Psalms 28:8
in Psalms 28The LORD is the strength of His people, a stronghold of salvation for His anointed.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Jehovah is their strength, And he is a stronghold of salvation to his anointed.
KJV
The Lord is their strength, and he is the saving strength of his anointed.
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This verse in Psalms 28
Commentary
16 notes on this verseWhoever is baptized in Christ is his anointed.
This site's exposition
the strength of His people
on Psalms 28:8-9
The psalm widens from David to the nation. His anointed is the king himself, mashiach in Hebrew, the word that later carries the title Messiah. The closing prayer asks four things, save, bless, shepherd and carry them forever.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers4 voices
"The Lord is the strength of His people" [Psalm 28:8]. Not that people "ignorant of the righteousness of God, and willing to establish their own." [Romans 10:3] For they thought not themselves strong in themselves: for the Lord is the strength of His people, struggling in this life's difficulties with the devil. "And the protector of the salvation of His Christ." That, having saved them by His Christ after the strength of war, He may protect them at the last with the immortality of peace.
This teaches us that all the wonders of Christ written in the holy Scriptures, done for our salvation, whether teachings or writings, or the mysteries of his resurrection now referred to, were all done by the will and power of the Father defending his own Christ as with a shield in all his marvelous and saving words and works.
All that he suffered, he suffered by his own will, as he said, "I have the power to lay down my spirit and to take it back."And he also said, freely I will confess him. He himself is the strength of his own people because …
This does not refer to the people which was ignorant of God's righteousness and tried to establish its own. Rather, it refers to a different people that did not look to itself for its strength but knew instead that the Lord would be its strength as it contends with the devil in the difficulties of this life.
The Medieval Church1 voice
"The Lord." Here he gives thanks for the benefits to the people. And first he sets forth the benefits already shown. Second he asks that they be continued, at "Save your people." The same benefits that were done to him, when he says "the Lord …
9 more voices on this verse
The Puritans and the Awakening3 voices
God, in strengthening him that was their king and fought their battles, strengthened the whole kingdom. He calls himself God's anointed because it was the unction he had received that exposed him to the envy of his enemies, and therefore entitled him to the divine protection. Of Christ, his anointed, his Messiah, in the anti-type.
The Lord is their strength,....
God, in strengthening him that was their king and fought their battles, strengthened the whole kingdom. He calls himself God's anointed because it was the unction he had received that exposed him to the envy of his enemies, and therefore entitled him to the divine protection. Of Christ, his anointed, his Messiah, in the anti-type.
The Nineteenth Century6 voices
The Lord is their strength. The heavenly experience of one believer is a pattern of the life of all. To all the militant church, without exception, Jehovah is the same as he was to his servant David, "the least of them shall be as David." They need the same aid and they shall have it, for they are loved with the same love, written in the same book of life, and one with the same anointed Head. And he is the saving strength of his anointed.
The Lord is their strength. The heavenly experience of one believer is a pattern of the life of all. To all the militant church, without exception, Jehovah is the same as he was to his servant David, "the least of them shall be as David." They need the same aid and they shall have it, for they are loved with the same love, written in the same book of life, and one with the same anointed Head. And he is the saving strength of his anointed. Here behold king David as the type of our Lord Jesus, our covenant Head, our anointed Prince, through whom all blessings come to us. He has achieved full salvation for us, and we desire saving strength from him, and as we share in the unction which is so largely shed upon him, we expect to partake of his salvation. Glory be unto the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has magnified the power of his grace in his only begotten Son, whom he has anointed to be a Prince and a Saviour unto his people.
The Lord is their strength. The heavenly experience of one believer is a pattern of the life of all. To all the militant church, without exception, Jehovah is the same as he was to his servant David, "the least of them shall be as David." They need the same aid and they shall have it, for they are loved with the same love, written in the same book of life, and one with the same anointed Head. And he is the saving strength of his anointed.
The Lord is their strength - Instead of למו lamo, to them, eight MSS. of Kennicott and De Rossi have לעמו leammo to his people; and this reading is confirmed by the Septuagint, Syriac, Vulgate, Ethiopic, Arabic, and Anglo-Saxon. This makes the passage more precise and intelligible; and of the truth of the reading there can be no reasonable doubt. “The Lord is the strength of his People, and the saving strength of his anointed.” Both king and people are protected, upheld, and saved by him.
