By David.
27:1 The Lord delivers and vindicates me! 2
I fear no one! 3
The Lord protects my life!
I am afraid of no one! 4
51:4 Against you – you above all 5 – I have sinned;
I have done what is evil in your sight.
So 6 you are just when you confront me; 7
you are right when you condemn me. 8
28:1 The wicked person flees when there is no one pursuing, 9
but the righteous person is as confident 10 as a lion.
51:12 “I, I am the one who consoles you. 11
Why are you afraid of mortal men,
of mere human beings who are as short-lived as grass? 12
1 sn Psalm 27. The author is confident of the Lord’s protection and asks the Lord to vindicate him.
2 tn Heb “the
3 tn Heb “Whom shall I fear?” The rhetorical question anticipates the answer, “No one!”
4 tn Heb “Of whom shall I be afraid?” The rhetorical question anticipates the answer, “No one!”
5 tn Heb “only you,” as if the psalmist had sinned exclusively against God and no other. Since the Hebrew verb חָטָא (hata’, “to sin”) is used elsewhere of sinful acts against people (see BDB 306 s.v. 2.a) and David (the presumed author) certainly sinned when he murdered Uriah (2 Sam 12:9), it is likely that the psalmist is overstating the case to suggest that the attack on Uriah was ultimately an attack on God himself. To clarify the point of the hyperbole, the translation uses “especially,” rather than the potentially confusing “only.”
6 tn The Hebrew term לְמַעַן (lÿma’an) normally indicates purpose (“in order that”), but here it introduces a logical consequence of the preceding statement. (Taking the clause as indicating purpose here would yield a theologically preposterous idea – the psalmist purposely sinned so that God’s justice might be vindicated!) For other examples of לְמַעַן indicating result, see 2 Kgs 22:17; Jer 27:15; Amos 2:7, as well as IBHS 638-40 §38.3.
7 tn Heb “when you speak.” In this context the psalmist refers to God’s word of condemnation against his sin delivered through Nathan (cf. 2 Sam 12:7-12).
8 tn Heb “when you judge.”
9 sn The line portrays the insecurity of a guilty person – he flees because he has a guilty conscience, or because he is suspicious of others around him, or because he fears judgment.
10 tn The verb בָּטַח (batakh) means “to trust; to be secure; to be confident.” Cf. KJV, NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT “bold.”
11 tc The plural suffix should probably be emended to the second masculine singular (which is used in v. 13). The final mem (ם) is probably dittographic; note the mem at the beginning of the next word.
12 tn Heb “Who are you that you are afraid of man who dies, and of the son of man who [as] grass is given up?” The feminine singular forms should probably be emended to the masculine singular (see v. 13). They have probably been influenced by the construction אַתְּ־הִיא (’at-hi’) in vv. 9-10.
13 sn A quotation from Deut 31:6, 8.
14 tc Some important
15 sn A quotation from Ps 118:6.