Hebrew Poetry
YHWH is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer. I seek refuge in Him; He is my shield and the horn of my salvation, my high tower. Psalm 18:3 (Hebrew text)
Rock – If you looked at this psalm in the Hebrew text, you would see something unusual (for us, at least). The letters of the words are spread out across the scroll in a design pattern. No, it’s not typesetting justification of margins. It’s written that way because these are lyrics to a song, a song of praise and thanksgiving for the God who rescued David from his enemies. This pattern also helps us see something else. Hebrew poetry is not about phonetic rhymes. It’s about revealing nuances of the same idea. In other words, each line in this song elaborates and expands the idea of God as deliverer, showing all the facets of this concept in tangible expressions.
YHWH is my rock. What does that mean? Well, it also means that He is my fortress and the One who delivers me. When I seek refuge in Him, He becomes my shield and the trumpet that sounds battle reinforcements. He is my high tower, a place where I can see all the approaching foes and from which I command advantage over them. Do you see how each idea develops the others? When I have finished with just this second line in the song, I have a formidable picture of God’s battlefield care over me.
Notice that this verse is thoroughly Hebrew. There are no lofty intellectual concepts here. We don’t find words like omnipotent, omniscient or immutable. Hebrew is a language of the land. God is described in everyday terms. Rock, shield, trumpet and tower – that’s the kind of God who is in the midst of it all. It is impossible for a Hebrew to imagine the god of the deists, the watchmaker who put the universe together and then stepped away. No Hebrew could imagine a god who wasn’t intimately involved in the ordinary. This is not the God who acts as moral policeman of the world, removed from the pain and struggles of ordinary people. This is the God who finds me in the trenches and pulls me to safety. This is the God who puts His arm around me on a cold night in hostile territory and listens to my fears. And this is the God who comes into this world vulnerable, empty and obedient. This is the God for me.
“Rock” is the Hebrew word sur. In a language of consonants, it’s interesting to see that the same combination (S-U-R) has another set of meanings, namely, to besiege, to bind and to attack. Context and grammar tell us which meaning to use, but I find it intriguing that the nuances of “rock” are found in battle language. From weapons to fortresses, rocks are as solid a place of security as you will find on this earth. Those granite boulders remind me of my God who is the Rock of all ages, the utterly reliable foundation of my life. Standing on the Rock, I am battle-ready.
These days I need to hear a bit of Hebrew poetry. I need to see God in my tent, in my job and in my family life. I need the God who lives with me. I need to put my head on a rock like Jacob did and be ushered into His presence. I am also a child of the land, and sometimes what I need more than anything else is just rocks and dirt and solid earth beneath my feet – and the God who made all of it alongside me.
Topical Index: Character
