Psalm 27:12
Do not turn me over to the desire of my foes,
for false witnesses rise up against me,
spouting malicious accusations.
Today’s Reading: Psalm 27
Psalm 27 is another psalm written by David. David was known to be a man after God’s own heart. This often showed up in times of trouble. When David found himself in a challenging life situation, he had a great faith in God to deliver him. This faith and trust in God would shine through in the psalms.
This faith is declared in the opening verse, “The Lord is my light and my salvation – whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life – of whom shall I be afraid?” And if you are familiar with David’s many adventures, David was known to be somewhat fearless. He truly lived out this verse. David had the utmost confidence that God was for him and wherever he found himself then it was where God wanted him to be. And he was fine with that.
Reading through this psalm, it has a similar theme to Psalms 22-24. Psalm 27 isn’t widely recognized as a messianic psalm but it certainly has the sound of a messianic psalm. I see a lot of parallels in this psalm with Jesus and I could see most of this psalm being spoken by Christ on the cross.
Whether or not all of the psalm is messianic or not, verse 12 is widely considered prophecy of Jesus. It would have been very difficult to pick this verse out as prophecy prior to Jesus being crucified. But after the fact, we can clearly see it being fulfilled in the trial of Jesus.
The first line reads, “Do not turn me over to the desire of my foes.” This line is connected to Jesus’ prayer in the garden of Gethsemane where he prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will” (Matt 26:39). Jesus asked God for another way than to be handed over to his enemies. But as we know, all of history pointed to this moment and there was no other way.
The next line reads, “for false witnesses rise up against me.” Bearing false witness in ancient times could carry the death sentence. It was a very serious crime. It was a crime that the Pharisees were willing to commit to get rid of Jesus. The apostle Mark records the Pharisees’ crimes in great detail.
“The chief priests and the whole Sanhedrin were looking for evidence against Jesus so that they could put him to death, but they did not find any. Many testified falsely against him, but their statements did not agree.
Then some stood up and gave this false testimony against him: ‘We heard him say, ‘I will destroy this temple made with human hands and in three days will build another, not made with hands.” Yet even then their testimony did not agree” (Mark 14:55-59).
The final line of verse 12 reads, “spouting malicious accusations.” The Hebrew words here suggest a relent pursuit to harm someone like a predator seeking its prey. This would be an accurate description of the Pharisees pursuit of Jesus. They followed him everywhere he went and tried everything they could think of to diminish his popularity. And when that didn’t work they simply had to kill him.
The final two verses of Psalm 27 speak to that trust that David had in God. Even if his enemies prevailed, David said, “I remain confident of this: I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.” That is the hope that we have in Jesus no matter what.
And David’s message to us is simple,
“Wait for the Lord;
be strong and take heart
and wait for the Lord.”
Christ in the Old Testament 
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