Psalms 27:1

Psalm 27 1 

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 

Psalms 84:11

84:11 For the Lord God is our sovereign protector. 5 

The Lord bestows favor 6  and honor;

he withholds no good thing from those who have integrity. 7 

Amos 8:9

8:9 In that day,” says the sovereign Lord, “I will make the sun set at noon,

and make the earth dark in the middle of the day. 8 

Malachi 4:2

4:2 But for you who respect my name, the sun of vindication 9  will rise with healing wings, 10  and you will skip about 11  like calves released from the stall.

1 sn Psalm 27. The author is confident of the Lord’s protection and asks the Lord to vindicate him.

2 tn Heb “the Lord [is] my light and my deliverance.” “Light” is often used as a metaphor for deliverance and the life/blessings it brings. See Pss 37:6; 97:11; 112:4; Isa 49:6; 51:4; Mic 7:8. Another option is that “light” refers here to divine guidance (see Ps 43:3).

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 “[is] a sun and a shield.” The epithet “sun,” though rarely used of Israel’s God in the OT, was a well-attested royal title in the ancient Near East. For several examples from Ugaritic texts, the Amarna letters, and Assyrian royal inscriptions, see R. B. Chisholm, “An Exegetical and Theological Study of Psalm 18/2 Samuel 22” (Th.D. diss., Dallas Theological Seminary, 1983), 131, n. 2.

6 tn Or “grace.”

7 tn Heb “he does not withhold good to those walking in integrity.”

8 tn Heb “in a day of light.”

9 tn Here the Hebrew word צְדָקָה (tsÿdaqah), usually translated “righteousness” (so KJV, NIV, NRSV, NLT; cf. NAB “justice”), has been rendered as “vindication” because it is the vindication of God’s people that is in view in the context. Cf. BDB 842 s.v. צְדָקָה 6; “righteousness as vindicated, justification, salvation, etc.”

10 sn The point of the metaphor of healing wings is unclear. The sun seems to be compared to a bird. Perhaps the sun’s “wings” are its warm rays. “Healing” may refer to a reversal of the injury done by evildoers (see Mal 3:5).

11 tn Heb “you will go out and skip about.”