2 When the wicked, even mine enemies and my foes, came upon me to eat up my flesh, they stumbled and fell. [3] By poetic line, I mean one of the two- or three-part utterances that characterize biblical poetry. This broader sense of the verb developed out of the much more specific meaning of the phrase in older forms of Hebrew. Similarly, the first nine lines (out of twenty-five) in the prayer to Marduk found in Lenzi, 313-25, are a well-structured hymn to Marduk (as demonstrated by Tzvi Abusch, “The Form and Meaning of a Babylonian Prayer to Marduk,” Journal of the American Oriental Society 103 [1983]), but that hymn is but a section of the longer plea psalm into which it is (Abusch shows) very well integrated at a literary-rhetorical level. God is no longer something the worshiper claims to know all about; now God is a partner (though of course the senior partner) in a relationship, and relationships are slippery and unknowable in a way that does not conform to the simplistic faith of the first stanza. 1. light--is a common figure for comfort. The worshiper wants to some responsibility that will keep him there permanently. אַחַ֚ת | שָׁאַ֣לְתִּי מֵֽאֵת־יְהֹוָה֘ אוֹתָ֪הּ אֲבַ֫קֵּ֥שׁ שִׁבְתִּ֣י בְּבֵֽית־יְ֖הֹוָה כָּל־יְמֵ֣י חַיַּ֑י לַֽחֲז֥וֹת בְּנֹֽעַם־יְ֜הֹוָ֗ה וּלְבַקֵּ֥ר בְּהֵיכָלֽוֹ: To appear there every morning. The final verse of Psalm 27 recalls the Pentateuch, which does not conclude with entry into the Land of Israel and the fulfillment of God’s promises. The Lord is my light] That is, my comfort and direction, he that dissolveth all my clouds of terrors within and troubles without. Thus, contrary to the NJPS translation (which renders our phrase, “to frequent His temple”), the worshiper in our verse is not asking to be able to stop in at the temple on frequent occasions. 1. In Ps 27:14, however, the imperative verbs are all in the singular, which suggests that if the psalmist utters this verse, he is speaking to himself. (Read Psalm 27:7-14) Wherever the believer is, he can find a way to the throne of grace by prayer. As soon as their pleasure is over, this one turns his face this way and that one turns her face the other way. Finally, the third stanza (in v. 13) at least attempts to restate the confidence of the first stanza, albeit in a sentence that never reaches completion. [17] These elements of unity demonstrate that Psalm 27 is a literary unity that has to be interpreted as a whole.[18]. In rabbinic Hebrew, the sense of “take care of” appears in reference to the sick in the well-known phrase, ביקור חולים. [22] In ancient Hebrew, the verb ב.ק.ר does not mean to visit or to come regularly to a particular place; that meaning of the verb develops only in modern Hebrew. In other words, it ends with an implicit acknowledgement that the robust faith of the opening verses has been replaced with questioning, hope, and courage, but not pure confidence. Both Mowinckel and Joachim Begrich argue that Temple functionaries would regularly issue responses on God’s behalf to the entreaties of worshipers, though in most cases these responses are not preserved in the psalms themselves. 2. (Psalms 27:6.) Though an host should encamp against me, Calvin's Commentaries, Vol. One thing have I asked of the LORD, that will I seek after: {N} that I may dwell in the house of the … Such a development is quite typical of Akkadian psalms of plea: they often begin with invocations and statements of trust that could have been psalms of praise on their own. Of David. 4a): I know that You give reward to the righteous in the world to come, but I do not know whether I have a share with them or not. In Psalm 27:5 David bases the justification of his desire upon that which the sanctuary of God is to him; the futures affirm what Jahve will provide for him in His sanctuary. [11] See Craigie and Tate, Psalms 1–50, pp. Further, the clause at the end of the previous verse is the second verset of one poetic line, while our if-clause in verse 13 is the first verse of a new poetic line. "The Timeless Psalms: Psalm 27:1, 4-9, Joan Stott, prayers and meditations based on lectionary Psalms, 2014. A faith that allows no doubt is hubris: when it claims to know for sure what God will and will not do, it denies God’s freedom and invests far too much in the believer’s impregnable security. [8] John Goldingay, Psalms 1–41 [Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Academic, 2006], 400. As the psalm moves back and forth between belief and distress, it “manifests powerful psychological verisimilitude,” Robert Alter points out, because its emphasis on trust “does not preclude a feeling of fearful urgency in the speaker’s plea to God.”