Psalm 27:1-3

New English Translation

Footnotes

1. Psalm 27:1 sn Psalm 27. The author is confident of the Lord’s protection and asks the Lord to vindicate him.
2. Psalm 27:1 sn “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. Psalm 27:1 tn Heb “Whom shall I fear?” The rhetorical question anticipates the answer, “No one.”
4. Psalm 27:1 tn Heb “Of whom shall I be afraid?” The rhetorical question anticipates the answer, “No one!”
5. Psalm 27:2 tn Heb “draw near to me.”
6. Psalm 27:2 sn To devour my flesh. The psalmist compares his enemies to dangerous, hungry predators (see 2 Kgs 9:36; Ezek 39:17).
7. Psalm 27:2 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. Psalm 27:2 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. Psalm 27:3 tn Heb “my heart does not fear.”
10. Psalm 27:3 tn Heb “if war rises up against me.”
11. Psalm 27:3 tn Heb “in this [i.e., “during this situation”] I am trusting.”