Treasury of Scriptural Knowledge
VERSE
Clarke's Bible Commentary - Psalms 17:2
Verse 2. The Lord is my rock ] 2. I stand on him as my foundation, and derive every good from him who is the source of good. The word [ls sela signifies those craggy precipices which afford shelter to men and wild animals; where the bees often made their nests, and whence honey was collected in great abundance. "He made him to suck honey out of the rock," Deuteronomy xxxii. 13. 3. He was his fortress; a place of strength and safety, fortified by nature and art, where he could be safe from his enemies. He refers to those inaccessible heights in the rocky, mountainous country of Judea, where he had often found refuge from the pursuit of Saul. What these have been to my body, such has the Lord been to my soul. Deliverer ] 4. ytlpm mephalleti, he who causes me to escape. This refers to his preservation in straits and difficulties. He was often almost surrounded and taken, but still the Lord made a way for his escape-made a way out as his enemies got in; so that, while they got in at one side of his strong hold, he got out of the other, and so escaped with his life. These escapes were so narrow and so unlikely that he plainly saw the hand of the Lord was in them. 5. My God, yla Eli, my strong God, not only the object of my adoration, but he who puts strength in my soul. 6. My strength, yrwx tsuri. This is a different word from that in the first verse.
Rabbi Maimon has observed that rwx tsur, when applied to God, signifies fountain, source, origin, &c. God is not only the source whence my being was derived, but he is the fountain whence I derive all my good; in whom, says David, I will trust. And why? Because he knew him to be an eternal and inexhaustible fountain of goodness. This fine idea is lost in our translation; for we render two Hebrew words of widely different meaning, by the same term in English, strength. 7. My buckler, yngm maginni, my shield, my defender, he who covers my head and my heart, so that I am neither slain nor wounded by the darts of my adversaries. 8. Horn of my salvation. Horn was the emblem of power, and power in exercise. This has been already explained; see on 1 Sam. ii. 1. The horn of salvation means a powerful, an efficient salvation. 9. My high tourer; not only a place of defense, but one from which I can discern the country round about, and always be able to discover danger before it approaches me.
Matthew Henry Commentary
Verses 1-19 - The first words, "I will love thee, O Lord, my strength," are the scop and contents of the psalm. Those that truly love God, may triumph in him as their Rock and Refuge, and may with confidence call upon him. It is good for us to observe all the circumstances of a mercy whic magnify the power of God and his goodness to us in it. David was praying man, and God was found a prayer-hearing God. If we pray as he did, we shall speed as he did. God's manifestation of his presence i very fully described, ver. #(7-15). Little appeared of man, but much of God, in these deliverances. It is not possible to apply to the histor of the son of Jesse those awful, majestic, and stupendous words whic are used through this description of the Divine manifestation. Ever part of so solemn a scene of terrors tells us, a greater than David i here. God will not only deliver his people out of their troubles in du time, but he will bear them up under their troubles in the mean time Can we meditate on ver. 18, without directing one thought to Gethseman and Calvary? Can we forget that it was in the hour of Christ's deepes calamity, when Judas betrayed, when his friends forsook, when the multitude derided him, and the smiles of his Father's love wer withheld, that the powers of darkness prevented him? The sorrows of death surrounded him, in his distress he prayed, Heb 5:7. God made the earth to shake and tremble, and the rocks to cleave, and brought his out, in his resurrection, because he delighted in him and in his undertaking.
Original Hebrew
יהוה 3068 סלעי 5553 ומצודתי 4686 ומפלטי 6403 אלי 410 צורי 6697 אחסה 2620 בו מגני 4043 וקרן 7161 ישׁעי 3468 משׂגבי׃ 4869
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