"The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? the LORD is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid? When the wicked, even mine enemies and my foes, came upon me to eat up my flesh, they stumbled and fell. Though an host should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear."
"One thing have I desired of the LORD, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD, and to enquire in his temple. For in the time of trouble he shall hide me in his pavilion… he shall set me up upon a rock."
"Hear, O LORD, when I cry with my voice… When thou saidst, Seek ye my face; my heart said unto thee, Thy face, LORD, will I seek. Hide not thy face far from me… When my father and my mother forsake me, then the LORD will take me up."
"I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living. Wait on the LORD: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the LORD."
Two moods
Verses 1–6 are confident trust; 7–14 are anxious petition. Some scholars think two psalms were joined; others see a deliberate movement in which confidence is tested. The last verse speaks to the reader, or the speaker to himself: "wait on the LORD."
The beauty of the LORD
No'am YHWH, "the delightfulness of the LORD," and "to enquire" (levaqqer) in the temple may describe contemplative presence in worship or seeking an oracle.
A Greek title
The library's Vulgate title reads "Psalmus David, priusquam liniretur": "before he was anointed." The Hebrew has only "of David." The Greek added a biographical setting, an example of the historical titles growing in the translation tradition.
The unpointed dots
In 27:13 ("unless I had believed"), the Masoretic text marks the word lule ("unless") with special dots (puncta extraordinaria), a scribal sign of doubt about a word. The word is missing in the Greek. The KJV's "I had fainted" is supplied.
In Jewish practice
Psalm 27 is recited daily in the month of Elul and through the High Holy Days, a custom attested in the 18th century and later.
What the evidence shows
- The Greek/Latin title adds "before he was anointed."Source: The site's library: Westminster Leningrad Codex, KJV, Clementine Vulgate (Gallican Psalter), Giguet's French of the Greek, Douay-Rheims
- The Masoretic text marks lule (27:13) with extraordinary points.Source: E. Tov, Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible (3rd ed., 2012)
Continue the journey
Connected elsewhere in ScriptureShow Me Your GloryExodus 33:14–23: Seeking God's face.More from this lesson
Why this matters to the rest of Scripture
- Seeking God's face.
- Dwelling in the house of the LORD.
- "Can a woman forget her sucking child?"