The Lord is…the horn of my salvation…

Horn of my salvation … now what could that mean? When I think of horns, I think of that instrument in the middle of my steering wheel that I use to help pedestrians and other drivers pay attention to the fact that I’m headed in their direction. OK, OK… I also use it when some idiot in front of me does something that I consider stupid or dangerous and I want him to know my displeasure. In some Latin American countries I’ve visited, I’ve also seen the locals use their horns instead of or as their brakes! One of them told me so: his brakes were bad and he didn’t have the money to fix them. Needless to say, I quickly found other transportation and politely begged off his overtures to be my transport.

Horns pop up many times in Scripture, most mentions being just that: mentions, without explanations.  It is a word like horn that highlights the pastoral culture that imbues the Old Testament particularly.  King David used horn as a description of God in Psalm 18:2, “The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust; my shield and the horn of my salvation…”  In piling up the descriptions of how God acted in his life, it is good to note that each description features not only a different word, but also a different function, even if it is nuanced.  Some might argue, for example, that both a fortress and a shield protect.  True, but the ways they protect are varied.  And a fortress suggests many other things than just protection.

So what does David mean that God is a horn of salvation?  First, a horn is a weapon for an animal, as are claws.  Both are for fighting, either offensively or defensively.  Horned animals are numerous in the animal kingdom.  Perhaps the most impressive horned animal on the planet is the rhinoceros. Bulls might be second.  Longhorned cattle from Texas certainly deserve a nod.  But the primary consideration of the horn is that the size and strength of the animal is concentrated and delivered by the horn.  Just ask those hardy and crazy Spanish folks who run with the bulls in Pamplona each year.  Several years back I watched in horror video footage of a man gored clean through in his liver.  The intensity of the bull’s actions treated this poor fellow like a tiny rag doll.  He never recovered.

Horns represent the concentration of power, strength and might.  Speaking of the tribe of Judah, Moses prophesied, “His glory is like a firstborn bull, and his horns like the horns of a wild ox; together with them he shall push the peoples to the ends of the earth…” (Deuteronomy 33:17), in other words, drive out the squatters from the Promised Land.

Horns adorned the four corners of the altar of sacrifice as well as the altar of incense.  On the former their presence illustrated the power of God to pay for sins through a sacrifice.  On the latter it pictured the power and efficacy of prayer.  Sacrificial blood was applied to the horns of both (Exodus 29:12, 30:10).  1 Kings opens with David’s son Adonijah declaring himself to be king in place of his dying father.  Shortly after, David made Adonijah’s half-brother Solomon king.  Adonijah was now in a pickle!  His act would undoubtedly be construed as treason, so he ran into the Tabernacle court area and “took hold of the horns of the altar” (1:50).  Doing so demonstrated his desire for divine refuge and forgiveness from capital crimes, sins punishable by death.  Solomon granted him mercy and a second chance.

So for David, God had been to him a horn of salvation, an instrument illustrating God’s focused strength in delivering him repeatedly, from enemies within and without, even in his own family, as with the case of Absalom, his firstborn son.  This was a harbinger of what Jesus would do.  When Zacharias finally spoke up, having been muted for 9 months, about his son’s (John the Baptist’s) birth, he didn’t speak of that; he spoke of the coming Messiah: “Blessed is the Lord God of Israel, for he has…raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David…that we should be saved from our enemies… to perform the mercy promised to our fathers…to grant us that we…might serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before him all the days of our life (Luke 1:68-69, 71-72, 74-75).

That’s what a horn of salvation does; that’s our God in action. In saving us he exalts our horn (Psalm 89:17, 92:10).  Animals lift their horns in victory over the enemy.  Is your horn up or down today?