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
42:9 I will pray 7 to God, my high ridge: 8
“Why do you ignore 9 me?
Why must I walk around mourning 10
because my enemies oppress me?”
26:4 Trust in the Lord from this time forward, 11
even in Yah, the Lord, an enduring protector! 12
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 The cohortative form indicates the psalmist’s resolve.
8 tn 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; Pss 18:2; 31:3.
9 tn Or “forget.”
10 sn Walk around mourning. See Ps 38:6 for a similar idea.
11 tn Or “forevermore.” For other uses of the phrase עֲדֵי־עַד (’ade-’ad) see Isa 65:18 and Pss 83:17; 92:7.
12 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.