Psalms 27:3-13

3 Though a host doth encamp against me, My heart doth not fear, Though war riseth up against me, In this I [am] confident.

4 One [thing] I asked of Jehovah -- it I seek. My dwelling in the house of Jehovah, All the days of my life, To look on the pleasantness of Jehovah, And to inquire in His temple.

5 For He hideth me in a tabernacle in the day of evil, He hideth me in a secret place of His tent, On a rock he raiseth me up.

6 And now, lifted up is my head, Above my enemies -- my surrounders, And I sacrifice in His tent sacrifices of shouting, I sing, yea, I sing praise to Jehovah.

7 Hear, O Jehovah, my voice -- I call, And favour me, and answer me.

8 To Thee said my heart `They sought my face, Thy face, O Jehovah, I seek.'

9 Hide not Thy face from me, Turn not aside in anger Thy servant, My help Thou hast been. Leave me not, nor forsake me, O God of my salvation.

10 When my father and my mother Have forsaken me, then doth Jehovah gather me.

11 Shew me, O Jehovah, Thy way, And lead me in a path of uprightness, For the sake of my beholders.

12 Give me not to the will of my adversaries, For risen against me have false witnesses, And they breathe out violence to me.

13 I had not believed to look on the goodness of Jehovah In the land of the living!

Psalms 27:3-13 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO PSALM 27

\\<<[A Psalm] of David>>\\. The Septuagint interpreters add to this title, "before he was anointed". David was anointed three times, first when a youth in his father's house; but this psalm could not be written before that time, because he had not had then any experience of war, nor could be in any immediate apprehension of it, as here suggested; he was anointed a second time, after the death of Saul at Hebron, by the men of Judah; before that time indeed he had been harassed by Saul, and distressed by the Amalekites, and was driven from the public worship of God, to which he has a respect, Ps 27:4; and he was a third time anointed, by the elders of Israel, king over all Israel; and between the death of Saul and this unction there was a war between the house of David and the house of Saul; but what is referred to is not certain, nor is it of moment, since these words are neither in the Hebrew text, nor in the Chaldee paraphrase. Theodoret is of opinion this psalm was written by David when he fled from Saul, and came to Ahimelech the priest.