Psa 27:1-3 | KD | STEP | The same longing after Zion meets us sounding forth from this as from the preceding Psalm. To remain his whole life long in the vicinity of the house of God, is here his only prayer; and that, rescued from his enemies, he shall there offer sacrifices of thanksgiving, is his confident expectation. The היכל of God, the King, is at present only a אהל which, however, on account of Him who sits enthroned therein, may just as much be called היכל as the היכל which Ezekiel beheld in remembrance of the Mosaic tabernacle, אהל, Eze 41:1. Cut off from the sanctuary, the poet is himself threatened on all sides by the dangers of war; but he is just as courageous in God as in , where the battle is already going on: “ I do not fear the myriads of people, who are encamped against me. ” The situation, therefore, resembles that of David during the time of Absolom. But this holds good only of the first half, Psa 27:1. In the second half, is not in favour of its being composed by David. In fact the two halves are very unlike one another. They form a hysteron-proteron , inasmuch as the fides triumphans of the first part changes into fides supplex in the second, and with the beginning of the δέησις in , the style becomes heavy and awkward, the strophic arrangement obscure, and even the boundaries of the lines of the verses uncertain; so that one is tempted to regard as the appendage of another writer. The compiler, however, must have had the Psalm before him exactly as we now have it; for the grounds for his placing it to follow are to be found in both portions, cf. with ; with Psa 26:12.

‏ Psalms 27:1-3

Taking Heart in God, the All-Recompensing One

The same longing after Zion meets us sounding forth from this as from the preceding Psalm. To remain his whole life long in the vicinity of the house of God, is here his only prayer; and that, rescued from his enemies, he shall there offer sacrifices of thanksgiving, is his confident expectation. The היכל of God, the King, is at present only a אהל which, however, on account of Him who sits enthroned therein, may just as much be called היכל as the היכל which Ezekiel beheld in remembrance of the Mosaic tabernacle, אהל, Eze 41:1. Cut off from the sanctuary, the poet is himself threatened on all sides by the dangers of war; but he is just as courageous in God as in Psa 3:7, where the battle is already going on: “I do not fear the myriads of people, who are encamped against me.” The situation, therefore, resembles that of David during the time of Absolom. But this holds good only of the first half, Psa 27:1. In the second half, Psa 27:10 is not in favour of its being composed by David. In fact the two halves are very unlike one another. They form a hysteron-proteron, inasmuch as the fides triumphans of the first part changes into fides supplex in the second, and with the beginning of the δέησις in Psa 27:7, the style becomes heavy and awkward, the strophic arrangement obscure, and even the boundaries of the lines of the verses uncertain; so that one is tempted to regard Psa 27:7 as the appendage of another writer. The compiler, however, must have had the Psalm before him exactly as we now have it; for the grounds for his placing it to follow Psa 26:1-12 are to be found in both portions, cf. Psa 27:7 with Psa 26:11; Psa 27:11 with Psa 26:12. Psa 27:1-3

In this first strophe is expressed the bold confidence of faith. It is a hexastich in the caesural schema. Let darkness break in upon him, the darkness of night, of trouble, and of spiritual conflict, yet Jahve is his Light, and if he is in Him, he is in the light and there shines upon him a sun, that sets not and knows no eclipse. This sublime, infinitely profound name for God, אורי, is found only in this passage; and there is only one other expression that can be compared with it. viz., בּא אורך in Isa 60:1; cf. φῶς ἐλήλυθα, Joh 12:46. ישׁעי does not stand beside אורי as an unfigurative, side by side with a figurative expression; for the statement that God is light, is not a metaphor. David calls Him his “salvation” in regard to everything that oppresses him, and the “stronghold (מעוז from עזז, with an unchangeable å) of his life” in regard to everything that exposes him to peril. In Jahve he conquers far and wide; in Him his life is hidden as it were behind a fortress built upon a rock (Psa 31:3). When to the wicked who come upon him in a hostile way (קרב על differing from קרב אל), he attributes the intention of devouring his flesh, they are conceived of as wild beasts. To eat up any one’s flesh signifies, even in Job 19:22, the same as to pursue any one by evil speaking (in Aramaic by slander, back-biting) to his destruction. In בּקרב (the Shebâ of the only faintly closed syllable is raised to a Chateph, as in ולשׁכני, Psa 31:12, לשׁאול, and the like. The לי of איבי לּי may, as also in Psa 25:2 (cf. Psa 144:2), be regarded as giving intensity to the notion of special, personal enmity; but a mere repetition of the subject (the enemy) without the repetition of their hostile purpose would be tame in the parallel member of the verse: לי is a variation of the preceding עלי, as in Lam 3:60. In the apodosis המּה כּשׁלוּ ונפלוּ, the overthrow of the enemy is regarded beforehand as an accomplished fact. The holy boldness and imperturbable repose are expressed in Psa 27:3 in the very rhythm. The thesis or downward movement in Psa 27:3 is spondaic: he does not allow himself to be disturbed; the thesis in Psa 27:3 is iambic: he can be bold. The rendering of Hitzig (as of Rashi): “in this do I trust, viz., that Jahve is my light, etc.,” is erroneous. Such might be the interpretation, if בזאת אני בוטח closed Psa 27:2; but it cannot refer back over Psa 27:2 to Psa 27:1; and why should the poet have expressed himself thus materially, instead of saying ביהוה? The fact of the case is this, בוטח signifies even by itself “of good courage,” e.g., Pro 11:15; and בזאת “in spite of this” (Coccejus: hoc non obstante), Lev 26:27, cf. Psa 78:32, begins the apodosis, at the head of which we expect to find an adversative conjunction.