The Expositor's Bible: The Psalms, Vol. 1: Psalms I.-XXXVIII.Maclaren, Alexander
Religion
The Expositor's Bible: The Psalms, Vol. 1: Psalms I.-XXXVIII.
Maclaren, Alexander
Bible. Psalms -- Commentaries
suggested the image, "In the shadow of Thy wings will I take refuge."
The difference between "fortress" and "high tower" is slight, but the
former gives more prominence to the idea of strength, and the latter to
that of elevation, both concurring in the same thought as was expressed
by "rock," but with the additional suggestion of Jehovah as the home of
the soul. Safety, then, comes through communion. Abiding in God is
seclusion from danger. "Deliverer" stands last in the first set, saying
in plain words what the preceding had put in figures. "My shield and the
horn of my salvation" come in the centre of the second set, in obedience
to the law of variety in reiteration which the poet's artistic instincts
impose. They shift the figure to that of a warrior in actual conflict.
The others picture a fugitive from enemies, these a fighter. The shield
is a defensive weapon; horns are offensive ones, and the combination
suggests that in conflict we are safe by the interposition of God's
covering power, and are armed by the same power for striking at the foe.
That power ensures salvation, whether in the narrower or wider sense.
Thus Jehovah is all the armour and all the refuge of His servant. To
trust Him is to have His protection cast around and His power infused
for conflict and victory. The end of all life's experience is to reveal
Him in these characters, and they have rightly learned its lessons whose
song of retrospect begins with "I will love Thee, Jehovah," and pours
out at His feet all happy names expressive of His sufficiency and of the
singer's rest in possessing Him. Ver. 3 is not a resolution for the
future--"I will call; ... so shall I be saved"--but the summing up of
experience in a great truth: "I call, ... and I am saved." It unfolds
the meaning of the previous names of God, and strikes the key-note for
the magnificent sequel.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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