[19]. [6] In that case, it is significant that the worshiper feels the need — and has the strength — to reassure himself. He wrote verses 13-14 when he put the 2 parts together. The Book of Psalms is in the third section of the Hebrew Bible, the Khetuvim, and a book of the Christian Old Testament.It is referred to in Hebrew by its opening words, "Ashrei temimei derech". Psalm 27:1. And so, based upon God’s past deliverance, David expresses confidence that God will continue to protect him in verse 3. window.location.replace(""); To these all he opposeth God’s all sufficiency, as making for him, and as being … Tweet; One of the themes that weaves its way through Psalm 27 is the belief that true salvation is to be found only in the presence of Yhwh. » The LORD [is] my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? Jacob Blidstein notes, And as John Goldingay astutely notes regarding v. 1, the worshiper’s statement that he has no reason to fear draws attention to the fact that he apparently is worrying about something.[14]. The psalm closes with imperatives that call on the worshiper (and us) to wait hopefully for God. Most ancient Hebrew poetic lines consist of two versets, but some consist of three versets. Rather, in biblical, Qumran, and rabbinic Hebrew, this verb has a range of meanings relating to “carrying out important tasks.” It can mean “to examine, to check,” especially to examine sacrificial offerings so as to ensure that they are ritually appropriate. Hebrew OT - Transliteration - Holy Name KJV Tehillim / Psalms 27. Of David. [4] Both Rashi and ibn Ezra see the then-clause as appearing in the middle of the previous verse (vv. The Epistemic Standards of Biblical Scholarship, Connecting the Mitzvah of Maggid to the Seder Night. 3. (See Psalm27:12 below). The stanzas are stylistically distinct as well: in the first stanza, the worshiper speaks of God in the third person; in the second, the worshiper addresses God in the second person; in the third, God is again described in the third person. But beginning a then-clause with a word that typically introduces an if-clause would have invited confusion. When the wicked, even mine enemies and my foes, came upon Sigmund Mowinckel, Psalmenstudien (Amsterdam: P. Schippers, 1966), 1:148, points out that the first we can simply regard Psalm 27 as an individual complaint/plea that has an unusually long statement of trust in its first six verses. Prof. Benjamin D. Sommer joined the JTS faculty as professor of Bible in July 2008. "One [thing] have I desired of the LORD, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the … In fact, it is typical for the person reciting a psalm to turn toward an audience in the temple to urge them to believe in God’s saving power. Academic Study of the Torah Is Essential, Not Just for Academics, Study the Torah with Academic Scholarship, By using this site you agree to our Terms of Use, https://thetorah.com/article/a-faith-that-includes-doubt-psalm-27. [9] On this extreme nature of this contrast at verse 7, see Jacob (Gerald) Blidstein, “T’hillim 27,” Yavneh Review, Spring 1965, 21–23; Ellen Charry, Psalms 1–50 (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Publishing Group, 2015), 139–41. David’s subjects called him the light of Israel; but he owns he shone, as the moon doth, with a borrowed light: the light which God communicated to him reflected upon them. For my father and my mother have forsaken me, but the Lord gathers me in. Dr. Sommer is spending the 2012–2013 academic year on sabbatical as a fellow at the Institute for Advanced Studies at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem as a member of the Convergence and Divergence in the Study of the Pentateuch research group. He is not completely confident, but urges himself to hope for God’s salvation. [1] Psalm 27 was added to the liturgy for the months of Elul and Tishrei in the Middle Ages. 1. In this one psalm we have a beautiful and brief distillation of the entire Psalter as a book of doubt and faith. Kabbalah, Chassidism and Jewish Mysticism. Please do not deface or discard. The L ord is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid? The text on this page contains sacred literature. The Lord is the stronghold of my life; from whom shall I be frightened? The first poetic line[3] of this stanza begins with an “If,” but we never get the “then” – the line is a sentence fragment. Harris Birkeland also argues for the unity of the psalm, pointing to the presence of elements of confidence in the second and third stanzas. 