Charles H. Spurgeon on Psalms 18:33

"He maketh my feet like hinds' feet:" (Heb. words). Celerity of motion was considered as one of the qualities of an ancient hero. Achilles is celebrated for being podas wkus. Virgil's Nisus is hyperbolically described, "Et ventis et fulminis ocior alis;" and the men of God, who came to David, "Men of might, and men of war fit for the battle, that could handle shield and buckler," are said to have had "faces like the faces of lions," and to have been "as swift as the roes upon the mountains." 1 Chronicles 12:8. Asahel is described as "light of foot as a wild roe" (2 Samuel 2:18); and Saul seems called the roe (in the English translation, "the beauty) of Israel." 2 Samuel 1:19. It has been said that the legs of the hind are straighter than those of the buck, and that she is swifter than he is; but there is no sufficient proof of this. Gataker gives the true account of it when he says, "The female formula is often used for the species." This is not uncommon in Hebrew. The female ass obviously stands for the ass species. Genesis 12:16; Job 1:3; 42:12. Some (at the head of whom is Bochart, Hierozoicon, P. i. L. ii. c. 17), have supposed the reference to be to the peculiar hardness of the hoof of the roe, which enables it to walk firmly, without danger of falling, on the roughest and rockiest places. Virgil calls the hind "aeri-pedem," brass-footed. Others suppose the reference to be to its agility and celerity. There is nothing to prevent our supposing that there is reference to both these distinguishing qualities of the hind's feet. —John Brown.