How lovely are your dwellings, Yahweh of Armies!
My soul longs, and even faints for the courts of Yahweh. My heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.
Yes, the sparrow has found a home, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may have her young, near your altars, Yahweh of Armies, my King, and my God.
Blessed are those who dwell in your house. They are always praising you.
Blessed are those whose strength is in you, who have set their hearts on a pilgrimage.
Passing through the valley of Weeping, they make it a place of springs. Yes, the autumn rain covers it with blessings.
They go from strength to strength. Every one of them appears before God in Zion.
Yahweh, God of Armies, hear my prayer. Listen, God of Jacob.
Behold, God our shield, look at the face of your anointed.
For a day in your courts is better than a thousand. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness.
For Yahweh God is a sun and a shield. Yahweh will give grace and glory. He withholds no good thing from those who walk blamelessly.
Yahweh of Armies, blessed is the man who trusts in you.
John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11 1 How amiable are thy tabernacles, O Jehovah of…
1 How amiable are thy tabernacles, O Jehovah of Hosts! David complains of his being deprived of liberty of access to the Church of God, there to make a profession of his faith, to improve in godliness, and to engage in the divine worship. Some would understand by the tabernacles of God, the kingdom of heaven, as if David mourned over his continuance in this state of earthly pilgrimage; but they do not sufficiently consider the nature of his present afflicted circumstances — that he was debarred from the sanctuary. He knew that God had not in vain appointed the holy assemblies, and that the godly have need of such helps so long as they are sojourners in this world. He was also deeply sensible of his own infirmity; nor was he ignorant how far short he came of approaching the perfection of angels. He had therefore good ground to lament over his being deprived of those means, the utility of which is well known to all true believers. His attention was, no doubt, directed to the proper end for which the external ritual was appointed; for his character was widely different from that of hypocrites, who, while they frequent the solemn assemblies with great pomp, and seem to burn with ardent zeal in serving God, yet in all this, aim at nothing more than by an ostentatious display of piety to obtain the credit of having performed their duty towards Him. David’s mind was far from being occupied with this gross imagination. The end he had in view in desiring so earnestly to enjoy free access to the sanctuary was, that he might there worship God with sincerity of heart, and in a spiritual manner. The opening words are in the form of an exclamation, which is an indication of ardent affection; and this state of feeling is expressed still more fully in the second verse. Hence we learn, that those are sadly deficient in understanding who carelessly neglect God’s instituted worship, as if they were able to mount up to heaven by their own unaided efforts.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11 David complaineth that he cannot have access to the…
David complaineth that he cannot have access to the Church of God to make profession of his faith, and to profit in religion.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv1–12 Psa 84:1 « To the chief Musician upon Gittith,…
Psa 84:1 « To the chief Musician upon Gittith, A Psalm for the sons of Korah. » How amiable [are] thy tabernacles, O LORD of hosts!
A Psalm] Or the same subject with the forty-second, and made when David was banished, either by Saul or Absalom, or else when busied abroad in his wars, 2Sa 8:1-14, and so debarred from the use of God’s public ordinances.
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Ver. 1. How amiable are thy tabernacles] viz. For thy word’s sake that is there preached, and thy worship there performed. The Protestants at Lyons, in France, called their place for public meeting to serve God Paradise. Chrysostom calleth it the place of angels and archangels, the kingdom of God, yea, heaven itself (Hom. 36, ad 1Co 14:1-40). Another calleth it, The heavenly exchange between God and his people; they present duty, he confers mercy. Luther saith he would not live in paradise without the ordinances; as with them he could frame to live in hell itself: and a small village with a godly pastor, and a good people in it, is an earthly paradise, saith he. If that Italian martyr could date his letter, From the delectable orchard of the Leonine prison, what may we think of the free use of the ordinances? what of heaven? nam facile litera transfertur ad Spiritum.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv1–12 Thy tabernacle, called tabernacles, either
Thy tabernacle, called tabernacles, either
1. Because it consisted of several parts; or,
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2. To note its excellency; as behemoth, or beasts, is put for one eminent beast, Job 40:15, and wisdoms for excellent wisdom, Pro 1:20.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On vv1, 8 The psalmist here, being by force restrained from waiting…
The psalmist here, being by force restrained from waiting upon God in public ordinances, by the want of them is brought under a more sensible conviction than ever of the worth of them. Observe,
I. The wonderful beauty he saw in holy institutions (Psa 84:1): How amiable are thy tabernacles, O Lord of hosts! Some think that he here calls God the Lord of hosts (that is, in a special manner of the angels, the heavenly hosts) because of the presence of the angels in God's sanctuary; they attended the Shechinah, and were (as some think) signified by the cherubim. God is the Lord of these hosts, and his the tabernacle is: it is spoken of as more than one (thy tabernacles) because there were several courts in which the people attended, and because the tabernacle itself consisted of a holy place and a most holy. How amiable are these! How lovely is the sanctuary in the eyes of all that are truly sanctified! Gracious souls see a wonderful, an inexpressible, beauty in holiness, and in holy work. A tabernacle was a mean habitation, but the disadvantage of external circumstances makes holy ordinances not at all the less amiable; for the beauty of holiness is spiritual, and their glory is within.
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II. The longing desire he had to return to the enjoyment of public ordinances, or rather of God in them, Psa 84:2. It was an entire desire; body, soul, and spirit concurred in it. He was not conscious to himself of any rising thought to the contrary. It was an intense desire; it was like the desire of the ambitious, or covetous, or voluptuous. He longed, he fainted, he cried out, importunate to be restored to his place in God's courts, and almost impatient of delay. Yet it was not so much the courts of the Lord that he coveted, but he cried out, in prayer, for the living God himself. O that I might know him, and be again taken into communion with him! Jo1 1:3. Ordinances are empty things if we meet not with God in the ordinances.
III. His grudging the happiness of the little birds that made their nests in the buildings that were adjoining to God's altars, Psa 84:3. This is an elegant and surprising expression of his affection to God's altars: The sparrow has found a house and the swallow a nest for herself. These little birds, by the instinct and direction of nature, provide habitations for themselves in houses, as other birds do in the woods, both for their own repose and in which to lay their young; some such David supposes there were in the buildings about the courts of God's house, and wishes himself with them. He would rather live in a bird's nest nigh God's altars than in a palace at a distance from them. He sometimes wished for the wings of a dove, on which to fly into the wilderness (Psa 55:6); here for the wings of a sparrow, that he might fly undiscovered into God's courts; and, though to watch as a sparrow alone upon the house-top is the description of a very melancholy state and spirit (Psa 102:7), yet David would be glad to take it for his lot, provided he might be near God's altars. It is better to be serving God in solitude than serving sin with a multitude. The word for a sparrow signifies any little bird, and (if I may offer a conjecture) perhaps when, in David's time, music was introduced so much into the sacred service, both vocal and instrumental, to complete the harmony they had singing-birds in cages hung about the courts of the tabernacle (for we find the singing of birds taken notice of to the glory of God, Psa 104:12), and David envies the happiness of these, and would gladly change places with them. Observe, David envies the happiness not of those birds that flew over the altars, and had only a transient view of God's courts, but of those that had nests for themselves there. David will not think it enough to sojourn in God's house as a way-faring man that turns aside to tarry for a night; but let this be his rest, his home; here he will dwell. And he takes notice that these birds not only have nests for themselves there, but that there they lay their young; for those who have a place in God's courts themselves cannot but desire that their children also may have in God's house, and within his walls, a place and a name, that they may feed their kids beside the shepherds' tents. Some give another sense of this verse: "Lord, by thy providence thou hast furnished the birds with nests and resting-places, agreeable to their nature, and to them they have free recourse; but thy altar, which is my nest, my resting-place, which I am as desirous of as ever the wandering bird was of her nest, I cannot have access to. Lord, wilt thou provide better for thy birds than for thy babes? As a bird that wanders from her nest so am I, now that I wander from the place of God's altars, for that is my place (Pro 27:8); I shall never be easy till I return to my place again." Note, Those whose souls are at home, at rest, in God, cannot but desire a settlement near his ordinances. There were two altars, one for sacrifice, the other for incense, and David, in his desire of a place in God's courts, has an eye to both, as we also must, in all our attendance on God, have an eye both to the satisfaction and to the intercession of Christ. And, lastly, Observe how he eyes God in this address: Thou art the Lord of hosts, my King and my God. Where should a poor distressed subject seek for protection but with his king? And should not a people seek unto their God? My King, my God, is Lord of hosts; by him and his altars let me live and die.
IV. His acknowledgment of the happiness both of the ministers and of the people that had liberty of attendance on God's altars: "Blessed are they. O when shall I return to the enjoyment of that blessedness?" 1. Blessed are the ministers, the priests and Levites, who have their residence about the tabernacle and are in their courses employed in the service of it (Psa 84:4): Blessed are those that dwell in thy house, that are at home there, and whose business lies there. He is so far from pitying them, as confined to a constant attendance and obliged to perpetual seriousness, that he would sooner envy them than the greatest princes in the world. There are those that bless the covetous, but he blesses the religious. Blessed are those that dwell in thy house (not because they have good wages, a part of every sacrifice for themselves, which would enable them to keep a good table, but because they have good work): They will be still praising thee; and, if there be a heaven upon earth, it is in praising God, in continually praising him. Apply this to his house above; blessed are those that dwell there, angels and glorified saints, for they rest not day nor night from praising God. Let us therefore spend as much of our time as may be in that blessed work in which we hope to spend a joyful eternity. 2. Blessed are the people, the inhabitants of the country, who, though they do not constantly dwell in God's house as the priests do, yet have liberty of access to it at the times appointed for their solemn feasts, the three great feasts, at which all the males were obliged to give their attendance, Deu 16:16. David was so far from reckoning this an imposition, and a hardship put upon them, that he envies the happiness of those who might thus attend, Psa 84:5-7. Those whom he pronounces blessed are here described. (1.) They are such as act in religion from a rooted principle of dependence upon God and devotedness to him: Blessed is the man whose strength is in thee, who makes thee his strength and strongly stays himself upon thee, who makes thy name his strong tower into which he runs for safety, Pro 18:10. Happy is the man whose hope is in the Lord his God, Psa 40:4; Psa 146:5. Those are truly happy who go forth, and go on, in the exercises of religion, not in their own strength (for then the work is sure to miscarry), but in the strength of the grace of Jesus Christ, from whom all our sufficiency is. David wished to return to God's tabernacles again, that there he might strengthen himself in the Lord his God for service and suffering. (2.) They are such as have a love for holy ordinances: In whose heart are the ways of them, that is, who, having placed their happiness in God as their end, rejoice in all the ways that lead to him, all those means by which their graces are strengthened and their communion with him kept up. They not only walk in these ways, but they have them in their hearts, they lay them near their hearts; no care or concern, no pleasure or delight, lies nearer than this. Note, Those who have the new Jerusalem in their eye must have the ways that lead to it in their heart, must mind them, their eyes must look straight forward in them, must ponder the paths of them, must keep close to them, and be afraid of turning aside to the right hand or to the left. If we make God's promise our strength, we must make God's word our rule, and walk by it. (3.) They are such as will break through difficulties and discouragements in waiting upon God in holy ordinances, Psa 84:6. When they come up out of the country to worship at the feasts their way lies through many a dry and sandy valley (so some), in which they are ready to perish for thirst; but, to guard against that inconvenience, they dig little pits to receive and keep the rain-water, which is ready to them and others for their refreshment. When they make the pools the ram of heaven fills them. If we be ready to receive the grace of God, that grace shall not be wanting to us, but shall be sufficient for us at all times. Their way lay through many a weeping valley, so Baca signifies, that is (as others understand it), many watery valleys, which in wet weather, when the rain filled the pools, either through the rising of the waters or through the dirtiness of the way were impassable; but, by draining and trenching them, they made a road through them for the benefit of those who went up to Jerusalem. Care should be taken to keep those roads in repair that lead to church, as well as those that lead to market. But all this is intended to show, [1.] That they had a good will to the journey. When they were to attend the solemn feasts at Jerusalem, they would not be kept back by bad weather, or bad ways, nor make those an excuse for staying at home. Difficulties in the way of duty are designed to try our resolution; and he that observes the wind shall not sow. [2.] That they made the best of the way to Zion, contrived and took pains to mend it where it was bad, and bore, as well as they could, the inconveniences that could not be removed. Our way to heaven lies through a valley of Baca, but even that may be made a well if we make a due improvement of the comforts God has provided for the pilgrims to the heavenly city. (4.) They are such as are still pressing forward till they come to their journey's end at length, and do not take up short of it (Psa 84:7): They go from strength to strength; their company increases by the accession of more out of every town they pass through, till they become very numerous. Those that were near staid till those that were further off called on them, saying, Come, and let us go to the house of the Lord (Psa 122:1, Psa 122:2), that they might go together in a body, in token of their mutual love. Or the particular persons, instead of being fatigued with the tediousness of their journey and the difficulties they met with, the nearer they came to Jerusalem the more lively and cheerful they were, and so went on stronger and stronger, Job 17:9. Thus it is promised that those that wait on the Lord shall renew their strength, Isa 40:31. Even where they are weak, there they are strong. They go from virtue to virtue (so some); it is the same word that is used for the virtuous woman. Those that press forward in their Christian course shall find God adding grace to their graces, Joh 1:16. They shall be changed from glory to glory (Co2 3:18), from one degree of glorious grace to another, till, at length, every one of them appears before God in Zion, to give glory to him and receive blessings from him. Note, Those who grow in grace shall, at last, be perfect in glory. The Chaldee reads it, They go from the house of the sanctuary to the house of doctrine; and the pains which they have taken about the law shall appear before God, whose majesty dwells in Zion. We must go from one duty to another, from prayer to the word, from practising what we have learned to learn more; and, if we do this, the benefit of it will appear, to God's glory and our own everlasting comfort.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv1–11 How amiable are thy tabernacles, O Lord of hosts!…
How amiable are thy tabernacles, O Lord of hosts! Which were erected in the wilderness by Moses at the command of God, and brought into the land of Canaan, where the Lord took up his dwelling: here he was worshipped, and sacrifices offered to him; here he granted his presence, and commanded his blessing; here it was in David's time; for as yet the temple was not built: it is called "tabernacles", in the plural number, because of its several parts: hence we read of a first and second tabernacle, Heb 9:2, there was the holy place, and the holy of holies, besides the court of the people; unless it can be thought to refer to the tabernacle David had built for the ark in Zion, and to the old tabernacle which was at Gibeon, Sa2 6:17 the whole was a representation of the church of God, and the ordinances of it; which is the dwelling place of God, Father, Son, and Spirit, where he is worshipped, his presence enjoyed, his word is preached, ordinances administered, and the sacrifices of prayer and praise offered up; on account of all which it is very "amiable": what made the tabernacle of Moses lovely was not the outside, which was very mean, as the church of God outwardly is, through persecution, affliction, and poverty; but what was within, having many golden vessels in it, and those typical of things much more precious: moreover, here the priests were to be seen in their robes, doing their duty and service, and, at certain times, the high priest in his rich apparel; here were seen the sacrifices slain and offered, by which the people were taught the nature of sin, the strictness of justice, and the necessity and efficacy of the sacrifice of Christ; here the Levites were heard singing their songs, and blowing their trumpets: but much more amiable are the church of God and its ordinances in Gospel times, where Christ, the great High Priest, is seen in the glories of his person, and the fulness of his grace; where Zion's priests, or the ministers of the Gospel, stand clothed, being full fraught with salvation, and the tidings of it; where Christ is openly set forth, as crucified and slain, in the ministry of the word, and the administration of ordinances; here the Gospel trumpet is blown, and its joyful sound echoed forth, and songs of love and grace are sung by all believers: besides, what makes these tabernacles still more lovely are, the presence of God here, so that they are no other than the house of God, and gate of heaven; the provisions that are here made, and the company that are here enjoyed; to which may be added, the properties of those dwellings; they are lightsome, like the habitations of Israel in Goshen; they are healthful, no plague comes nigh them; the inhabitants of them are not sick; their sins are forgiven them; they are safe, sure, and quiet dwelling places; see Isa 32:18 and they are lovely to such, and to such only, who have seen the unamiableness of sin, and are sick of its tents, and of enjoying its fading pleasures, and to whom Christ is precious, and altogether lovely: these have an intense affection for him, and for his house, word, worship, and ordinances, and with admiration say, "how amiable", &c.
and they are lovely to such, and to such only, who have seen the unamiableness of sin, and are sick of its tents, and of enjoying its fading pleasures, and to whom Christ is precious, and altogether lovely: these have an intense affection for him, and for his house, word, worship, and ordinances, and with admiration say, "how amiable", &c.
