Psalms 18:1-2

Psalm 18 ¹ 

For the music director; by the Lord’s servant David, who sang ²  to the Lord the words of this song when ³  the Lord rescued him from the power ⁴  of all his enemies, including Saul. ⁵ 

18:1 He said: ⁶ 

“I love ⁷  you, Lord, my source of strength! ⁸ 

18:2 The Lord is my high ridge, ⁹  my stronghold, ¹⁰  my deliverer.

My God is my rocky summit where ¹¹  I take shelter, ¹² 

my shield, the horn that saves me, ¹³  and my refuge. ¹⁴ 

Psalms 18:35

18:35 You give me your protective shield; ¹⁵ 

your right hand supports me; ¹⁶ 

your willingness to help ¹⁷  enables me to prevail. ¹⁸ 

Psalms 27:1

Psalm 27 ¹⁹ 

By David.

27:1 The Lord delivers and vindicates me! ²⁰ 

I fear no one! ²¹ 

The Lord protects my life!

I am afraid of no one! ²² 

Psalms 28:7-8

28:7 The Lord strengthens and protects me; ²³ 

I trust in him with all my heart. ²⁴ 

I am rescued ²⁵  and my heart is full of joy; ²⁶ 

I will sing to him in gratitude. ²⁷ 

28:8 The Lord strengthens his people; ²⁸ 

he protects and delivers his chosen king. ²⁹ 

Psalms 59:17

59:17 You are my source of strength! I will sing praises to you! ³⁰ 

For God is my refuge, ³¹  the God who loves me. ³² 

Psalms 62:2

62:2 He alone is my protector ³³  and deliverer.

He is my refuge; ³⁴  I will not be upended. ³⁵ 

Psalms 62:7

62:7 God delivers me and exalts me;

God is my strong protector and my shelter. ³⁶ 

Psalms 89:26

89:26 He will call out to me,

‘You are my father, ³⁷  my God, and the protector who delivers me.’ ³⁸ 

Psalms 95:1

Psalm 95 ³⁹ 

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

Let’s shout out praises to our protector who delivers us! ⁴⁰ 

Deuteronomy 33:27-29

33:27 The everlasting God is a refuge,

and underneath you are his eternal arms; ⁴¹ 

he has driven out enemies before you,

and has said, “Destroy!”

33:28 Israel lives in safety,

the fountain of Jacob is quite secure, ⁴² 

in a land of grain and new wine;

indeed, its heavens ⁴³  rain down dew. ⁴⁴ 

33:29 You have joy, Israel! Who is like you?

You are a people delivered by the Lord,

your protective shield

and your exalted sword.

May your enemies cringe before you;

may you trample on their backs.

Isaiah 12:2

12:2 Look, God is my deliverer! ⁴⁵ 

I will trust in him ⁴⁶  and not fear.

For the Lord gives me strength and protects me; ⁴⁷ 

he has become my deliverer.” ⁴⁸ 

[18:1]  ¹ sn Psalm 18. In this long song of thanks, the psalmist (a Davidic king, traditionally understood as David himself) affirms that God is his faithful protector. He recalls in highly poetic fashion how God intervened in awesome power and delivered him from death. The psalmist’s experience demonstrates that God vindicates those who are blameless and remain loyal to him. True to his promises, God gives the king victory on the battlefield and enables him to subdue nations. A parallel version of the psalm appears in 2 Sam 22:1-51.

[18:1]  ² tn Heb “spoke.”

[18:1]  ³ tn Heb “in the day,” or “at the time.”

[18:1]  ⁴ tn Heb “hand.”

[18:1]  ⁵ tn Heb “and from the hand of Saul.”

[18:1]  ⁶ tn A number of translations (e.g., NASB, NIV, NRSV) assign the words “he said” to the superscription, in which case the entire psalm is in first person. Other translations (e.g., NAB) include the introductory “he said” at the beginning of v. 1.

[18:1]  ⁷ tn The verb רָחַם (rakham) elsewhere appears in the Piel (or Pual) verbal stem with the basic meaning, “have compassion.” The verb occurs only here in the basic (Qal) stem. The basic stem of the verbal root also occurs in Aramaic with the meaning “love” (see DNWSI 2:1068-69; Jastrow 1467 s.v. רָחַם; G. Schmuttermayr, “rhm: eine lexikalische Studie,” Bib 51 [1970]: 515-21). Since this introductory statement does not appear in the parallel version in 2 Sam 22:1-51, it is possible that it is a later addition to the psalm, made when the poem was revised for use in worship.

[18:1]  ⁸ tn Heb “my strength.” “Strength” is metonymic here, referring to the Lord as the one who bestows strength to the psalmist; thus the translation “my source of strength.”

[18:2]  ⁹ 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.

[18:2]  ¹⁰ 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.

[18:2]  ¹¹ tn Or “in whom.”

[18:2]  ¹² 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).

[18:2]  ¹³ tn Heb “the horn of my salvation”; or “my saving horn.”

[18:2]  ¹⁴ 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.”

[18:35]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “and you give to me the shield of your deliverance.”

[18:35]  ¹⁶ tc 2 Sam 22:36 omits this line, perhaps due to homoioarcton. A scribe’s eye may have jumped from the vav (ו) prefixed to “your right hand” to the vav prefixed to the following “and your answer,” causing the copyist to omit by accident the intervening words (“your right hand supports me and”).

