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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Psalms 27:1 - 27:1
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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, אֹורי, is found only in this passage; and there is only one other expression that can be compared with it. viz., בָּא אֹורֵךְ in Isa 60:1; cf. φῶς ἐλήλυθα, Joh 12:46. יִשְׁעִי does not stand beside אֹורִי 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 (מָעֹוז from עָזַז, 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 (קָרַב עַל differing from קָרַב אֶל), 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 בַּֽקֲרֹב (the Shebâ of the only faintly closed syllable is raised to a Chateph, as in וְלִֽשֲׁכֵנַי, Psa 31:12, לִֽשֲׁאֹול, and the like. The לִי of אֹיְבַי לִּי 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: לִי is a variation of the preceding עָלַי, as in Lam 3:60. In the apodosis הֵמָּה כָּֽשְׁלוּ וְנָפָלוּ, 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.