Psalm 27:1

 This Sunday is our Stake Conference (a biannual meeting of several local congregations). The stake president announced that the theme for the meeting will be Psalm 27:1 and urged us all to study it.

The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life; of whom  shall I be afraid?

As a way of studying the passage more deeply, I decided to memorize it in Hebrew. 

יהוה אורי וישׁעי

ממי אירא

יהוה מעוז חײ

ממי אפחד

The first word I came across that I didn't really know was the third word:  וישׁעי.

It sounds like "vayishi." The first letter ו just means "and."  The rest of the word,  ישׁעי means "salvation."  As I was first sounding it out  I thought, "that sounds like the word, "Jesus,"  and sure enough,  it is the root of the name Jeshua, which is what Hebrew speakers call Jesus.  So when Jesus said, "I am the light of the world," It would have immediately called his Jewish listener's minds to this psalm which basically says, "Jehovah is my light and my Jesus." It also explains why people would wonder if Jesus was the Messiah, when his name means "Salvation." 

The second word I didn't really know was מעוז.  It is pronounced ma'oz.  In KJ it is translated as "strengh" but what it really means is "a fortress."  It is often used metaphorically, but it is also used to describe a physical walled city. The next word חײ means life, and refers to an earthly life force, not really the soul (which would be nephesh). So the phrase means "Jehovah is my life's fortress" or "the thing that protects my life." I guess it isn't a huge difference, but I seams like a more impactful statement than just, "the strengh of my life."

Anyway, it adds another layer of meaning you just can't get reading a translation.  Can you tell I am having great fun with this stuff!