Psalms 84

How lovely is the place where you live, LORD who commands the armies of heaven!

1How amiable are thy tabernacles, O LORD of hosts!

Note"Tabernacles" here means God's dwelling place, the temple in Jerusalem. The Hebrew noun is plural, probably because the temple complex was a group of buildings and courtyards rather than one room. "LORD of hosts" is a military title: the "hosts" are armies, the heavenly forces at God's command. Where the King James prints LORD in small capitals, the Hebrew has the personal name of Israel's God, which Jewish readers did not say aloud.

2I want to be in the LORD's courtyards so much that I feel weak with longing. My whole self, body and heart, calls out for the living God.

2My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the courts of the LORD: my heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God.

NoteThe "courts" are the open walled courtyards surrounding the temple building. Ordinary worshipers gathered there; only priests went inside the building itself, so for most Israelites the courtyard was as close as they came. "The living God" was a standing phrase that set Israel's God against the carved images of other nations, a god who acts, as opposed to a manufactured object.

3Even the sparrow has found a home, and the swallow has found a nest where she can put her young ones, right by your altars, LORD who commands the armies of heaven, my King and my God.

3Yea, the sparrow hath found an house, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, even thine altars, O LORD of hosts, my King, and my God.

NoteAn altar was a raised stone platform where animals and grain were burned as offerings. The temple had more than one, which is why the psalm says "altars." The point of the image is that the birds nest in the temple precincts, close to God, in a way the singer cannot.

4How happy are the people who live in your house! They keep on praising you. Selah.

4Blessed are they that dwell in thy house: they will be still praising thee. Selah.

Note"Selah" appears seventy-one times in the Psalms and nobody now knows what it meant. It was probably a direction to the musicians (a pause, a change of volume, or an instrumental break), rather than a word to be read aloud. Translators leave it untranslated.

5Happy is the person who gets his strength from you, whose heart is set on the road that leads to you.

5Blessed is the man whose strength is in thee; in whose heart are the ways of them.

NoteThe Hebrew says literally "in whose heart are the highways", the roads to Jerusalem. Israelites traveled to the temple for the major festivals, and the phrase describes someone whose mind is already on that journey. The King James "the ways of them" is an attempt at the same phrase and is hard to follow in English.

6As they walk through the Valley of Baca, they turn it into a place of springs, and the early rain fills it with pools of water.

6Who passing through the valley of Baca make it a well; the rain also filleth the pools.

Note"Baca" is a place no longer identifiable. The name sounds like the Hebrew word for weeping, and also like the name of a shrub that grows in dry ground, so the valley is either "the valley of weeping" or "the valley of balsam trees." Either way it stands for a dry, hard stretch of the road. The "early rain" is the autumn rainfall that ended the dry season and softened the ground for plowing, the first relief after months without water.

7They keep getting stronger as they go, until each one of them stands before God in Zion.

7They go from strength to strength, every one of them in Zion appeareth before God.

Note"From strength to strength" is a Hebrew idiom for gaining rather than losing energy as the journey goes on, the opposite of what a long walk normally does to a traveler. Zion was originally the fortified hill David captured in Jerusalem; by this period the name stood for the temple hill, and often for the whole city.

8LORD God who commands the armies of heaven, hear my prayer. Listen to me, God of Jacob. Selah.

8O LORD God of hosts, hear my prayer: give ear, O God of Jacob. Selah.

Note"God of Jacob" identifies him by the ancestor of the Israelite tribes: the God who bound himself to this particular family.

9Look at our shield, O God. Look with favor on the face of the king you chose and anointed.

9Behold, O God our shield, and look upon the face of thine anointed.

Note"Our shield" and "thine anointed" are probably the same person, the king. Kings were installed by having olive oil poured over the head, which is what "anointed" means; the Hebrew word is *mashiach*, the source of the English word "messiah," and in the Psalms it normally means the reigning king. "Look upon the face of" is court language for granting someone an audience and receiving them favorably.

10One day in your courtyards is better than a thousand days anywhere else. I would rather stand at the door of my God's house than live in the tents of wicked people.

10For a day in thy courts is better than a thousand. I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness.

NoteThe Hebrew of the second line means standing at the threshold, or being a gatekeeper (the doorkeepers were temple servants who guarded the entrances and controlled who came in. It was a lowly post, which is the point of the comparison. The Hebrew says only "better than a thousand"; the unit) days, most likely, is left for the reader to supply.

11The LORD God is like the sun and like a shield. The LORD gives kindness and honor. He does not hold back anything good from people who live honest lives.

11For the LORD God is a sun and shield: the LORD will give grace and glory: no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly.

NoteCalling God a sun occurs nowhere else in the Hebrew Bible, probably because sun worship was widespread among Israel's neighbors; a shield, by contrast, is a common image for God as protector. "Grace" here is favor or generosity shown to someone who has no claim on it, and "glory" is public honor or standing, not an inner quality.

12LORD who commands the armies of heaven, happy is the person who trusts in you.

12O LORD of hosts, blessed is the man that trusteth in thee.