Words of Deliverance
Words connoting deliverance and rescue are used approximately 350 times across the Psalms. One verb, y-š-ʿ (“yah-SHA”), is used about 136 times, counting its noun cognates. Our Lord’s name, Jesus, is derived in part from a cognate of this word.
Here is an example:
Arise, O Lord! Deliver me, O my God! For thou dost smite all my enemies on the cheek, thou dost break the teeth of the wicked. Psalm 3:7 RSVCE
There are at least 19 other distinct Hebrew words in the Psalms that connote rescue or deliverance. One is the Hebrew verb n-tṣ-l, is used about 45 times in various forms and means “to snatch away, to deliver.” It is translated as “deliver” in this verse, while the previous verb, y-š-ʿ is translated as “save”:
O Lord my God, in thee do I take refuge; save me from all my pursuers, and deliver me, Psalm 7:1 RSVCE
Rescued from what?
While the psalmist prays for deliverance from a wide variety of perils, one that is invoked about 82 times is the adjective r-š-ʿ(“rah-SHAH”), meaning “wicked.” Another adjective, ra (“rah”) meaning “bad, evil, wicked or harmful” is used about 64 times.
The Psalmist mentions “enemies”, ‘-y-b (“oy-EV”), about 74 times.
In all, I found about 414 instances of words denoting perils, situations, or persons to be rescued from in the Psalms. These include words for straits, distress, persecutors, pursuers, traps, and snares.
Rescued to what?
I found about 95 instance of words that denote refuge and other places of safety and escape to which to be rescued. The Hebrew word ts-w-r (“tzoor”), meaning a rocky wall or cliff, is used about 25 times, and frequently is used figuratively for God. The Hebrew word s-l-’ (“SEH-lah”) meaning roughly the same thing, is used about 9 times. The Hebrew word m-ś-g-b (“mis-GAHV”), meaning “stronghold” is used about 13 times. Here is a verse that uses several of these words:
The Lord is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer, my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. Psalm 18:2
Overwhelmingly Temporal
In our time, we often interpret the deliverance and salvation in the Psalms in its spiritual sense, and that is okay, but we have to acknowledge that the literal sense of these prayers is overwhelmingly temporal. The Psalmist is praying about real enemies and earthly dangers, not about an afterlife. Even š-ʾ-w-l (“sheh-OHL”), a word meaning “the underworld,” is used only about 16 times. What are we to make of that?
“Salvation,” for the Psalmist, does not denote “heaven” in the way we conceive it. However, in addition to deliverance, the psalms stress praise and an intense longing for God’s presence. C.S. Lewis says, “the moment ‘Heaven’ ceases to mean union with God and ‘Hell’ to mean separation from Him, the belief in either is a mischievous superstition…” (Lewis 41) Heaven is a profound union with God and that lesson comes first in the Divine Pedagogy of the Psalms. (White)
Literal and Spiritual Senses
We can, however, profit from this temporal, literal sense. St. Thomas Aquinas, in his Summa Theologica, tells us: “the spiritual sense, which is based on the literal, …presupposes it.” These literal and spiritual senses may be described like this (White):
- Literal – The literal sense is the meaning conveyed by the words of Scripture and the sense intended by the inspired human author.
- Allegorical – The allegorical sense gives a deeper understanding of biblical events by recognizing their meaning in Christ, perhaps a hidden or veiled meaning.
- Moral – The moral sense is the meaning that leads us to live a moral life consistent with the gospel.
- Anagogical – the anagogical sense leads us or points toward our true home in heaven and toward the last things.
The prayers for rescue in the Psalms can be read in an anagogical sense in that their prayers for deliverance and rescue point us toward heaven.
Here is a downloadable chart that lists all of the words I found in the Psalms relative to rescue and deliverance:
Works Cited or Used
Brown, Francis, et al. The Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon: With an Appendix Containing the Biblical Aramaic : Coded with the Numbering System from Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible. Edited by Francis Brown, et al., Hendrickson Publishers, 1996.
Lewis, C. S. Reflections on the Psalms. New York, Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1958.
Thomas Aquinas. “Question 1: The Nature and Extent of Sacred Doctrine.” Summa Theologiae, translated by Fathers of the English Dominican Province, edited by Kevin Knight, New Advent, 2017, https://www.newadvent.org/summa/1001.htm#article10.
“Verbum Domini: Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation on the Word of God in the Life and Mission of the Church (30 September 2010) | BENEDICT XVI.” The Holy See, 30 September 2010, https://www.vatican.va/content/benedict-xvi/en/apost_exhortations/documents/hf_ben-xvi_exh_20100930_verbum-domini.html. Accessed 21 October 2024.
White, Chuck. “On Death in the Psalms.” The Thoughtful Catholic, 9 Nov. 2024, https://thoughtfulcatholic.com/on-death-in-the-psalms/.
White, Chuck. “The Senses of Sacred Scripture.” The Thoughtful Catholic, 12 June 2023, https://thoughtfulcatholic.com/the-senses-of-sacred-scripture/.
Wigram, George V. The Englishman’s Hebrew Concordance of the Old Testament: Coded with Strong’s Concordance Numbers. Hendrickson Publishers, 1996.
