Psalms 84
What Happens in This Chapter
This song is about loving God's house, the temple in Jerusalem. The writer misses being there and wants to go back. He thinks about people traveling a long way to worship God. He says one day near God is better than a thousand days anywhere else.
Plain reading written for kids. Short sentences, everyday words, one idea at a time.
How amiable are thy tabernacles, O LORD of hosts!
1Your home is so lovely, LORD. You are the God who leads great armies.
2My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the courts of the LORD: my heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God.
2I miss being in your temple so much that I feel weak. My whole self calls out for the living 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.
3Even a little sparrow finds a home there. A swallow builds a nest for her babies near your altars. You are the LORD of armies, my King and my God.
4Blessed are they that dwell in thy house: they will be still praising thee. Selah.
4People who live in your house are happy. They keep on singing your praise. (Selah)
"Selah" is a word in the song. Nobody today knows for sure what it meant. It may have marked a pause in the music.
5Blessed is the man whose strength is in thee; in whose heart are the ways of them.
5People are happy when you make them strong. Their hearts are set on the trip to your house.
6Who passing through the valley of Baca make it a well; the rain also filleth the pools.
6They walk through the dry valley called Baca. They find water there, like springs. The fall rains fill it with pools.
Baca is the name of a dry place. The name may mean weeping.
7They go from strength to strength, every one of them in Zion appeareth before God.
7They get stronger and stronger as they walk. At last each one stands before God in Zion, the hill where the temple stands.
8O LORD God of hosts, hear my prayer: give ear, O God of Jacob. Selah.
8LORD God of armies, please hear me pray. Listen to me, God of Jacob. (Selah)
9Behold, O God our shield, and look upon the face of thine anointed.
9Look at the king who guards us, O God. Be kind to the one you chose to be king.
"Anointed" means someone chosen for a job. Oil was poured on his head to show it. Here it means the king.
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.
10One day in your temple is better than a thousand days somewhere else. I would rather stand at your door than live in the homes of bad people.
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.
11The LORD God is like the sun and like a shield. He gives kindness and honor. He keeps no good thing back from people who live right.
12O LORD of hosts, blessed is the man that trusteth in thee.
12LORD of armies, the person who trusts you is happy.
← → to turn the page · P for plain English · click a verse to sit with it