Psalms 27:3-5

27:3 Even when an army is deployed against me,

I do not fear. 1 

Even when war is imminent, 2 

I remain confident. 3 

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

this is what I desire!

I want to live 4  in the Lord’s house 5  all the days of my life,

so I can gaze at the splendor 6  of the Lord

and contemplate in his temple.

27:5 He will surely 7  give me shelter 8  in the day of danger; 9 

he will hide me in his home; 10 

he will place me 11  on an inaccessible rocky summit. 12 

1 tn Heb “my heart does not fear.”

2 tn Heb “if war rises up against me.”

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

4 tn Heb “my living.”

5 sn 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).

6 tn Or “beauty.”

7 tn Or “for he will.” The translation assumes the כִּי (ki) is asseverative here, rather than causal.

8 tn Heb “he will hide me in his hut.”

9 tn Or “trouble.”

10 tn Heb “tent.”

11 tn The three imperfect verb forms in v. 5 anticipate a positive response to the prayer offered in vv. 7-12.

12 tn 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.