Mazmur 144:1

Psalm 144 ¹ 

By David.

144:1 The Lord, my protector, ²  deserves praise ³  –

the one who trains my hands for battle, ⁴ 

and my fingers for war,

Mazmur 31:3

31:3 For you are my high ridge ⁵  and my stronghold;

for the sake of your own reputation ⁶  you lead me and guide me. ⁷ 

Mazmur 42:9

42:9 I will pray ⁸  to God, my high ridge: ⁹ 

“Why do you ignore ¹⁰  me?

Why must I walk around mourning ¹¹ 

because my enemies oppress me?”

Mazmur 18:2

18:2 The Lord is my high ridge, ¹²  my stronghold, ¹³  my deliverer.

My God is my rocky summit where ¹⁴  I take shelter, ¹⁵ 

my shield, the horn that saves me, ¹⁶  and my refuge. ¹⁷ 

Mazmur 19:14

19:14 May my words and my thoughts

be acceptable in your sight, ¹⁸ 

O Lord, my sheltering rock ¹⁹  and my redeemer. ²⁰ 

Mazmur 62:2

62:2 He alone is my protector ²¹  and deliverer.

He is my refuge; ²²  I will not be upended. ²³ 

Mazmur 62:6

62:6 He alone is my protector ²⁴  and deliverer.

He is my refuge; ²⁵  I will not be upended. ²⁶ 

Mazmur 92:15

92:15 So they proclaim that the Lord, my protector,

is just and never unfair. ²⁷ 

[144:1]  ¹ 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.

[144:1]  ² tn Heb “my rocky summit.” The Lord is compared to a rocky summit where one can find protection from enemies. See Ps 18:2.

[144:1]  ³ tn Heb “blessed [be] the Lord, my rocky summit.”

[144:1]  ⁴ 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.

[31:3]  ⁵ sn The metaphor of the high ridge pictures God as a rocky, relatively inaccessible summit, where one would be able to find protection from enemies. See 1 Sam 23:25, 28.

[31:3]  ⁶ tn Heb “name.” The Hebrew term שֵׁם (shem, “name”) refers here to the Lord’s reputation. (The English term “name” is often used the same way.)

[31:3]  ⁷ tn The present translation assumes that the imperfect verbal forms are generalizing, “you lead me and guide me.” Other options are to take them as an expression of confidence about the future, “you will lead me and guide me” (cf. NASB), or as expressing a prayer, “lead me and guide me” (cf. NEB, NIV, NRSV).

[42:9]  ⁸ tn The cohortative form indicates the psalmist’s resolve.

[42:9]  ⁹ tn 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; Pss 18:2; 31:3.

[42:9]  ¹⁰ tn Or “forget.”

[42:9]  ¹¹ sn Walk around mourning. See Ps 38:6 for a similar idea.

[18:2]  ¹² 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]  ¹³ 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]  ¹⁴ tn Or “in whom.”

[18:2]  ¹⁵ 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]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “the horn of my salvation”; or “my saving horn.”

[18:2]  sn Though some see “horn” as referring to a horn-shaped peak of a hill, or to the “horns” of an altar where one could find refuge, it is more likely that the horn of an ox underlies the metaphor (cf. Deut 33:17; 1 Kgs 22:11; Ps 92:10). The horn of the wild ox is frequently a metaphor for military strength; the idiom “exalt the horn” signifies military victory (see 1 Sam 2:10; Pss 89:17, 24; 92:10; Lam 2:17). In the ancient Near East powerful warrior-kings would sometimes compare themselves to a goring bull that uses its horns to kill its enemies. For examples, see P. Miller, “El the Warrior,” HTR 60 (1967): 422-25, and R. B. Chisholm, “An Exegetical and Theological Study of Psalm 18/2 Samuel 22” (Th.D. diss., Dallas Theological Seminary, 1983), 135-36. Ps 18:2 uses the metaphor of the horn in a slightly different manner. Here the Lord himself is compared to a horn. He is to the psalmist what the horn is to the ox, a source of defense and victory.

[18:2]  ¹⁷ 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.”

[19:14]  ¹⁸ 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.”

[19:14]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “my rocky cliff,” which is a metaphor for protection; thus the translation “sheltering rock.”

[19:14]  ²⁰ 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.

[62:2]  ²¹ tn Heb “my high rocky summit.”

[62:2]  ²² tn Or “my elevated place” (see Ps 18:2).

[62:2]  ²³ 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]  ²⁴ tn Heb “my high rocky summit.”

[62:6]  ²⁵ tn Or “my elevated place” (see Ps 18:2).

[62:6]  ²⁶ sn The wording is identical to that of v. 2, except that רַבָּה (rabbah, “greatly”) does not appear in v. 6.

[92:15]  ²⁷ tn Heb “so that [they] proclaim that upright [is] the Lord, my rocky summit, and there is no injustice in him.”