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Psalms 84:2
psa 84:2
psa 84:2
psa 84:2My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the courts of the Lord,.... The courts of the tabernacle now at Gibeon, though the ark was in Zion, Ch2 1:3 as the court of the priests, and the court of the Israelites, in which latter the people in common stood: after these David longed; he longed to enter into them, and stand in them, and worship God there; which soul longings and hearty desires were the fruits and evidences of true grace, of being born again; so newly born souls desire the sincere milk of the word, and the breasts of Gospel ordinances, as a newly born babe desires its mother's milk and breast; and he even "fainted", through disappointment, or length of time, being impatient of the returning season and opportunity of treading in them; see Psa 42:1,
my heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God; he only inwardly desired, and secretly fainted, but audibly cried out in his distress, and verbally expressed, great vehemence, his desire to enjoy the living God: it was not merely the courts, but God in them, that he wanted; even that God which has life in himself, with whom is the fountain of life; who gives life to others, natural, spiritual, and eternal, and in whose favour is life; yea, whose lovingkindness is better than life, and which was the thing longed and thirsted after: and these desires were the desires of the whole man, soul and body; not only he cried with his mouth and lips, signified by his flesh, but with his heart also, sincerely and heartily; his heart went along with his mouth.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv1, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11 The psalmist declares his love for the ordinances of…
The psalmist declares his love for the ordinances of God, and the happiness of those that enjoy them, ver. 1-7. A devout prayer, and expression of faith in him, ver. 8-12. It is generally supposed, David wrote this, when he was driven out of the land by Absalom. To the chief musician upon Gittith, A psalm for the sons of Korah.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv1–11 The psalmist longs for communion with God in the…
PSALM LXXXIV
The psalmist longs for communion with God in the sanctuary,
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1-3.
The blessedness of those who enjoy God's ordinances, 4-7.
With confidence in God, he prays for restoration to his house
and worship, 8-12.
NOTES ON PSALM LXXXIV
The title here is the same as that of Ps 81:1, only that was for Asaph, this for the sons of Korah. This person was one of the chief rebels against Moses and Aaron; there were three, Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, who made an insurrection; and the earth opened, and swallowed them and their partisans up, Nu 16:31-32. The children of Dathan and Abiram perished with their fathers; but by a particular dispensation of Providence, the children of Korah were spared. See Nu 26:11, and the note there. The family of Korah was continued in Israel; and it appears from 1Ch 26:1-19 that they were still employed about the temple, and were porters or keepers of the doors. They were also singers in the temple; see 2Ch 20:19. This Psalm might have been sent to them to be sung, or one of themselves might have been its author.
Verse 1. How amiable are thy tabernacles] In this plural noun he appears to include all the places in or near the temple where acts of Divine worship were performed. The holy of holies, the holy place, the altar of incense, the altar of burnt-offering, c., c. all called here God's tabernacles or dwelling-places for wherever God was worshipped, there he was supposed to dwell.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11, 12 Psa 84:1-2. How amiable are thy tabernacles — That…
Psa 84:1-2. How amiable are thy tabernacles — That is, thy tabernacle, termed tabernacles; either, 1st, Because it consisted of several parts; or, 2d, To denote its excellence; as behemoth, or beasts, is put for one eminent beast, (Job 40:15,) and wisdoms for excellent wisdom, Pro 1:20. My soul longeth, &c. — With vehement desire, to tread again the courts of the Lord’s house, and join with his people in the holy worship there performed. Yea, even fainteth — So the Seventy, reading εκλειπει; the Hebrew, however, וגם כלתה, vegam caletha, is literally, yea, even is consumed, namely, with grief, for want of thine ordinances, with ardent longings to enjoy them, and with the delay of this comfort, and the disappointment of my hopes and expectations. My heart and my flesh crieth out — My soul and body are pained; or the passion of my heart maketh my tongue cry out; for the living God — To know and love him, and to enjoy his favour and communion with him.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv1–12 How amiable - How much to he loved; how…
How amiable - How much to he loved; how lovely. The word amiable is now used to denote a quality of mind or disposition - as gentle, affectionate, kind. The word used here, however in the original, means rather dear, beloved - as a token of endearment. Compare the notes at the title to Ps. 45. The idea here is, that the place of public worship is dear to the heart, as a beloved freind - a child - a wife - is. There is a strong and tender love for it.
Are thy tabernacles - Thy dwelling-places. This word might be applied either to the tabernacle or the temple, or to any place where God was supposed to reside, or where his worship was celebrated. The plural form is used here probably because the tabernacle and the temple were divided into two parts or rooms, and each might be regarded as in a proper sense the dwelling-place of God. See the notes at Mat 21:12, following.
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O Lord of hosts! - Yahweh of hosts; Yahweh, controlling - ruling - guiding - marshalling - all the armies of heaven and earth: compare the notes at Isa 1:9; notes at Psa 24:10.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain On v1 Psalms 84
Psalms 84
To the chief Musician upon Gittith, A Psalm for the sons of Korah
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2 How amiable are thy tabernacles,
O Lord of hosts!
3 My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the courts of the Lord:
My heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God.
4 Yea, the sparrow hath found a 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.
5 Blessed are they that dwell in thy house:
They will be still praising thee. Selah.
6 Blessed is the man whose strength is in thee;
In whose heart are the ways of them.
7 Who passing through the valley of Baca
Make it a well;
The rain also filleth the pools.
8 They go from strength to strength,
Every one of them in Zion appeareth before God.
9 O Lord God of hosts, hear my prayer:
Give ear, O God of Jacob. Selah.
10 Behold, O God our shield,
And look upon the face of thine anointed.
11 For 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.
12 For 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.
13 O Lord of hosts,
Blessed is the man that trusteth in thee.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
Contents and Composition.—On the superscription see Introd. § 2 and § 12, No. 7. The three strophes are connected in such a manner that the first sentence of each takes up the thought, though not the words, of the last sentence of the preceding one, and develops it. A solemn tone of joyful courage, the fruit of faith, and of praise flowing from the assurance of salvation, pervades the whole. The house of God and those who dwell therein are first the object of praise. It is then bestowed upon those believers in God who, under His blessing as the God of the covenant, perform their pilgrimages to Zion where they can find Him. Lastly, God Himself and those who trust in Him are praised.
Inferences have been falsely drawn from the feeling of gentle melancholy, and pious longing remarked by most of the recent commentators. For the suppliant knows and loves the house of God, longs after it and its worship, praises the happiness of those who dwell in it, and of those who walk thither, even though through the wilderness, in order to appear before God. Does this indicate that the Psalmist is personally not in a position to satisfy his longing for the sanctuary? The text gives no intimation of it; and least of all is anything hinted at which would be likely to prevent him. Not a syllable gives the indication of sickness, or imprisonment, or flight before enemies, or exile. Nor does Psa_84:11 say that he was forcibly detained in the tents of wickedness. Not even is any ground afforded for the inference that he was locally absent from Zion. For the second strophe (see the exposition below), does not describe a festival-journey or a pilgrimage to Zion, by which a longing might have been awakened or strengthened, to take part in it also; but it employs expressions borrowed from the features of such journeys, while describing a different relation. And what makes this usage so much the more significant is the fact that a parallel instance is to be remarked in the first strophe where dwelling in God’s house is spoken of, while going to God is now placed beside it in order to complete the picture. The confidence exhibited in the prayer recorded in the third strophe agrees also with this supposition. We need not therefore press into the argument the points of agreement with Psalms 42, 43. in order to discover here again David’s situation of flight before Absalom, which is acknowledged to be represented there. In this view of the relation of the Psalms the author has been identified with David himself (Clauss, Stier, and most of the older commentators), or with one of the Levitical singers of the family of Korah, either speaking as from the soul of David (Rosenmüller, Hengst.) or praying for him as the anointed, and expecting his own return home with the king’s restoration (Delitzsch). We can only say that the “tents” in Psa_84:11 c, as contrasted with the house of God, do not prove the latter to have been the stone Temple, especially as the expressions used in the first strophe (see the exposition below) do not necessarily lead to any such conclusion. Nor do they permit us to assume the period in David’s life when he fled before Saul, as the mention of “Zion,” Psa_84:8, cannot possibly be accounted for on the supposition that the Psalm was committed to writing at a later date (Calvin). Hupfeld maintains that terms such as: dwellings, courts, altars, threshold, in the house of God, and the longing expressed in connection with them, presuppose a long-existing Temple-worship, already deeply seated in the feelings, and entering into the common language of the people. But this cannot be conceded unless we deny at the same time the antiquity of the Mosaic writings upon the subject of such worship. For the same reasons the expressions used with reference to the festival journeys to the Temple, throw no light upon the question, leaving out of consideration the fact that there is no clear indication that the Psalm is a pilgrim song (Herder, Muntinghe), or that Psa_84:2-5 are a hymn sung by pilgrims who had arrived at the sanctuary, and Psa_84:6-8 the reply of those who dwelt in it (Olshausen). Again, it is not intimated that the Temple was in ruins, in which the birds built their nest, but the house of God is spoken of as being resorted to for religious worship. We are therefore forbidden to assume the period of the exile (Isaaki, Kimchi as an alternative). The period following the consecration, 165 B. C., would be much more suitable than this (Hitzig), if it were necessary for us to seek the composition at so late a date. The “anointed” in Psa_84:11 would then naturally not be the king but the Jewish people. But it is a mere assertion, destitute of proof, that we are to attach this meaning to the same term in Psa_89:39, Hab_3:13; and Psa_28:8. Nor is a late date of composition to be argued from the fact that only here and in Sir_42:16 is God called a Sun, and at the same time designated by the term denoting a round and glittering shield.
Psa_84:1-5. How amiable, etc.—The Heb. word includes the two meanings: beloved, and: worthy of love. The use of the plural: tabernacles, perhaps has allusion to the numerous divisions of God’s house. Yet these divisions themselves are not meant, for God dwelt in the Holy of Holies alone. Nor is it to be explained as a poetical (Hupfeld) plural (Psa_43:3; Psa_46:5; Psa_132:5; Psa_132:8; comp. 68:36). It is directed against the sensuous conception of God’s local residence, and yet does not entirely abandon it, so that we are not justified in understanding the whole strophe to relate to spiritual residence, hunger, and thirst (Hengstenberg). But the mention of the courts and altars as the place for which the poet longed, in which he would dwell and find a home as the bird in its nest, confirms the absence of the naturalistic and sensuous idea, while it also exhibits the more restricted conception of God’s dwelling-places, in distinction from the places where the people and priests assembled for the performance of their religious rites: and this distinction was suggested by the consciousness of the places of worship having necessarily a local habitation. Both orders of the congregation had their separate courts, as well as their established places and ceremonies in sacrifice and prayer; none of them, however, dwelt in these places. Yet it is not to be inferred from Psa_84:3 that the poet was a layman (Ewald, Olshausen). Nor do Psa_84:4-5 refer to Priests and Levites, who with their families lived by the altar. Nor are the residents of God’ house the inhabitants of Jerusalem, or those who lived round about the Temple (Olshausen) and certainly not the constant resorters to the Temple (De Wette, Stier). But the words contain the Old Testament idea (Jer_20:6) corresponding to that in the New Testament: members of God’s house (Eph_2:19). The idea rests upon the conception of filial relationship, and is here imaged forth in the emblem of brooding birds. This figure not only serves this purpose, but also leads the way to the literal presentation of the idea in the following verse. The form of the sentence does not show a literal comparison of the nests, which contain even the smallest birds to be found anywhere, to the altars, which are the homes of the pious, and of which the Psalmist was, for the time, deprived, and after which he longed. It only shows that it is to be understood in one of the following ways: Either the poet in an agony of passionate longing breaks off the sentence with the sigh: alas! thine altars! (Calvin, Muntinghe, Stier), or we must supply and prefix the words: So I have found (Mendelssohn, Knapp); or: should I not find (Rudinger, Clericus, J. H. Michaelis, Dathe, Rosenmüller). But the passage is not merely a figurative one, in which the poet by a bold metaphor represents himself as the sparrow and swallow who found their nest, that is, a secure place of refuge, and an unmolested, protected, peaceful home within the precincts of the sanctuary (Geier, Venema, Burk, Clauss., Hengst., Del.). The sentence does not begin with; for (Luther), but with also; and this particle is not united to the verb (Hengst.) but to the name of the bird, in a clause which by the use of the perfect tense alludes to a determinate occurrence. This fact is the one well-known in history, that small birds lived undisturbed within the precincts of the Temple. We could therefore render directly: beside, or: close to thine altars (Sept., Vulg., Syr., Arab., and many of the older and recent expositors) without needing to assume that the Temple was in ruins (Isaaki, Kimchi). But, in the first place, אֶת W is more readily construed grammatically, not as a preposition, but as the sign of the accusative, and in apposition (Hengstenberg, Del., Hitzig), only that we need not insert: namely (Luther) [or even, Engl. Vers.]; in the second place the intermediate thought would be wanting, which prepares the way for the idea of man’s home-fellowship with God.
This fellowship in a spiritual sense was shared by the Psalmist. As on Old Testament ground, however, he cannot grasp the idea in its ripened fulness of meaning, and feel that he can exercise and exhibit his right of home and filial companionship in any other place than in the Temple on Zion. He therefore felicitates in general terms and in a comprehensive sense those who ever dwell in God’s house (Comp. 15:1; 27:4). The proposal of Hupfeld either to supply the words: “but I” before “thine altars” or to insert the whole passage after Psa_84:5 a. is accordingly unnecessary. We must not, however slight so superficially as is usually done the objections adduced against the current explanations, especially by Hupfeld. The expression: my King and my God (Psa_5:3), must especially receive due attention. [Alexander; “The address, Jehovah (God) of Hosts has the same sense as in Psa_84:2. One suggests the covenant relation between God and the petitioner, the other makes His sovereignty the ground of a prayer for His protection. The same essential notions of supremacy and covenant right are conveyed by the parallel expression: my King and my God.”—J. F. M.]
The particular meanings of the names of the birds, which also occur together in Pro_26:2, are a matter of dispute; for the swallow has a different name. (Isa_38:14; Jer_8:7). The same is true of the wild or turtle-dove (Sept., Targum, Syr., Hitzig), and it is an unsupported conjecture to suppose that these are onomatopoetic words representing a flock of medium-sized birds like crows, choughs or starlings, screeching and high-flying and separately undistinguishable (Böttcher). We may therefore hold to the Rabbinical explanation of derôr. Should it, however, correspond to the word dûri now employed in Palestine to designate the sparrow (Wetzstein in an Excursus in Delitzsch), then instead of the sparrow (Sept.) there must be understood here by Tsippôr some small twittering bird like the finch (Tobler, Denkblatter aus Jerusalem 1853, p. 117), which in particular is denoted by this onomatopoetic word.
It is not to be inferred from Psa_84:3 b, that God’s praise is only to be sounded forth in the future, when it will certainly be proclaimed, while the present is still dark. This is the explanation given (Hengst., Ewald, Del.), after Psa_42:6, according to the hypothesis that a like situation is described in these Psalms. But we have seen how uncertain the grounds of this assumption are. And besides, the primary signification of עוֹדis iteratio, so that it is much better to adhere to it in this place. The praise that resounds through God’s house is to reach still further, stretching from the past through the present into the future. Most therefore render directly: ever. The Selah also sufts this view better; the music here strikes in, leading the service of praise.
