Charles Ellicott Commentary Psalms 27:1

"Jehovah is my light and my salvation; Whom shall I fear? Jehovah is the strength of my life; Of whom shall I be afraid?" — Psalms 27:1 (ASV)

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 psalmist.

To him, Jehovah was the guiding and cheering beacon-fire, proclaiming his victory and showing him the happy homeward way. From this, the belief in God as the source of both moral and intellectual light represents a long but glorious progression, along which the world has been guided by such words as Isaiah 60:1, and even more by the recognition of the incarnate Son as the Light of men (John 1:5; John 3:19; John 12:46, and other passages).

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; Septuagint, “shields;” Vulgate, “protector.”