Psalms 27:1-2

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

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

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).

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

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

⁵tn Heb “draw near to me.”

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

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

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.”