Psalms 27:1-2

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 “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.”