Mazmur 18:16

18:16 He reached down ¹  from above and took hold of me;

he pulled me from the surging water. ² 

Mazmur 18:2

18:2 The Lord is my high ridge, ³  my stronghold, ⁴  my deliverer.

My God is my rocky summit where ⁵  I take shelter, ⁶ 

my shield, the horn that saves me, ⁷  and my refuge. ⁸ 

1 Samuel 22:17

22:17 Then the king said to the messengers ⁹  who were stationed beside him, “Turn and kill the priests of the Lord, for they too have sided ¹⁰  with David! They knew he was fleeing, but they did not inform me.” But the king’s servants refused to harm ¹¹  the priests of the Lord.

Matius 27:43

27:43 He trusts in God – let God, if he wants to, deliver him now ¹²  because he said, ‘I am God’s Son’!”

[18:16]  ¹ tn Heb “stretched.” Perhaps “his hand” should be supplied by ellipsis (see Ps 144:7). In this poetic narrative context the three prefixed verbal forms in this verse are best understood as preterites indicating past tense, not imperfects.

[18:16]  ² tn Heb “mighty waters.” The waters of the sea symbolize the psalmist’s powerful enemies, as well as the realm of death they represent (see v. 4 and Ps 144:7).

[18:2]  ³ 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]  ⁴ 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]  ⁵ tn Or “in whom.”

[18:2]  ⁶ 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]  ⁷ 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]  ⁸ 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.”

[22:17]  ⁹ tn Heb “runners.”

[22:17]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “their hand is.”

[22:17]  ¹¹ tn Heb “to extend their hand to harm.”

[27:43]  ¹² sn An allusion to Ps 22:8.