What Does Psalm 18:1 Mean?
To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David, the servant of the LORD, who spake unto the LORD the words of this song in the day that the LORD delivered him from the hand of all his enemies, and from the hand of Saul. I have compassion for you, O LORD, my strength.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David, the servant of the LORD, who spake unto the LORD the words of this song in the day that the LORD delivered him from the hand of all his enemies, and from the hand of Saul: And he said, I will love thee, O LORD, my strength.THE KEY
The word rendered “love” is רָחַם (racham), compassion, whose same-root branch רֶחֶם (rechem) means “womb”, so tenderness and strength meet in a single address.
THE MEANING
Your bond with the LORD is voiced as tender compassion, while the LORD is named as your strength. The verse holds affection and reliance together: tenderness sits alongside the source of strength.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that tenderness and strength must be kept apart: this line names both in one declaration.
THE ROOT
אֶרְחָמְךָ
ʾerḥāməḵā
GROWS FROM
רחם
To show compassion or tender concern.
“I have compassion for you” in this verse is ʾerḥāməḵā. The KJV’s “love” comes from רָחַם (racham), to show compassion or tender concern. The same three consonants form רֶחֶם (rechem), “womb,” giving this attachment the texture of visceral, sheltering tenderness.
ALSO GROWS
rechem: Womb
רֶחֶם
This same-root noun gives the compassion in “I will love thee” a bodily, sheltering quality.
rachamim: Compassion, mercies
רַחֲמִים
This related form makes compassion an audible part of the tenderness expressed in the verse.
חִזְקִי
chizqi
GROWS FROM
חזק
To be strong or firm, and to strengthen.
“my strength” in this verse is chizqi. The root חָזַק (chazaq) carries the sense of becoming firm or strong, as well as strengthening. Here, the LORD is named as the firmness on which the speaker relies.
ALSO GROWS
chazaq: Be strong, become firm, prevail
חָזַק
This verb shows the active force behind “my strength”: firmness that holds and endures.
chizzeq: Strengthen, make firm
חִזֵּק
This related form highlights strength as something that steadies and fortifies.
THE PATTERN
The bond with the LORD holds tenderness and strength together.
The LORD is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my rock, in whom I shelter; my shield, and the horn of my deliverance, and my high place.A Psalm of David. The LORD is my light and my deliverance; whom shall I fear? The LORD is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I tremble?And he said to me, "My favor is enough for you, for strength is carried to its end in weakness." Most gladly, then, I will boast all the more in my weaknesses, so that the strength of the Anointed One may pitch its tent over me.THE THREAD
Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she would not have compassion on the son of her womb? Even they may forget, but I will not forget you.The same root behind “I will love thee” appears here as “have compassion,” beside the words “son of her womb.” That shared root opens the verse’s love as embodied tenderness, not only affection.
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