and blessed be my Rock!
The imagery of God as a "Rock" signifies strength, stability, and protection. In ancient Near Eastern culture, rocks and mountains were often seen as places of refuge and safety. David frequently uses this metaphor in the Psalms to describe God's unchanging nature and reliability (e.g., Psalm 18:2). The term "Rock" also foreshadows Christ, who is referred to as the spiritual Rock in 1 Corinthians 10:4, symbolizing His role as the foundation of faith and salvation.

And may God, the Rock of my salvation, be exalted—
Here, David acknowledges God as the source of his salvation, both physically and spiritually. The exaltation of God is a call to worship and recognize His supreme authority and power. This phrase ties into the broader biblical theme of God as the deliverer and savior of His people, seen throughout the Old Testament in the deliverance of Israel from Egypt and in the New Testament through the salvation offered by Jesus Christ. The exaltation of God is a recurring theme in the Psalms and is echoed in the New Testament, where believers are called to glorify God in all things (1 Corinthians 10:31).

- David opens with a shout of confidence: “The LORD lives” (2 Samuel 22:47). He is not praising a distant idea but a present, active God.

- This declaration anchors the whole song in God’s unchanging existence, echoing other affirmations such as “As surely as I live forever” (Deuteronomy 32:40) and “I am the Living One… I am alive forever and ever” (Revelation 1:18).

- Because the Lord lives, every promise He makes—protection, provision, judgment—remains trustworthy. David’s life, spared repeatedly from Saul’s spear and battlefield foes, stands as living proof that the living God intervenes in real time (1 Samuel 23:14; Psalm 18:46).

- Calling God “my Rock” moves from general truth to personal testimony.

• A rock is solid, immovable, and sheltering—exactly what David experienced in caves and crags while fleeing (1 Samuel 24:2–3).

• By blessing—or praising—his Rock, David publicly credits God for every victory and refuge (Psalm 144:1–2).

- The phrase also draws on earlier Scripture: “He is the Rock, His work is perfect” (Deuteronomy 32:4). David mirrors Moses, declaring that the same steadfast God has carried Israel—and him specifically—through danger.

- David piles up titles—“God… Rock… salvation”—to underline that rescue and stability are inseparable qualities of the Lord.

• “Salvation” recalls the day God delivered him “from the hand of all his enemies” (2 Samuel 22:1) and looks ahead to the ultimate salvation God provides (Isaiah 45:21–22).

• The cry “be exalted” invites everyone to lift God higher in honor, much like “Exalt the LORD our God and worship at His holy mountain” (Psalm 99:9).

- Exalting the Rock of salvation isn’t a one-time chorus; it is a lifestyle of magnifying the One who turns caves into strongholds and battles into testimonies (Psalm 34:1–3).

David’s words in 2 Samuel 22:47 stack truth upon truth: the Lord is alive, personally steadfast like a rock, and the sole source of salvation. Because that living Rock keeps rescuing, the only fitting response is continual praise that exalts Him above every circumstance.

"Jehovah liveth; and blessed be my Rock,
And exalted be the God of the rock of my salvation,
Even the God that giveth me avengements,
And bringeth down peoples under me.
And bringeth me forth from my enemies.
Yea, thou liftest me up above those that rise up against me;
From the violent man thou deliverest me." In Psalm 18:46 we find simply "the God of my salvation." Perhaps there seemed to the compiler to be some confusion in calling Jehovah, first David's Rock, and then the God of his rock (but see note on ver. 3). Avengements, in the plural. In the Law the sanctions were chiefly temporal, and therefore the saints of old watched anxiously for, and were strengthened by observing, the constantly recurring proofs of God's righteous government of men. Peoples, in the plural; heathen nations. The violent man may especially be Saul, as is supposed in the title prefixed to this song in the Book of Psalms. There probably it is general, and includes all who were bitter in their hostility to David.

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