Psa_84:6. Ways in their hearts. [E. V. In whose hearts are the ways of them]. The plural suffix is to be explained by the fact that “the man” was just before used as a collective term. But what is the meaning of the sentence? Is it as it stands, so meaningless that מְסִלֹּות [roads) must be given up, and כִּסְלָה=כִּסְלוֹת (confidence, Hupf.) be read in its place as the Chald has already paraphrased it? Or should we rather insert מַעֲלוֹת, because the Sept. has here as in 2Ch_9:11, rendered ἀναβάσεις? Neither. The word expresses a meaning that is contrasted with side-paths or by-ways (Jer_18:15; Pro_12:28; Psa_125:5). We might therefore think of the straight paths of Jehovah (Psa_17:5), which Israel was careful to follow, while the heathen wandered away from them in their erring courses (Isa_53:6): the paths that were laid down by the statutes of the law (Hitzig). We have presented according to this view either the thought that the righteous have constantly before their minds these ways of God or His commandments, ponder them in their hearts and earnestly strive to walk in accordance with them (Isaaki, Kimchi, Luther, and others); or that the hearts of the pious are no longer a trackless waste, but a well-beaten path of righteousness, Pro_16:17 (Venema, Mendelssohn, Hengst.). The latter explanation is more readily attached to the form of the words and the usage of the terms employed, but it makes too little account of the context and passes over too quickly into a spiritual application, as we find also in the exposition of the following sentences that the actual and historical ground of the expressions has been needlessly abandoned by many. It is quite true that it is a forced interpretation of the disputed clause which makes it mean that the pilgrim-routes to Jerusalem (Aben Ezra, Knapp, Böttcher, Delitzsch), or the common streets in Jerusalem leading to the sanctuary (Grotius), were constantly in their thoughts. And Psa_84:7, completes the picture of blessedness, set forth before in general terms, that is, the blessing of trust in God, by a figure which is borrowed from a wandering or journeying as a common emblem of human life (Hupfeld). But it expresses more. For in Psa_84:8 b the travellers are described as appearing before God in Zion. The Psalmist has in mind a pilgrimage or festival journey; not indeed as apparent to the senses as though the spectacle of a band of pilgrims had given occasion to the words of longing (Muntinghe), nor yet as an emblem of the toil some life-journey of the righteous which has yet very many seasons of refreshing and blessedness. Here as in the preceding strophe there is a mingling of expressions drawn from the spheres of the external and the spiritual, as Psa_84:7 especially shows. Psa_84:6 felicitates those who have in God their strength (not their defence or their glory). And Psa_84:8 says that they go, not: from band to band (Grotius and Rosenmuller following the older expositors), but from strength to strength, until every one of them (transition to the singular) appears before God Himself. This last phrase takes the place of the usual “before God’s face.” and yet with the local distinction, in Zion. It is, however, most natural to take the roads mentioned, without the article, in Psa_84:6 b, not in a concrete and special application, so as to refer them generally to the ways to God and His house, whether in the sensuous or in the spiritual sense, but to understand them, as indefinitely as they are expressed, of the means and ways by which in the sphere of the heart the supply of strength vouchsafed by God to men is conveyed. It is therefore better not to compare Isa_40:3 but in particular Psa_50:13. This view is confirmed by the words which immediately follow.
Psa_84:7 f. Travelling through the vale of tears. [E. V. Passing through the valley of Baca], The participles here and in Psa_84:5, are parallel and have a mutual reference. They denote however, either different persons or the same persons in different circumstances, at first as being companions of God in His house, and then as being on the way thither as pilgrims to Zion. Now Zion lay upon a mountain, and the surrounding country is very much cut up by ravines and in some parts poorly supplied with water. The pilgrims would therefore have a toilsome ascent from the valley-ground below. Many of the valleys, also, had significant names, easily convertible into symbolical expressions. Such were Rephaim=shadows, and Hinnom=wailing, which lay close together between Jerusalem and Bethlehem. In the former, there grew, according to 2Sa_5:23; 2Ch_14:14 f., trees called בָּכָא. The rabbins have explained these to be mulberries, but later writers, more correctly (see Faber on Harmer’s Beobachtingen uber den Orient, I. 400) have referred it to a plant resembling the balsam called by the Arabs baca, because when it is wounded, a tearlike liquid exudes (Winer, Realwörterbuch). There were undoubtedly several of these Baca-valleys: and being employed here as a play upon בכה (=weeping) in allusion to the property just described, they could very readily receive a symbolical application, and the more so as the shrub is very common in the arid valley of Mecca. Burckhardt found such a valley in the neighborhood of Sinai (Travels in Syria, etc., p. 977). And since it is evidently not a special route of any particular band of pilgrims that is described in our text, for the pilgrims in general did not march in companies upon the same road, it would be altogether opposed to the spirit of the passage and would destroy the idea and the expectation which the poet has awakened, to seek an actual Valley of Baca. The valley Rephaim is the less suitable, as, according to Isa_17:5, it was very fertile, while a conversion into a valley of fountains is spoken of here. It is therefore preferable to suppose a barren region to be referred to (Gesenius, Ewald, Olshausen), or valley full of thorns (Köster). But it is unnecessary to identify the valley here mentioned either with the Valley of Achor (Hos_2:17), between Jericho and Bethel (Jos_7:24) which contained a place called בֹּכִים (Sept. κλαυθμὼν), Jdg_2:1, which again might properly have been =בְּכָיִם בְּכָאים(Hitzig); or with the last station upon the road from the north, where in a narrow and gloomy valley dark water drops from a rock (Renan, Vie de Jésus, Ch. 4). For apart from the fact, that the dropping from the rock called “weeping” in Job_28:11, is there called בְּכִי and not בָּכָא, it is not said here that the pilgrims made that valley a מָעוֹן=bivouac, before Jerusalem (Knapp), but מַעְיָן=place of fountains. Now this does not mean that they dug wells (Luther), or found fountains miraculously prepared, Isa_41:18, (Kimchi, Calvin), or through their piety converted the toils of the journey into occasions of spiritual refreshment (Geier and others), or that they made God Himself the fountain of their salvation (Venema, by a false reference of the suffix). The words are a figurative expression of the thought that the Divine blessing accompanies them everywhere and supplies the means by which they are refreshed on their journey, and so strengthened, that they become neither faint nor languid, but ever stronger as they advance. The valley through which they are marching, becomes green meadows and pastures and fruitful fields, by springs and rain. For מוֹרֶה denotes also in Joe_2:23, as יוֹרֶה does elsewhere, the first fertilizing rain after the heat of summer, which in the East clothes the parched ground in an incredibly short time with vegetation of the most varied kind, (Sept., Kimchi, Calvin and all the recent expositors but Hengstenberg). For it is against the context to suppose that allusion is made to the guide of the caravan (Herder) or to the teacher who instructs the travellers in the law of God, (Hengst. following the Chald. and the Rabbins, Luther and most of the older versions) who is covered with blessing (עטה as Kal in the passive sense). Although it gives a sense too restricted to translate: Baca-valley (Hitzig, Del.) and to understand by this a desolate and barren region at that time in ill-repute (Olshausen) noted for its resinous trees which derived their names from the resin which exuded from them (Böttcher), yet the nature of the discourse, which passes over immediately into the figurative, and the allusion contained in the name of the tree, make it also quite correct to render: Valley of weeping or land of tears. (The ancient versions, the Masorah, which has the remark that בָּכָא here stands for בכה, and the Rabbins except Aben Ezra and Kimchi, and after them many expositors, Hengstenberg and Hupfeld last). Luther altered his translation in many ways, but generally did not improve it. His view of Psa_84:8 c, was founded upon the rendering of the Sept.: ὀφθήσεται ὁ θεὸς τῶν θεῶυ. Exception was made to the unusual combination of אֶל instead of אֶת־פְּגֵי, with, יֵרָאֶה; the allusion to אֶל חַיִל immediately preceding and to אֶל אֵל in verse 3, was overlooked; and it was suggested that the true reading was אֵל אֱלהִים.
Psa_84:10 ff. Our Shield.—This is in the vocative, as being an address to God; not, as in Psa_89:19, an accusative denoting the king, and depending upon the verb (Aben Ezra). Against the latter are the terms Sun and Shield applied to God in Psa_84:12, and changed by the Sept. into the sentence: God loves mercy and truth. God is called a shield also in Psa_59:12. “See” stands absolutely as in 2Ch_24:22; Psa_80:15, parallel to “hear” in Psa_84:9 c. “For,” in Psa_84:11, does not confirm the foregoing supplication (Hengst.) but the whole Psalm (Aben Ezra, Geier and others). The verse says nothing about door-keeping, which was an honorable office. Nor about a long-continued residence (Luther). A comparison is made between dwelling and lying upon the threshold, the former relating both to the house of God and to the tents of wickedness. The latter is not employed in the sense of being despised (Augustin) nor as being the consequence of violent treatment (Sept.) nor as lying before the door as Lazarus did (Hengst.). It expresses a personal experience of the exalted good, happiness and value of belonging to God’s house, and the smallest measure of and most remote connection with this privilege were more esteemed and loved by the Psalmist than the greatest abundance supplied from other sources. The psalmist has in his mind’s eye a worshipper lying upon the threshold, but utters only his own conception and appreciation of this relation, not his actual condition and posture. Any reference to his humility and modesty (Calvin, Hupfeld), is as unsuitable as an allusion to the position and employment of the Korahites in the temple-service (Del.). The plural number courts, in Psa_84:3; Psa_84:11, do not necessarily indicate a late date. The original Tabernacle had, to be sure, only one court. But intimations are found of an enlargement and alteration in that of David’s time. (See Knobel on Exodus 25-31 p. 255).
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. He who loves the house of God must ever experience nothing but the most ardent longing to be there, whether he be far from it or near it; he would never be found absent from it, he would even as God’s child forever live in His house. He therefore felicitates those who abide there; and they praise God continually. They have there what the bird has in her nest. “ God is so kind and condescending that He leaves not unrewarded the fervent love and holy desire which men feel for Him, but so gladdens men as to revive them in body and soul. And thus from an ardent longing after God there results an all-pervading sense of happiness” (John Arndt).
2. The earthly house of God, however, is only a type of the heavenly, and therefore in the pilgrim’s longing for and journeying to the former, is imaged forth the relation of the children of God to the latter. If they have their strength in God, their longing is not in vain and their journeying not without result as it is not without an aim. In their hearts are paths, upon which strength from God is conveyed to them, and in their toilsome course God provides the means of their support and success, so that they, raised up out of faintness and exhaustion, go on from strength to strength until they appear before God. Such men clothed with strength from Him are indeed to be counted happy, as they in their march through the desert, gladdened by His blessing, change it into a garden of God.
3. But it is a necessary accompaniment of such experience of mercy, that we do not rest satisfied with such longing, wishing, and desiring, but that longing becomes prayer, wishing trust, and desire the possession of salvation. Therefore must we not, in a false spiritualistic feeling, lightly regard or despise the means of grace offered and provided in the visible Church, but duly avail ourselves of them. Thrice blessed are they who act thus.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
He who loves from the heart what is God’s, has as much reason for rejoicing as for longing.—Man must seek at God’s altars what he cannot well be without on earth, and what he can find nowhere in the world.—The happiness of those who dwell with God in His house: (1) wherein it consists; (2) how it is obtained.—Communion with God is neither to be gained nor preserved without a due use of the means of grace.—He who loves God’s house, walks in God’s ways, and trusts in His aid, is to be counted happy even on earth.—Our pilgrimage upon earth as a journey to the house of God.—The praise of God the joy of the righteous.—The transformations which true piety effects in this earthly vale of sorrow.—God not only defends His own, He blesses them also with gifts from on high.—He who would enjoy God’s blessings must open his heart to God, and prepare the way for His coming.—Progress in the ways of God is effected only through the strength of God; it is made from step to step, but is made surely towards God; it is not gained without much sorrow, but the end is abiding joy.
Starke: If God shows every little bird a place to build its nest and hatch its young in peace, He will also grant to souls longing for salvation, means of instruction and sources of happiness.—If the soul once gains a true appreciation of God’s word, its desire for intimate converse with it will grow day by day.—He who would call God his King must do Him homage, and yield himself up to Him by faith; and, by so doing, he will become not only His subject, but also an inmate of His own house.—O blessed dwelling! In God’s house will everything be granted to the soul, and nothing be asked of it in return but to praise Him.—The path in which we are to walk to heaven, must not only be in books; not lie only in the ear or on the tongue; it must be in the heart; the heart must learn to delight in God’s ways.—A Christian need not languish in this barren vale of sorrow, for he has everywhere beside him the fountain of life.—Is God the Sun of believers? He must enlighten them, warm them, and make them fruitful. Is he their Shield ? He must protect them against all enemies. Well for those who enjoy these blessings!
Osiander: The happy results of the preaching of the gospel show that the true, eternal, and only God, is present with His church, and blesses that ordinance, that it may bring forth much fruit.—Selnecker: There is nothing better than to be a member of the true Church, and to have God’s word pure and simple, for with these the Lord of hosts is and abides.—Rieger: A soul seeking God displays: (1), its desire for this blessed communion, (2), its actual arrival before Him whom it seeks and finds: (3), its worship, wherein it testifies to God its love for Him, its joy and trust in Him and dependence upon Him, and whereby it wins its way into His presence.—God’s praise in heaven is sounded forth in perfect strains; on earth we are training ourselves to bear a part in them.—Tholuck: How much is necessary, in order to realize the highest joy of life in God’s praise!—Guenther: First, the longing after God’s house and communion with Him; next, an indication of the way to the object of desire; thirdly, the reward of residence in God’s house, or in communion with him.—Umbreit: It is not the word of praise outwardly sounding which brings blessedness and peace to man; but he alone finds the highest happiness whose heart is fixed in God as his only strength, and glory, and who not merely knows the well trodden paths of God, but in whose heart they are and live.—Schaubach: It is not a bodily stay and residence in the Temple as they were granted to the priests and Levites in Jerusalem, that makes us blessed; but the constant sojourn of the heart with the Lord, which makes the Christian an inmate of His house.—Diedrich: The blessedness of those who enjoy unobstructed communion with the living God, the God of mercy.—Schapper (at the unveiling of the statue of Melanchthon in Wittemberg, Oct. 21st, 1865): With what right and in what sense do we honor the memory of the blessed Reformers? (1) They, as true children of God and living members of His Church, desired to dwell in His house and praise Him forever. (2) As true heroes they took the Lord as their strength, and from the heart walked in His ways. (3) As true teachers in the kingdom of heaven they passed through the vale of sorrow and made it fountains of water, and have been crowned with blessing. (4) As true Reformers of the Church, they have achieved one victory after the other, so that men must see that the true God is in Zion, where they abode and whither they have directed us.
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11 1. Amiable—Lovely.
1. Amiable—Lovely.
Tabernacles—The plural form can mean nothing more than the apartments and cloisters of the sacred place.
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O Lord of hosts—Or, of armies. This has been called one of the Eloheem psalms. Eloheem, (God,) is used six times; Jehovah, God, twice; Jehovah of hosts, three times; God of hosts, once; Jehovah, God of hosts, once. Like the other Korahitic productions, it is highly lyrical and cheerful. The heart is in lively sympathy with God and his worship, and the frequent use of the divine name is impassioned.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv1–12 1. How amiable are thy tabernacles) Or, How dear…
1. How amiable are thy tabernacles) Or, How dear is thy dwelling-place. Amiable is no longer used of things, in the sense of worthy to be loved. For dwelling-place see note on Psa_26:8. The plural of the original, as in Psa_43:3, may be ‘amplificative,’ expressing the dignity of the house of God; or it may be used with reference to the various buildings of which the Temple was composed.
Lord of hosts] See note on Psa_46:7.
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1, 2. The Psalmist’s delight in the house of God.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10 (1) How amiable.—Better, How loved and how lovable. The…
(1) How amiable.—Better, How loved and how lovable. The Hebrew word combines both senses.
Tabernacles.—Better, perhaps, dwellings. (Comp. Psa_43:3.) The plural is used poetically, therefore we need not think of the various courts of the Temple.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv1–12 This psalm, attributed (see title) to the "sons of…
This psalm, attributed (see title) to the "sons of Korah," or the Korahite Levites, (see 1Ch_26:1 2Ch_20:19) describes the blessedness of their position as dwellers in the house of God, and keepers of its thresholds. Its date is uncertain, but must fall earlier than the Captivity, since the temple is standing (vers. 1-4, 10), and there is an anointed king upon the throne (ver. 9).
The psalm falls into three equal stanzas or strophes, each of four verses, the ends of the first and second stanzas being shown by the pause mark, "selah.
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How amiable are thy tabernacles! or, "how lovely are thy dwellings" The plural is used, as in Psa_43:3 Psa_46:4 (also Korahite); and Psa_132:7, either because the temple was made up of several compartments, or as a "plural of dignity." O Lord of hosts (comp. vers. 3, 8, 12).
HOMILIES BY S. CONWAY Vers. 1-12. The soul"s sweet home.
This is one of the Korahite psalms, like Ps 42 Ps 43, and some eight others. The late Dean Plumptre, in his "Biblical Studies," pp. 163-166, gives reasons for concluding that they all belong to the reign of Hezekiah, and were written by members of the Levitical family of Korah. One or more of them, it may be, hindered by the presence of the army of Sennacherib from going up to the temple, as they had been wont to do, pours out his grief in these psalms. It may have been so: we cannot certainly say. There have been two great interpretations of this psalm that which reads in it
I THE LONGING OF THE SERVANT OF GOD AFTER THE WORSHIP OF THE SANCTUARY. This is the most general meaning found in it, as well as the most obvious. To this day the sparrows fly round the Mosque of Omar as they flew about the precincts of the temple which once stood on that same spot, as the writer of the psalm had often noticed. There was "No jutting frieze. Buttress, nor coigne of vantage, but these birds Had made their pendant bed.
