Psalms 84

Psalms 841. To the Chief Musician. On (or according to) the Gittith. By (or for) the Sons of Korah. The Psalmist celebrates the blessedness of intimate communion with God, Psalms 84:1-7, and prays that he may himself enjoy it, Psalms 84:8-12. The resemblance of this psalm, in subject, tone, and spirit, to Ps. xlii., is the more remarkable because each stands at the beginning of a series inscribed to the Sons of Korah.

The experience here recorded is so evidently David’s, that we must either understand the Sons of Korah to be mentioned merely as the musical performers, or suppose that they composed it to express the feelings of the king himself, a hypothesis which Hengstenberg illustrates by the case of David playing and singing before Saul, in order to alleviate his paroxysms of madness. For the arguments on both sides of the question, see above, on Psalms 43:1, and for the meaning of the Gittith, on Psalms 8:1; Psalms 81:1.

2. (Psalms 84:1) How dear (to me are) thy dwellings, 0 Jehovah, (God of) Hosts! The adjective is rendered by the English versions amiable, in the sense of the French aimable, lovely. But the usage of the Hebrew word requires it to be understood as meaning dear, beloved, which is exactly the idea here required by the context. See above, on Psalms 45:1. The plural dwellings has reference to the subdivisions and appurtenances of the sanctuary, and is applied to the tabernacle in Psalms 43:3. Compare Psalms 68:35.

The divine titles are as usual significant. While one suggests the covenant relation between God and the petitioner, the other makes his sovereignty the ground of a prayer for his protection. The force of this impassioned exclamation is enhanced by the structure of the sentence, which consists of a single clause, like Psalms 18:1. With the whole verse compare Psalms 27:1-5.

3. (Psalms 84:2) Longs and also faints my soul for the courts of Jehovah, my heart and my flesh; they sing (with joy) unto the living God. The first verb is expressive of intense desire, as in Psalms 17:12. Compare Genesis 31:30. Instead of and also the English Bible has yea even, which is perhaps too strong, and indicates a climax not intended by the writer. Faints, fails, or is consumed with strong desire. The plural courts, i.e. enclosures, is to be explained like dwellings in Psalms 84:1.

Solomon’s temple had two courts; but one was appropriated to the priests, 2 Chronicles 4:9. The courts of the tabernacle are mentioned as the place where God statedly communed with Israel. See above, on Psalms 65:4, and below, on Psalms 92:13. They are here mentioned merely as a sign of the communion itself, which might be enjoyed in any place whatever. See above, on Psalms 27:4; Psalms 36:9. Soul, heart, and flesh, denote the whole man.

See above, on Psalms 63:1. The Hebrew accents connect heart and flesh with the preceding words. A much more natural division is the common one, which construes them directly with the verb of the last clause. That verb elsewhere always denotes a joyful shout or song; but the derivative noun is used to signify a cry for help or earnest prayer, which meaning some attach to the verb itself in this place, so as to make the clauses strictly parallel. If the usual meaning of the verb be here retained, the clause shews that the speaker had already experienced that for which he prays. The living God, really existing, and the giver of life to others.

See above, on Psalms 42:2.

4. (Psalms 84:3) Yes, the sparrow has found a home, and the swallow a nest, (in) which she lays her young, even thine altars, Jehovah, (God) of hosts, my King and my God. The first word properly means also, as in the preceding verse, and is by some translated even, as if he had said, “the very birds have nests in the sanctuary of God, while I am excluded from it.” Compare Matthew 8:20. But the fact thus alleged is highly improbable and nowhere recorded. A more natural interpretation is to make the sparrow and the swallow (put for small and helpless birds in general) emblems of the worshipper himself. As if he had said, yes, this wandering bird has at last found a resting-place, or home, both for itself and for its young. That this is perfectly in keeping with Davidic usage, is plain from 1 Samuel 26:20, Psalms 11:1; Psalms 55:6; Psalms 56:1.

