([A Psalm] of David.) Jehovah is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? Jehovah is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?
The psalm opens with no plea and no complaint. It gives two statements about the LORD, and each one is followed by a question whose answer is "no one." Everything else in Psalm 27 grows out of this first claim about who God is to the one praying.
The verse never surveys the threat before dismissing it. One writer shows how the psalm argues, and how much strength lies in its refusal to size up the danger:
The psalm begins with a glad note of confidence. It throws out all fear as unworthy and impossible... The argument is short and complete. It is all the more complete because it does not look around or count up any particular evils. It looks up, and it only needs to look up, into Jehovah's face.
"Light" here is not something God hands out. It is what He is — and knowing Him that way puts a person outside the dark, and brings deliverance with it.
It is worth noticing what the psalmist's confidence rests on at the start of the psalm. It rests on what Jehovah is, as the soul knows Him... God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all; but the kingdom of Satan is marked by darkness... Jehovah had become his light — in a region outside of Satan's kingdom and power — and so also his deliverance.
Another writer notes that God is rarely called "Light" before the New Testament. The same writer explains why that name could only come with something else:
How wonderful that the Lord Himself has become our "Light." He is not often presented that way in the Old Testament. We could not have borne it unless His love had been revealed with it; so it comes out more in the New Testament. The One who has become our Light, with the necessary exposure of all our ruin, has also become our "Salvation."
The three titles cover the whole ground: understanding for the road, rescue from sin and pressure, and strength when our own runs out.
Without the light there is no way to tell where the path goes, so many walk in darkness, not knowing where they are going. But the believer knows Christ as the Light, the One who gives understanding, making our way clear before us... He is also our salvation. He delivers us from our sins through His great sacrifice at the cross, and from the many difficulties that press in from every side... Though our own strength fails badly, we may say with Paul, "I can do all things through Him who strengthens me" (Phil. 4:13).
Verses 2 and 3 widen the threat: attackers, then an army, then open war. The answer does not change with the size of the danger.
With the Lord as his resource, the believer can say, "Of whom shall I be afraid?" Enemies may come one at a time. A whole army may come. Or "war" may come — opposition that lasts at every step of the journey. But the heart need not fear, and the soul need not lose confidence, since we have the Lord as our light, our salvation, and our strength.
The psalm puts the fearless words first and the trembling prayer second — the reverse of what we would expect. One writer treats that order as the psalm's real lesson:
Psalm 27 shows the heart confident in Jehovah, yet searching itself before Him while evil is on open display... Man would have spoken of fear when facing the enemy and confidence when with God. Whereas grace, at work in real dealings of the heart with God, gives boldness with the enemy.
Fearlessness is not where the psalm ends. Free from dread, the psalmist's whole heart narrows to one thing in the next verse.
This psalm makes one thing clear. The more we learn of God, and the more we think about the ways He has shown His love, the more we want to know Him. It was so with David. He first tells us what Jehovah was to him, how He had helped him, and how sure he was about dangers ahead. Then his whole heart pours out in the next verse.
Commentators read the psalm on more than one level. One writer sets its first meaning in a future day. That same writer says the practical value still belongs to readers now:
This psalm holds feelings and experiences that will mark out the faithful few whom God keeps among the Jews in a future day... We do not follow that first meaning further. Our aim is practical — to gather lessons that build us up.
- Look up, not round. The verse answers fear without once measuring the threat; its whole argument is a glance into God's face.
- Light first. God does not just send light — He is light. Knowing Him exposes our ruin and puts us outside the realm of darkness.
- Then salvation. Light could not be carried alone. The One who shows us what we are also saves us, through the sacrifice of the cross and from present pressures.
- Then strength. He is the support that carries the believer through opposition of any size — one enemy, an army, or long war.
- Bold outside, searched inside. Real dealings with God produce courage before the enemy — and that courage frees the heart to want one thing only: God Himself.
When evil-doers, mine adversaries and mine enemies, came upon me to eat up my flesh, they stumbled and fell.
The second verse of this psalm looks back at a real attack that failed. Enemies closed in like predators, and it was they who fell, not David. So what makes a hunted man fearless?
The words "eat up my flesh" describe an animal's attack. One writer reads the verse with the two other forms of attack named later in the psalm:
The believer has the Lord as his "light," "salvation," and "strength." So he is confident in the presence of his enemies. They may come as single attackers, striking at the soul like a beast without conscience. They may come as "a host." Or the attack may be prolonged, as in "war."
The verse reports something that already happened. David is not predicting rescue; he is remembering it. And the memory includes how little he did:
Wicked enemies had surrounded David. They came upon him like wild beasts of prey, to eat up his flesh, but they stumbled and fell. He was an outcast, and all the power of his enemy's kingdom stood against him. Yet he was safe under the protection of his Light and his Deliverer. Again and again Saul determined to destroy David, but every effort failed. And David never struck a single blow to protect himself. The more completely the believer leaves himself in the Lord's hands, the more fully he will know the Lord's help and deliverance. This holds true however hopeless his situation looks. We cannot live on past experiences, but faith argues that God is always the same: as He has delivered, He will keep delivering.
David's confidence is not in his own resources. It rests on what the Lord had become to him — light, deliverance, strength:
God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all; but the kingdom of Satan is marked by darkness... Take salvation in the psalm in its plain sense of deliverance, and we see how far the psalmist had anticipated the truth of Christianity. The Lord had become his light, in a region outside Satan's kingdom and power, and so also his deliverance. What is more, the Lord was the strength of his life. He was the One the psalmist could lean on while feeling his own total weakness. He was the One he could count on with confidence, whatever forces stood against him.
