Mazmur 27:1-3

Psalm 27 ¹ 

By David.

27:1 The Lord delivers and vindicates me! ² 

I fear no one! ³ 

The Lord protects my life!

I am afraid of no one! ⁴ 

27:2 When evil men attack me ⁵ 

to devour my flesh, ⁶ 

when my adversaries and enemies attack me, ⁷ 

they stumble and fall. ⁸ 

27:3 Even when an army is deployed against me,

I do not fear. ⁹ 

Even when war is imminent, ¹⁰ 

I remain confident. ¹¹ 

Mazmur 46:1

Psalm 46 ¹² 

For the music director; by the Korahites; according to the alamoth style; ¹³  a song.

46:1 God is our strong refuge; ¹⁴ 

he is truly our helper in times of trouble. ¹⁵ 

Mazmur 46:11

46:11 The Lord who commands armies is on our side! ¹⁶ 

The God of Jacob ¹⁷  is our protector! ¹⁸  (Selah)

Mazmur 56:4

56:4 In God – I boast in his promise ¹⁹  –

in God I trust, I am not afraid.

What can mere men ²⁰  do to me? ²¹ 

Mazmur 56:9

56:9 My enemies will turn back when I cry out to you for help; ²² 

I know that God is on my side. ²³ 

Mazmur 56:11

56:11 in God I trust, I am not afraid.

What can mere men ²⁴  do to me? ²⁵ 

Mazmur 146:5

146:5 How blessed is the one whose helper is the God of Jacob,

whose hope is in the Lord his God,

Yesaya 51:12

51:12 “I, I am the one who consoles you. ²⁶ 

Why are you afraid of mortal men,

of mere human beings who are as short-lived as grass? ²⁷ 

Yeremia 20:11

20:11 But the Lord is with me to help me like an awe-inspiring warrior. ²⁸ 

Therefore those who persecute me will fail and will not prevail over me.

They will be thoroughly disgraced because they did not succeed.

Their disgrace will never be forgotten.

Mikha 7:8-10

Jerusalem Will Be Vindicated

7:8 My enemies, ²⁹  do not gloat ³⁰  over me!

Though I have fallen, I will get up.

Though I sit in darkness, the Lord will be my light. ³¹ 

7:9 I must endure ³²  the Lord’s anger,

for I have sinned against him.

But then ³³  he will defend my cause, ³⁴ 

and accomplish justice on my behalf.

He will lead me out into the light;

I will experience firsthand ³⁵  his deliverance. ³⁶ 

7:10 When my enemies see this, they will be covered with shame.

They say ³⁷  to me, “Where is the Lord your God?”

I will gloat over them. ³⁸ 

Then they will be trampled down ³⁹ 

like mud in the streets.

Roma 8:31

8:31 What then shall we say about these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?

Ibrani 13:6

13:6 So we can say with confidence, “The Lord is my helper, and ⁴⁰  I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?” ⁴¹ 

[27:1]  ¹ sn Psalm 27. The author is confident of the Lord’s protection and asks the Lord to vindicate him.

[27:1]  ² tn Heb “the Lord [is] my light and my deliverance.” “Light” is often used as a metaphor for deliverance and the life/blessings it brings. See Pss 37:6; 97:11; 112:4; Isa 49:6; 51:4; Mic 7:8. Another option is that “light” refers here to divine guidance (see Ps 43:3).

[27:1]  ³ tn Heb “Whom shall I fear?” The rhetorical question anticipates the answer, “No one!”

[27:1]  ⁴ tn Heb “Of whom shall I be afraid?” The rhetorical question anticipates the answer, “No one!”

[27:2]  ⁵ tn Heb “draw near to me.”

[27:2]  ⁶ sn To devour my flesh. The psalmist compares his enemies to dangerous, hungry predators (see 2 Kgs 9:36; Ezek 39:17).

[27:2]  ⁷ tn Heb “my adversaries and my enemies against me.” The verb “draw near” (that is, “attack”) is understood by ellipsis; see the previous line.

[27:2]  ⁸ tn The Hebrew verbal forms are perfects. The translation assumes the psalmist is generalizing here, but another option is to take this as a report of past experience, “when evil men attacked me…they stumbled and fell.”

[27:3]  ⁹ tn Heb “my heart does not fear.”

[27:3]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “if war rises up against me.”

[27:3]  ¹¹ tn Heb “in this [i.e., “during this situation”] I am trusting.”

[46:1]  ¹² sn Psalm 46. In this so-called “Song Of Zion” God’s people confidently affirm that they are secure because the great warrior-king dwells within Jerusalem and protects it from the nations that cause such chaos in the earth. A refrain (vv. 7, 11) concludes the song’s two major sections.

[46:1]  ¹³ sn The meaning of the Hebrew term עֲלָמוֹת (alamoth, which means “young women”) is uncertain; perhaps it refers to a particular style of music. Cf. 1 Chr 15:20.

