TEHILLIM LIGHT

Commentaries

Mizmor 018, Verse 002

וַיֹּאמַ֡ר אֶרְחׇמְךָ֖ יְהֹוָ֣ה חִזְקִֽי

vayyomar ʾerchomcho ʾadoonoy chizkiy

He said: "I love You, O LORD, my strength."

MIDRASH TEHILLIM

1.....(18.7)
And he said, Erchamcha (I love You), O LORD, my strength.
A.
In the Aramaic version this reads Rachamit (I love) You O LORD, my strength. RCHM in Aramaic clerly means to love, for in the Aramaic Targum the term love in: "And you shall love the Lord..." (Devarim - Deuteronomy 6:5) is also rendered RCHM.
ERCHAMCHA may also be understood as - I call You compassionate (rachum) and gracious.
Or, I fill You with compassion (Rachamim) for Your creatures
Or, I make You loved by Your creatures.
B.
Rabbi Nehemiah said in the name of Rabbi Simeon son of Lachish, David wished to use a single word which would include all the following meanings, such as - rock, fortress, deliverer, and so the Holy Spirit told David, use the word - STRENGTH.

RASHI

1.
I love You...
Heb. ארחמך, I love You, as the Targum renders (Vayikra - Leviticus 19:18): “and you shall love your neighbor,” ותרחם.

RADAK

1.
Love You (or: ask You for mercy)
There are commentators (Ibn Ezra and others) who state that ERCHAMCHA means: Have mercy on you, I will ask You for mercy

Rabbi HIRSCH

1.
He said: I love You with a child-like love, O LORD, my strength.
[אֶרְחָמְךָ֖] (ERCHAMCHA)
This is the only place in which the word [רָחַם] occurs in the KAL form.
[רַחַם] (racham) derived from the word [רֶחֶם] (rechem) - "the womb",
indicates the show of love which the begetter feels for his offspring, simply because the latter is his child. By the same token, the word [רָחַם] when used in the Kal form may express the love of the offspring for its parent, the love of a child for his father who, he realizes, is the source of his existence. In this one first sentence which stands at the outset of Psalm 18, David condenses all the thoughts and emotions which come to him as he looks back upon his long life. “The Lord is the source of all that I am; I owe it to Him that I still exist and that I have survived all that which I have had to suffer. He is my Father and my Strength which has proven itself in my unbowed perseverance.

WORDS