Pasuk 5

כִּי יִצְפְּנֵנִי בְּסֻכֹּה בְּיוֹם רָעָה יַסְתִּרֵנִי בְּסֵתֶר אָהֳלוֹ בְּצוּר יְרוֹמְמֵנִי

For he will hide me in his Sukkah on a bad day shelter me in the shelter of his tent. On a rock he will raise me.

Actually, we create our own sanctuaries. Or, we don't.

God is present, creating the world around us with myriad opportunities for us to interact with it. And when we do, we are not always ready for the results. Perhaps the results are what we expected and hoped for; perhaps they aren't. And if they aren't, who are we?

If we are able to internalize the messages of the previous verses, to truly connect to the One expressed in יקוק, then we will find ourselves not experiencing any evil. We will experience shelter.

If not, the experience is vastly difference.

But it is we who define the experience that God is presenting to us. Not anyone else.

Pasuk 4

אַחַת שָׁאַלְתִּי מֵאֵת ה' אוֹתָהּ אֲבַקֵּשׁ שִׁבְתִּי בְּבֵית ה' כָּל יְמֵי חַיַּי לַחֲזוֹת בְּנֹעַם ה' וּלְבַקֵּר בְּהֵיכָלוֹ.

I have one request of Hashem, that I should sit in the house of Hashem all the days of my life. To bask in the sweetness of Hashem and to visit His palace.

In the earlier Pesukim Dovid described all the forces that opposed him - family, enemies, and battles. One can go through life viewing all these forces in a negative manner. There is something wrong with the situation. Things shouldn't be as they are. The alternative is to recognize that Hashem has made His home in this world and his unifying, loving presence is what gives meaning, value and sweet goodness to all.

It was Dovid's one request that he should always have the awareness of Oneness that would allow him to remain in the house of יקוק, the awareness of Hashem's unifying sweet love, at all times, so that he would not fall victim to negative thinking patterns.

The Ariza"l says that the word אח"ת stands for ארץ ישראל, חיי עולם הבא, תורה, the Land of Israel, Eternal Life in the World to Come and Torah.

Torah is the vehicle through which one can come to understanding the spiritual messages of life that enable him to assimilate this perspective of Hashem. The Land of Israel is the place where we can best and most easily live with this outlook. And when one actually can get himself into this mindset, he is living in heaven on earth, מעין עום הבא. He is living a life in sync with the principles of eternity.

Perhaps a person cannot keep himself fully there 24/7, but the moments when one is present to these thoughts are moments of visiting His palace. Rising from the home which Hashem has made for Himself in this world and visiting the palace where He resides for all eternity.

Pasuk 3

אִם תַּחֲנֶה עָלַי מַחֲנֶה לֹא יִירָא לִבִּי אִם תָּקוּם עָלַי מִלְחָמָה בְּזֹאת אֲנִי בוֹטֵחַ.

Were an army to gather against me, if war were to come upon me, in this I trust.

The word בזאת (in this) has echoes of Yom Kippur, בזאת יבא אהרן אל הקדש, in this manner shall Aharon enter the Holy.

The Bais HaMikdosh (Temple) was a warp in the time-space continuum. The Talmud tells us that the לחם הפנים, the showbread, sat out for over a week without cooling or getting stale. In the קדש הקדשים, the Holy of Holies, the Ark took up no physical space. The laws of physics, the workings of time and space, were suspended. This was where the populace would come on the Holidays to witness these warps in the fabric of the Universe and to understand by extension the love God has expressed through the miracle of Creation.

And what was found within the space warp that was the place of the Ark? On top of the Ark were two Cherubs and they would be seen hugging each other to symbolize the love that Hashem has for us. The love that led Him to transcend His omnipresence and create a place for our existence.

Within this existence it is all too easy to forget about the existence of Hashem. As we get lost within the vicissitudes of life and allow fears to overwhelm us God seems to be absent. We see no place for miracles. Transcending what appears to be inevitable seems impossible.

