refer to a general strengthening of the psalmist by God during difficult circumstances. However, if one takes the suggestion of the superscription that this is a Davidic psalm written during the revolt of Absalom, the phrase “lift the head” could refer to the psalmist’s desire for restoration to his former position (cf. Gen 40:13 where the same phrase is used). Like the Hebrew text, the present translation (“who restores me”) can be understood in either sense.
6 sn Psalm 21. The psalmist praises the Lord for the way he protects and blesses the Davidic king.
7 tn Heb “in your strength.” The translation interprets the pronominal suffix as subjective, rather than merely descriptive (or attributive).
8 tn Heb “and in your deliverance, how greatly he rejoices.”
9 tn Heb “he is known for an elevated place.”
10 sn You are my father. The Davidic king was viewed as God’s “son” (see 2 Sam 7:14; Ps 2:7). The idiom reflects ancient Near Eastern adoption language associated with covenants of grant, by which a lord would reward a faithful subject by elevating him to special status, referred to as “sonship.” Like a son, the faithful subject received an “inheritance,” viewed as an unconditional, eternal gift. Such gifts usually took the form of land and/or an enduring dynasty. See M. Weinfeld, “The Covenant of Grant in the Old Testament and in the Ancient Near East,” JAOS 90 (1970): 184-203, for general discussion and some striking extra-biblical parallels.
11 tn Heb “the rocky summit of my deliverance.”
12 tn Heb “grants deliverance to.”
13 tn Heb “harmful.”