21:17) and his people thereupon resolved he … [7] Robert Alter, The Book of Psalms: A Translation with Commentary [New York: W. W. Norton, 2007], 94. "Sacrifices of joy," or "shouting," "singing praises,"—all mean grateful exercises of the heart towards God, recounting to ourselves what he has done for us in his wonderful goodness. And words of trust. (On the rarity of enjambment in biblical poetry, see F.W. In the first stanza (vv. Dobbs-Allsopp, On Biblical Poetry [New York: Oxford University Press, 2015], 44–8, 135–9; Yaakov Kaduri, “Biblical Poetry: How Can It Be?” [in Hebrew] in The Literature of the Hebrew Bible: Introductions and Studies, [ed., Zipora Talshir; Jerusalem: Yad Ben-Zvi Press, 2011], 297–98.). Psalm 27 Commentary: True Salvation in God. I am confident that He will hide me in His Temple, and we learned in Seder Olam (ch. We have seen that the first stanza hints at the source of fear even as it speaks of trust in God, while the second betrays worry over the possibility of God’s distance while also asserting that God is a source of salvation. script>. [5] Sigmund Mowinckel, followed by various commentators such as Peter Craigie and Marvin Tate (in Psalms 1–50, 2d. אַל־תַּסְתֵּ֬ר פָּנֶ֨יךָ | מִמֶּנִּי֘ אַל־תַּט בְּאַ֗ף עַ֫בְדֶּ֥ךָ עֶזְרָתִ֥י הָיִ֑יתָ אַל־תִּטְּשֵׁ֥נִי וְאַל־תַּֽ֜עַזְבֵ֗נִי אֱלֹהֵ֥י יִשְׁעִֽי: Heb. It is possible that a single chapter in the Book of Psalms might contain more than one composition. Oops! Together with the Psalms that bear David's name they add up to 75 , which means David has written exactly half of all the Psalms. 3, 8, 14), ק.ו.מ (vv. One [thing] I ask of the Lord, that I seek-that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my … אִם־תַּֽחֲנֶ֬ה עָלַ֨י | מַֽחֲנֶה֘ לֹֽא־יִירָ֪א לִ֫בִּ֥י אִם־תָּק֣וּם עָ֖לַי מִלְחָמָ֑ה בְּ֜זֹ֗את אֲנִ֣י בוֹטֵֽחַ: In what is stated above: “The Lord is the stronghold of my life.”. Please support us. Though an army encamp against me, my heart shall not fear; 4 One thing. It can also mean “to be in charge, to take care of.” Thus in the Dead Sea Scrolls the מבקר is the official in charge of the community. 4, 13), in addition to the theme of seeing God’s pleasantness or goodness (vv. לְךָ֚ | אָמַ֣ר לִ֖בִּי בַּקְּשׁ֣וּ פָנָ֑י אֶת־פָּנֶ֖יךָ יְהֹוָ֣ה אֲבַקֵּֽשׁ: On Your behalf, my heart says, “Seek My presence.”: On Your behalf, as Your agent, my heart says to me, “All of you Israelites, seek My presence.” And I obey it.“Your presence, O Lord, I will seek.” [The word] לך is like (. And David is inviting us to consider what a fortress is like. The word strength in this verse often refers to a fortress or a similar stronghold. [25] On the importance of this theme, see James Sanders, Torah and Canon (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1972), 50-51, 91-92. [12] Rolf Jacobson captures something crucial about the alleged gulf between the two parts of the psalm when he writes that the psalm “speaks words of fear. [14] Goldingay, Psalms 1–41, 392. There is a definite shift between Part 1 and Part 2. Footnotes. Ver. John Trapp Complete Commentary. (Indeed, Gunkel himself noted that the vocative and plea that typically begin a complaint/plea do occur, albeit “far less frequently in other positions,” a circumstance that vitiates his claim in his commentary, p. 116; see Gunkel, Introduction, 152, and see esp. As Charry writes, this psalm tells us that. [9], The great German Psalms scholar Hermann Gunkel (1862-1932) provides a simple answer to this question by asserting that this chapter contains two separate psalms that have been joined together, the first (vv. 1, 9), צרי (vv. In conveying the movement, Psalm 27 divides itself into three stanzas, each with its own mood, and the relationship among them provides a key to the meaning of this poem. 8: Psalms, Part I, tr. [23] Editor’s note: For an exploration of a similar theme in Jeremiah, see Andrea Weiss, “Jeremiah’s Teaching of the Trees,” TheTorah.com (2018). 7–14) a classic psalm of complaint and plea.[10]. Concordia Publishing House May 6, 2020. But in ancient times, when there were no hospitals and few physicians, ביקור חולים had a different meaning: it denoted examining and taking of sick people, attending to their needs in the ways that medical professionals (especially nurses) and hospital staff members do today. When evildoers assail me. Ap-Thomas (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1962), 2:59. Had I not believed that I would look the LORD is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid? ל֗וּ֗לֵ֣֗א֗ הֶֽ֖אֱמַנְתִּי לִרְא֥וֹת בְּטֽוּב־יְהֹוָ֗ה בְּאֶ֣רֶץ חַיִּֽים: If I had not believed in the Holy One, blessed be He, those false witnesses would have already risen against me and destroyed me. 230-31. Even in that case, however, it behooves us to ask what the editor was attempting to accomplish by putting them together, and especially by putting them together in the order they now