Text -- Psalms 27:9-14 (NET)

27:9 Do not reject me! Do not push your servant away in anger! You are my deliverer! Do not forsake or abandon me, O God who vindicates me! 27:10 Even if my father and mother abandoned me, the Lord would take me in. 27:11 Teach me how you want me to live; lead me along a level path because of those who wait to ambush me! 27:12 Do not turn me over to my enemies, for false witnesses who want to destroy me testify against me. 27:13 Where would I be if I did not believe I would experience the Lord’s favor in the land of the living? 27:14 Rely on the Lord! Be strong and confident! Rely on the Lord!

Commentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

NET Notes: Psa 27:9

¹ tn Heb “do not hide your face from me.” The idiom “hide the face” can mean “ignore” (see Pss 10:11; 13:1; 51:9) or carry the stronger idea of “reject” (see Pss 30:7; 88:14).

² tn Or “[source of] help.”

NET Notes: Psa 27:10

¹ tn Or “though my father and mother have abandoned me.”

² tn Heb “gather me in”; or “receive me.”

NET Notes: Psa 27:11

¹ tn Heb “teach me your way.” The Lord’s “way” refers here to the moral principles which he expects the psalmist to follow. See Ps 25:4.

² sn The level path refers to God’s moral principles (see the parallel line), which, if followed, will keep the psalmist blameless before his accusers (see v. 12).

³ tn Heb “because of those who watch me [with evil intent].” See also Pss 5:8; 54:5; 56:2.

NET Notes: Psa 27:12

¹ tn Heb “do not give me over to the desire of my enemies.”

² tn Heb “for they have risen up against me, lying witnesses and a testifier of violence.” The form יָפֵחַ (yafeakh) is traditionally understood as a verb meaning “snort, breathe out”: “for false witnesses are risen up against me, and such as breathe out cruelty” (KJV; cf. BDB 422 s.v.). A better option is to take the form as a noun meaning “a witness” (or “testifier”). See Prov 6:19; 12:17; 14:5, 25; 19:5, 9, and Hab 2:3.

NET Notes: Psa 27:13

¹ tn In the Hebrew text the sentence is incomplete: “If I had not believed [I would] see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.” The words “Where would I be” are supplied in the translation to clarify the intent of the statement.

NET Notes: Psa 27:14

¹ tn Or “wait.”

² tn Heb “be strong and let your heart be confident.”