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 62:6

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

He is my refuge; ⁷  I will not be upended. ⁸ 

Psalms 73:26

73:26 My flesh and my heart may grow weak, ⁹ 

but God always ¹⁰  protects my heart and gives me stability. ¹¹ 

Psalms 78:35

78:35 They remembered that God was their protector, ¹² 

and that the sovereign God was their deliverer. ¹³ 

Psalms 81:16

81:16 “I would feed Israel the best wheat, ¹⁴ 

and would satisfy your appetite ¹⁵  with honey from the rocky cliffs.” ¹⁶ 

Psalms 89:26

89:26 He will call out to me,

‘You are my father, ¹⁷  my God, and the protector who delivers me.’ ¹⁸ 

Psalms 89:43

89:43 You turn back ¹⁹  his sword from the adversary, ²⁰ 

and have not sustained him in battle. ²¹ 

Psalms 94:22

94:22 But the Lord will protect me, ²² 

and my God will shelter me. ²³ 

Psalms 105:41

105:41 He opened up a rock and water flowed out;

a river ran through dry regions.

Psalms 114:8

114:8 who turned a rock into a pool of water,

a hard rock into springs of water! ²⁴ 

[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).

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

[62:6]  ⁷ tn Or “my elevated place” (see Ps 18:2).

[62:6]  ⁸ sn The wording is identical to that of v. 2, except that רַבָּה (rabbah, “greatly”) does not appear in v. 6.

[73:26]  ¹¹ tn The Hebrew verb כָלָה (khalah, “to fail; to grow weak”) does not refer here to physical death per se, but to the physical weakness that sometimes precedes death (see Job 33:21; Pss 71:9; 143:7; Prov 5:11).

[73:26]  ¹² tn Or “forever.”

[73:26]  ¹³ tn Heb “is the rocky summit of my heart and my portion.” The psalmist compares the Lord to a rocky summit where one could go for protection and to landed property, which was foundational to economic stability in ancient Israel.

[78:35]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “my high rocky summit.”

[78:35]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “and [that] God Most High [was] their redeemer.”

[81:16]  ²¹ tn Heb “and he fed him from the best of the wheat.” The Hebrew text has a third person form of the preterite with a vav (ו) consecutive attached. However, it is preferable, in light of the use of the first person in v. 14 and in the next line, to emend the verb to a first person form and understand the vav as conjunctive, continuing the apodosis of the conditional sentence of vv. 13-14. The third masculine singular pronominal suffix refers to Israel, as in v. 6.

[81:16]  ²² tn Heb “you.” The second person singular pronominal suffix refers to Israel, as in vv. 7-10.

[81:16]  ²³ sn The language in this verse, particularly the references to wheat and honey, is reminiscent of Deut 32:13-14.

[89:26]  ²⁶ 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]  ²⁷ tn Heb “the rocky summit of my deliverance.”

[89:43]  ³¹ tn The perfect verbal form predominates in vv. 38-45. The use of the imperfect in this one instance may be for rhetorical effect. The psalmist briefly lapses into dramatic mode, describing the king’s military defeat as if it were happening before his very eyes.

[89:43]  ³² tc Heb “you turn back, rocky summit, his sword.” The Hebrew term צוּר (tsur, “rocky summit”) makes no sense here, unless it is a divine title understood as vocative, “you turn back, O Rocky Summit, his sword.” Some emend the form to צֹר (tsor, “flint”) on the basis of Josh 5:2, which uses the phrase חַרְבוֹת צֻרִים (kharvot tsurim, “flint knives”). The noun צֹר (tsor, “flint”) can then be taken as “flint-like edge,” indicating the sharpness of the sword. Others emend the form to אָחוֹר (’akhor, “backward”) or to מִצַּר (mitsar, “from the adversary”). The present translation reflects the latter, assuming an original reading תָּשִׁיב מִצָּר חַרְבּוֹ (tashiv mitsar kharbo), which was corrupted to תָּשִׁיב צָר חַרְבּוֹ (tashiv tsar kharbo) by virtual haplography (confusion of bet/mem is well-attested) with צָר (tsar, “adversary”) then being misinterpreted as צוּר in the later tradition.

[89:43]  ³³ tn Heb “and you have not caused him to stand in the battle.”

[94:22]  ³⁶ 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.

[94:22]  ³⁷ tn Heb “and my God [has become] a rocky summit of my safety.”

[114:8]  ⁴¹ sn In v. 8 the psalmist recalls the event(s) recorded in Exod 17:6 and/or Num 20:11 (see also Deut 8:15 and Ps 78:15-16, 20).