have. Commentary, Psalm 27:1, 4-9 (Epiphany 3A), James Howell, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2014. by John King, [1847-50], at sacred-texts.com PSALM 27. Had I not believed that I would look A Faith that Includes Doubt – Psalm 27 The psalm of the High Holiday season begins with the words “God is my light and my salvation,” moves to expressions of distress about God’s absence, and ends with a statement of hope. We can agree that v. 7 must be a new beginning and cannot be a middle, or that 6 must be an ending, only if we put the psalm into a procrustean form-critical bed. and to seek him in his temple. ה֚וֹרֵ֥נִי יְהֹוָ֗ה דַּ֫רְכֶּ֥ךָ וּ֖נְחֵנִי בְּאֹ֣רַח מִישׁ֑וֹר לְ֜מַ֗עַן שֽׁוֹרְרָֽי: Do not deliver me to the desires of my adversaries, for false witnesses and speakers of evil have risen against me. He further points out (391) that the first stanza’s “appearance of confidence is compromised by the fact that most of its lines have the short second cola more characteristic of a lament.” Indeed, the second verset of the first five lines of the poem are all quite negative. "One of the brightest jewels in the Psalter is the Psalm 27. Further, it is not the case that the first stanza is entirely confident while the second and third completely lack elements of faith. Our verse at the end of this psalm may be one of the rarer cases where a prophetic or priestly oracle is in fact preserved in the biblical text. The following Psalms are also ascribed to David in the New Testament (NT): Psalms 2 (Acts 4:25) and Psalms 95 (Hebrews 4:7). [2] I translate that way because קוה means “to await expectantly,” “to wait for,” and I worry that English “hope” loses the sense of waiting expectantly for something or someone. The movement from faith to doubt is the opposite of what many readers might have expected of a religious text. We do not know when David wrote Psalm 27. Perhaps it was when Saul was fighting him. The custom of reciting Psalm 27 during the penitential season, variously understood to entail the period from Rosh Hodesh Elul through Yom Kippur, Hoshanah Rabbah, or Shemini Atzeret, is codified in Mishnah Berurah, siman 581: "In our region it is customary to recite [Psalm 27] followed by kaddish at the conclusion of the morning and evening services every day from Rosh Hodesh Elul until … Alternatively, some have suggested that the worshiper recites this line. Psalm 27 is a familiar psalm that has two distinct parts. Saith David, When my foes came upon me to eat up my flesh, they stumbled and fell. [25] That tendency made it natural that the anthem of the Zionist movement and later of the State of Israel is התקוה, “The Hope” (rather than, say, a song with the title like הניצחון, “The Victory”). The poet first sounds forth his sure confidence in his God, Psalms 27:1-3, and his love of communion with him, Psalms 27:4-6. It is neither Pollyannish nor naive; it is realistic about the fact that God seems absent at times. [The word] לולא is punctuated for the homily which our Sages expounded (Ber. It is a refuge in which he may hide himself, where Jahve takes good care of him who takes refuge therein from the storms of trouble that rage outside: there he is far removed from all dangers, he is lifted high above them and his feet are … In some Eidot Hamizraḥ rites one recites it after Shaḥarit and before Arvit all year long, not just in Elul-Tishrei; but Spanish-Portuguese Jews never recite it as part of their regular liturgy, whether in Elul-Tishrei or the rest of the year. 2, 12), לבי/לבך (vv. Some think David penned this psalm before his coming to the throne, when he was in the midst of his troubles, and perhaps upon occasion of the death of his parents; but the Jews think he penned it when he was old, upon occasion of the wonderful deliverance he had from the sword of the giant, when Abishai succoured him (2 Sa. Psalm 23, which begins with the words “Mizmor leDavid” (“A song of David ”), is arguably the most famous of all the Psalms.In it, King David sings of G‑d ’s protection, referring to Him as a shepherd. Rather, the worshiper sets aside a seemingly ideal faith to take on a more realistic one. Hermann Gunkel, Introduction to Psalms: The Genres of the Religious Lyric of Israel, completed by Joachim Begrich, trans. 4,8), and חיי/חיים (vv. Psalms 27:1 « [A Psalm] of David. In our poem, three-verset lines are used to mark off the ends of the stanzas; we find the same use of three-verset lines in a poem that otherwise consists of two-verset lines at the end of the two stanzas of Psalm 19; see Benjamin Sommer, “Nature, Revelation, and Grace in Psalm 19: Toward a Theological Reading of Scripture,” Harvard Theological Review 108 (2015), 380.