[46:1]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “our refuge and strength,” which is probably a hendiadys meaning “our strong refuge” (see Ps 71:7). Another option is to translate, “our refuge and source of strength.”

[46:1]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “a helper in times of trouble he is found [to be] greatly.” The perfect verbal form has a generalizing function here. The adverb מְאֹד (mÿ’od, “greatly”) has an emphasizing function.

[46:11]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “the Lord of hosts is with us.” The title “Lord of hosts” here pictures the Lord as a mighty warrior-king who leads armies into battle (see Ps 24:10). The military imagery is further developed in vv. 8-9.

[46:11]  ¹⁷ tn That is, Israel, or Judah (see Ps 20:1).

[46:11]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “our elevated place” (see Pss 9:9; 18:2).

[56:4]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “in God I boast, his word.” The syntax in the Hebrew text is difficult. (1) The line could be translated, “in God I boast, [in] his word.” Such a translation assumes that the prepositional phrase “in God” goes with the following verb “I boast” (see Ps 44:8) and that “his word” is appositional to “in God” and more specifically identifies the basis for the psalmist’s confidence. God’s “word” is here understood as an assuring promise of protection. Another option (2) is to translate, “in God I will boast [with] a word.” In this case, the “word” is a song of praise. (In this view the pronominal suffix “his” must be omitted as in v. 10.) The present translation reflects yet another option (3): In this case “I praise his word” is a parenthetical statement, with “his word” being the object of the verb. The sentence begun with the prepositional phrase “in God” is then completed in the next line, with the prepositional phrase being repeated after the parenthesis.

[56:4]  ²⁰ tn Heb “flesh,” which refers by metonymy to human beings (see v. 11, where “man” is used in this same question), envisioned here as mortal and powerless before God.

[56:4]  ²¹ tn The rhetorical question assumes the answer, “Nothing!” The imperfect is used in a modal sense here, indicating capability or potential.

[56:9]  ²² tn Heb “then my enemies will turn back in the day I cry out.” The Hebrew particle אָז (’az, “then”) is probably used here to draw attention to the following statement.

[56:9]  ²³ tn Heb “this I know, that God is for me.”

[56:11]  ²⁴ tn The statement is similar to that of v. 4, except “flesh” is used there instead of “man.”

[56:11]  ²⁵ tn The rhetorical question assumes the answer, “Nothing!” The imperfect is used in a modal sense here, indicating capability or potential.

[51:12]  ²⁶ tc The plural suffix should probably be emended to the second masculine singular (which is used in v. 13). The final mem (ם) is probably dittographic; note the mem at the beginning of the next word.

[51:12]  ²⁷ tn Heb “Who are you that you are afraid of man who dies, and of the son of man who [as] grass is given up?” The feminine singular forms should probably be emended to the masculine singular (see v. 13). They have probably been influenced by the construction אַתְּ־הִיא (’at-hi’) in vv. 9-10.

[20:11]  ²⁸ sn This line has some interesting ties with Jer 15:20-21 where Jeremiah is assured by God that he is indeed with him as he promised him when he called him (1:8, 19) and will deliver him from the clutches of wicked and violent people. The word translated here “awe-inspiring” is the same as the word “violent people” there. Jeremiah is confident that his “awe-inspiring” warrior will overcome “violent people.” The statement of confidence here is, by the way, a common element in the psalms of petition in the Psalter. The common elements of that type of psalm are all here: invocation (v. 7), lament (vv. 7-10), confession of trust/confidence in being heard (v. 11), petition (v. 12), thanksgiving or praise (v. 13). For some examples of this type of psalm see Pss 3, 7, 26.

[7:8]  ²⁹ tn The singular form is understood as collective.

[7:8]  ³⁰ tn Or “rejoice” (KJV, NAB, NASB, NRSV); NCV “don’t laugh at me.”

[7:8]  ³¹ sn Darkness represents judgment; light (also in v. 9) symbolizes deliverance. The Lord is the source of the latter.

[7:9]  ³² tn Heb “lift, bear.”

[7:9]  ³³ tn Heb “until.”

[7:9]  ³⁴ tn Or “plead my case” (NASB and NIV both similar); NRSV “until he takes my side.”

[7:9]  ³⁵ tn Heb “see.”

[7:9]  ³⁶ tn Or “justice, vindication.”

[7:10]  ³⁷ tn Heb “who say.” A new sentence was begun here in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[7:10]  ³⁸ tn Heb “My eyes will look on them.”

[7:10]  ³⁹ tn Heb “a trampled-down place.”

[13:6]  ⁴⁰ tc Some important mss (א* C* P 0285^vid 33 1175 1739 pc lat) lack καί (kai), but because the omission conforms to the wording of Ps 118:6 (117:6 LXX), it is suspect.

[13:6]  ⁴¹ sn A quotation from Ps 118:6.