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, no... [ Continue Reading ]
THE LORD [IS] MY LIGHT AND MY SALVATION; WHOM SHALL I FEAR?.... The Targum in the king of Spain's Bible explains it, "the Word of the Lord is my light"; and so Ainsworth cites it; that is, Christ the eternal Word, in whom "was life, and that life was the light of men", John 1:4; and the psalmist is... [ Continue Reading ]
WHEN THE WICKED, [EVEN] MINE ENEMIES AND MY FOES, CAME UPON ME,.... They are wicked men, men of malignant spirits, and evildoers, who are the enemies and foes of the people of God, and who hate them with an implacable hatred, and do everything they can to distress and afflict them; and such enemies... [ Continue Reading ]
THOUGH AN HOST SHOULD ENCAMP AGAINST ME,.... An host of the ungodly, as the Targum; though ever so many of them, even ten thousands of them, as in Psalms 3:6; should beset him on every side; MY HEART SHALL NOT FEAR; for not only the angels of the Lord encamped about him, as they do about all that f... [ Continue Reading ]
ONE [THING] HAVE I DESIRED OF THE LORD,.... Not to be returned to Saul's court; nor to his own house and family; nor to have an affluence of worldly riches and honours; but to have constant abode it, the house of the Lord; an opportunity of attending continually on the public worship of God; which i... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR IN THE TIME OF TROUBLE HE SHALL HIDE ME IN HIS PAVILION,.... This, with what follows, is given as a reason why the psalmist desired to dwell in the house of the Lord; because he considered it as a pavilion or booth, as the word h signifies in which he should be hid by the Lord, in times of troub... [ Continue Reading ]
AND NOW SHALL MINE HEAD BE LIFTED UP,.... That is, when brought into the house of the Lord, hid in the secret of his tabernacle, and set upon the rock Christ; by this phrase he means, either that he should be then restored to his former happy and comfortable condition, as it is used in Genesis 40:13... [ Continue Reading ]
HEAR, O LORD, [WHEN] I CRY WITH MY VOICE,.... Which is to be understood of prayer, and that in the time of distress; and of vocal prayer, as distinguished from mental prayer; and the phrase denotes the vehemency and intenseness of it: and the request is, that the Lord would hear it; not only as he i... [ Continue Reading ]
[WHEN THOU SAIDST], SEEK YE MY FACE,.... To seek the face of the Lord is to attend his house and ordinances, where he grants his presence; and with this view to enjoy his gracious presence, and the light of his countenance, not being content with bare attendance without it; it is to seek the Lord hi... [ Continue Reading ]
HIDE NOT THY FACE [FAR] FROM ME,.... Yea, not at all from him; for the word "far" is not in the text: this is sometimes the case of the best of men, and was of the psalmist at times, and might be now, notwithstanding his strong expressions of faith and joy in the preceding verses; for frames are ver... [ Continue Reading ]
WHEN MY FATHER AND MY MOTHER FORSAKE ME,.... Which is not to be understood strictly and literally of his parents, that were in that near relation to him according to the flesh, nor of anything that had past; not of his parents leaving him to shift for himself, after having brought him up; nor of his... [ Continue Reading ]
TEACH ME THY WAY, O LORD,.... Of providence, grace, and duty; Psalms 25:4; AND LEAD ME IN A PLAIN PATH: as the path of truth is to those that understand and find knowledge; and as the way of holiness is, even to such who in other things are fools, but shall not err therein, Proverbs 8:9 Isaiah 35... [ Continue Reading ]
DELIVER ME NOT OVER UNTO THE WILL OF MINE ENEMIES,.... It is a dreadful thing for a man to be given up to his own heart's lusts, and to be delivered up into the hands of Satan; who would fain have even the people of God themselves in his hands, that he might distress them at pleasure, if not destroy... [ Continue Reading ]
[I HAD FAINTED],.... When false witnesses rose up against him, and threatened to take away his life, and the life of his friends, in the most barbarous and cruel manner: the people of God are subject to faintings, in the present state of things; by reason of afflictions; because of the nature, numbe... [ Continue Reading ]
WAIT ON THE LORD,.... This, with what follows, is spoken by the psalmist either to himself or to others, or it may be to both, upon the rich experience he declares in Psalms 27:13: it becomes believers to wait on the Lord for the common blessings of life, for even the eyes of all wait upon him for t... [ Continue Reading ]