The Korahites were (1Ch_9:17) keepers of the door of the tabernacle, and, in Moses" time, watchmen at the entrance of the Levites" camp, and afterwards (1Ch_26:1-19) were appointed as guardians of the temple doors (see ver. 10 of this psalm). The writer longs to be again at his loved work in the courts of the Lord. Hence he tells:
1. Of the loveliness of Gods house, in his esteem.
2. Of his intense desire for it. (Ver. 2) His soul yearning told upon his body, that he was as one in pain, and cried out.
3. Of the birds, the common sparrow, the restless swallow, even they seemed to him happier than himself, for they were where he would but could not be. They were not banished, as he was, from the courts of the Lord. They dwelt and had their home there, as he fain would.
4. Of the blessedness of his service. It was a life of praise, and there is no life so blessed as this. They are made strong by God; the joy of it brightened the long journeys, reached to the very roads, arid, bare, and terrible, as many of them were. Yet nevertheless, in their hearts were ever these "ways." The joy of the service to which they were going made the vale of weeping a place of joy, the sandy waste a place of fountains; yea, God did so bless them with his grace as with the soft autumnal rains the cornlands are blessed after the seed is sown. And the looked or gladness made their numbers swell and grow by additions that came in from all sides as the happy pilgrims went along, until every one of them appeared before God in Zion. Then follows:
5. The fervent prayer that these hallowed seasons may be again given; the names by which he appeals to God telling probably of the hosts of enemies arrayed against the people of God.
6. He declares the reason wherefore he thus importunes the Lord of hosts. It was because he counted the meanest service for God better than the best pleasures of sin. The worst of the Church is better than the best of the world. And because of what God himself was.
7. From all this learn that the love of God"s house is one sure mark of God"s people; that true worship is a well of delight, which gladdens all our life; but that only they know it who have knowledge of God in their own personal experience as their Sun and Shield.
II The other interpretation of this psalm reads it as telling of THE BLESSEDNESS OF LIFE IN GOD. Ver. 1 distinctly affirms this: the earthly tabernacle being the type of the soul in which God dwells. Ver. 2 declares that he cannot live without God. Ver. 3: he joyfully asserts that he lives in God; his soul, though mean as the sparrow, restless as the swallow, has yet found a rest, a dwelling place, a home in God in God as seen in his altars, type of the sacrifice of Christ. Ver. 4: he celebrates the blessedness of such their life is one continued song. Ver. 5: and of those whose strength their confident trust is in God, in whose heart are "ways" for God; he has full right of way in them, they belong to him. (Isa_40:3, Isa_40:4) Ver. 6: their sorrow is turned into joy. Ver. 7: their trust strengthens evermore; they see God as they worship. Vers. 8-11 are one fervent prayer that he who has told of this blessedness may know it for himself: "Hear my prayer." And all this is true: the life in God is blessed. S.C.
HOMILIES BY R. TUCK Ver. 1. A test of our spiritual state.
We may not find Davidic associations with this psalm. It was composed by one of the musically gifted family known as the "sons of Korah;" and may be compared with Ps 42 Ps 44. They were a family of Levites whose inheritance lay on the eastern side of the Jordan. "Dwelling on the other side of Jordan, it was often impossible for them to reach Jerusalem. When the river swelled and rose with the melting snows of winter, or with the heavy tropical rains which fell on the northern hills and mountains, the fords of the Jordan became impassable; and the sons of Korah, even though their turn of duty had come round, were unable to go up to the house of the Lord. So, too, when the armies of Assyria, or some other foe, were encamped round the city, and no Hebrew was permitted to pass the line of siege, they were shut out from the worship of the temple through all the summer months. Many, if not most, of their psalms appear to have been composed at such times as these." The point suggested is that the spiritual condition of this writer can be tested by his feeling when deprived of religious privileges. Was he glad of the ease and relief? Or did he pine for restoration? So it may be shown that when Christians, through sickness or travelling, are separated from their usual worshipping associations, their spiritual state may be appraised by their feeling. Do they pine for them; regretfully remember them, and wish they had made better use of them?
I DO WE LONG FOR GOD"S WORSHIP? It may be actually a possible thing for a man to live a religious life without ever taking part in any public services. He is a rara avis indeed who succeeds in accomplishing it. Most men not only yield to Divine command and invitation, by sharing in sanctuary services, but they feel also the positive necessity for such services, in the culture of their religious life, and the satisfaction of their religious wants. When souls are alive unto God, they are sure to desire to worship and praise him along with others. This is the natural religious instinct. But it should be pointed out that the interest in God"s worship may cease to be spiritual; it may become aesthetic; it may even sink down to be a merely "formal habit.
II IS OUR LONGING FOR GOD"S HOUSE AND WORSHIP REALLY ALONGING FOR THE SENSE OF HIS NEARNESS? The expression in ver. 2, "for the living God," suggests the deep spirituality of the writer. It was not the ritual he longed for, or the songs; it was the conscious presence of God, as the living Helper, Guide, and Comforter. Compare the Christian yearning for the close and conscious presence of the living Christ as Saviour and Sanctifier. R.T.
HOMILIES BY C. SHORT Vers. 1-7. The glory of worship.
I HELPS US TO REALIZE OUR NEARNESS TO GOD. (Ver. 1) "How lovely are thy dwellings!" or "the house where thou dwellest.
II IT IS THE EXPRESSION OF THE DEEPEST LONGING OF THE HEART AND SOUL. (Ver. 2)
III IT GIVES THE SENSE OF BEING AT HOME WITH GOD. (Ver. 3) He is at a distance from the sanctuary; and the birds of the air seem nearer God than he is.
IV IT INTENSIFIES THE SPIRIT OF GRATITUDE AND PRAISE. (Ver. 4)
V WE BECOME CONSCIOUS OF A STRENGTH DERIVED FROM GOD. (Ver. 5)
VI IT CREATES SPRINGS OF REFRESHMENT IN THE WILDERNESS. In the weeping vale (ver. 6). "The early rain cometh in with blessings.
VII IT CONSTANTLY RENEWS AND INCREASES OUR SPIRITUAL STRENGTH. (Ver. 7) VIII IT WILL BRING US AT LENGTH TO THE VISION OF GOD IN HEAVEN. (Ver. 7) S.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Charles H. Spurgeon 1885 · Public Domain On vv1–12 Title and Subject. To the Chief Musician upon Gittith.…
Title and Subject. To the Chief Musician upon Gittith. A Psalm for the sons of Korah. This Psalm well deserved to be committed to the noblest of the sons of song. No music could be too sweet for its theme, or too exquisite in sound to match the beauty of its language. Sweeter than the joy of the wine press, (for that is said to be the meaning of the word rendered upon Gittith), is the joy of the holy assemblies of the Lord's house; not even the favoured children of grace, who are like the sons of Korah, can have a richer subject for song than Zion's sacred festivals. It matters little when this Psalm was written, or by whom; for our part it exhales to us a Davidic perfume, it smells of the mountain heather and the lone places of the wilderness, where King David must have often lodged during his many wars. This sacred ode is one of the choicest of the collection; it has a mild radiance about it, entitling it to be called The Pearl of Psalms. If the twenty-third be the most popular, the one-hundred- and-third the most joyful, the one-hundred-and-nineteenth the most deeply experimental, the fifty-first the most plaintive, this is one of the most sweet of the Psalms of peace. Pilgrimages to the tabernacle were a grand feature of Jewish life. In our country, pilgrimages to the shrine of Thomas of Canterbury, and our Lady of Walsingham, were so general as to affect the entire population, cause the formation of roads, the erection and maintenance of hostelries, and the creation of a special literature; this may help us to understand the influence of pilgrimage upon the ancient Israelites. Families journeyed together, making bands which grew at each halting place; they camped in sunny glades, sang in unison along the roads, toiled together over the hill and through the slough, and as they went along, stored up happy memories which would never be forgotten. One who was debarred the holy company of the pilgrims, and the devout worship of the congregation, would find in this Psalm fit expression for his mournful spirit.
Division. We will make our pauses where the poet or the musician placed them, namely, of the Selahs.
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Ver. 1. How amiable, or, How lovely! He does not tell us how lovely they were, because he could not. His expressions show us that his feelings were inexpressible. Lovely to the memory, to the mind, to the heart, to the eye, to the whole soul, are the assemblies of the saints. Earth contains no sight so refreshing to us as the gathering of believers for worship. Those are sorry saints who see nothing amiable in the services of the Lord's house.
Are thy tabernacles. The tabernacle had been pitched in several places, and, moreover, was divided into several courts and portions; hence, probably, the plural number is here used. It was all and altogether lovely to David. Outer court, or inner court, he loved every portion of it. Every cord and curtain was dear to him. Even when at a distance, he rejoiced to remember the sacred tent where Jehovah revealed himself, and he cried out with exultation while he pictured in fond imagination its sacred services, and solemn rites, as he had seen them in bygone times. Because they are thy tabernacles,
O Lord of hosts, therefore are they so dear to thy people. Thy pavilion is the centre of the camp, around which all thy creatures gather, and towards which their eyes are turned, as armies look to the tent of the king. Thou rulest all the companies of creatures with such goodness, that all their hosts rejoice in thy dwelling place, and the bands of thy saints especially hail thee with joyful loyalty as Jehovah of hosts.
Title. Here note, that the sons, that is, the posterity of wicked and rebellious Korah, have an honourable place in God's sacred and solemn service: for to them sundry of David's psalms are commended...
Here see the verifying of God's word, for the comfort of all godly children, that the son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, Eze 18:14, 17, 20, if he see his father's sins and turn from them. Thomas Pierson (1570-1633), in "David's Heart's Desire."
Whole Psalm.
O Lord of hosts, how lovely in mine eyes
The tents where thou dost dwell!
For thine abode my spirit faints and sighs;
The courts I love so well.
My longing soul is weary
Within thy house to be;
This world is waste and dreary,
A desert land to me.
The sparrow, Lord, hath found a sheltered home,
The swallow hath her nest;
She layeth there her young, and though she roam,
Returneth there to rest.
I, to thine altar flying,
Would there for ever be;
My heart and flesh are crying,
O living God, for thee!
How blest are they who in thy house abide!
Thee evermore they praise.
How strong the man whom thou alone dost guide,
Whose heart doth keep thy ways.
A pilgrim and a stranger,
He leaneth on thine arm;
And thou, in time of danger,
Dost shield him from alarm.
From strength to strength through Baca's vale of woe,
They pass along in prayer,
And gushing streams of living water flow,
Dug by their faithful care;
Thy rain is sent from heaven
To fertilise the land,
And wayside grace is given
Till they in Zion stand.
Lord God of hosts, attend unto my prayer!
O Jacob's God, give ear!
Behold, O God, our shield, we through thy care,
Within thy courts appear!
Look thou upon the glory
Of thine Anointed's face;
In him we stand before thee,
To witness of thy grace!
One day with thee excelleth over and over
A thousand days apart;
In thine abode, within thy temple door,
Would stand my watchful heart.
Men tell me of the treasure
Hid in their tents of sin;
I look not there for pleasure,
Nor choose to enter in.
Own then the Lord to be thy Sun, thy Shield
No good will he withhold;
He giveth grace, and soon shall be revealed
His glory, yet untold.
His mighty name confessing,
Walk thou at peace and free;
O Lord, how rich the blessing
Of him who trusts in thee!
German Choral Music.
Ver. 1. How amiable are thy tabernacles. What was there in them that appeared so amiable? Perchance, the edifice was famed for the skill and cost bestowed on it? But the temple of extraordinary beauty was not yet constructed. The tabernacle was lowly, more suited to pilgrims than to a great people, and little becoming the king himself. Therefore to the pious there is no need of vast or sumptuous temples to the end that they should love the house of God. Musculus.
Ver. 1. How amiable are thy tabernacles. What made the tabernacle of Moses lovely was not the outside, which was very mean, as the Church of God outwardly is, through persecution, affliction, and poverty; but what was within, having many golden vessels in it, and those typical of things much more precious; moreover, here the priests were to be seen in their robes, doing their duty and service, and, at certain times, the high priest in his rich apparel; here were seen the sacrifices slain and offered, by which the people were taught the nature of sin, the strictness of justice, and the necessity and efficacy of the sacrifice of Christ: here the Levites were heard singing their songs, and blowing their trumpets: but much more amiable are the Church of God and its ordinances in Gospel times, where Christ, the Great High Priest, is seen in the glories of his person, and the fulness of his grace; where Zion's priests, or the ministers of the gospel, stand clothed, being full fraught with salvation, and the tidings of it; where Christ is evidently set forth, as crucified and slain, in the ministry of the word, and the administration of ordinances; here the gospel trumpet is blown, and its joyful sound echoed forth, and songs of love and grace are sung by all believers; besides, what makes these tabernacles still more lovely are, the presence of God here, so that they are no other than the house of God, the gate of heaven; the provisions that are here made, and the company that is here enjoyed. John Gill.
Ver. 1. Amiable. The adjective is rendered by the English versions amiable, in the sense of the French amiable, 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. The plural, dwellings, has reference to the subdivisions and appurtenances of the sanctuary, and is applied to the tabernacle in Ps 48:3. Compare Ps 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 for a prayer for his protection.. Joseph Addison Alexander.
Ver. 1. Tabernacles. By the name of tabernacles we are put in mind of the church's peregrination and wandering from one place unto another, until she come unto her own true country. For as tabernacle and tents of war be removed hither and thither, so the Church of God in this life hath no sure and quiet abode, but often is compelled to change her seat. This pilgrimage, whereby indeed every man, as Augustine doth say, is a pilgrim in this world, doth admonish us of sin, which is the cause of this peregrination. For, because of sin, we are cast with our first parents out of Paradise into the land wherein we sojourn. So that we are removed from Jerusalem, that is, from the sight and fruition of peace, into Babylon, that is, into confusion and exile, wherein we wander far and wide. Nicholas Heminge (Hemminguis) (1513-1600), in "The Faith of the Church Militant."
Ver. 1-2. When we cannot express the greatness of a thing in direct terms, we are fain to fly to wonder, and so doth David here, because he cannot express sufficiently how amiable the Tabernacles of the Lord are, he therefore falls to wondering, and helps himself with a question; How amiable are thy Tabernacles, O Lord of Hosts? But is not David's wondering itself wonderful, that the tabernacles of the Lord of Hosts should be so wonderfully amiable? Is it not a wonder they should be amiable at all? For are not his tabernacles tents of war? and is there anything in war that can be amiable? If he had said: How terrible are thy Tabernacles, O Lord of Hosts; his wonder had been with some congruity; for the Lord of Hosts is terrible in all his works; but to say, How amiable are thy Tabernacles, O Lord of Hosts, seems to imply a contradiction; for though they may be amiable, as they are tabernacles, yet they must needs be terrible, as they are Tabernacles of the Lord of Hosts; and when this terribleness hath made an abatement in their amiableness, what place will be left for wonder, to give cause to say, How amiable are thy Tabernacles, O Lord of Hosts? But if he had said, How terrible are thy Tabernacles, O Lord of Hosts; though it might have been wonderful in the degree, yet it could not be wonderful in the kind: for what wonder is it, if the Tabernacles of the Lord of Hosts be terrible? But when he saith, How amiable are thy Tabernacles, O Lord of Hosts; this is not only wonderful in the degree, but in the kind much more. For what can be more wonderful, than that being Tabernacles of the Lord of Hosts, they should be amiable, and so amiable as to be wondered at? But is it not, that God is in himself so amiable, that all things of His, even his terrors themselves, are amiable; his tabernacles and his tents, his sword and his spear, his darts and his arrows, all amiable; terrible no doubt to his enemies, but amiable, wonderfully amiable to all that love and fear him, and great reason they should be so, seeing they are all in their defence, and for their safeguard; though they be Tabernacles of the Lord of Hosts to the wicked, yet they are Courts of the Prince of Peace to the godly, and this makes my soul to long for the courts of the Lord. For I desire indeed to be a courtier, yet not as I am now: God knows I am very unfit for it, but because God's Courts are such, they make any one fit, that but comes into them; they receive not men fit, but make them fit, and he that was before but a shrub in Baca, as soon as he comes into the Courts of the Lord is presently made a cedar in Lebanon. Sir Richard Baker.
