David is old when he writes this song of praise. He's looking back on a life of conflict and danger and deliverance. He calls God his shield and the horn of his salvation. A horn is a symbol of strength and power - a ram's horn, an animal's horn. God is both protection and strength. Both passive defense and active power.
I think about what I needed in different seasons of my life. Sometimes I needed protection - someone to shield me from what I couldn't handle. Other times I needed strength - someone to give me the capacity to fight. God is both. Not sometimes one, sometimes the other, but both at once. That's a richer understanding than just thinking of God as a protector or as a strength-giver.
My therapist asked me once: what do you need right now? And I realized I was asking God for one thing while secretly needing the other. I wanted Him to shield me from my own behavior, but what I actually needed was strength to change it. David's prayer - shield and horn both - suggests you can ask God for multiple kinds of help. You can ask for protection and power simultaneously.
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