The Lord is their strength, And He is a refuge of salvation to His anointed.
Parallel translations
- WEB Yahweh is their strength. He is a stronghold of salvation to his anointed.
- KJV The LORD is their strength, and he is the saving strength of his anointed.
- BSB The LORD is the strength of His people, a stronghold of salvation for His anointed.
- NKJV The Lord is their strength, And He is the saving refuge of His anointed.
- NLT The Lord gives his people strength. He is a safe fortress for his anointed king.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
The Lord is the strength of His people and a stronghold of salvation to His anointed. It widens David's personal praise to God's care for king and nation.
Overview
The 'anointed' is the king (David himself), through whom God protects His people. God's salvation flows through His appointed ruler to the whole community. This points forward to the ultimate Anointed One, Christ, the stronghold of salvation for all God's people.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 5
- Ps 20:6Now I know that Yahweh saves his anointed. He will answer him from his holy heaven, with the saving strength of his right hand.
- Ps 140:7Yahweh, the Lord, the strength of my salvation, you have covered my head in the day of battle.
- Isa 61:1The Lord Yahweh’s Spirit is on me; because Yahweh has anointed me to preach good news to the humble. He has sent me to bind up the broken hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and release to those who are bound;
- 1 Sam 16:13Then Samuel took the horn of oil, and anointed him in the middle of his brothers. Then Yahweh’s Spirit came mightily on David from that day forward. So Samuel rose up and went to Ramah.
- Ps 2:2The kings of the earth take a stand, and the rulers take counsel together, against Yahweh, and against his Anointed, saying,
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.
Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.
Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
The Psalms are Christ's own prayer book and a gallery of his portraits — the suffering one of Psalm 22, the risen Lord of Psalm 16, the priest-king of Psalm 110, the Son to whom the nations are given.
How Psalms 28:8 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.