The Bible calls God a rock again and again, and the image is simple: something solid you can stand on or hide behind. David sings, “The LORD is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer” (Psalm 18:2). Another psalm describes being lifted from “an horrible pit” and set “upon a rock.” Literal rock appears too, as water in the wilderness and as shelter in cliffs. In the New Testament Jesus says to Peter, “upon this rock I will build my church,” which Christians read in different ways, and Paul says of Israel’s wilderness drink, “that Rock was Christ” (1 Corinthians 10:4).
14 verses
Who led thee through that great and terrible wilderness, wherein were fiery serpents, and scorpions, and drought, where there was no water; who brought thee forth water out of the rock of flint;
For who is God, save the LORD? and who is a rock, save our God?
The LORD liveth; and blessed be my rock; and exalted be the God of the rock of my salvation.
The God of Israel said, the Rock of Israel spake to me, He that ruleth over men must be just, ruling in the fear of God.
When I washed my steps with butter, and the rock poured me out rivers of oil;
The LORD is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust; my buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower.
Bow down thine ear to me; deliver me speedily: be thou my strong rock, for an house of defence to save me.
He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings.
Because thou hast forgotten the God of thy salvation, and hast not been mindful of the rock of thy strength, therefore shalt thou plant pleasant plants, and shalt set it with strange slips:
And a man shall be as an hiding place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest; as rivers of water in a dry place, as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land.
Thy terribleness hath deceived thee, and the pride of thine heart, O thou that dwellest in the clefts of the rock, that holdest the height of the hill: though thou shouldest make thy nest as high as the eagle, I will bring thee down from thence, saith the LORD.
The pride of thine heart hath deceived thee, thou that dwellest in the clefts of the rock, whose habitation is high; that saith in his heart, Who shall bring me down to the ground?
And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
And did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ.
Matthew George Easton, 1897
(Heb. tsur), employed as a symbol of God in the Old Testament (1 Sam. 2:2; 2 Sam. 22:3; Isa. 17:10; Ps. 28:1; 31:2,3; 89:26; 95:1); also in the New Testament (Matt. 16:18; Rom. 9:33; 1 Cor. 10:4). In Dan. 2:45 the Chaldaic form of the Hebrew word is translated “mountain.” It ought to be translated “rock,” as in Hab. 1:12 in the Revised Version. The “rock” from which the stone is cut there signifies the divine origin of Christ. (See STONE.)