Psalm 27: Countdown to Yom Teruah

by Rabbi Michael Bugg

The Days of Repentence

The entire month of Elul, the Feast of Rosh Hashanah, and the nine days separating Rosh Hashanah from Yom Kippur are traditionally days of repentence and fasting in Judaism. Not that one is expected to fast the entire forty-day period (though Yeshua evidentially did after His mikvah), but that partial fasts and shorter full fasts are very common during this time. It was probably these forty days of t'shuva, repentence, that inspired the Catholic tradition of forty days of Lent leading up to Easter.

I've written on Hebrewroot and in my book about the prophetic significance of the Feasts of the Lord--or, to translate Mo'edei Hashem more literally, the Eternal One's Appointments. Those who wish to understand the prophecies of the Scripture need to understand how the Feasts of Israel fit together with the journey of the Exodus.

I've written before about Tisha B'Av and how the tragedy and judgment of the Golden Calf have followed Israel through the centuries. Exodus 32:7-11 tells us how after that sin and after the Holy One announced that He would not dwell among Israel because of that idolatry, Moses removed the Tent of Meeting outside the camp so that those who wished to inquire of the Eternal had to go out to do so. And yet, Moses did not abandon Israel, but continued interceding for Israel that God would forgive us and restore His Presence to our midst (vv. 12ff). Finally, God called Moses back up the mountain (34:1f), where Moses stayed with Him for another forty days, fasting and interceding for Israel (v. 28) while God wrote again His covenant on a second set of tablets. The rabbis teach us that it was on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, that Moses descended again with the two new tablets, the sign that the Holy One had forgiven Israel and restored His full Covenant-relationship with us.

In the same way, the Temple was taken from Israel for the sins of idolatry and unwarrented hatred (b.Yoma 9b; see here for more details). The place of meeting was taken outside the camp, so to speak, and into the hearts of the faithful remnant. "Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God?" (1Co. 6:19). It is to the Church's shame that so few have followed the example of both Moses and the Messiah in interceding unceasingly for Israel until the day when the Holy One will restore her.

Prophetically, the month of Elul has a dual significance. Not only does it reflect to a large extent Israel in the present--lacking the Sh'khinah dwelling among the nation, but not lacking the Intercessor petitioning His Return--but it also hints at a time when the Body of that Intercessor will be taken up to the Heavenly Mountain. We'll look more at this event as we draw closer to Rosh Hashanah.

Spiritually, this is a time of repentance, but also a time of testing. The Adversary is doing everything he can to destroy Israel or to try to provoke God into casting her away. Many Messianics feel an extra amount of spiritual oppression at this time of year, as the Adversary tries to pull us away from the repentance and reconciliation of the High Holy Days. This is a time when we need to be holding each other up in prayer.

The Secret Sukkah
Psalm 27 is one of the many psalms that David composed while he was under attack. David here follows his usual pattern of presenting his predicament, and simultaneously expressing his trust that the Holy One would rescue and vindicate him. Given that we are coming out of the brutal time around Tisha b’Av, it shouldn’t surprise us that such Psalms would be sung. The question that should drive us is why this particular song is given so much emphasis for the whole month leading up to Rosh Hashannah.

The Psalm opens, “Hashem is my light and my salvation.” The Targums, as they often do, substitute, “The Word of the LORD.” This seems like an odd substitution, since normally we find Memre, the Word, used to express the aspect of the Holy One that meets with His people, which the rabbis call the Sh’khinah. Why did the translators find the change necessary here? And is it possible that the Apostle John had this passage, as well as many others similar to it, in mind when he called Yeshua the Word of God?

David goes on to speak of a great host encamping against him (v. 3). This brings to mind other Day of the Lord passages like Joel 3:14 and Zec. 12:2. In Zec. 9:9, the prophet speaks of the Holy One appearing over Israel with the sound of a shofar when they went to war with the sons of Greece, and this may be the connection that the rabbis saw between this Psalm and the Day of the Trumpet Call.

Verse 5 is, in my mind, the key to understanding the remez of the passage:

For in the day of trouble He will keep me secretly in His sukkah.
In the secret of His tent He will hide me.
He will lift me up on a rock.

The word translated here “keep me secretly” is yitz’p'neini, which means to protect by hiding away, as when Moses was hidden from Pharaoh’s men by his mother (Exo. 2:2f), while the word sukkah, usually translated “tabernacle” or “booth,” refers to a temporary dwelling. Thus, David expects deliverance by being hidden from his enemies, but not forever; he desires a temporary sanctuary.

The phrase “secret of His tent He will hide me,” yistireini b’seiter ahla’u, arranges the sentence to place two forms of the Hebrew word seiter together, which in most cases means emphasis; e.g., qadosh haqadoshim means, literally, “the holy of holies,” but is more of the sense of, “the most holy.” Here, since seiter means a secret, we could understand the sentence to mean, “He will surely secret me away in the most secret part of His tent.”

Normally, this word “secret” has a bad connotation–but not to David. To David, it meant a place of safety: “Jonathan told David, saying, ‘Saul my father seeks to kill you. Now therefore, please take care of yourself in the morning, and live in a secret place, and hide yourself.’”

In verse 4, David expressed his desire to dwell in the House of Hashem, to behold His beauty and splendor, and to study and admire His Temple. Here in verse 5 we see that David is not thinking of the earthly tabernacle, which he had visited–and which in fact many people had visited to worship. Rather, his desire is to be taken up into the “secret of secrets,” the Holy Tabernacle above which the earthly Holy Place was only a copy of, the grand throne room previously seen only by Moses and (we can safely assume) Enoch.

By calling it a sukkah, David hints at two truths: First, that the joy of this secret Tabernacle is anticipated by the joy of Sukkot, the Feast of Booths and most joyous of all the Feasts of Israel (cf. Lev. 23:40 and Deu. 16:14, which commands us to rejoice on that Feast). But second, that this joyous “lifting up” to to the Most Secret Place will be but a temporary refuge in the Day of Trouble. When that Day is past, then David–and all of us who will be with him–shall return in the company of the Temple not made with hands, our Messiah Yeshua.

As we draw closer to the time of Rosh Hashanah, we would do well to pray with David for the time when we will never leave the Holy One’s House ever again:

He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God, and he will not go out from it anymore; and I will write on him the name of My God, and the name of the city of My God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from My God, and My new name. (Rev. 3:12)

Maranatha, and Shalom.

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