Ver. 1.
I. Why called Tabernacles? To include
(1) the holiest of all;
(2) The holy place;
(3) The court and precincts of the Tabernacle.
Amiable is predicated of these. The courts
amiablethe holy place more amiablethe
holiest of all most amiable.
II. Why called the Tabernacles of the Lord of Hosts? To
denote
(1) Its connection with the boundless
universe.
(2) Its distinction from it. Present everywhere
where God is peculiarly present here.
III. Why called amiable?
(1) Because of the character in which God dwells
here. Is condescension amiable? Is love? Is
mercy? Is grace? These are displayed here.
(2) Because of the purpose for which he resides
here. To save sinners: to comfort saints.
Ver. 1-3. The Titles for God in these three verses are worth dwelling upon. Jehovah of Hosts; the living God; my King and my God. G. R.
The Faith of the Church Militant, made moste effectualie described in this exposition of the 84. Psalme, by that reverend Pastor, and publike Professor of God's word, in the famous universitie of Haffine in Denmarke, NICHOLAS HEMMINGIVS. A treatise written as to the instruction of the ignorant in the groundes of religion, so to the confutation of the Jews, the Turkes, Atheists, Papists, Heretiks, and all other adversaries of the trueth whatsoever. Translated out of Latin into English, &c. by THOMAS ROGERS. At London, printed by H. Middleton for Andrew Maunsel. Anno. 1581.
David's Heart's Desire; or An Exposition of Psalm 84.; in Excellent Encouragments against Afflictions... by Thomas Pierson, M.A. (Reprinted in Nichol's Series of Puritan Commentaries.)
An Exposition upon some select Psalms of David... By ROBERT ROLLOCK.
1600. 16mo.
Meditations and Disquisitions upon seven Consolatorie Psalmes of David... By Sir RICHARD BAKER, Knight. 1640. (pg 119-142.)
Meditations on the Eighty-fourth Psalm, in "Things New and Old. A Monthly Magazine." Vol. IX. 1866.
Psalms 84:2*
Ver. 1-2. See Psalms on "Ps 84:1" for further information.
Ver. 1-3. The Titles for God in these three verses are worth dwelling upon. Jehovah of Hosts; the living God; my King and my God.
Ver. 1-3. The Titles for God in these three verses are worth dwelling upon. Jehovah of Hosts; the living God; my King and my God.
Charles H. Spurgeon's The Treasury of David (1869–1885) — public domain. Psalms only. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 10, 11, 12 How amiable are Thy tabernacles, O Lord of Hosts!
Psa_84:1-12
How amiable are Thy tabernacles, O Lord of Hosts!
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A good man in relation to the scenes of public worship
I.
As deprived of these privileges. In his deprivation he reveals--
1. A devout admiration for them (Psa_84:1). It is the law of mind, that blessings when lost always appear to us more precious. Lost health, lost property, lost friends, lost privileges.
2. An intense longing for them (Psa_84:2). It is the living God that gives these scenes attractions to the soul. It is not the sublimity of the site, the splendour of the architecture, or the magnificence of the services, that the godly soul hungers for, but the living God.
3. A high estimation of them (Psa_84:3). What the house is to the sparrow, and the nest to the swallow, true worship is to the devout soul--the home, the resting-place.
II. As in quest of these privileges (Psa_84:5). Not only are they blessed whose home is in the sanctuary, and who spend their days in perpetual praise; but those also are blessed who, though at a distance, have God for their strength and help, and press on in pursuit of religious privileges.
1. Though they encounter difficulties, they are still blest (Psa_84:6).
2. Though they encounter difficulties, they shall with increasing strength pursue their way until they reach their blessed destiny (Psa_84:7).
III. As in contemplation of these privileges.
1. He prays (Psa_84:8-9). He invokes the Almighty to attend to his prayers, and to look upon the face, or to favour, His anointed, that is, the king. What titles he here applies to the Almighty! O Lord God of Hosts, O God of Jacob, O God our shield, etc.
2. He avows the transcendent privileges of public worship (Psa_84:10).
3. He exults in the relation and beneficence of God (Psa_84:11). (Homilist.)
Delight in Gods house
I. Longing for God.
1. Soul-hunger (Psa_84:2). A man in good health enjoys his food, and, when he is hungry, he desires it. But once the soul is quickened, it must have bread to eat that the world knows not of. The heart and flesh cries out for the living God.
2. Gods altars (Psa_84:3). The altars of God are suggestive of the forgiveness of sins, of communion, and protection. For there were the various sacrifices made which brought the soul into communion with God, through the burnt offerings, the meat offering, the peace offering, and the sin and trespass offering; there the man who was fleeing for his life might ever find a place of safety and refuge. Having expressed this desire, he ascribes two other titles to the Lord: my King and my God. He who would call God his King must yield himself by faith to God, as well as do homage to Him.
3. The blessings of Gods house (Psa_84:4) In Gods house everything will be granted to the soul, and nothing be asked of it in return but the praise of Him.
II. The blessed man is a blessing.
1. The blessed man described (Psa_84:5). His will and desire, all his powers and purposes are so surrendered to God, that God can use him in blessing others.
2. How the blessed man becomes a blessing (Psa_84:6). God has ordained that His people, especially those who themselves have been filled and refreshed by His own blessed life, by dwelling in His house, shall be the means of saving the world. What a blessed mission is this; what a glorious privilege!
3. Reflex blessings (Psa_84:7).
(1) They go from strength to strength. Every grace in us is increased by the use of it (Isa_40:29-31).
(2) Every one of them in Zion appeareth before God (Mat_25:23).
4. The prayer of the blessed man (Psa_84:8).
III. The blessings of salvation (Psa_84:9-12). God is the complete protection of His saints. He is the whole armour with which we clothe ourselves.
1. Complete satisfaction. Sometimes the unbelieving world looks with pity upon the Christian who has turned his back upon all the carnal pleasures of the world; but the answer of the man who has found satisfaction in God and in His service is simple and emphatic (Psa_84:10). To be such a privileged servant of God is better than to be like Dives in the midst of all his feasting and revelling.
2. Every need supplied (Psa_84:11). Protection from all evil, and every needful thing He will supply out of His energetic goodness, as the sun causes the earth to be fruitful with every good thing by the power of his rays. Chief among these things is grace for the time being, and glory for the time to come. What can man want more?
3. A final beatitude (Psa_84:12). May the Lord of hosts, the God of Jacob, our King and our God, fulfil all His goodness to us in these things, by creating in us a longing thirst and desire, which shall be converted into prayer, and trust, and real possession. (G. F. Pentecost, D. D.)
Delight in Gods house
The great truth which underlies this psalm is that God reveals Himself especially in the sanctuary. In the house of God we find--
I. Pardon.
II. Peace. As its walls shut out the noises of the world, so its worship shuts out earthly confusion and strife.
III. Spiritual strength. Hearts fail, consciences yield, life-strings snap, because men do not seek the God of Jacob to strengthen them out of Zion. We must bear hardships and sorrows. Every road, from the cradle to the grave, leads through the valley of Baca; but pilgrims to Zion change barrenness to bloom, singing together as they go.
IV. Spiritual Joy. Such delight is wholly disconnected from earthly advantages; it flourishes upon their loss. Pascal wrote, Happiness is neither within us nor without us; it is the union of ourselves with God. There is no necessary limit to this joy, none except the capacity of the human spirit. Practical inferences:--
1. A church should be built to manifest God.
2. The worship of the Church should seek the same end. Music, Scripture, prayer, teaching, have but one objects--to draw the soul nearer to God.
3. There is no substitute for the sanctuary. Bigotry may close its doors, but the early Christians consecrate a chapel in the catacombs, and Covenanters make cave or barn or sea-beach a temple. Neglect of the sanctuary proves not abundance, but lack of spiritual life. (Monday Club Sermons.)
A psalm of exile
We seem to see here a spirit chastened by grief, taught by suffering to sing and to pray and to hope. And such is the general tone of the psalms of the dispersion. They remind us of the old and deep lesson, that the chastisements which seem not to be joyous but grievous in the present, will yield hereafter the peaceable fruits of righteousness to them that are exercised thereby. The psalm falls naturally into strophes.
1. In the first of these, containing the first four verses, he calls to mind and enthusiastically describes his feelings in thinking of the Temple. Nothing is left to the exile but the solace of memory, faith and hope. And memory and imagination, acting by the law of association, call up the details of the scene. He dwells fondly upon the birds nestling as they have been from time immemorial permitted to nestle in the Temple. This thought, that the God of the Temple afforded shelter to the birds of the precincts, swallows, doves, storks, etc., was held by Gentiles no less than Jews. Men of Kyme, says Herodotus, went to the Temple of Apollo, near Miletus, to inquire concerning one who had taken refuge with them from the Persians what they should do, and the oracle replied that he was to be given up to the Persians. One of the men of Kyme ventured to treat the oracle as false, and himself made renewed inquiry. But the same answer was returned. He then went round the Temple, and disturbed the sparrows and other birds who had built their nests in the Temple. Meanwhile there came a voice from the sanctuary to Aristodikos, saying, Most profane of men, how durst thou do these things? Dost thou overthrow my suppliants from the Temple? O King, was the retort, it is thus that thou succourest thy suppliants, for thou biddest the men of Kyme give up a suppliant. There is something very beautiful in the idea of the Divine Being as the protector of small, helpless creatures like the house-haunting birds, and we at once remember the words of Jesus, Not a sparrow falls to the ground without your Father. If God takes thought for sparrows, much more does He for men.
2. From the birds his thoughts glances to the worshippers, who are still able to frequent the Temple; and he recalls the pilgrim throngs on their way thither. Blessings on those who dwell in Thy house; still will they praise Thee. Blessings on the men whose strength is in Thee, who love to think of the pilgrim way. Those whom he mentions as dwelling in Jehovahs house--i.e. in the Holy City--are under the yoke of a foreign conqueror in these last years of Judah, and in a very depressed condition. Yet the psalmist anticipates that they will still be able joyfully to sing of the Divine victory. And then, as to the believers scattered about in foreign lands, and who will travel up to Zion by the pilgrim caravans, they will have manifold hardships by the way; but confidence in Jehovah will give them strength, and they will overcome them all. With lively sympathy he thus depicts them--They passing through the Baca valley, etc. We may compare the imagery with that in Isaiah where he depicts the desert solitudes as bursting out into rose blossoms, and being filled with songs; the parched land transformed into a pool; its thirst satisfied with springs of water; the haunts of dragons becoming green with reeds and rushes. Upon a great highway the ransomed people of Jehovah are seen returning, and coming to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads (Isa_35:1-10.). And the thought and the imagery are very similar when the prophet Hosea speaks of the Valley of Achor (woe) being transformed into a Door of Hope, and the people singing there as they did in the days of yore when they came up out of the land of Egypt. These things are for us allegories or parables of the soul. It is in the soul, and the soul alone, that we are to look for these wondrous transformations of deserts into gardens, and parched valleys into springs of living water. It is through undying trust and hope and love, cherished in the midst of every suffering scene of lifes pilgrimage, that these marvels must be wrought.
3. And now, from these soothing exercises of memory and imagination, the royal poet turns to himself, and composes his spirit in an attitude of deep humility and holy prayer. O Jehovah, God of Hosts, hear my prayer: attend, O Jacobs God. O God, our shield, behold, look upon thine anointeds face! This, then, is the language of a king. In virtue of his high office and dignity he would have enjoyed in former days a place of high honour in the Temple. But rather, he says, he would be as the humblest menial in a great house, and, after the Oriental custom, prostrate himself in the dust in the presence of his Master, than dwell, as he is dwelling now, possibly in circumstances of comfort or even of luxury, among the heathen. For supposing this psalm to have been composed by King Jeconiah, while he was in honour and esteem at the Court of Babylon, the language is peculiarly impressive as an evidence of the piety of his spirit. Sun, he proceeds, and shield is the eternal God! Grace, glory will Jehovah give; will not refuse happiness to those who walk in innocency. And then the psalm ends, as it were, with a sigh of relief and repose, betokening that the flow of feeling has found its true outlet and rest. O Jehovah of Hosts, blessings on the men who trust in Thee! We may draw a few simple lessons from the beautiful psalm. We need to see the blessings and the privileges of our life in perspective, at a distance, before we can truly realize their worth. The youth knows not how happy he has been at home, feels not in all its preciousness the blessing of a mothers love, till he looks back upon the early scene from some distant place, and from amidst scenes that are strange to his heart. And so of those scenes of worship in which our spirit was educated for eternity. The afterglow of Sundays, the reflection amidst busy hours on songs and sermons that have been listened to not always with interest at the time--these are experiences often the most enriching. It follows, that all our diligence in attending to spiritual things now must secure for us a far-off interest of good--memories of sweetness and refreshment, it may be, in some distant land or scene of suffering, like that of the psalmist in exile. But there are other lessons. The soul deprived of its wonted props, its associations of place and circumstance, is taught more entirely to throw itself upon the spiritual resources. His soul was east down within him at the hill Mizar, and it is cast down in Babylon. Yet why so? He knows that God is to be sought and found there no less than in the Temple. What are space and time to the worship of the Spirit? And what is the use of the glorious faculty of imagination but that we may, in a sense, cancel time, and live in fellowship with the great and good of the past--that we may break down the bounds of space and pass to our friends across seas and deserts, and join with all saints in that worship which is invisible and unending, and is fixed to no particular spot of earth? As Fenelon says, We may be very near to one another without meeting, or be far apart while occupying the same room. God unites all and obliterates the greatest distance where hearts united in Him are concerned. In that Centre be who is in China or Japan and those in France meet one another. But perhaps the thought that most naturally offers itself from the study of the psalm is the blessedness of religious memories. (E. Johnson, M. A.)
Mingled music
This psalm has well been called The Pearl of Psalms. It shines with mild, soft radiance, comparable to that precious gem. I would myself speak of it as being full of mingled music, and mingled music is sometimes of the sweetest. For the most part the note is high, and the strain is sweet; yet there is a tone of sorrow underlying and interleaving all. David sings, indeed, but he sings of his sorrows. Happy is the man who can sing in the time of grief, and turn his very sadness into themes for melody.
I. How amiable are thy tabernacles, O Lord of Hosts. This is a eulogy of the house and worship of the living God. Whereever David may have been in person, his heart was yonder. The windows of his soul were ever open towards Jerusalem. Is not the title which David applies to God instructive? O Lord of Hosts. The tabernacle of the sanctuary seemed to David like the pavilion of the King or general, in the very centre of the camp, and he, as one of the Kings mighty men, looked towards that pavilion, gazed at its waving signal, and longed to be soon beneath its very shadow. The Church of the living God, the God of Hosts--for He is still the God of battles, and a Man of war--is the place wherein the soldiers refurnish themselves, and refurbish their arms. The worship of His house, the means of grace, these are as the armoury whence the shield the helmet, the breastplate, the sword, the preparation of the Gospel of peace for the feet, are all provided. It is also as the refreshment place, where God succours and sustains the weary warriors, wells breaking up and leaping forth at their very feet, as they did at Samsons, if needs be.
II. Then follows an elegy (verse 2). David was bereaved indeed. He had lost the sanctuary. He was away from the place where God revealed Himself particularly. They tell me that those who have dwelt among the glorious mountains of Switzerland cannot bear to live away from them. They pine and die, away from their native land. After some such fashion David looked Zionward. Absence made his heart grow fender still. What was it that he longed for? For the courts of the Lord. Ah, burner for the sake of the courts themselves. What are the courts without the King? He seeks not the place, but the presence; not the courtiers, but the monarch; not the subjects, but the Lord Himself.
III. An allegory (verse 3). The birds were free to visit the sacred place. Oh, thought David, would I were as privileged as they. He would not change places with them. He did not wish he were a bird, but he wished he had the access they enjoyed, and the familiarity and temerity that characterized them. What birds were they? Only sparrows, merely swallows, the one the most worthless and the other the most restless of birds; yet were they privileged to be where David at that time was debarred from going. Oh, prize your privileges. Make Gods house your home. Love it not only for the benefit you may get from it yourselves, but for the blessing it may bring your children. The swallow hath found a nest for herself, where she may lay her young. Thank God for the church, and the Sunday school, and the Bible classes. Despise none of them; they will bless both you and your households.
