Psalms 27:1-5

Context

Psalm 27¹

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 me⁵

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

27:4 I have asked the Lord for one thing –

this is what I desire!

I want to live¹² in the Lord’s house¹³ all the days of my life,

so I can gaze at the splendor¹⁴ of the Lord

and contemplate in his temple.

27:5 He will surely¹⁵ give me shelter¹⁶ in the day of danger;¹⁷

he will hide me in his home;¹⁸

he will place me¹⁹ on an inaccessible rocky summit.²⁰

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

[27:1] ²tn 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).

[27:1] ³tn Heb “Whom shall I fear?” The rhetorical question anticipates the answer, “No one!”

[27:1] ⁴tn Heb “Of whom shall I be afraid?” The rhetorical question anticipates the answer, “No one!”

[27:2] ⁵tn Heb “draw near to me.”

[27:2] ⁶sn To devour my flesh. The psalmist compares his enemies to dangerous, hungry predators (see 2 Kgs 9:36; Ezek 39:17).

[27:2] ⁷tn Heb “my adversaries and my enemies against me.” The verb “draw near” (that is, “attack”) is understood by ellipsis; see the previous line.

[27:2] ⁸tn 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.”

[27:3] ⁹tn Heb “my heart does not fear.”

[27:3] ¹⁰tn Heb “if war rises up against me.”

[27:3] ¹¹tn Heb “in this [i.e., “during this situation”] I am trusting.”

[27:4] ¹²tn Heb “my living.”

[27:4] ¹³sn The Lord’s house. This probably refers to the tabernacle (if one accepts Davidic authorship) or the temple (see Judg 19:18; 1 Sam 1:7, 24; 2 Sam 12:20; 1 Kgs 7:12, 40, 45, 51).

[27:4] ¹⁴tn Or “beauty.”

[27:5] ¹⁵tn Or “for he will.” The translation assumes the כִּי (ki) is asseverative here, rather than causal.

[27:5] ¹⁶tn Heb “he will hide me in his hut.”

[27:5] ¹⁷tn Or “trouble.”

[27:5] ¹⁸tn Heb “tent.”

[27:5] ¹⁹tn The three imperfect verb forms in v. 5 anticipate a positive response to the prayer offered in vv. 7-12.

[27:5] ²⁰tn Heb “on a rocky summit he lifts me up.” The Lord places the psalmist in an inaccessible place where his enemies cannot reach him. See Ps 18:2.