The translation even thine altars supposes the Hebrew particle to indicate the object of the verb, as it does before the same noun in 1 Kings 19:10; 1 Kings 19:14. It may, however, be a proposition meaning at or near, and this sense is preferred by those interpreters who suppose a literal nestling of the birds in the sanctuary to be here alluded to. The altars meant are those of burnt-offering and of incense, as in Numbers 3:31. They are particularly mentioned, because it was by means of sacrifice and prayer that communion between God and man was possible. Compare Psalms 26:6. The young birds are introduced, not only to complete the picture, but to shew that the communion and divine protection, which the Psalmist so highly valued, were not merely personal but domestic and social privileges, which he desired both for himself and those dependent on him.

The address, Jehovah, (God) of Hosts, has the same sense as in Psalms 84:1. The same essential notions of supremacy and covenant relation are conveyed by the parallel expression, my King and my God, a combination which occurs only here and in Psalms 5:2.

5. (Psalms 84:4) Happy the dwellers in thy house, (for) still they praise thee (or will praise thee). The first phrase is the idiomatic one with which the book begins, for the peculiar form and sense of which, see above on Psalms 1:1; Psalms 2:12; Psalms 32:1-2; Psalms 33:12; Psalms 41:1. Dwellers in, inhabitants of, thy house, i.e. members of thy family, as the same words literally mean in Jeremiah 20:5. For the spiritual or figurative meaning, see above, on Psalms 65:1; Psalms 23:6; Psalms 24:3; Psalms 27:4; Psalms 61:4; Psalms 65:4. The privilege thus described might be enjoyed in any local situation; but the outward sign of it, under the old economy, was the frequenting of the sanctuary. As inmates, not mere visitors, they will still have occasion and opportunity of doing what they do when first admitted into God’s household.

They will still praise, because they will have renewed cause so to do. See above, on Psalms 5:7; Psalms 50:15; Psalms 50:23; Psalms 79:13.

6. (Psalms 84:5) Happy the man who (has) strength in thee, (who have) highways in their heart. The original consists of several exclamations or ejaculations— happy man!— (there is) strength to him in thee!— (there are) highways in their heart? This last unusual and obscure expression is supposed by some to mean, in whose thoughts, (or affections) are the highways to Jerusalem, i.e. who still think of going up to worship there. But another explanation, which agrees far better, both with the immediate context and with usage and analogy, supposes the figure to be identical with that in Psalms 50:23, Proverbs 16:17, Isaiah 40:3-4, where the removal of all moral or spiritual hindrances to God’s revisiting his people and communing with them, is poetically represented as the opening, levelling, and raising of a causeway through a pathless wilderness or otherwise impracticable ground. The word translated highways is determined, both by etymology and usage, to denote not a mere beaten track or footpath, but a road artificially constructed, and raised above the level of the ground through which it passes. The sudden change of number in the last clause shews that man is a generic or collective term.

7. (Psalms 84:6). Passing through the Vale of Tears, a spring they make it; also with blessings is the teacher clothed. This is one of the obscurest verses in the book. Interpreters, however, are now commonly agreed as to the first clause. The explanation of Baca, as meaning the Valley of Mulberry or Baca-trees (2 Samuel 5:23-24, 1 Chronicles 14:13-14), is now very commonly abandoned for the one given in the ancient versions, the Vale of Weeping or of Sorrow, a beautiful poetical description of the present life as one of suffering. To the fons lacryrnarum is opposed the fountain of salvation or of joy, a figure so familiar in the Scriptures, as to be readily suggested by the one word spring or fountain.

See above, on Psalms 36:9; Psalms 46:4, and compare Isaiah 12:3. The meaning of the clause, as thus explained, is, that the persons pronounced happy in the foregoing verse are a source of happiness, and convert the very Vale of Tears into a fountain of delight. The meaning of the other clause is still disputed. As the first noun, by varying a single vowel-point, may mean either pools or blessings, and the next, though it commonly means teacher (2 Kings 17:28, Proverbs 5:13, Isaiah 30:20), has in one other place (Joe 2:23) the sense of rain, or rather of the early rain in Palestine, the clause admits of several very different explanations.

