1 <To the chief music-maker; put to the Gittith A Psalm. Of the sons of Korah.> How dear are your tents, O Lord of armies!
2 The passion of my soul's desire is for the house of the Lord; my heart and my flesh are crying out for the living God.
3 The little birds have places for themselves, where they may put their young, even your altars, O Lord of armies, my King and my God.
4 Happy are they whose resting-place is in your house: they will still be praising you. (Selah.)
5 Happy is the man whose strength is in you; in whose heart are the highways to Zion.
6 Going through the valley of balsam-trees, they make it a place of springs; it is clothed with blessings by the early rain.
7 They go from strength to strength; every one of them comes before God in Zion.
8 O Lord God of armies, let my prayer come to you: give ear, O God of Jacob. (Selah.)
9 O God, let your eyes be on him who is our safe cover, and let your heart be turned to your king.
10 For a day in your house is better than a thousand. It is better to be a door-keeper in the house of my God, than to be living in the tents of sin.
11 The Lord God is our sun and our strength: the Lord will give grace and glory: he will not keep back any good thing from those whose ways are upright.
12 O Lord of armies, happy is the man whose hope is in you.
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Commentary on Psalms 84 Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
PSALM 84
Ps 84:1-12. (See on Ps 8:1, title, and Ps 42:1, title). The writer describes the desirableness of God's worship and prays for a restoration to its privileges.
1. amiable—not lovely, but beloved.
tabernacles—(Ps 43:3).
2. longeth—most intensely (Ge 31:30; Ps 17:12).
fainteth—exhausted with desire.
courts—as tabernacles (Ps 84:1)—the whole building.
crieth out—literally, "sings for joy"; but here, and La 2:19, expresses an act of sorrow as the corresponding noun (Ps 17:1; 61:2).
heart and … flesh—as in Ps 63:1.
3. thine altars—that is, of burnt offering and incense, used for the whole tabernacle. Its structure afforded facilities for sparrows and swallows to indulge their known predilections for such places. Some understand the statement as to the birds as a comparison: "as they find homes, so do I desire thine altars," &c.
4. This view is favored by the language here, which, as in Ps 15:1; 23:6, recognizes the blessing of membership in God's family by terms denoting a dwelling in His house.
5. (Compare Ps 68:28).
in whose heart … the ways—that is, who knows and loves the way to God's favor (Pr 16:17; Isa 40:3, 4).
6. valley of Baca—or, "weeping." Through such, by reason of their dry and barren condition, the worshippers often had to pass to Jerusalem. As they might become wells, or fountains, or pools, supplied by refreshing rain, so the grace of God, by the exercises of His worship, refreshes and revives the hearts of His people, so that for sorrows they have "rivers of delight" (Ps 36:8; 46:4).
7. The figure of the pilgrim is carried out. As such daily refit their bodily strength till they reach Jerusalem, so the spiritual worshipper is daily supplied with spiritual strength by God's grace till he appears before God in heaven.
appeareth … God—the terms of the requisition for the attendance on the feasts (compare De 16:16),
9. God is addressed as a shield (compare Ps 84:11).
thine anointed—David (1Sa 16:12).
10. I had … doorkeeper—literally, "I choose to sit on the threshold," the meanest place.
11, 12. As a sun God enlightens (Ps 27:1); as a shield He protects.
grace—God's favor, its fruit—
glory—the honor He bestows.
uprightly—(Ps 15:2; 18:23).
12. that trusteth—constantly.