Psalms 18:46

18:46 The Lord is alive! ¹ 

My protector ²  is praiseworthy! ³ 

The God who delivers me ⁴  is exalted as king! ⁵ 

Psalms 27:5

27:5 He will surely ⁶  give me shelter ⁷  in the day of danger; ⁸ 

he will hide me in his home; ⁹ 

he will place me ¹⁰  on an inaccessible rocky summit. ¹¹ 

Psalms 40:2

40:2 He lifted me out of the watery pit, ¹² 

out of the slimy mud. ¹³ 

He placed my feet on a rock

and gave me secure footing. ¹⁴ 

Psalms 62:2

62:2 He alone is my protector ¹⁵  and deliverer.

He is my refuge; ¹⁶  I will not be upended. ¹⁷ 

Psalms 62:6

62:6 He alone is my protector ¹⁸  and deliverer.

He is my refuge; ¹⁹  I will not be upended. ²⁰ 

Isaiah 32:2

32:2 Each of them ²¹  will be like a shelter from the wind

and a refuge from a rainstorm;

like streams of water in a dry region

and like the shade of a large cliff in a parched land.

[18:46]  ¹ 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.

[18:46]  ² tn Heb “my rocky cliff,” which is a metaphor for protection. See similar phrases in vv. 2, 31.

[18:46]  ³ tn Or “blessed [i.e., praised] be.”

[18:46]  ⁴ tn Heb “the God of my deliverance.” 2 Sam 22:48 reads, “the God of the rocky cliff of my deliverance.”

[18:46]  ⁵ 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).

[27:5]  ⁶ tn Or “for he will.” The translation assumes the כִּי (ki) is asseverative here, rather than causal.

[27:5]  ⁷ tn Heb “he will hide me in his hut.”

[27:5]  ⁸ tn Or “trouble.”

[27:5]  ⁹ tn Heb “tent.”

[27:5]  ¹⁰ tn The three imperfect verb forms in v. 5 anticipate a positive response to the prayer offered in vv. 7-12.

[27:5]  ¹¹ tn Heb “on a rocky summit he lifts me up.” The Lord places the psalmist in an inaccessible place where his enemies cannot reach him. See Ps 18:2.

[40:2]  ¹² tn Heb “cistern of roaring.” The Hebrew noun בּוֹר (bor, “cistern, pit”) is used metaphorically here of Sheol, the place of death, which is sometimes depicted as a raging sea (see Ps 18:4, 15-16). The noun שָׁאוֹן (sha’on, “roaring”) refers elsewhere to the crashing sound of the sea’s waves (see Ps 65:7).

[40:2]  ¹³ tn Heb “from the mud of mud.” The Hebrew phrase translated “slimy mud” employs an appositional genitive. Two synonyms are joined in a construct relationship to emphasize the single idea. For a detailed discussion of the grammatical point with numerous examples, see Y. Avishur, “Pairs of Synonymous Words in the Construct State (and in Appositional Hendiadys) in Biblical Hebrew,” Semitics 2 (1971): 17-81.

[40:2]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “he established my footsteps.”

[62:2]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “my high rocky summit.”

[62:2]  ¹⁶ tn Or “my elevated place” (see Ps 18:2).

[62:2]  ¹⁷ 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.”

[62:6]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “my high rocky summit.”

[62:6]  ¹⁹ tn Or “my elevated place” (see Ps 18:2).

[62:6]  ²⁰ sn The wording is identical to that of v. 2, except that רַבָּה (rabbah, “greatly”) does not appear in v. 6.

[32:2]  ²¹ tn Heb “a man,” but אִישׁ (’ish) probably refers here to “each” of the officials mentioned in the previous verse.