IV. An augury (verse 4). The birds dwelt in the precincts of the Holy Place, and, according to their nature, they praised, they sang. Swallows and sparrows are not song birds, you say. Ah, but they chirped and chattered, and this was their best praise to God. Now just as the Roman augurs pretended to foretell coming events by the flight of birds and other means, so it seems to me--perhaps it is a quaint conceit--David ventures to prophesy that all who dwell in the Lords house will be still praising Him. Why, he says, there are those birds chattering, chirping, twittering all the while, So long as they have so secure an abode, their hearts go forth in praise to God. There also are the priests, the Levites, and the Nethinim, the servants of the priests, surely so long as they have a hand in this work they will be full of praise to God. Certainly this is true of the upper world. I do not know that I could suggest a better epitaph for the happy Christian who praised God on earth, but is praising Him better still on high, than this word or two from our closing verse. What are they doing yonder? Still praising, still praising. I would fain have it on my own tombstone. I could not wish a better word than that, Still praising. Still praising. Yes, when eternity grows old, Still praising. They practised here, and rehearsed on earth, and now they can see Him face to face, and praise Him more than angels can. Oh, begin His praises here, that you may continue them hereafter. (T. Spurgeon.)
The beauty of the house of God
I. Wherein lies the beauty of the House of God? It does not consist in mere outward loveliness. In proportion as one learns to worship God in the spirit he becomes unconcerned about the particular architecture of the building. As a piece of workmanship he may admire it as much as any, but as a place of worship it possesses no more charm than the country barn devoted on the Lords Day to the preaching of the Gospel. I fear that in the present day reverence for mere bricks and mortar is becoming a very fashionable error. Beauty of design in the sanctuary walls is thought more of than beauty of holiness in sanctuary worship. This is the result of a religion that goes no deeper than the eye sees. But to the man educated of God, mere external symmetry will be powerless to evoke the psalmists exclamation of how amiable are Thy tabernacles. He wants something more. Something that touches the inner springs of the soul. A house of God without worship is a fiction and a lie.
II. When this beauty is most seen. The amiability of Gods tabernacle is not always equally perceived. There are times when we are led to utter the words of our text with a deeper emphasis than usual. Seasons when an unprecedented glory fills the house. I will just mention a few times when Gods house seems to possess a charm almost beyond description. Certainly we must place first on the list the few Sabbaths immediately following conversion. What a blessed freshness there is about the worship then; it is something so new, so different to any joy experienced before that its very novelty lends enchantment. The beauty of the sanctuary is also wonderful when there is that in the service specially suited go our present experience.
III. The extent to which the beauty is appreciated, and the only man who can appreciate it at all. The first word of the text gives us an idea of the extent of Davids appreciation, and well may the verse close with a note of admiration. The psalmist felt that it was impossible to tell in words the beauty of the place. He could but exclaim how amiable and leave it for hearts which have felt the same to fathom the depths of the word. This we know, however, that in his eyes the tabernacle made of skins outshone in beauty all the silken tents of luxury and sin, and one day in its Courts was worth more to him than a thousand spent elsewhere. The how defies all measurement and description. The only man who can behold this beauty is also learnt from one word--the little word thy. It was because the tabernacle was Gods that its beauty appeared so great. Now, no alien from God can find a joy in anything because it is Gods. He who loves not a person can never see a beauty in that persons house simply because it is his. Affection for the inhabitant must precede love for the habitation. (A. G. Brown.)
The believers love for the sanctuary
The Christian loves the sanctuary--
I. Because it is the dwelling-place of the Most High. In the works of creation and providence we behold Him coming forth as a God of ineffable goodness, unable, as it were, from the graciousness of His nature, to withhold unnumbered good things even from the fallen. But it is the sanctuary which is the tabernacle of His glory. There He specially reveals Himself as the God of all grace; there is the mercy-seat; there, sinful though we be, we may draw nigh to the God of our spirits through the High Priest of our profession, the Son of His love.
II. Because He feels pleasure in its hallowed employments. He knows by experience that as in Ezekiels vision the healing waters flowed from the sanctuary, and imparted life and fertility to every region through which they wound their way, so the gifts and graces of Gods Holy Spirit, descending from the heavenly Zion, pour their refreshing and sanctifying current through the courts of the Lords house, and that from its services, as from consecrated channels, he drinks of that stream which makes glad the city of God.
III. Because it is the symbol of better things to come. Our mental joys within these earthly temples are but the beginnings and the foretastes of the joys of heaven; our songs in the assembly of the great congregation, they are but the representative of the vast multitude who are even now singing the new song of the redeemed; and all the privileges which surround us, and in which we now delight, are the only outline of the final state of perfection when we appear in that land of which the Lord God is the light, and the glory, and the sanctuary. Oh! how glorious shall be that service compared with this! (S. Bridge, M. A.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible 1887 · Public Domain On v1 Psalms 84
Psalms 84
THE same longing for and delight in the sanctuary which found pathetic expression in Psalms 42 and Psalms 43, inspire this psalm. Like these, it is ascribed in the superscription to the Korachites, whose office of door keepers in the Temple seems alluded to in Psa_84:10. To infer, however, identity of authorship from similarity of tone is hazardous. The differences are as obvious as the resemblances. As Cheyne well says, "the notes of the singer of Psalms 42 and Psalms 43 are here transposed into a different key. It is still Te saluto, te suspiro, but no longer De longinquo te saluto (to quote Hildebert)." The longings after God and the sanctuary, in the first part of the psalm, do not necessarily imply exile from the latter, for they may be felt when we are nearest to Him, and are, in fact, an element in that nearness. It is profitless to inquire what were the singers circumstances. He expresses the perennial emotions of devout souls, and his words are as enduring and as universal as the aspirations which they so perfectly express. No doubt the psalm identifies enjoyment of Gods presence with the worship of the visible sanctuary more closely than we have to do, but the true object of its longing is God, and so long as spirit is tied to body the most spiritual worship will be tied to form. The psalm may serve as a warning against premature attempts to dispense with outward aids to inward communion.
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It is divided into three parts by the Selahs. The last verse of the first part prepares the way for the first of the second, by sounding the note of "Blessed they," etc., which is prolonged in Psa_84:5. The last verse of the second part (Psa_84:8) similarly prepares for the first of the third (Psa_84:9) by beginning the prayer which is prolonged there. In each part there is a verse pronouncing blessing on Jehovahs worshippers, and the variation in the designations of these gives the key to the progress of thought in the psalm. First comes the blessing on those who dwell in Gods house (Psa_84:4), and that abiding is the theme of the first part. The description of those who are thus blessed, is changed, in the second strophe, to those in whose heart are the [pilgrim] ways," and the joys of the progress of the soul towards God are the theme of that strophe. Finally, for dwelling in and journeying towards the sanctuary is substituted the plain designation of "the man that trusts in Thee," which trust is the impulse to following after God and the condition of dwelling with Him; and its joys are the theme of the third part.
The man who thus interpreted his own psalm had no unworthy conception of the relation between outward nearness to the sanctuary, and inward communion with the God who dwelt there. The psalmists yearning for the Temple was occasioned by his longing for God. It was Gods presence there which gave it all its beauty. Because they were "Thy tabernacles," he felt them to be lovely and lovable, for the word implies both. The abrupt exclamation beginning the psalm is the breaking into speech of thought which had long increased itself in silence. The intensity of his desires is expressed very strikingly by two words, of which the former (longs) literally means grows pale, and the latter fails, or is consumed. His whole being, body and spirit, is one cry for the living God. The word rendered "cry out" is usually employed for the shrill cry of joy, and that meaning is by many retained here. But the cognate noun is not infrequently employed for any loud or high-pitched call, especially for fervent prayer, {Psa_88:2} and it is better to suppose that this clause expresses emotion substantially parallel to that of the former one, than that it makes a contrast to it. "The living God" is an expression only found in Psalms 42, and is one of the points of resemblance between it and this psalm. That Name is more than a contrast with the gods of the heathen. It lays bare the reason for the psalmists longings. By communion with Him who possesses life in its fulness, and is its fountain for all that live, he will draw supplies of that "life whereof our veins are scant." Nothing short of a real, living Person can slake the immortal thirst of the soul, made after Gods own life, and restless till it rests in Him. The surface current of this singers desires ran towards the sanctuary; the depth of them set towards God; and, for the stage of revelation at which he stood, the deeper was best satisfied through the satisfaction of the more superficial. The one is modified by the progress of Christian enlightenment, but the other remains eternally the same. Alas that the longings of Christian souls for fellowship with God should be so tepid, as compared with the sacred passion of desire which has found imperishable utterance in these glowing and most sincere words!
Psa_84:3 has been felt to present grammatical difficulties, which need not detain us here. The easiest explanation is that the happy, winged creatures who have found resting places are contrasted by the psalmist with himself, seeking, homeless amid creation, for his haven of repose. We have to complete the somewhat fragmentary words with some supplement before "Thine altars," such as "So would I find," or the like. To suppose that he represents the swallows as actually nesting on the altar is impossible, and, if the latter clauses are taken to describe the places where the birds housed and bred, there is nothing to suggest the purpose for which the reference to them is introduced. If, on the other hand, the poet looks with a poets eye on these lower creatures at rest in secure shelters, and longs to be like them, in his repose in the home which his deeper wants make necessary for him, a noble thought is expressed with adequate poetic beauty. "Foxes have holes, and birds of the air roosting places, but the Son of Man hath not where to lay His head." All creatures find environment suited to their need, and are at rest in it, man walks like a stranger on earth, and restlessly seeks for rest. Where but in God is it to be found? Who that seeks it in Him shall fail to find it? What their nests are to the swallows, God is to man. The solemnity of the direct address to God at the close of Psa_84:3 would be out of place if the altar were the dwelling of the birds, but is entirely natural if the psalmist is thinking of the Temple as the home of his spirit. By the accumulation of sacred and dear names, and by the lovingly reiterated "my," which claims personal relation to God, he deepens his conviction of the blessedness which would be his, were he in that abode of his heart, and lingeringly tells his riches, as a miser might delight to count his gold, piece by piece.
The first part closes with an exclamation which gathers into one all-expressive word the joy of communion with God. They who have it are blessed," with something more sacred and lasting than happiness, with something deeper and more tranquil than joy, even with a calm delight, not altogether unlike the still, yet not stagnant, rest of supreme felicity which fills the life of the living and ever-blessed God. That thought is prolonged by the music.
The second strophe (Psa_84:5-8) is knit to the first, chain-wise, by taking up again the closing strain, "Blessed the man!" But it turns the blessedness in another direction. Not only are they blessed who have found their rest in God, but so also are they who are seeking it. The goal is sweet, but scarcely less sweet are the steps towards it. The fruition of God has delights beyond all that earth can give, but the desire after Him, too, has delights of its own. The experiences of the soul seeking God in His sanctuary are here cast into the image of pilgrim bands going up to the Temple. There may be local allusions in the details. The "ways" in Psa_84:5 are the pilgrims paths to the sanctuary. Hupfeld calls the reading "ways" senseless, and would substitute "trust"; but such a change is unnecessary, and tasteless. The condensed expression is not too condensed to be intelligible, and beautifully describes the true pilgrim spirit. They who, are touched with that desire which impels men to "seek a better country, that is a heavenly," and to take flight from Times vanities to the bosom of God, have ever "the ways" in their hearts. They count the moments lost during which they linger, or are anywhere but on the road. Amid calls of lower duties and distractions of many sorts, their desires turn to the path to God. Like some nomads brought into city life, they are always longing to escape. The caged eagle sits on the highest point of his prison, and looks with filmed eye to the free heavens. Hearts that long for God have an irrepressible instinct stinging them to ever-new attainments. The consciousness of "not having already attained" is no pain, when the hope of attaining is strong. Rather, the. very blessedness of life lies in the sense of present imperfection, the effort for completeness, and the assurance of reaching it.
Psa_84:6 is highly imaginative and profoundly true. If a man has "the ways" in his heart, he will pass through "the valley of weeping," and turn it into a "place of fountains." His very tears will fill the wells. Sorrow borne as a help to pilgrimage changes into joy and refreshment. The remembrance of past grief nourishes the soul which is aspiring to God. God puts our tears into His bottle; we lose the benefit of them, and fail to discern their true intent, unless we gather them into a well, which may refresh us in many a weary hour thereafter. If we do, there will be another source of fertility, plentifully poured out. upon our lifes path. "The early rain covers it with blessings." Heaven-descended gifts will not be wanting, nor the smiling harvests which they quicken and mature. God meets the pilgrims love and faith with gently falling influences, which bring forth rich fruit. Trials borne aright bring down fresh bestowments of power for fruitful service. Thus possessed of a charm which transforms grief, and recipients of strength from on high, the pilgrims are not tired by travel, as others are, but grow stronger day by day, and their progressive increase in vigour is a pledge that they will joyously reach their journeys end, and stand in the courts of the Lords house. The seekers after God are superior to the law of decay. It may affect their physical powers, but they are borne up by an unfulfilled and certain hope, and reinvigorated by continual supplies from above; and therefore, though in their bodily frame they, like other men, faint and grow weary, they shall not utterly fail, but, waiting on Jehovah, "will renew their strength." The fabled fountain of perpetual youth rises at the foot of Gods throne, and its waters flow to meet those who journey thither.
Such are the elements of the blessedness of those who seek Gods presence; and with that great promise of certain finding of the good and the God whom they seek, the description and the strophe properly ends. But just as the first part prepared the way for the second, so the second does for the third, by breaking forth into prayer. No wonder that the thoughts which he has been dwelling on should move the singer to supplication that these blessednesses may be his. According to some, Psa_84:8 is the prayer of the pilgrim on arriving in the Temple, but it is best taken as the psalmists own.
The final part begins with invocation. In Psa_84:9 "our shield" is in apposition to "God," not the object to "behold." It anticipates the designation of God in Psa_84:11. But why should the prayer for "Thine anointed" break in upon the current of thought? Are we to say that the psalmist "completes his work by some rhythmical but ill-connected verses" (Cheyne)? There is a satisfactory explanation of the apparently irrelevant petition, if we accept the view that the psalm, like its kindred Psalms 42 and Psalms 43, was the work of a companion of Davids in his flight. If so, the kings restoration would be the condition of satisfying the psalmists longing for the sanctuary. Any other hypothesis as to his date and circumstances fails to supply a connecting link between the main subject of the psalm and this petition. The "For" at the beginning of Psa_84:10 favours such a view, since it gives the delights of the house of the Lord, and the psalmists longing to share in them, as the reasons for his prayer that Jehovah would look upon the face of His anointed. In that verse he glides back to the proper theme of the psalm. Life is to be estimated, not according to its length, but according to the richness of its contents. Time is elastic. One crowded moment is better than a millennium of languid years. And nothing fills life so full or stretches the hours to hold so much of real living as communion with God, which works, on those who have plunged into its depths, some assimilation to the timeless life of Him with whom "one day is as a thousand years." There may be a reference to the Korachites function of door keepers, in that touchingly beautiful choice of the psalmists, rather to lie on the threshold of the Temple than to dwell in the tents of wickedness. Whether there is or not, the sentiment breathes sweet humility, and deliberate choice. Just as the poet has declared that the briefest moment of communion is in his sight to be preferred to years of earthly delight, so he counts the humblest office in the sanctuary, and the lowest place there, if only it is within the doorway, as better than aught besides. The least degree of fellowship with God has delights superior to the greatest measure of worldly joys. And this man, knowing that, chose accordingly. How many of us know it, and yet cannot say" with him, "Rather would I lie on the doorsill of the Temple than sit in the chief places of the worlds feasts!"
Such a choice is the only rational one. It is the choice of supreme good, correspondent to mans deepest needs, and lasting as his being. Therefore the psalmist vindicates his preference, and encourages himself in it, by the thoughts in Psa_84:11, which he introduces with "For." Because God is what He is, and gives what He gives, it is the highest wisdom to take Him for our true good, and never to let Him go. He is "sun and shield." This is the only place in which He is directly called a sun, though the idea conveyed is common. He is "the master light of all our seeing," the fountain of. warmth, illumination, and life. His beams are too bright for human eyes to gaze on, but their effluence is the joy of creation. They who look to Him "shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life." What folly to choose darkness rather than light, and, when that Sun is high in the heavens, ready to flood our hearts with its beams, to prefer to house ourselves in gloomy caverns of our own sad thoughts and evil doings! Another reason for the psalmists choice is that God is a shield. (Compare Psa_84:9) Who that knows the dangers and foes that cluster thick round every life can wisely refuse to shelter behind that ample and impenetrable buckler? It is madness to stand in the open field, with arrows whizzing invisible all round, when one step, one heartfelt desire, would place that sure defence between us and every peril. God being such, "grace and glory" will flow from Him to those who seek Him. These two are given simultaneously, not, as sometimes supposed, in succession, as though grace were the sum of gifts for earth, and glory the all-comprehending expression for the higher bestowments of heaven. The psalmist thinks that both are possessed here. Grace is the sum of Gods gifts, coming from His loving regard to His sinful and inferior creatures. Glory is the reflection of His own lustrous perfection, which irradiates lives that are turned to Him, and makes them shine, as a poor piece of broken pottery will, when the sunlight fails on it. Since God is the sum of all good, to possess Him is to possess it all. The one gift unfolds into all things lovely and needful. It is the raw material, as it were, out of which can be shaped, according to transient and multiform needs, everything that can be desired or can bless a soul.
