Psalms 18:2

18:2 The Lord is my high ridge, 1  my stronghold, 2  my deliverer.

My God is my rocky summit where 3  I take shelter, 4 

my shield, the horn that saves me, 5  and my refuge. 6 

Psalms 18:46

18:46 The Lord is alive! 7 

My protector 8  is praiseworthy! 9 

The God who delivers me 10  is exalted as king! 11 

Psalms 94:22

94:22 But the Lord will protect me, 12 

and my God will shelter me. 13 

Psalms 95:1

Psalm 95 14 

95:1 Come! Let’s sing for joy to the Lord!

Let’s shout out praises to our protector who delivers us! 15 

Isaiah 26:4

26:4 Trust in the Lord from this time forward, 16 

even in Yah, the Lord, an enduring protector! 17 

1 sn My high ridge. 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 sn My stronghold. David often found safety in such strongholds. See 1 Sam 22:4-5; 24:22; 2 Sam 5:9, 17; 23:14.

3 tn Or “in whom.”

4 sn Take shelter. “Taking shelter” in the Lord is an idiom for seeking his protection. Seeking his protection presupposes and even demonstrates the subject’s loyalty to the Lord. In the psalms those who “take shelter” in the Lord are contrasted with the wicked and equated with those who love, fear and serve the Lord (Pss 5:11-12; 31:17-20; 34:21-22).

5 tn Heb “the horn of my salvation”; or “my saving horn.”

6 tn Or “my elevated place.” The parallel version of this psalm in 2 Sam 22:3 adds at this point, “my refuge, my savior, [you who] save me from violence.”

7 tn Elsewhere the construction חַי־יְהוָה (khay-yÿhvah) is used exclusively as an oath formula, “as surely as the Lord lives,” but this is not the case here, for no oath follows. Here the statement is an affirmation of the Lord’s active presence and intervention. In contrast to pagan deities, he demonstrates he is the living God by rescuing and empowering the psalmist.

8 tn Heb “my rocky cliff,” which is a metaphor for protection. See similar phrases in vv. 2, 31.

9 tn Or “blessed [i.e., praised] be.”

10 tn Heb “the God of my deliverance.” 2 Sam 22:48 reads, “the God of the rocky cliff of my deliverance.”

11 tn The words “as king” are supplied in the translation for clarification. Elsewhere in the psalms the verb רוּם (rum, “be exalted”), when used of God, refers to his exalted position as king (Pss 99:2; 113:4; 138:6) and/or his self-revelation as king through his mighty deeds of deliverance (Pss 21:13; 46:10; 57:5, 11).

12 tn Heb “and the Lord has become my elevated place.” The prefixed verbal form with vav (ו) consecutive is used in a rhetorical sense, describing an anticipated development as if it were already reality.

13 tn Heb “and my God [has become] a rocky summit of my safety.”

14 sn Psalm 95. The psalmist summons Israel to praise God as the creator of the world and the nation’s protector, but he also reminds the people not to rebel against God.

15 tn Heb “to the rocky summit of our deliverance.”

16 tn Or “forevermore.” For other uses of the phrase עֲדֵי־עַד (’ade-’ad) see Isa 65:18 and Pss 83:17; 92:7.

17 tc The Hebrew text has “for in Yah, the Lord, an everlasting rock.” Some have suggested that the phrase בְּיָהּ (beyah, “in Yah”) is the result of dittography. A scribe seeing כִּי יְהוָה (ki yÿhvah) in his original text would somehow have confused the letters and accidentally inserted בְּיָהּ between the words (bet and kaf [ב and כ] can be confused in later script phases). A number of English versions retain both divine names for emphasis (ESV, NIV, NKJV, NRSV, NLT). One of the Qumran texts (1QIsaa) confirms the MT reading as well.