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Selected Verse: Psalms 27:1 - King James
| Verse |
Translation |
Text |
| Ps 27:1 |
King James |
A Psalm of David. 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? |
Summary Of Commentaries Associated With The Selected Verse
| A Commentary, Critical, Practical, and Explanatory on the Old and New Testaments, by Robert Jamieson, A.R. Fausset and David Brown [1882] |
With a general strain of confidence, hope, and joy, especially in God's worship, in the midst of dangers, the Psalmist introduces prayer for divine help and guidance. (Psa 27:1-14)
light--is a common figure for comfort.
strength--or, "stronghold"--affording security against all violence. The interrogations give greater vividness to the negation implied. |
| Notes on the Bible, by Albert Barnes, [1834] |
The Lord is my light - He is to me the source of light. That is, He guides and leads me. Darkness is the emblem of distress, trouble, perplexity, and sorrow; light is the emblem of the opposite of these. God furnished him such light that these troubles disappeared, and his way was bright and happy.
And my salvation - That is, He saves or delivers me.
Whom shall I fear? - Compare Rom 8:31. If God is on our side, or is for us, we can have no apprehension of danger. He is abundantly able to protect us, and we may confidently trust in Him. No one needs any better security against the objects of fear or dread than the conviction that God is his friend.
The Lord is the strength of my life - The support of my life. Or, in other words, He keeps me alive. In itself life is feeble, and is easily crushed out by trouble and sorrow; but as long as God is its strength, there is nothing to fear.
Of whom shall I be afraid? - No one has power to take life away while He defends me. God is to those who put their trust in Him a stronghold or fortress, and they are safe. |
| Commentary on the Old Testament, by Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch [1857-78] |
| 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 ) 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 Shebג 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. |
| Adam Clarke Commentary on the Whole Bible - Published 1810-1826 |
| The Lord is my light and my salvation - This light can never be extinguished by man; the Lord is my salvation, my safeguard, my shield, and my defense; of whom then should I be afraid? |
1 A Psalm of David. 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?
2 When the wicked, even mine enemies and my foes, came upon me to eat up my flesh, they stumbled and fell.
3 Though an host should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear: though war should rise against me, in this will I be confident.
4 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.
5 For in the time of trouble he shall hide me in his pavilion: in the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide me; he shall set me up upon a rock.
6 And now shall mine head be lifted up above mine enemies round about me: therefore will I offer in his tabernacle sacrifices of joy; I will sing, yea, I will sing praises unto the LORD.
7 Hear, O LORD, when I cry with my voice: have mercy also upon me, and answer me.
8 When thou saidst, Seek ye my face; my heart said unto thee, Thy face, LORD, will I seek.
9 Hide not thy face far from me; put not thy servant away in anger: thou hast been my help; leave me not, neither forsake me, O God of my salvation.
10 When my father and my mother forsake me, then the LORD will take me up.
11 Teach me thy way, O LORD, and lead me in a plain path, because of mine enemies.
12 Deliver me not over unto the will of mine enemies: for false witnesses are risen up against me, and such as breathe out cruelty.
13 I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living.
14 Wait on the LORD: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the LORD.
31 What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?
32 For all this they sinned still, and believed not for his wondrous works.
27 And if ye will not for all this hearken unto me, but walk contrary unto me;
15 He that is surety for a stranger shall smart for it: and he that hateth suretiship is sure.
1 A Psalm of David. 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?
2 When the wicked, even mine enemies and my foes, came upon me to eat up my flesh, they stumbled and fell.
2 When the wicked, even mine enemies and my foes, came upon me to eat up my flesh, they stumbled and fell.
3 Though an host should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear: though war should rise against me, in this will I be confident.
3 Though an host should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear: though war should rise against me, in this will I be confident.
3 Though an host should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear: though war should rise against me, in this will I be confident.
60 Thou hast seen all their vengeance and all their imaginations against me.
2 My goodness, and my fortress; my high tower, and my deliverer; my shield, and he in whom I trust; who subdueth my people under me.
2 O my God, I trust in thee: let me not be ashamed, let not mine enemies triumph over me.
12 I am forgotten as a dead man out of mind: I am like a broken vessel.
22 Why do ye persecute me as God, and are not satisfied with my flesh?
3 For thou art my rock and my fortress; therefore for thy name's sake lead me, and guide me.
46 I am come a light into the world, that whosoever believeth on me should not abide in darkness.
1 Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the LORD is risen upon thee.