1. The rain also covers the pools.

2. The teacher is clothed in blessings.

3. The rain covers it with blessings. In favour of the second is its close adherence to the usage of the three leading words. It is also found substantially in the ancient versions. The meaning then is, that this strange transforming power is exerted by the good man as a teacher of righteousness, in which sense one of the disputed words occurs in Joe 2:23, which accounts for its being there repeated in the very same sentence, by a kind of paronomasia, in the sense of early rain, elsewhere denoted by a cognate form. Compare the sentiment with that in Psalms 51:13. For the neuter or intransitive meaning of the last verb, see Leviticus 13:45, Micah 3:7, Jeremiah 43:12.

4. (Psalms 84:7) They shall go from strength to strength; he shall appear to God in Zion. The change of number is the opposite of that in Psalms 84:5, but to be explained on the same principle. Or the singular verb in the last clause may refer to the Teacher in Psalms 84:6. The strength is that bestowed by God, in the experience of which they make continual advances. The form of expression in the last clause is one used in the Law to denote the stated appearance of the Israelites at the sanctuary. The meaning of the whole verse is, that they who answer to the previous description shall finally attain to the full fruition of that union with God in which their happiness resides.

5. (Psalms 84:8) Jehovah, God, (Lord of) Hosts, hear my prayer; give ear, O God of Jacob! Selah. Here begins the second part of the psalm, containing the petition founded on the preceding view of the happiness arising from communion with God. The names applied to him suggest, as usual, the grounds of the petition, namely, his eternity, self-existence, sovereignty, and covenant relation to his people.

6. (Psalms 84:9) (Oh) our shield, see, (O) God, and behold the face of thine Anointed. Some make the first noun the object of the verb that follows, see our shield; but in Psalms 84:11 God himself is so described, as well as in Psa_3 lxx:3, Genesis 15:1. Its position, as a vocative, is certainly unusual, but seems to be emphatic. Behold the face, i. e. behold it favour ably, look upon it graciously. Thine Anointed (One), i.e. David, by whom, or in whose name, the psalm was written.

7. (Psalms 84:10) For better (is) a day in thy courts than a thousand; I have chosen to occupy the threshold in the house of my God, rather than dwell in tents of wickedness. The comparison in both clauses is expressed, as usual in Hebrew, by the preposition from, away from. “Good from, i.e. in comparison with, a thousand.” “I choose from dwelling, i.e. rather than to dwell.” The first clause of course means that one day in God’s courts is better than a thousand elsewhere. I have chosen, and do still choose, a stronger expression than I would choose or would rather. The next verb occurs only here, and is evidently formed from the noun sill or threshold. To be a door-keeper (guard the threshold), and to lie on the threshold, are too specific, and appear to add something to the sense of the original. The idea perhaps is, that he would rather stand at the door of God’s house and look in (which was all that the worshippers could do at the Mosaic sanctuary), than dwell in the interior of tents or houses where iniquity prevailed. The use of the word tents in this clause makes it still more probable that the tabernacle, not the temple, is meant by the parallel expression, house of God.

8. (Psalms 84:11) For a sun and a shield is Jehovah, God; grace and glory will Jehovah give; he will not refuse (anything) good to those walking in a perfect (way). The for shows that this verse gives a reason for the preference expressed in that before it. God is here called a sun, as he is called a light in Psalms 32:1. Both these figures represent him as a source of happiness; that of a shield describes him as a source of safety, or a strong protector. Grace and glory (or honour) are related as the cause and the effect. The latter includes all the sensible fruits and manifestations of the divine favour. See above, on Psalms 49:16). In a perfect is by some understood to mean as a perfect person, i. e. perfectly, uprightly. See above, on Psalms 15:2; Psalms 18:23, and compare Genesis 17:1.

9. (Psalms 84:12) Jehovah (Lord of) Hosts, happy the man trusting in thee. The participle is expressive of habitual reliance. Trusting in thee, as I do.