Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 18:31
For who [is] God save the LORD? or who [is] a rock save our God?
31. For who is a God save Jehovah?
And who is a Rock beside our God?
Jehovah alone is Elah, a God to be feared and reverenced. The singular Elah is found instead of the usual plural Elohim elsewhere in the Psalter only in Psa 50:22; Psa 114:7; Psa 139:19. It is used frequently in Job; in Deu 32:15; Deu 32:17; Isa 44:8; Hab 1:11; Hab 3:3; and in a few other passages.
For Rock see note on Psa 18:2; and for similar declarations of the unique character of Jehovah cp. Deu 32:31; 1Sa 2:2 ; 2Sa 7:22.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
31 34. The unique character of Jehovah, to whom alone David owes all that he is. Observe how he recognises that the advantages of physical strength and energy, important qualifications in times when the king was himself the leader of the people in battle, were gifts of God; yet that it was not these which saved him and made him victorious, but Jehovah’s care and help ( Psa 18:35 ff.). Cp. 1Sa 17:34-36.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
For who is God save the Lord? – Who is God except Yahweh? The idea is, that no other being has evinced the power, the wisdom, and the goodness which properly belong to the true God; or, that the things which are implied in the true nature of God are found in no other being.
Or who is a rock save our God? – See Psa 18:2. There is no one who can furnish such safety or defense; no one under whose protection we can be secure in danger. Compare Deu 32:31.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 31. For who is God save the Lord?] “For who is Eloah, except Jehovah?” None is worthy of adoration but the self-existent, eternal, infinitely perfect, and all-merciful Being.
Or who is a rock] A fountain emitting continual supplies of grace and goodness.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
It must needs be as I have said, because our Lord is the only God, and therefore there is none, neither God nor creature, that can hinder him from accomplishing his own word and work, or from defending those that trust him: he is unchangeable and invincible. Or this is an amplification, As God is what I have now described him to be, so he only is such, and there is no other God or Rock in which they may safely trust.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
For who [is] God save the Lord?…. Or Jehovah: there is but one God, and Jehovah is he; there is none besides him, nor any like him: there are many that are called gods, nominal deities, who are not by nature gods; fictitious ones, the idols of the Gentiles, made of gold, silver, brass, wood, and stone; but there is but one true God: there are gods, in an improper sense, as civil magistrates; but there is none really and truly so but the Lord; which is to be understood, not of Jehovah the Father, to the exclusion of the Son and Spirit; for the Son is Jehovah, and the Spirit is Jehovah; both are so called, as well as the Father, and all three one God;
or who [is] a rock save our God? to have recourse to for shelter and protection; or to trust to, and build upon, for eternal life and salvation. False gods are rocks; but not like ours, our enemies themselves being judges, De 32:31; so Apollo at Delphos is called the Delphian rock n: the words seem to be taken from, or at least there is in them a reference to, 1Sa 2:2.
