What Does Psalm 28:8 Mean in the King James?
The LORD is their strength, and he is the saving strength of his anointed.
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 LORD is not only their strength but the stronghold in which deliverance is held.
THE MEANING
The LORD is strength for the people and the fortress surrounding the deliverances of his anointed. For you now, the one who sustains is also the shelter in which deliverance takes shape.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that you must be strong enough to secure your own deliverance dissolves here: strength and shelter both have their ground in the LORD.
THE ROOT
עֹז
ʿoz
GROWS FROM
עָזַז
ʿ-z-z
To be strong or mighty; strength that can also be pictured as a stronghold.
The Hebrew shifts from עֹז (might) to מָעוֹז (stronghold), while English repeats strength. The LORD is both the power that steadies the people and the shelter surrounding deliverance.
ALSO GROWS
ʿoz: Strength, might.
עֹז
This is the first word for strength in the verse: the LORD is strength for the people.
ʿazuz: Mighty, powerful.
עָזוּז
This branch carries the root’s sense of force, while מָעוֹז pictures that strength as a place of shelter.
יְשׁוּעוֹת
yeshuʿot
GROWS FROM
ישע
y-sh-ʿ
To deliver, bring out into safety.
The word translated saving is יְשׁוּעוֹת, deliverances. It joins rescue to the stronghold: the LORD is the shelter of the deliverance itself.
ALSO GROWS
yashaʿ: To deliver, bring to safety.
יָשַׁע
The verb names the movement out of danger that the verse calls deliverance.
yeshuʿah: Deliverance, rescue.
יְשׁוּעָה
This noun shares the root of יְשׁוּעוֹת and makes clear that the verse speaks of deliverances, not an abstract quality of being saved.
מְשִׁיחוֹ
meshicho
GROWS FROM
משח
m-sh-ḥ
To smear or anoint with oil.
Anointed names someone marked with oil and set apart. The verse places this person’s deliverances within the LORD’s stronghold.
ALSO GROWS
mashiach: Anointed one.
מָשִׁיחַ
This is the person named by the verse: the one whose deliverances the LORD shelters.
mishchah: Anointing oil.
מִשְׁחָה
The oil branch keeps the word’s concrete image of marking and setting apart in view.
THE PATTERN
The LORD is named as both the strength people stand in and the refuge that holds them through danger.
To the chief Musician for the sons of Korah, A Song upon Alamoth. God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and not be afraid: for the LORD JEHOVAH is my strength and my song; he also is become my salvation.And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.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 uses the same ישע root in my salvation that appears in Psalm 28:8 as deliverances. Its images of fortress, deliverer, and high tower open the same picture further: rescue is held within the LORD’s shelter.
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