Psalm 27

“The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?” (Psalm 27:1)

This psalm has two distinct parts, which leads some interpreters to suggest that it was originally two separate poems.[1] Part 1 (27:1–6) has the qualities of an individual psalm of trust (see the sidebar “Psalms of Trust” in the unit on Ps. 16),[2] while part 2 (27:7–13) takes the form of a complaint[3] or lament. The difference in genre cannot, of course, be the definitive word, since the psalms sometimes mix them.[4] If they are two distinct poems, the evidence seems to point in the direction that part 2 was composed with part 1 in view, rather than the psalm being the combination of two independent poems.[5] It seems, however, that the poet was describing his deep trust in God alongside his plaintive lament, two frames of mind that, in the complexities of life, do sometimes exist together.[6] Even though the duplicate use of key terms in the two parts does not solve the problem, it certainly does point to the compositional relations…

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