"I
have waited for Thy salvation, O Jehovah."
These words are repeated three times (and in three different
ways) by every pious Jew, morning and evening.
In the note on Genesis 49:18
it is pointed out that by the Figure of Speech Metonymy (of
Effect), see Appendix 6,
"salvation" is put for Him Who brings it. The meaning is
beautifully put, thus, in the Jerusalem Targum :-
"Not to the salvation wrought by Gideon, the son
of Joash, does my soul look, for it is temporal. Not to the salvation wrought by
Samson, the son of Manoah, is my longing directed, for it is transient: but to
the salvation, the completion of which Thou hast promised, by Thy everlasting
Word, to bring to Thy people the descendants of Israel."
"To Thy salvation, O Jehovah, to the salvation of
Messiah the son of David, Who will one day redeem Israel and bring her back from
the dispersion, to that salvation my soul looks forward; for Thy salvation is an
everlasting salvation"