PSALM 27

1 Yahweh is my light and my salvation;	Whom shall I fear?
Yahweh is the defense of my life;	Whom shall I dread?
2 When evildoers came upon me to devour my flesh,	My adversaries and my enemies, they stumbled and fell.
3 Though a host encamp against me,	My heart will not fear;
Though war arise against me,	In spite of this I shall be confident.

4 One thing I have asked from Yahweh,	that I shall seek:
That I may dwell in the house of Yahweh all the days of my life,	To behold the beauty of Yahweh And to meditate in His temple.
5 For in the day of trouble	He will conceal me in His tabernacle;
In the secret place of His tent He will hide me;	He will lift me up on a rock.
6 And now my head will be lifted up above my enemies around me,	And I will offer in His tent sacrifices with shouts of joy;
I will sing,	yes, I will sing praises to Yahweh.

7 Hear, O Yahweh, when I cry with my voice,	And be gracious[1] to me and answer me.
8 When You said, “Seek My face,” [2] my heart said to You,	“Your face, O Yahweh, I shall seek.”

9 Do not hide Your face from me,	Do not turn Your servant away in anger;		You have been my help;
Do not abandon me nor forsake me,		O God of my salvation!
10 For my father and my mother have forsaken me,		But Yahweh will take me up. [3]

11 Teach me Your way, O Yahweh,		And lead me in a level path[4]		Because of my foes.
12 Do not deliver me over to the desire of my adversaries,		For false witnesses have risen against me,		And such as breathe out violence.
13 I would have despaired unless I had believed that			I would see the goodness of Yahweh In the land of the living.
14 Wait for Yahweh;	Be strong and let your heart take courage;			Yes, wait for Yahweh.

[1] The plea ḥonnēnı̂, “be gracious to me,” appears nineteen times in the Psalms. (TWOT 302). It is probably rooted in God’s statement to Moses, “I Myself will make all My goodness pass before you, and will proclaim the name of the Lord before you; and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show compassion on whom I will show compassion.” (Exodus 33:19) and the Aaronic benediction, “The LORD make His face shine on you, And be gracious to you” (Numbers 6:25).

[2] An interesting answer to prayer!

[3] A parent’s abandonment of their children is a worst case scenario, “The extravagance of this declaration of trust in God, perhaps the most extreme in the whole Bible, is breathtaking and perhaps even disturbing” (Robert Alter, The Book of Psalms, 93). Sadly, abortion makes this treachery all too common.

This verse gives reason to live by faith and not by fear. Even in the worst case circumstances of life, God will never leave or forsake His children. Indeed, the great mystery of God’s unfailing love is that He abandoned, at the cross, His Son because of our sins (Genesis 22:1-18; Psalm 22:1; Matthew 27:46; Hebrews 5:7).

[4] Path(s) (˒ōraḥ) appears fifty-eight times in the Old Testament, forty-five of them are limited to three books: Prov, nineteen times; Ps, fifteen times; Job, eleven times. (Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament p.71). See comments at Psalm 25:4.