18:31 Indeed, 1 who is God besides the Lord?
Who is a protector 2 besides our God? 3
19:14 May my words and my thoughts
be acceptable in your sight, 4
O Lord, my sheltering rock 5 and my redeemer. 6
27:5 He will surely 7 give me shelter 8 in the day of danger; 9
he will hide me in his home; 10
he will place me 11 on an inaccessible rocky summit. 12
61:2 From the most remote place on earth 13
I call out to you in my despair. 14
Lead me 15 up to an inaccessible rocky summit! 16
62:2 He alone is my protector 17 and deliverer.
He is my refuge; 18 I will not be upended. 19
62:7 God delivers me and exalts me;
God is my strong protector and my shelter. 20
71:3 Be my protector and refuge, 21
a stronghold where I can be safe! 22
For you are my high ridge 23 and my stronghold.
92:15 So they proclaim that the Lord, my protector,
is just and never unfair. 24
By David.
144:1 The Lord, my protector, 26 deserves praise 27 –
the one who trains my hands for battle, 28
and my fingers for war,
1 tn Or “for.”
2 tn Heb “rocky cliff,” which is a metaphor of divine protection. See v. 2, where the Hebrew term צוּר (tsur) is translated “rocky summit.”
3 tn The rhetorical questions anticipate the answer, “No one.” In this way the psalmist indicates that the
4 tn Heb “may the words of my mouth and the thought of my heart be acceptable before you.” The prefixed verbal form at the beginning of the verse is understood as a jussive of prayer. Another option is to translate the form as an imperfect continuing the thought of v. 14b: “[Then] the words of my mouth and the thought of my heart will be acceptable before you.”
5 tn Heb “my rocky cliff,” which is a metaphor for protection; thus the translation “sheltering rock.”
6 tn Heb “and the one who redeems me.” The metaphor casts the Lord in the role of a leader who protects members of his extended family in times of need and crisis.
7 tn Or “for he will.” The translation assumes the כִּי (ki) is asseverative here, rather than causal.
8 tn Heb “he will hide me in his hut.”
9 tn Or “trouble.”
10 tn Heb “tent.”
11 tn The three imperfect verb forms in v. 5 anticipate a positive response to the prayer offered in vv. 7-12.
12 tn Heb “on a rocky summit he lifts me up.” The
10 tn Heb “from the end of the earth.” This may indicate (1) the psalmist is exiled in a distant land, or (2) it may be hyperbolic (the psalmist feels alienated from God’s presence, as if he were in a distant land).
11 tn Heb “while my heart faints.”
12 tn The imperfect verbal form here expresses the psalmist’s wish or prayer.
13 tn Heb “on to a rocky summit [that] is higher than I.”
13 tn Heb “my high rocky summit.”
14 tn Or “my elevated place” (see Ps 18:2).
15 tn The Hebrew text adds רַבָּה (rabbah, “greatly”) at the end of the line. It is unusual for this adverb to follow a negated verb. Some see this as qualifying the assertion to some degree, but this would water down the affirmation too much (see v. 6b, where the adverb is omitted). If the adverb has a qualifying function, it would suggest that the psalmist might be upended, though not severely. This is inconsistent with the confident mood of the psalm. The adverb probably has an emphatic force here, “I will not be greatly upended” meaning “I will not be annihilated.”
16 tn Heb “upon God [is] my deliverance and my glory, the high rocky summit of my strength, my shelter [is] in God.”
19 tc Heb “become for me a rocky summit of a dwelling place.” The Hebrew term מָעוֹן (ma’on, “dwelling place”) should probably be emended to מָעוֹז (ma’oz, “refuge”; see Ps 31:2).
20 tc Heb “to enter continually, you commanded to deliver me.” The Hebrew phrase לָבוֹא תָּמִיד צִוִּיתָ (lavo’ tamid tsivvita, “to enter continually, you commanded”) should be emended to לְבֵית מְצוּדוֹת (lÿvet mÿtsudot, “a house of strongholds”; see Ps 31:2).
21 sn You are 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.
22 tn Heb “so that [they] proclaim that upright [is] the
25 sn Psalm 144. The psalmist expresses his confidence in God, asks for a mighty display of divine intervention in an upcoming battle, and anticipates God’s rich blessings on the nation in the aftermath of military victory.
26 tn Heb “my rocky summit.” The
27 tn Heb “blessed [be] the
28 sn The one who trains my hands for battle. The psalmist attributes his skill with weapons to divine enablement (see Ps 18:34). Egyptian reliefs picture gods teaching the king how to shoot a bow. See O. Keel, The Symbolism of the Biblical World, 265.