n , Sophoclis Oedipus, v. 472.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(Heb.: 18:32-35) The grateful description of the tokens of favour he has experienced takes a new flight, and is continued in the second half of the Psalm in a more varied and less artificial mixture of the strophes. What is said in Psa 18:31 of the way and word of Jahve and of Jahve Himself, is confirmed in Psa 18:32 by the fact that He alone is , a divine being to be reverenced, and He alone is , a rock, i.e., a ground of confidence that cannot be shaken. What is said in Psa 18:31 consequently can be said only of Him. and alternate; the former (with a negative intensive ) signifies “without reference to” and then absolutely “without” or besides, and the latter (with as a connecting vowel, which elsewhere has also the function of a suffix), from ( ), “exception.” The verses immediately following are attached descriptively to , our God (i.e., the God of Israel), the God, who girded me with strength; and accordingly ( fut. consec.) made my way , “perfect,” i.e., absolutely smooth, free from stumblings and errors, leading straight forward to a divine goal. The idea is no other than that in Psa 18:31, cf. Job 22:3, except that the freedom from error here is intended to be understood in accordance with its reference to the way of a man, of a king, and of a warrior; cf. moreover, the other text. The verb signifies, like Arab. swwa , to make equal ( aequare), to arrange, to set right; the dependent passage Hab 3:19 has, instead of this verb, the more uncoloured . The hind, or , is the perfection of swiftness (cf. and ) and also of gracefulness among animals. “Like the hinds” is equivalent to like hinds’ feet; the Hebrew style leaves it to the reader to infer the appropriate point of comparison from the figure. It is not swiftness in flight (De Wette), but in attack and pursuit that is meant, – the latter being a prominent characteristic of warriors, according to 2Sa 1:23; 2Sa 2:18; 1Ch 12:8. David does not call the high places of the enemy, which he has made his own by conquest “my high places,” but those heights of the Holy Land which belong to him as king of Israel: upon these Jahve preserves him a firm position, so that from them he may rule the land far and wide, and hold them victoriously (cf. passages like Deu 32:13; Isa 58:14). The verb , which has a double accusative in other instances, is here combined with of the subject taught, as the aim of the teaching. The verb (to press down = to bend a bow) precedes the subject “my arms” in the singular; this inequality is admissible even when the subject stands first (e.g., Gen 49:22; Joe 1:20; Zec 6:14). a bow of brazen = of brass, as in Job 20:24. It is also the manner of heroes in Homer and in the Ram-jana to press down and bend with their hand a brazen bow, one end of which rests on the ground.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
31. For who is God besides Jehovah? David here, deriding the foolish inventions of men, who, according to their own fancy, make for themselves tutelary gods, (426) confirms what I have said before, that he never undertook any thing but by the authority and command of God. If he had passed beyond the limits of his calling, he could not with such confidence have said that God was on his side. Besides, although in these words he opposes to the true God all the false gods invented by men, his purpose, at the same time, is to overthrow all the vain hopes in which the world is wrapped up, and by which it is carried about, and prevented from resting in God. The question which David here treats of is not the bare title and name of God, but he declares that whatever assistance we need we should seek it from God, and from no other quarter, because he alone is endued with power: Who is strong except our God? We should, however, attend to the design of David, which I have first adverted to, namely, that, by confidently representing God as opposed to all his enemies, and as the leader, under whose standard he had valiantly fought against them, he means to affirm that he had attempted nothing according to his own fancy, or with an evil and condemning conscience.
(426) “ Qui se forgent a leur fantasie des dieux qui soyent leurs protecteurs et patrons.” — Fr. “Who, according to their own fancy, make for themselves gods to be their protectors and patrons.”
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(31) Comp. Deu. 32:31, where we see that rock was a common term among the tribes of Canaan for their divinities. Notice some trifling variations in Samuel.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
31. Rock Quoted from Deu 32:31-39; 1Sa 2:2
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Psa 18:31 For who [is] God save the LORD? or who [is] a rock save our God?
Ver. 31. For who is God save the Lord? ] Fictitios Deos et vanas spes prosternit, saith Vatablus. Here he striketh down to the ground all false gods and all vain hopes. Contemno minutulos istos Deos mode Iovem mihi propitium habeam, said a heathen. David might much better say, I care not for those petty deities, so I may have Jehovah to favour me.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
GOD. Hebrew Eloah. App-4.
rock. Hebrew. zur. See notes on Exo 17:6; Exo 32:13.
save = except.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Psa 86:8, Deu 32:31, Deu 32:39, 1Sa 2:2, 2Sa 22:32, Isa 45:5, Isa 45:21, Isa 45:22
Reciprocal: Gen 2:4 – Lord Deu 32:4 – the Rock Jdg 15:18 – Thou hast given 1Ch 29:12 – give strength Psa 62:6 – rock Psa 144:1 – my strength Isa 30:29 – mighty One Isa 44:8 – no God