[18:35]  ¹⁷ tn The MT of Ps 18:35 appears to read, “your condescension,” apparently referring to God’s willingness to intervene (cf. NIV “you stoop down”). However, the noun עֲנָוָה (’anavah) elsewhere means “humility” and is used only here of God. The form עַנְוַתְךָ (’anvatÿkha) may be a fully written form of the suffixed infinitive construct of עָנָה (’anah, “to answer”; a defectively written form of the infinitive appears in 2 Sam 22:36). In this case the psalmist refers to God’s willingness to answer his prayer; one might translate, “your favorable response.”

[18:35]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “makes me great.”

[27:1]  ¹⁹ sn Psalm 27. The author is confident of the Lord’s protection and asks the Lord to vindicate him.

[27:1]  ²⁰ tn Heb “the Lord [is] my light and my deliverance.” “Light” is often used as a metaphor for deliverance and the life/blessings it brings. See Pss 37:6; 97:11; 112:4; Isa 49:6; 51:4; Mic 7:8. Another option is that “light” refers here to divine guidance (see Ps 43:3).

[27:1]  ²¹ tn Heb “Whom shall I fear?” The rhetorical question anticipates the answer, “No one!”

[27:1]  ²² tn Heb “Of whom shall I be afraid?” The rhetorical question anticipates the answer, “No one!”

[28:7]  ²³ tn Heb “The Lord [is] my strength and my shield.”

[28:7]  ²⁴ tn Heb “in him my heart trusts.”

[28:7]  ²⁵ tn Or “I am helped.”

[28:7]  ²⁶ tn Heb “and my heart exults.”

[28:7]  ²⁷ tn Heb “and from my song I will thank him.” As pointed in the Hebrew text, מִשִּׁירִי (mishiri) appears to be “from my song,” but the preposition “from” never occurs elsewhere with the verb “to thank” (Hiphil of יָדָה, yadah). Perhaps משׁיר is a noun form meaning “song.” If so, it can be taken as an adverbial accusative, “and [with] my song I will thank him.” See P. C. Craigie, Psalms 1-50 (WBC), 236.

[28:8]  ²⁸ tn Heb “the Lord [is] strength to them” (or perhaps, “to him”). The form לָמוֹ (lamo, “to them/him”) is probably a corruption of an original לְעַמוֹ (lÿ’amo, “to his people”; see P. C. Craigie, Psalms 1-50 [WBC], 236), perhaps due to quiescence of the letter ayin (ע; see P. McCarter, Textual Criticism [GBS], 55). Note the reference to the Lord’s “people” in the next verse.

[28:8]  ²⁹ tn Heb “he [is] a refuge of help for his anointed one.” The noun מָשִׁיחַ (mashiakh, “anointed one”) refers to the Davidic king, who perhaps speaks as representative of the nation in this psalm. See Pss 2:2; 18:50; 20:6; 84:9; 89:38, 51; 132:10, 17.

[59:17]  ³⁰ tn Heb “my strength, to you I will sing praises.”

[59:17]  ³¹ tn Or “my elevated place” (see Ps 18:2).

[59:17]  ³² tn Heb “the God of my loyal love.”

[62:2]  ³³ tn Heb “my high rocky summit.”

[62:2]  ³⁴ tn Or “my elevated place” (see Ps 18:2).

[62:2]  ³⁵ 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.”

[62:7]  ³⁶ tn Heb “upon God [is] my deliverance and my glory, the high rocky summit of my strength, my shelter [is] in God.”

[89:26]  ³⁷ 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.

[89:26]  ³⁸ tn Heb “the rocky summit of my deliverance.”

[95:1]  ³⁹ 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.

[95:1]  ⁴⁰ tn Heb “to the rocky summit of our deliverance.”

[33:27]  ⁴¹ tn Heb “and from under, arms of perpetuity.” The words “you” and “his” are supplied in the translation for clarification. Some have perceived this line to be problematic and have offered alternative translations that differ significantly from the present translation: “He spread out the primeval tent; he extended the ancient canopy” (NAB); “He subdues the ancient gods, shatters the forces of old” (NRSV). These are based on alternate meanings or conjectural emendations rather than textual variants in the mss and versions.

[33:28]  ⁴² tn Heb “all alone.” The idea is that such vital resources as water will some day no longer need protection because God will provide security.

[33:28]  ⁴³ tn Or “skies.” The Hebrew term שָׁמַיִם (shamayim) may be translated “heaven(s)” or “sky” depending on the context.

[33:28]  ⁴⁴ tn Or perhaps “drizzle, showers.” See note at Deut 32:2.

[12:2]  ⁴⁵ tn Or “salvation” (KJV, NIV, NRSV).

[12:2]  ⁴⁶ tn The words “in him” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

[12:2]  ⁴⁷ tc The Hebrew text has, “for my strength and protection [is] the Lord, the Lord (Heb “Yah, Yahweh).” The word יְהוָה (yehvah) is probably dittographic or explanatory here (note that the short form of the name [יָהּ, yah] precedes, and that the graphically similar וַיְהִי [vayÿhi] follows). Exod 15:2, the passage from which the words of v. 2b are taken, has only יָהּ. The word זִמְרָת (zimrat) is traditionally understood as meaning “song,” in which case one might translate, “for the Lord gives me strength and joy” (i.e., a reason to sing); note that in v. 5 the verb זָמַר (zamar, “sing”) appears. Many recent commentators, however, have argued that the noun is here instead a homonym, meaning “protection” or “strength.” See HALOT 274 s.v. III *זמר.

[12:2]  ⁴⁸ tn Or “salvation” (so many English versions, e.g., KJV, NIV, NRSV, NLT); NAB “my savior.”