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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Psalms 18:1 - 18:1
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(Heb.: 18:2-4) The poet opens with a number of endearing names for God, in which he gratefully comprehends the results of long and varied experience. So far as regards the parallelism of the members, a monostich forms the beginning of this Psalm, as in Psa 16:1-11; Psa 23:1-6; Ps 25 and many others. Nevertheless the matter assumes a somewhat different aspect, if Psa 18:3 is not, with Maurer, Hengstenberg and Hupfeld, taken as two predicate clauses (Jahve is..., my God is...), but as a simple vocative-a rendering which alone corresponds to the intensity with which this greatest of the Davidic hymns opens-God being invoked by ה, ה, אֵלִי, and each of these names being followed by a predicative expansion of itself, which increases in fulness of tone and emphasis. The אֶרְחָֽמְךָ (with ā, according to Ew. §251, b), which carries the three series of the names of God, makes up in depth of meaning what is wanting in compass. Elsewhere we find only the Piel רִחַם of tender sympathising love, but here the Kal is used as an Aramaism. Hence the Jalkut on this passages explains it by רחמאי יתך “I love thee,” or ardent, heartfelt love and attachment. The primary signification of softness (root רח, Arab. rḥ, rch, to be soft, lax, loose), whence רֶחֶם, uterus, is transferred in both cases to tenderness of feeling or sentiment. The most general predicate חִזְפִי (from חֹזֶק according to a similar inflexion to אֹמֶר, בֹּסֶר, עֹמֶק, plur. עִמְקֵי Pro 9:18) is followed by those which describe Jahve as a protector and deliverer in persecution on the one hand, and on the other as a defender and the giver of victory in battle. They are all typical names symbolising what Jahve is in Himself; hence instead of וּמְפַלְּטִי it would perhaps have been more correct to point וּמִפְלָטִי (and my refuge). God had already called Himself a shield to Abram, Gen 15:1; and He is called צוּר (cf. אֶבֶן Gen 49:24) in the great Mosaic song, Deu 32:4, Deu 32:37 (the latter verse is distinctly echoed here).
סֶלַע from סָלַע, Arab. sl‛, findere, means properly a cleft in a rock (Arabic סַלְע,
(Note: Neshwân defines thus: Arab. 'l-sal‛ is a cutting in a mountain after the manner of a gorge; and Jâkût, who cites a number of places that are so called: a wide plain (Arab. fḍ') enclosed by steep rocks, which is reached through a narrow pass (Arab. ša‛b), but can only be descended on foot. Accordingly, in סַלְעִי the idea of a safe (and comfortable) hiding-place preponderates; in צוּרִי that of firm ground and inaccessibility. The one figure calls to mind the (well-watered) Edomitish סֶלַע surrounded with precipitous rocks, Isa 16:1; Isa 42:11, the Πέτρα described by Strabo, xvi. 4, 21; the other calls to mind the Phoenician rocky island צֹור, Ṣûr (Tyre), the refuge in the sea.))
then a cleft rock, and צוּר, like the Arabic sachr, a great and hard mass of rock (Aramaic טוּר, a mountain). The figures of the מְצוּדָה (מְצֹודָה, מְצַד) and the מִשְׂגָּב are related; the former signifies properly specula, a watch-tower,
(Note: In Arabic maṣâdun signifies (1) a high hill (a signification that is wanting in Freytag), (2) the summit of a mountain, and according to the original lexicons it belongs to the root Arab. maṣada, which in outward appearance is supported by the synonymous forms Arab. maṣadun and maṣdun, as also by their plurals Arab. amṣidatun and muṣdânun, wince these can only be properly formed from those singulars on the assumption of the m being part of the root. Nevertheless, since the meanings of Arab. maṣada all distinctly point to its being formed from the root Arab. mṣ contained in the reduplicated stem Arab. maṣṣa, to suck, but the meanings of Arab. maṣâdun, maṣsadun, and maṣdun do not admit of their being referred to it, and moreover there are instances in which original nn. loci from vv. med. Arab. w and y admit of the prefixed m being treated as the first radical through forgetfulness or disregard of their derivation, and with the retention of its from secondary roots (as Arab. makana, madana, maṣṣara), it is highly probable that in maṣâd, maṣad and maṣd we have an original מְצָד, מְצֹודָה, מְצוּדָה. These Hebrew words, however, are to be referred to a צוּד in the signification to look out, therefore properly specula. - Fleischer.)
and the latter, a steep height. The horn, which is an ancient figure of victorious and defiant power in Deu 33:17; 1Sa 2:1, is found here applied to Jahve Himself: “horn of my salvation” is that which interposes on the side of my feebleness, conquers, and saves me. All these epithets applied to God are the fruits of the affliction out of which David's song has sprung, viz., his persecution by Saul, when, in a country abounding in rugged rocks and deficient in forest, he betook himself to the rocks for safety, and the mountains served him as his fortresses. In the shelter which the mountains, by their natural conformations, afforded him at that time, and in the fortunate accidents, which sometimes brought him deliverance when in extreme peril, David recognises only marvellous phenomena of which Jahve Himself was to him the final cause. The confession of the God tried and known in many ways is continued in Psa 18:5 by a general expression of his experience. מְהֻלָּל is a predicate accusative to יהוה: As one praised (worthy to be praised) do I call upon Jahve, - a rendering that is better suited to the following clause, which expresses confidence in the answer coinciding with the invocation, which is to be thought of as a cry for help, than Olshausen's, “Worthy of praise, do I cry, is Jahve,” though this latter certainly is possible so far as the style is concerned (vid., on Isa 45:24, cf. also Gen 3:3; Mic 2:6). The proof of this fact, viz., that calling upon Him who is worthy to be praised, who, as the history of Israel shows, is able and willing to help, is immediately followed by actual help, as events that are coincident, forms the further matter of the Psalm.