But high as is the psalmists flight of mystic devotion, he does not soar so far as to lose sight of plain morality, as mystics have often been apt to do. It is the man who walks in his integrity who may hope to receive these blessings. "Without holiness no man shall see the Lord"; and neither access to His house nor the blessings flowing from His presence can belong to him who is faithless to his own convictions of duty. The pilgrim paths are paths of righteousness. The psalmists last word translates his metaphors of dwelling in and travelling towards the house of Jehovah into their simple meaning, "Blessed is the man that trusteth in Thee." That trust both seeks and finds God. There has never been but one way to His presence, and that is the way of trust. "I am the wayNo man cometh to the Father but by Me." So coming, we shall find, and then shall seek more eagerly and find more fully, and thus shall possess at once the joys of fruition and of desires always satisfied, never satiated, but continually renewed.
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On v1 Superscription.—“To the chief Musician upon Gittith.” (See Introduction to…
INTRODUCTION
Superscription.—“To the chief Musician upon Gittith.” (See Introduction to Psalms 81) “A Psalm for the sons of Korah.” (See Introduction to Psalms 42)
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Occasion.—The Psalm was evidently composed when the writer was exiled from the sanctuary. It was probably written by David when he was compelled to flee from Jerusalem by reason of the rebellion of Absalom. He laments this chiefly because it separated him from “the courts of the Lord.” Homiletically, the Psalm sets forth, The exile’s longing for the house of God, Psa_84:1-4; Religious progress, Psa_84:5-7; and The exile’s prayer, Psa_84:8-12.
THE EXILE’S LONGING FOR THE HOUSE OF GOD
(Psa_84:1-4.)
The Psalmist was banished from his capital and from the tabernacle of the Most High by the wicked rebellion of his son Absalom. This exile must have been one of the most painful experiences in the life of the royal bard. When he left the holy city he did not conceal his sorrow, but “went up by the ascent of Olivet, and wept as he went up, and had his head covered, and he went barefoot: and all the people that were with him covered every man his head, and they went up, weeping as they went up.” A sadly pathetic sight this—the noble king in his old age driven forth by the rebellion of his own son from the city which he had founded or ornamented, the abode, for many years, of all his power, his glory, and his happiness, perhaps never more to return to it. But his great and pious soul was great and pious then as ever. And in his exile his greatest grief arose from the fact that he was sundered from the worship of the tabernacle of God, and his most ardent desire for himself was to return to an enjoyment of its privileges. The exile’s longing for the house of God—
I. Arose from his love for the house of God. “How beloved are Thy tabernacles, O Lord of hosts!” “Amiable” or lovely does not express the meaning of the word used by the Psalmist; but dear, beloved. The plural, “tabernacles,” is used in reference to the divisions of the sanctuary, each part being regarded by the poet as the abode of God. The tabernacle was dear to David. “Lord, I have loved the habitation of Thy house, and the place where Thine honour dwelleth.” Every godly soul loves the house of God, and delights in His worship. The Psalmist doubtless had excellent reasons for his love to the house of God. And so have we. We love it because—
1. It is the place of holy fellowship. In its sacred engagements the holiest and bravest souls unite. The communion of saints in divine and blessed exercises and experiences—in penitence, prayer, praise, aspiration, adoration—is enjoyed in the sanctuary.
2. It is the place of social prayer and praise. There the glad and grateful heart pours out its joy and thankfulness to Him in hymns of praise consecrated by a thousand precious memories. And sincere, humble, devout praise is a foretaste of heaven. And there the anxious, troubled spirit can cast its burden in prayer upon the heart of the loving Father, or its sin upon the Saviour, and find rest.
3. It is the place of instruction and exhortation. The teachings of the living and abiding Word of God are here set forth. The teachings of a godly and enlightened ministry cannot be too highly estimated. And its warnings and exhortations are often of unspeakable importance and value.
4. It is the place of Divine communion. “There,” said the Lord, “I will meet with thee, and I will commune with thee from above the mercy-seat.” To the godly soul the presence of God is the great attraction in the sanctuary. When His presence is blessedly realised, the grand object of worship is attained. But if His presence is not realised, no matter whosoever or whatsoever else may be present, the one essential thing is lacking. “In His presence is fulness of joy.” Adoration, in the consciousness of His presence and approval, is the heaven of the soul. For all these reasons the godly soul loves the house of God.
II. Was a longing for conscious fellowship with God. “My heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God.” It was not so much the courts of the Lord’s house that he longed for as the living God Himself. Religious ordinances are lifeless, useless things, mere formalities, if they do not help us consciously to realise the presence of the living God. The soul which is alive and healthful cannot bear the sense of distance from God. He is its life, its health, its inspiration, its joy, its crown, its supreme and essential good; and in His absence it languishes and is cast down. Moreover, the Psalmist addresses God as One in whom he confided and with whom he was accustomed to hold converse—“My King and my God.” Though exiled from His courts he still loves the King. Though far from the tabernacle he still claims God as his portion. The repeated “my” is precious and suggestive. It shows his holy intimacy with, and strong confidence in, and deep affection for, God. God is all in all to the godly soul.
III. Was the longing of his entire being. “My soul longeth, … my heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God.” The Psalmist was not conscious of any thought or feeling opposed to this strong desire. His whole being concurred in it. He says that his “flesh” even, which we so frequently find lusting against the spirit, cried out for God. All the desires and aspirations of his nature were for communion with God. The whole man, with every faculty and affection, thirsted for the sacred engagements and Divine communion of the tabernacles of the Lord. The Psalmist seems to have attained that state for which the apostle, ages after, prayed on behalf of the Thessalonians. “The very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless.” Brethren, blessed will it be for us when our whole being is thus athirst for God. In response to such desires God will give fullest and divinest satisfactions.
IV. Was a longing of great intensity. “My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the courts of the Lord; my heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God.” The word translated “longeth” by itself denotes an intense desire, a pining after a thing. “It means literally,” says Perowne, “ ‘hath grown pale,’ as with the intensity of the feeling.” Then there are the other words. “Fainteth” is spent, faileth of strength, is exhausted. “Crieth out” in earnest importance desire. It would be difficult to express in intensity of desire more strongly than it is here expressed. It was, in its intensity, that kind of longing which God never denies, when it seeks for that which is in accordance with His will. In our day the evidence of such ardent desire for the means of grace is conspicuous chiefly by its absence. In religious services to a painful extent the outward show and glitter of ritualistic ornament, or the fine musical performances of professional choirs, or the gifts of some popular preacher, are the things desired rather than the presence and fellowship of God. Oh, for more of the holy longing of David!
V. Led him to extol the blessedness of those who were constantly engaged in God’s house. To David the lot of the little birds who had their nests in the vicinity of the tabernacle seemed enviable as compared with his own. They in perfect safety could place their dearest possession, their young, in their nests about the tabernacles; but he was an exile far away from the tabernacle, and exposed to constant and great perils. And as he thought of the priests and levites who ministered in the sanctuary, and who were entirely devoted to its sacred services, and had their dwelling near to it, he said, “Blessed are they that dwell in Thy house: they will be still praising Thee.” So David desired to live all his life in conscious and blessed fellowship with God, to walk with God every day and in all things, and never to be separated from the opportunities of social worship. He esteemed the life of those who ministered in the sanctuary a life of praise. And it is certain that a holy life, a life of communion with God, is a life of praise. Whatever may be its occupations, whatever its circumstances and outward conditions, praise will be its spiritual mood. They who have attained the blessedness of the “Father’s house” above, have reached the fulness of that the foretaste of which David here speaks of. They “dwell” in God’s house. They are made “pillars in the temple of God, and go no more out.” In that high world every place is consecrated by the presence and smile of God. There all service is blessedness; activity is ecstasy; work is worship.
CONCLUSION.—True social worship is indeed a precious and blessed thing. It is now essentially a spiritual thing, and is independent of any special locality.
“From every place below the skies,
The grateful song, the fervent prayer,
The incense of the heart, may rise
To heaven, and find acceptance there.”
Let us seek to live a life of communion with God and praise to Him. Let our life be worship.
“My will be swallowed up in Thee;
Light in Thy light still may I see,
Beholding Thee with open face;
Call’d the full power of faith to prove,
Let all my hallow’d heart be love,
And all my spotless life be praise.”
—C. Wesley.
RELIGIOUS PROGRESS
(Psa_84:5-7.)
Religions progress is here represented—
I. As deriving its support from God. “Blessed is the man whose strength is in Thee.” Spiritual life flows from God. He starts the soul in its upward course. All true religious progress may be traced back to Him. All spiritual vitality and strength come to men by reason of their connection with Him. The explanation of this is not difficult. Well-grounded faith is a strengthening thing. “All things are possible to him that believeth.” Columbus with invincible faith is mightier than mutinous crews, conqueror of coward fears, and, despite his frail vessels and opposing winds and waves, he accomplishes what the world had pronounced impossible. In the spiritual life faith brings over the all-sufficiency of God to replenish the exhausted moral powers of our being. God is the only true ground and object of faith. “He that believeth on Him shall not be ashamed.” Well-centred affection is a strengthening thing. There are no difficulties which love will not encounter, no labours which it cannot endure, no perils which it cannot brave. Supreme love to God fills the soul with invincible energy. Only as our love is fixed on Him shall we find complete satisfaction and full spiritual power. Well assured hope is a strengthening thing. It has been well said that “Hope is the companion of power, and the mother of success; for whoso hopes strongly has within him the gift of miracles.” While a man retains hope, however adverse his circumstances may be, he may yet conquer. Hope imparts one of the most powerful of inspirations. But in the spiritual life God is the only object or person in whom we can safely place our hope. In every way the strength of the godly man is in God.
II. As advancing in conformity with God’s law. Hengstenberg’s rendering and interpretation of the last clause of the fifth verse appears to us to be correct. “In whose hearts are ways. The second condition of salvation is, that a man has ways, made roads, in his heart. By this is designated zealous, moral effort, blamelessness, and righteousness. The heart of man, in its natural condition, appears like a pathless wilderness, full of cliffs and precipices; and repentance is a levelling of the roads. The following passages are parallel: Psa_1:6, ‘whoever prepares a way, to him will I show the salvation of God;’ Pro_16:7; and Isa_40:3-4.” Matthew Henry, in applying the words, also uses them in this sense. “If we make God’s promise our strength, we must make God’s Word our rule, and walk by it.” There can be no true religious progress except God’s will is our law of life and conduct. It is in vain that we talk of “higher life” except we are growing in hearty recognition of, and loyal obedience to, that will. The soul that is really progressing utters itself in strains like these: “Make me to understand the way of Thy precepts. I will run the way of Thy commandments, when Thou shalt enlarge my heart. I have refrained my feet from every evil way, that I might keep Thy Word. Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.” True religious progress is progress in holiness of heart and life.
III. As making unfavourable circumstances conduce to its own ends. “Who passing through the Valley of Baca make it a well; the rain also filleth the pools.” “The Valley of Baca” is the valley of tears or of weeping. We are by no means certain that the Psalmist by the phrase referred to any particular locality. And if he did it is impossible now to determine where that valley was. The idea is that, “As the valley of weeping is an image of misery, the fountain is an image of salvation.” By their faith in God and fellowship with Him they transformed the gloomy and inhospitable valley into a valley of refreshment and joy. By the grace of God the godly soul can compel the unfavourable circumstances of his pilgrimage to help him onward in his career. In the desert of affliction the grace of God opens up a fountain of consolation and peace, and so the affliction becomes the occasion of blessing. Tennyson sings of one,
“Who breaks his birth’s invidious bar,
And grasps the skirts of happy chance,
And breasts the blows of circumstance,
And grapples with his evil star;”
and so forces his way to great eminence and influence. In like manner, by the blessing of God, the good man by resisting temptation acquires moral strength, by means of tribulation he grows patient, by means of suffering he attains unto spiritual purity, and tenderness, and beauty. “We glory in tribulations also; knowing that,” &c.
IV. As steadily advancing. “They go from strength to strength.” Progress is a great law of life. “Where there is life there is growth. The law is seen in all creation—in the tiny moss upon the wall and the lordly oak of the forest, in the insect of an hour, and the beast of the field. And the Christian is enjoined to grow in grace, not in wealth, or in power; but in that appropriation of the revealed will of God to the heart that results in satisfying, not some one faculty or passion of the soul, but the whole man.” God calls us to move onward and upward. “Leaving the principles of the doctrines of Christ, let us go on unto perfection.” “Be ye perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.” “I count not myself to have apprehended; but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind,” &c. “Giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; and to knowledge temperance,” &c. Let us seek to advance from strength to strength, from strength of patience to strength of hope; from strength of hope to strength of faith; from strength of faith to strength of vision. Let us aim at expressing our inner life in the activities of growth and usefulness. In our career there must be no pause. The goal of yesterday must be the starting point of to-day. “They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles,” &c.
V. As gloriously terminating. “Every one of them in Zion appeareth before God.” Those who set forth in the various companies on their way to Jerusalem shall arrive there in safety, and join in the holy festivities. None shall perish on the way. None shall turn back without having attained the object in view. The godly soul moves onward to a glorious end. “The ransomed of the Lord shall return and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads;” &c. “When He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is.” Our progress leads onward right to the palace and throne and presence of the King. Our pilgrimage ends at home, our “Father’s home.” We have spoken of our progress as gloriously terminating at the heavenly Zion; but it terminates only to begin again under higher and more blessed conditions and circumstances. The progress of the godly soul is a never-ending progress. When millenniums of growth and glory have been realised by the ransomed of the Lord, they aspire to yet higher and diviner things, crying, “It doth not yet appear what we shall be.”
CONCLUSION.—
1. Have we entered upon this career of progress? Have we started, and started truly and well, in the religious life? Know we the blessedness of “the man whose strength is in God”?
2. Christian pilgrims, are you advancing? “Let us lay aside every weight, and the sin,” &c.
THE EXILE’S PRAYER
(Psa_84:8-12.)
I. The address which is presented. “O Lord God of hosts, hear my prayer: give ear, O God of Jacob. Behold, O God our shield.” In this address the Psalmist reminds God of—
1. His sovereign power. “Lord God of hosts.” “He doeth according to His will in the army of heaven, and the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay His hand, or say unto Him, what doest Thou?”
2. His covenant relation to His people. “God of Jacob.” “I said not unto the seed of Jacob, Seek ye Me, in vain.” He has pledged His faithfulness and mercy to them when they call upon Him.
3. His protecting care of His people. “God our shield.” “Fear not, Abram; I am thy shield.” David could not hide himself at this time in the secret of God’s tabernacle, but he could hide himself in God Himself.
II. The object which is sought. “Behold, and look upon the face of Thine anointed.” The “anointed” is David himself, who was anointed, or set apart, to the office of king. He presents no petition except this, that God would look upon him, which is a way of asking Him to grant His favour. David’s great desire was to return to the joys and fellowships of the sanctuary, there his heart was fixed, thither his face was directed; and, having expressed his ardent affection for it, he needed not to specify his desires any further than he does here. “Hear my prayer: look upon the face of Thine anointed.” Show me Thy favour and grant me the desire of my heart.
III. The pleas which are urged. “For a day in Thy courts is better than a thousand. I had rather,” &c. (Psa_84:10-11). The Psalmist urges in these words three pleas why God should restore him to the privileges of the sanctuary—
1. His great affection for the house of God. In his estimation—
(1.) A little time there was preferable to a long season elsewhere. “A day in Thy courts is better than a thousand” elsewhere.
(2.) The lowest station there was preferable to the highest elsewhere. “I would rather sit at the threshold in the house of my God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness.” Would not God hear his prayer, and restore him to the place he loved so well and dearly?
2. The relations which God sustains to His people.
(1.) He is a “sun.” From Him His people derive their light, and strength, and joy.
