What Does Psalm 18:31 Mean in the King James?

For who is God save the LORD? or who is a rock save our God?

Psalm 18:31 · KJV

The analysis reads the King James wording.

King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.

THE KEY

The verse names one source as both God and Rock: the one who is ultimate is also the ground that holds.

THE MEANING

The LORD alone is God, and our God alone is the Rock. Divinity and dependable ground are not separate: the one named here is also the one who holds firm.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

It undoes the belief that lasting security must come from a source separate from God.

THE ROOT

צוּר

tsur

GROWS FROM

צור

Rock, crag, or cliff: a massive, solid formation.

The Hebrew noun ⁨צוּר⁩ (tsur, “rock”) answers the same question as “God.” The parallel makes steadfastness part of the portrait of God, rather than a separate source of help.

ALSO GROWS

tsur: Rock, crag, cliff.

צוּר

This exact noun names God as the Rock in the verse.

tsuri: My rock.

צוּרִי

The same root with “my” appears in Psalm 18:2, making the image of the Rock personal.

THE PATTERN

Scripture repeatedly identifies God with rock imagery to describe the ground that remains dependable.

He is the Rock, his work is perfect: for all his ways are judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he.

Deuteronomy 32:4 · KJVThe Rock is named as God, whose work and ways are described as just and reliable.

There is none holy as the LORD: for there is none beside thee: neither is there any rock like our God.

1 Samuel 2:2 · KJVLike Psalm 18:31, the verse joins God’s uniqueness to the image of the Rock.

And did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ.

1 Corinthians 10:4 · KJVThe image of the Rock appears again as a source that accompanies and sustains.

THE THREAD

The LORD is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust; my buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower.

Psalm 18:2 · KJV

Psalm 18:2 uses the same root in ⁨צוּרִי⁩ (tsuri, “my rock”). Here the question identifies God as the Rock; there, the same image becomes personal and is joined with fortress, deliverance, and strength.

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