Psalms 27:1

The Lord is my light. — This noble thought appears nowhere else so grandly, though we may compare Isaiah 60:1. The Latin of the Vulgate, “Dominus illuminatio mea,” is the motto of the University of Oxford, and expands in a new but true direction the thought of the ancient bard. To him, Jehovah was the guiding and cheering beacon-fire, proclaiming his victory and pointing him the happy homeward way. From this to the belief in God as the source both of moral and intellectual light, is a long but glorious stage, along which the world has been guided by such words as Isaiah 60:1, still more by the recognition of the incarnate Son as the Light of men (John 1:5; John 3:19; John 12:46, &c).

Strength. — Better, defence or bulwark; Heb., maôz, rendered “rock,” Judges 6:26 (margin, strong place); used in Isaiah 17:9 of fortified cities; as here, Psalms 37:39; Psalms 43:2; LXX., “shields;” Vulg., “protector.”