Psalms 27:1

Psalms 27:1 opens with two rhetorical questions: "Yahweh is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear? Yahweh is the strength of my life. Of whom shall I be afraid?" The questions in Psalms 27:1 are not naïve — the rest of the chapter shows enemies, armies encamped, false witnesses and even the possibility of being abandoned by one's parents. The answer Psalms 27:1 gives is a ladder: light, salvation and strength.

Each word answers a different kind of fear: light to see, salvation to escape, strength to hold out.

There is a change of tone halfway through. The psalm begins full of confidence and, in verse 7, turns to pleading: "Hear, Yahweh, when I cry with my voice." That oscillation is honest and recognizable to anyone who has had firm faith in the morning and fear at night.

The closing is one of the best lines about waiting: "Wait for Yahweh. Be strong, and let your heart take courage. Yes, wait for Yahweh." The repetition suggests that waiting is something that needs to be said twice before it is done.