The enemy's attack does not only fail. It turns into something for the psalmist:
The psalmist had known the Lord throwing the enemies of the faithful into confusion. In the time of trouble He would hide him. The assault of foes would only be the occasion of lifting up his head above them. Then he would offer sacrifices of joy.
One writer hears more than David's voice here. He reads the verse as spoken of Jesus, and points to the night He was arrested:
"When evildoers assail me to eat up my flesh, my adversaries and foes, it is they who stumble and fall." This is how David spoke concerning Jesus (Psalm 27). And so, in the garden, the band of men and officers came to seize Him. "When Jesus said to them, 'I am he,' they drew back and fell to the ground" (John 18).
One writer points to the people who came back from exile. They stopped rebuilding God's house because their opponents frightened them — and this psalm was their own.
Fear of their adversaries was stronger than their faith in God. So they lost heart. They thought only of themselves and their own selfish interests. They began to build their own houses and to say, "The time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the Lord."... It is true that they were only a feeble remnant, and their enemies were many and active. But they might have read, in one of their own Psalms, "my adversaries and foes, it is they who stumble and fall."
- Light first. Verse 2 gets its courage from verse 1. God known as light, salvation and strength drains the threat of its terror.
- Beast, host, war. The enemy comes in three sizes: the single attacker without conscience, the encamped army, the long war. None of them changes the answer.
- No blow struck. David escaped Saul again and again without defending himself. The more fully a believer leaves his case with God, the more he sees God act.
- Fall upward. The attack meant to devour him lifts his head above his enemies instead, and ends in sacrifices of joy. In the garden, the men who came for Jesus drew back and fell to the ground.
- Use it or lose it. The exiles had this psalm and still stopped building. Their fear of enemies beat their faith in God.
If a host encamp against me, my heart shall not fear; if war rise against me, in this will I be confident.
Psalm 27 opens by naming the Lord as light and salvation. This verse tests that claim at its limit: an army in the field, war breaking out, and a heart that still refuses to panic — so what makes such calm honest, and not just brave talk?
One writer sees a ladder of pressure here: one enemy, then a crowd of them, then a war that never lets up.
With the Lord as his resource, the believer can say, "Of whom shall I be afraid?" Enemies may oppose us one at a time. They may come as a whole host. Or they may come as "war" — opposition that drags on at every step of the journey. But the heart need not fear and the soul need not lose confidence, since we have the Lord as our light, our salvation, and our strength.
Calm in front of an army only makes sense if something is there that the eye cannot see. One commentator names the enemy a believer faces now, then points to a prophet's servant who woke to find enemy troops all around the town:
Our enemies today are "the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places" — Satan's angels, who work constantly to undermine our faith in the Lord Jesus. But if we put on "the whole armor of God" (Eph. 6:11), we can stand against them and defeat their evil plans... "Though an army encamp against me, my heart shall not fear." The whole Syrian army once surrounded Elisha's house. Elisha stayed at peace, while terror gripped his servant (2 Kings 6:14-15). Elisha prayed for the Lord to open the young man's eyes (v. 17). He then saw the mountain full of horses and chariots of fire, drawn up to protect Elisha. Doesn't the believer today have protection just as real against the opposition of evil spirits? Our hearts have no reason to fear. They have every reason to trust the Lord fully, however threatening the enemy's attacks may be.
This calm is not a mood. It is an argument, and past rescue is the evidence.
Present faith brought David's past experience back to mind. It let him look without fear at everything the future might hold... We cannot live on past experiences. But faith reasons that God is always the same. As He has delivered, He will keep on delivering. (Compare 2 Corinthians 1:10.) So it is a rich thing to learn what God is for us. His past dealings teach us, and so do the times He has stepped in on our behalf.
In this psalm, confidence and one desire go together. One writer traces both through its first half:
In Psalm 27 we have two distinct parts... The first part, verses 1-6, is the confidence of the believer. That confidence is absolute, whatever the enemies were. In the second part, verses 7-12, we find the cry of distress. In the first, singleness of eye lays the ground of confidence... Enemies outside or oppressors inside, a host and a war rising up, stir no fear. The Lord is the light and salvation of the soul. Its one desire is to dwell in the house of the Lord, to see His beauty and to inquire in His temple.
Anyone can quote these words while walking into a danger God never sent him into. Josiah, a king of Judah, went out to a battle without God's word for it:
Suppose Josiah had weighed up the situation in God's presence and gone out at His bidding. Then he might have used David's words in Psalm 27... When our blessed Lord went into danger, to the dismay of His disciples, He was calmly confident. He had the Father's word for what He was doing, and so He was walking in the light (John 11:7-10). But Josiah had lost touch with God. He was making the biggest mistake of his life, and the whole nation suffered for it as well as himself.
One writer hears a deeper voice in the psalm: Christ's own, spoken in a faithful few during a coming time of trouble.
Psalm 27 is the word of Christ, as found in the tried remnant of the last days. He identifies Himself with their feelings. His words rest on His own stated experience of the Lord's faithfulness to Him when He stood alone. Notice that the time of trouble is the time of God's deliverance. It is the place where they met God, whatever else they felt, even when it seemed to be Satan.
- Light first. The calm here is not the psalmist's own. The Lord as his light, salvation and strength is what makes "Of whom shall I be afraid?" an honest question.
- Sight next. The enemy does not shrink. The heart steadies because of unseen protection, as real as the horses of fire around Elisha.
- Memory next. Faith argues from past rescues. The God who has delivered will keep delivering.
- Single eye next. Confidence and one desire travel together. The settled heart is set on dwelling with God.
- Obedience always. The words fit the person sent by God, not the one, like Josiah, who walks into danger out of touch with Him.