What Does Psalm 78:35 Mean?
And they remembered that God was their rock, and the Most High God, their redeemer.
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
And they remembered that God was their rock, and the high God their redeemer.THE KEY
“Redeemer” names the one who reclaims you as kin, so refuge and recovery meet in the same God.
THE MEANING
Remembering brings two truths into view now: God is your rock, the ground that holds, and your redeemer, the one who reclaims you. What shelters you also brings you back into belonging.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
You are too far gone to be reclaimed. “Redeemer” names the one who reclaims what belongs to him.
THE ROOT
גֹּאֲלָם
go'alam
GROWS FROM
גאל
gā'al
To reclaim or redeem, often by acting as a kinsman.
גֹּאֲלָם (go’alam), “their redeemer,” comes from a root associated with a kinsman’s recovery of what belongs to the family. The word holds nearness inside deliverance: the one who reclaims is bound by belonging.
ALSO GROWS
go'el: Kinsman-redeemer
גֹּאֵל
It shows that redemption carries a relationship of kinship, not just rescue from a distance.
ge'ullah: Redemption or reclamation
גְּאֻלָּה
This noun names the recovery brought about by the redeemer.
צוּרָם
tsuram
GROWS FROM
צור
tsur
Rock or crag; a solid place of refuge.
צוּרָם (tsuram) means “their rock,” a tangible image of solid ground and shelter. The verse sets that endurance beside the action of reclaiming: what holds you also comes to bring you back.
ALSO GROWS
tsur: Rock or cliff
צוּר
The concrete noun gives the image its weight: refuge is pictured as something solid.
tsuram: Their rock
צוּרָם
The possessive form makes the rock a shared source of refuge, held in common.
וַיִּזְכְּרוּ
vayyizkeru
GROWS FROM
זכר
zākar
To remember or call to mind.
“remembered” in this verse is vayyizkeru. The root זכר (zākar) also forms זִכָּרוֹן (zikkaron), “memorial,” linking remembrance with what is kept present. Here, remembering brings God’s identity as rock and redeemer back into view.
ALSO GROWS
zākhar: Remembered or called to mind
זָכַר
This is the verb in the verse: remembering names what is true again.
zikkaron: Memorial or remembrance
זִכָּרוֹן
The shared root connects remembering with a truth kept present.
zēkher: Remembrance or renown
זֵכֶר
This branch shows how what is remembered can remain known and spoken of.
THE PATTERN
Remembering reveals God as both firm refuge and the one who reclaims.
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.And all drank the same breath-given drink, for they drank from the breath-given rock that followed them, and that rock was the Anointed One.Let the LORD God of Israel be spoken well of, for he has looked upon and redeemed his people,THE THREAD
Lean your full weight upon the LORD for ages upon ages; for in the LORD, the LORD, is the rock of ages.The Hebrew phrase צוּר עוֹלָמִים (tsur olamim), “rock of ages,” stands behind “everlasting strength.” It shares צוּר (tsur), “rock,” with this verse, showing the refuge remembered here as ground that holds across the ages.
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