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
27:2 When evil men attack me 5
to devour my flesh, 6
when my adversaries and enemies attack me, 7
they stumble and fall. 8
27:3 Even when an army is deployed against me,
I do not fear. 9
Even when war is imminent, 10
I remain confident. 11
34:4 I sought the Lord’s help 12 and he answered me;
he delivered me from all my fears.
56:3 When 13 I am afraid,
I trust in you.
56:4 In God – I boast in his promise 14 –
in God I trust, I am not afraid.
What can mere men 15 do to me? 16
1:33 But the one who listens 17 to me will live in security, 18
and will be at ease 19 from the dread of harm.
3:25 You will not be afraid 20 of sudden 21 disaster, 22
or when destruction overtakes 23 the wicked; 24
3:26 for the Lord will be 25 the source of your confidence, 26
and he will guard your foot 27 from being caught in a trap. 28
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 “draw near to me.”
6 sn To devour my flesh. The psalmist compares his enemies to dangerous, hungry predators (see 2 Kgs 9:36; Ezek 39:17).
7 tn Heb “my adversaries and my enemies against me.” The verb “draw near” (that is, “attack”) is understood by ellipsis; see the previous line.
8 tn The Hebrew verbal forms are perfects. The translation assumes the psalmist is generalizing here, but another option is to take this as a report of past experience, “when evil men attacked me…they stumbled and fell.”
9 tn Heb “my heart does not fear.”
10 tn Heb “if war rises up against me.”
11 tn Heb “in this [i.e., “during this situation”] I am trusting.”
12 tn Heb “I sought the
13 tn Heb “[in] a day.”
14 tn Heb “in God I boast, his word.” The syntax in the Hebrew text is difficult. (1) The line could be translated, “in God I boast, [in] his word.” Such a translation assumes that the prepositional phrase “in God” goes with the following verb “I boast” (see Ps 44:8) and that “his word” is appositional to “in God” and more specifically identifies the basis for the psalmist’s confidence. God’s “word” is here understood as an assuring promise of protection. Another option (2) is to translate, “in God I will boast [with] a word.” In this case, the “word” is a song of praise. (In this view the pronominal suffix “his” must be omitted as in v. 10.) The present translation reflects yet another option (3): In this case “I praise his word” is a parenthetical statement, with “his word” being the object of the verb. The sentence begun with the prepositional phrase “in God” is then completed in the next line, with the prepositional phrase being repeated after the parenthesis.
15 tn Heb “flesh,” which refers by metonymy to human beings (see v. 11, where “man” is used in this same question), envisioned here as mortal and powerless before God.
16 tn The rhetorical question assumes the answer, “Nothing!” The imperfect is used in a modal sense here, indicating capability or potential.
17 tn The participle is used substantivally here: “whoever listens” will enjoy the benefits of the instruction.
18 tn The noun בֶּטַח (betakh, “security”) functions as an adverbial accusative of manner: “in security.” The phrase refers to living in a permanent settled condition without fear of danger (e.g., Deut 33:12; Ps 16:9). It is the antithesis of the dread of disaster facing the fool and the simple.
19 tn The verb שַׁאֲנַן (sha’anan) is a Palel perfect of שָׁאַן (sha’an) which means “to be at ease; to rest securely” (BDB 983 s.v. שָׁאַן). Elsewhere it parallels the verb “to be undisturbed” (Jer 30:10), so it means “to rest undisturbed and quiet.” The reduplicated Palel stem stresses the intensity of the idea. The perfect tense functions in the so-called “prophetic perfect” sense, emphasizing the certainty of this blessing for the wise.
20 tn Heb “do not be afraid.” The negative exhortation אַל־תִּירָא (’al-tira’, “do not be afraid”) is used rhetorically to emphasize that the person who seeks wisdom will have no reason to fear the consequences of wicked actions.
21 tn Heb “terror of suddenness.” The noun פִּתְאֹם (pit’om, “sudden”) functions as an attributive genitive: “sudden terror” (e.g., Job 22:10; BDB 837 s.v.).
22 tn Heb “terror.” The noun פַּחַד (pakhad, “terror”) is a metonymy of effect for cause (= disaster); see BDB 808 s.v. 2. This is suggested by the parallelism with the noun מִשֹּׁאַת (misho’at, “destruction”) in the following colon. The term פַּחַד (“terror”) often refers to the object (or cause) of terror (e.g., Job 3:25; 15:21; 22:10; 31:23; Pss 31:12; 36:2; Isa 24:18; Jer 48:44).
23 tn Heb “or the destruction of the wicked when it comes.”
24 tn Heb “destruction of the wicked.” The noun רְשָׁעִים (rÿsha’im, “wicked ones”) probably functions as an objective genitive (the destruction that comes on the wicked) or a genitive of source (the destruction that the wicked bring on others).
25 tn Or “the
26 tn Heb “your confidence” (so NAB, NIV, NRSV) or “at your side.” There is debate whether the term כֶּסֶל (kesel) is related to the root I כָסַל “loins; side” (so HALOT 489 s.v. I כֶּסֶל 2) or II כָסַל “confidence” (so BDB 492 s.v. כֶּסֶל 3). The Vulgate relates it to I כָסַל and offers “the
27 sn The term רַגְלְךָ (raglekha, “your foot”) functions as a synecdoche of part (= your foot) for the whole person (= you). This synecdoche develops the extended comparison between the hunter’s snare and calamity that afflicts the wicked.
28 tn Heb “from capture.” The noun לָכֶד (lakhed, “capture; snare”) occurs only here in OT (BDB 540 s.v.; HALOT 530 s.v. לֶכֶד). It is figurative for the calamity of v. 25. God will protect the wise (or, righteous) from the consequences of sin (snares) that afflict the wicked.
29 tn Social and political chaos also precedes the end. This term refers to revolutions (L&N 39.34).
30 tn This is not the usual term for fear, but refers to a deep sense of terror and emotional distress (Luke 24:37; BDAG 895 s.v. πτοέω).
31 sn The end will not come at once. This remark about timing not only indicates that there will be events before the end, but that some time will also pass before it comes.
32 sn By your endurance is a call to remain faithful, because trusting in Jesus is the means to life.
33 tc Some important Greek witnesses plus the majority of
34 tn Grk “your souls,” but ψυχή (yuch) is frequently used of one’s physical life. In light of v. 16 that does not seem to be the case here. The entire phrase could be taken as an idiom meaning “you will save yourselves” (L&N 21.20), or (as in v. 18) this could refer to living ultimately in the presence of God.