The Lord is their strength - Instead of למו lamo, to them, eight MSS. of Kennicott and De Rossi have לעמו leammo to his people; and this reading is confirmed by the Septuagint, Syriac, Vulgate, Ethiopic, Arabic, and Anglo-Saxon. This makes the passage more precise and intelligible; and of the truth of the reading there can be no reasonable doubt. “The Lord is the strength of his People, and the saving strength of his anointed.” Both king and people are protected, upheld, and saved by him.
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
The Lord is their strength - Margin, “his strength.” The Hebrew is, “their strength,” or “strength to them.” The allusion is to the people of God. The course of thought seems to be, that the psalmist, having derived in his own case assistance from God, or having found God a strength to him, his mind turns from this fact to the general idea that God was the strength of “all” who were in similar circumstancaes; or that all His people might confide in Him as he had done. And he is the saving strength - Margin, as in Hebrew, “strength of salvations.” That is, In Him is found the strength which produces salvation. See the notes at Psa 27:1. Of his anointed - See Psa 2:2, note; Psa 20:6, note. The primary reference here is doubtless to the psalmist himself, as one who had been annointed or set apaart to the kingly office; but the connection shows that he intended to include all the people of God, as those whom He had consecrated or set apart to His service. See 1Pe 2:5, 1Pe 2:9.
The words behind it
7 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| יְהוָ֥ה | yahweh | Yahweh | H3068 → | 6520 times |
| עֹֽז־ | ʾoz- | [is] strength | H5797 → | 92 times |
| לָ֑מוֹ | lamo | of them | ||
| וּמָ֘ע֤וֹז | umaoz | and [is] [the] refuge of | H4581 → | 36 times |
| יְשׁוּע֖וֹת | yeshuot | [the] salvation<s> of | H3444 → | 78 times |
| מְשִׁיח֣וֹ | meshicho | anointed his | H4899 → | 39 times |
| הֽוּא׃ | hu' | he | H1931 → | 1879 times |
יְהוָ֥הYahweh
yahwehH3068 →6520 times
עֹֽז־[is] strength
ʾoz-H5797 →92 times
לָ֑מוֹof them
lamo
וּמָ֘ע֤וֹזand [is] [the] refuge of
umaozH4581 →36 times
יְשׁוּע֖וֹת[the] salvation<s> of
yeshuotH3444 →78 times
מְשִׁיח֣וֹanointed his
meshichoH4899 →39 times
הֽוּא׃he
hu'H1931 →1879 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Isaiah 61:1The Spirit of the Lord GOD is on Me, because the LORD has anointed Me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent Me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty…
it leads to
- Luke 4:18–19
“The Spirit of the Lord is on Me, because He has anointed Me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight…
- Luke 7:22
So He replied, “Go back and report to John what you have seen and heard: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and…
- Isaiah 42:7
to open the eyes of the blind, to bring prisoners out of the dungeon and those sitting in darkness out from the prison house.
- Matthew 11:5
The blind receive sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor.
- Psalms 147:3
He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.
- Luke 4:18–19
Through
Psalms 2:2The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers gather together, against the LORD and against His Anointed One:
it leads to
- Matthew 26:59
Now the chief priests and the whole Sanhedrin were seeking false testimony against Jesus in order to put Him to death.
- Revelation 17:12–14
The ten horns you saw are ten kings who have not yet received a kingdom, but will receive one hour of authority as kings, along with the beast.
- Matthew 27:1
When morning came, all the chief priests and elders of the people conspired against Jesus to put Him to death.
- Matthew 26:59
About Psalms
This page draws on 13 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Arnobius the Younger, COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS 28; Augustine of Hippo, Exposition on Psalm 28; Augustine of Hippo, EXPLANATIONS OF THE PSALMS 28:8; Charles Spurgeon, The Treasury of David, Vol. 2; Eusebius of Caesarea, PROOF OF THE GOSPEL 4:16.185; Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Psalms; Jerome, BRIEF COMMENTARY ON PSALM 28; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Thomas Aquinas, Exposition on the Psalms of David.