As Dovid stood, surrounded by enemies and seeing war come upon him, he often found himself in situations that seemed hopeless. A lesser man (like Shaul) might have succumbed to the evidence of impending disaster that surrounded him. But Dovid trusted in בזאת, he thought about the Holy of Holies and the demonstration there of Hashem's omnipotence. He thought about the love of Hashem that was evident within that warp. And he was reminded that even here in this world there is a power that can warp what seem to be the rules of normalcy and bring about a miraculous outcome.

Pasuk 2

בִּקְרֹב עָלַי מְרֵעִים לֶאֱכֹל אֶת בְּשָׂרִי צָרַי וְאֹיְבַי לִי הֵמָּה כָשְׁלוּ וְנָפָלוּ

When the evildoers come close to me to eat my flesh, they are my oppressors and enemies; they have stumbled and fallen.

It is bad enough to have enemies and those who oppose a person. But when the animosity comes also (or primarily) from those who should naturally be loving and protective, it is the worst of all. From his birth Dovid was rejected by his family. His father-in-law tried to kill him, and one of his many wives (צרה) opposed him as well. It is this pain that we hear him expressing in this verse and then acknowledging that his relationship with Hashem ultimately saw the downfall of those oppressors.

When the קרובים (relatives) are my oppressors and they wish to destroy my relationships with my family (בשר is frequently used to indicated relatives), my wife (צרי) as well as my garden-variety enemies, they have all ultimately stumbled and fallen.

First Pasuk

לְדָוִד ה’ אוֹרִי וְיִשְׁעִי מִמִּי אִירָא ה’ מָעוֹז חַיַּי מִמִּי אֶפְחָד:

A song of Dovid. Hashem is my light and my salvation, from whom should I fear. Hashem is the fortress of my life, from whom should I have trepidation.

Clearly Dovid HaMelech found himself in a dark place, a place from which he needed to be saved. He felt unprotected and fearful. Suddenly, he found Hashem and all the darkness, all the vulnerability, all the fear went away. 

What happened?

I have written extensively on my Kabbalistic Koncepts blog about the symbolism of the name of יקוק. The world as we perceive it is a disjointed and fragmented place. There is conflict and dissension on every level.Within and without ourselves. This is the Void, the Darkness created by Hashem as the very center-point of creation in which fear and vulnerability would be given free reign.

But this is also, and primarily, an opportunity. An opportunity to see beyond the chaos and find the unifying force that gives existence to the apparent chaos. When we find that force, represented by the name יקוק, the darkness falls away, the fears are gone and there is no more vulnerability.

Ellul, leading to Rosh Hashanah is the time to reinvigorate our relationship with Hashem. That relationship has gotten lost as we have allowed ourselves to get lost in the Void over the course of the year. The first step to getting out out the Void is refocusing our attention on what our goal is and where our salvation lies.

ה' אורי וישעי, focus on the unifying singular force of Hashem and I will find myself in the light and invulnerable.

The Impetus for this Blog

This morning, being Rosh Chodesh Ellul, I said לדוד ה' אורי, Psalm 27, as part of my davening. I was really looking forward to saying it as it has always been one of my favorite kapitlach Tehillim.
What surprised me was my reaction. Saying it made me very emotional. That was especially true of the final two verses. לולא האמנתי לראות בטוב ה' בארץ חיים. קוה אל ה' חזק ויאמץ לבך וקוה אל ה. "If I hadn't believed that I would see the goodness of Hashem in the land of the living. Hope to Hashem, strengthen yourself, and hope to Hashem again." I can't possibly count the number of times that I was going through what seemed like very dark times in my life and I turned to these words to give me hope and strength to persevere and not give up. On occasion I have spent hours singing them to the classic tune of Diaspora Yeshiva Band.
Saying it this morning and feeling as I did engendered in me a desire to spend some time really getting to the root of this chapter of Tehillim and understanding it. It is my intent to spend this month blogging about what I learn as to its meaning.