(2.) He is a “shield.” From Him His people derive protection in time of peril. As a “shield,” would He not guard His servant from the dangers to which he was at this time exposed? As a “sun,” would He not grant to His servant the light and joy of His presence in His tabernacle?
3. The gifts which God bestows upon His people.
(1.) He gives “grace.” In every time of need we may hear His voice saying unto us, “My grace is sufficient for thee.” “God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all-sufficiency in all things,” &c.
(2.) He gives “glory.” “The glory which Thou gavest Me,” said Christ, “I have given them.” The glory of moral conquest, of spiritual purity, and of unfading hope. In a word, the glory of moral resemblance to Christ. Glory in its dim beginning here, in its splendid fulness hereafter.
(3.) He withholds no good. Nothing that will really contribute to our well-being will He withhold from us if we “walk uprightly.” Surely the God who confers such gifts upon His people would grant unto David, His anointed, the desire of his heart, in bringing him back again to the courts and tabernacles of the Lord.
IV. The sublime conclusion of the whole. “O Lord of hosts, blessed is the man that trusteth in Thee.” This blessedness the Psalmist possessed. In the depths of his soul there was a peace which no rebellion in his kingdom, no sin and sorrow in his family, no banishment from the sanctuary, could shake, for it depended upon God alone. If God granted to him the desire of his heart, great would be his delight; but if He should not do so, still was he blessed, for be trusted in God,—God was his portion.
CONCLUSION.—
1. In the trials of life what is it we feel most? David’s greatest trial was the loss of his religious privileges. How different, alas! is the case of many others!
2. Is our trust reposed in the Lord of hosts? Then, whatever our circumstances may be, we are blessed.
THE LORD GOD A SUN AND SHIELD
(Psa_84:11.)
We propose to glance at the figures, the facts, and the persons which the text presents to our attention.
I. The figures. “The Lord God is a sun and shield.”
1. The sun dispenses light. “God made two great lights: the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night.” The moon, which is the lesser light here referred to, derives her light from the greater; and consequently the sun may properly be represented as the source of light, so far at least as we are concerned. If this glorious orb were blotted out of existence, everything around us would be involved in obscurity. And what would be the state of the human mind, especially in relation to religious subjects, if it were not for the illuminations of “the Sun of Righteousness”? Alas! all would be gloom and uncertainty.
2. The sun imparts life. During the months of winter, an immense number of creatures either cease to exist, or remain in a state of torpidity. But in the spring of the year, when the orb of day begins to exert an increasing influence, what a remarkable change takes place! Animals and vegetables are alike the subject of a revival; and the whole face of nature is renewed. Equally remarkable, and much more important, are the effects of that Sun by the warmth and energy of whose beams life is imparted to those who were dead in sin.
3. The sun produces fruitfulness. When, during a part of the year, we are favoured with but little of his presence, barrenness and sterility are observable on every hand. But the season of promise returns at the appointed time. The sun gradually rises higher, and continues longer above the horizon. The happy results are immediately perceptible; and it is not long before we are favoured with the appointed weeks of harvest. The heart of man may, with great propriety, be compared to a soil; but, alas! it is naturally hard, and dry, and barren,—so far, at least, as spiritual things are concerned. The good seed of the kingdom may be sown thereon with a liberal hand, but until the Sun of Righteousness shines upon it in all His glory and effulgence, no signs of fruitfulness will gladden the eye.
The Psalmist tells us Jehovah “is a shield.” The shield is a piece of defensive armour used by warriors, and attached to the left arm, as a protection against the injuries to which they are exposed from the enemy. We are, therefore, reminded that the people of God are surrounded by foes, with whom it is their duty to contend; and that in the time of conflict, they may look to Him whose cause they espouse for succour and protection. In all ages, Jehovah has been the defence of His people; consequently, none of the weapons formed against them have prospered.
II. The facts. “The Lord will give grace and glory,” &c.
1. “The Lord will withhold no good from them that walk uprightly.” It is probable that the reference here is principally to temporal things; the comforts and conveniences of life. They are secured to the believer, so far as is conducive to his good, in the covenant of grace. There may also be a reference to afflictions. He, who knows us better than we know ourselves, may see that they will be good for us; and if so, they will not be withheld.
2. “The Lord will give grace.” Whatever afflictions we have to endure while upon earth, all will be well if this promise be fulfilled in our experience. The grace of God will sanctify both us and our afflictions,—us as vessels fitted for the Master’s use, and them to the advancement of our best interests. It will sustain us in the time of trial, and enable us quietly to submit to the Lord’s will. It will strengthen us in running the race that is set before us. It will give us the victory over every adversary; and at length hold out the crown of righteousness, which fadeth not away.
3. “The Lord will give glory.” This is the consummation of grace, and is reserved for the world to come. If religion afforded its professors no enjoyment whilst on earth, the glories of heaven would prove an ample reward.
III. The persons. “Them that walk uprightly.” Those walk uprightly who walk with God. And who are they that walk with God?
1. That man does so, who, in all his engagements, recognises the Divine authority, consults the Divine will, and seeks the Divine blessing.
2. That woman walks with God, who, like Mary, has chosen the good part which can never be taken from her; and delights to sit at the Saviour’s feet, to hear His words,—who, like Martha, is found diligently attending to household duties,—and, at the same time, like Dorcas, is “full of good works and alms-deeds.”
3. That child walks with God, who, like Samuel, is desirous to hear the words of Divine wisdom; and, like Timothy, has acquired a knowledge of those Scriptures which are able to make him “wise unto salvation, through faith, which is in Christ Jesus.”
CONCLUSION.—
1. If the Lord God be a sun, let my hearers pray that they may be enlightened, quickened, and qualified to bring forth fruit unto holiness, that the end may be everlasting life.
2. If He be a shield, let His protection be sought in every season of conflict and danger.
3. If He will withhold no temporal good from His people, let them rely on His paternal regards.
4. If He will give grace, let it be expected in every time of need.
5. If He will give glory, let it be prepared for and anticipated.
6. If those only who walk uprightly have a right to expect this blessedness, let unceasing solicitude be manifested that the character may be formed by grace Divine, so that it may be viewed with approbation by Him who will render to every man according to his works.—The Young Minister’s Companion.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Sermon Bible 1900 · Public Domain On v1 Psa 84:1-4
Psa 84:1-4
I. Consider who is the Father of this home. He is the almighty God. With what confidence it becomes the children of such a Father to depend on their home being replenished with happiness! He is your Father; treat Him not as your enemy. Recommend His house by your cheerfulness. Melancholy is its discredit.
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II. Consider who is the Steward of this house. It is the Son of God, whom His Father has appointed to the office. Notice two things which assure us of the faithfulness and tenderness with which Christ must discharge His stewardlike trust. (1) There is His devotedness to His Father’s honour and gratification. (2) In addition to the general benevolence of His character, there is His kinsmanship for our security. We are not only His Father’s children: we are His own brethren.
III. Consider who is the Tutor of the Christian home—He through whom the Son, as Steward for the Father, conducts the education of the family. It is as the Illuminator and Educator of the soul that as a Physician the Holy Ghost cures it of its diseases, and as its Law-agent guides it either in its pleadings for mercy before the throne of God, or in its defences against its adversaries: the devil, the world, and the flesh.
IV. The provision and entertainment of the home are presided over and administered with this threefold Divine care. Good thoughts are the feast provided in the Christian’s home. There is one thought which unites with and pervades all the rest: the proclamation of the pardon of the Cross. Not only is this thought a feast of itself, but it is only as it mingles with the other thoughts that they prove a feast too.
W. Anderson, Discourses, p. 205.
Reference: Psa 84:1-7.—J. R. Macduff, Communion Memories, p. 28.
Psa 84:2
The whole of this Psalm is the uttered desire of a soul for public worship. Yet, after all, the Psalmist reaches the climax of desire not when he speaks of the sanctuary, but of God Himself.
I. Observe the desire of heart and flesh—the living God. If a man wishes to know whether he is really a saint or no, he can very soon find out by putting his finger upon the pulse of his desires, for these are things that can never be counterfeit. The desire of the true saint is after God Himself. There are three things which sufficiently account for this desire Godward; and the first and chief is that every saint has within his breast that which is actually born of God, and therefore it cries out after its own Father. (2) Another reason is that every believer has the Spirit of God dwelling within him; and if he has the Spirit of God dwelling within him, it is only natural that he should desire God. (3) This desire after God becomes intensified by earth’s experience.
II. Observe the intensity of the desire: "My heart and my flesh crieth out." Heart and flesh being both mentioned, we are taught that it is the desire of the whole man. In the original this word "crieth out" means the cry of a company of soldiers as they fall on the foe. There is expectation, eagerness, desire, all concentrated in its note. (1) It is an intensity that drowns all other desires—"crieth out for God." (2) It is an intensity of desire that creates pain. The language of our text is the language of a soul which can bear its anguish no longer in silence. It is a cry extorted by inward pangs.
A. G. Brown, Penny Pulpit, No. 1077.
Reference: Psa 84:2.—L. D. Bevan, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxv., p. 361
Psa 84:3
I. The first point in the analogy is that of rest and home—home rest. The house of God, the house of the Father, and the elder Brother, and all the children, is, and must be from its nature, a home. All needed rest and comfort is to be found in it.
II. Liberty. To the soul in God’s house, as to the bird in its nest, there is a happy combination of rest and freedom. A nest is not a cage. There is rest in revealed truth in Christ, in a reconciled God, in holiness; but there is the freedom of a spirit which abides in these because they are ever true and real to it, and which goes forth at liberty to seek and find all that is in any way good or true.
W. Morison, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xiv., p. 143.
References: Psa 84:3.—H. Macmillan, The Olive Leaf, p. 119; Spurgeon, My Sermon Notes: Genesis to Proverbs, p. 154; Preacher’s Lantern, vol. ii., p. 496. Psa 84:4.—Preacher’s Monthly, vol. ii., p. 283; G. Brooks, Outlines of Sermons, p. 252. Psa 84:5.—A. Scott, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xx., p. 205.
Psa 84:5-6
I. Every true Christian must expect to have his own private "valley of Baca." (1) But even this shows the intelligence which is resident in our trials. Nothing happens; all is ordered. And one of our arguments to prove we are in the true way is found in the discovery that it leads through roughness and confusion. (2) This is the way along which our Saviour went before us. We must learn to discern the tracks of Jesus.
II. Every true Christian must expect to pass through his valley of Baca. Jerusalem lay on the top of a hill. It was surrounded with mountains, traversed by ravines and gorges. Valleys sunless and barren seemed most unwelcome roadways, but they afforded the surest and shortest approaches to Zion. (1) There is no mountain without its valley. (2) By the grace of God, rests have been allowed by the way.
III. Every true Christian must expect to find a "well" in each valley of Baca. (1) In every sorrow there is some mitigation. (2) Sometimes trouble opens new sluices of joy in our experience. (3) We must always search deeply all around our afflictions.
IV. Every true Christian may force even the valley of Baca to become his well. Two conditions of success in finding out the blessedness of sorrow are indicated here in the verses of the text. One is full trust in Divine providence; the other is habitual repose upon Divine wisdom.
V. Every true Christian will find his valley of Baca ending on the mount of God. "Every one of them appeareth before God."
C. S. Robinson, Sermons on Neglected Texts, p. 1.
Reference: Psa 84:6.—Spurgeon, Morning by Morning, p. 257.
Psa 84:7
(with Eph 4:15)
There is a whole "Pilgrim’s Progress" in this text from the wicket-gate to the Celestial City. And, indeed, it is a pilgrim’s song, the song of the Israelites ascending from the extreme parts of their nation to the great assembling of the people. And the Church has through all ages adopted this word as the expression of its experience. Nothing gained is merely gained for rest, only for further and future acquisition.
I. The Gospel of Christ is a wonderful adaptation for the forming of a perfect man. It is adapted to every variety of character, to every variety of mental and moral state, to every variety of circumstance and condition. It touches the necessities of all, speaks to the yearnings of all, answers the questions of all, responds to the hopes of all, expands the affections of all. It says to all, Grow.
II. The truth is, man is a progressive being. "If he be not rising up to be an angel, he is sinking to be a devil." His tendency may be more downwards than upwards; and he may be perfect not only in Christ, but he may be, through passion and through the knowledge of sin, perfect in the enormity of sin.
III. This is the method of life with all of us. Every acquisition is the ground of future conquest. Every gain is only the hope of future gain. "And thus the righteous shall hold on his way, and he that hath clean hands shall wax stronger and stronger." "Till we all come to the stature of the perfect man in Christ Jesus." To this the individual, to this the race, shall come. In that future world to which our life is hastening there will be scope for every development. Thither our footsteps and our best ambitions turn; and surely, even in a "strange land," the going with weariness from strength to strength will be compensated by such a home.
E. Paxton Hood, Sermons, p. 163.
Psa 84:7
Notice a few unequivocal evidences of spiritual progress in the condition of the saint of God.
I. A growing sense of God.
II. A growing dependence upon Christ.
III. Increasing steadiness and success in the resistance of temptation.
IV. Decreasing absorption in worldly objects and attractions.
V. An increased unselfishness and disinterestedness of religious emotion.
VI. A deepened composure in anticipating death and eternity.
A. Mursell, Calls to the Cross, p. 141.
References: Psa 84:7.—Spurgeon, Morning by Morning, p. 349; H. M. Butler, Harrow Sermons, 2nd series, p. 230; F. E. Paget, Helps and Hindrances to the Christian Life, vol. ii., p. 138; G. Brooks, Outlines of Sermons, p. 107. Psa 84:10.—Ibid., p. 252; J. N. Norton, Every Sunday, p. 114.
Psa 84:11
Perhaps no other object in nature has so many attributes that fit it to represent a supreme and invisible source of power, and life, and government as the sun.
I. Observe its universality, as a fit emblem of the universal power of God.
II. The forthstreaming of light and power from the sun has been going on through incomputable periods of time. Man’s lamp is daily filled and trimmed, emblem of his own mind, that by rest and sleep refills its waste. The sun needs no trimming. God’s lamp and God pour for ever untrimmed and unfilled. He is the God of ages, and yet is not old.
III. Consider also what an image of abundance the sun affords. God is everywhere in Scripture described as fruitful of effects, yet serene, quiescent, still. No being so little as God rests, and yet no being is conceived to be so quiescent as He.
IV. Sunlight not only bears light for guidance and heat for comfort, but has a stimulating and developing power. The sun exerts creative energy. All things presuppose the sun. The whole life of the animal and vegetable kingdom waits day by day for the ministering care and stimulus of the sun. And this is most significantly an image of that presence, and power, and nursing influence which resides in our God.
V. The sun is the centre of attraction, the holding force of the universe. Its invisible power harnesses all planets and stars. So God is the centre of power, and the centre of government.
VI. Consider that generosity and democracy which the sun exercises. The sun bears itself without partiality in infinite abundance and continuity. It is a life-giving stimulus to all things. And it is the emblem of God, of whom it is said, "He maketh His sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust."
VII. Prolific and infinite in benefit as the sun is, it is observable that only a part of its benefit is thrust upon man, and that that part is mainly that which concerns his lower necessities. If we would go further, and use the sun as artists use it, and draw out its subtler elements of beauty, we must study its laws in that direction and obey them. So it is with the Sun of righteousness. He sheds a providential watchfulness and protection upon all men, without regard to character; but if men would go higher and perfect the understanding, refine the moral sentiments, purify the heart, and come to be Godlike, developing the God that is in them, for this there is special labour required.
H. W. Beecher, Forty-eight Sermons, vol. i., p. 345.
References: Psa 84:11.—Homiletic Quarterly, vol. iii., p. 252; R. S. Candlish, Sonship and Brotherhood of Believers, pp. 66, 79. Psa 84:11, Psa 84:12.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxviii., No. 1659. Psalm 84—Homiletic Magazine, vol. vi., p. 109, and vol. vii., p. 56; E. Johnson, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxv., p. 75.
The Sermon Bible, ed. William Robertson Nicoll (1888–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
F. W. Grant 1903 · Public Domain On v1 Jehovah supreme and sufficient for the soul; and Christ…
Jehovah supreme and sufficient for the soul; and Christ the foundation.
To the chief musician, upon the Gittith: a psalm of the sons of Korah.
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Israel are still away from the courts of Jehovah’s house, but their faces and their hearts are thitherward; and if they have not yet the blessedness they long for, they have that of those in whose heart are the ways which lead there. For such the vale of tears becomes a place of springs, and the rain overspreads it with blessings. They go from strength to strength until they all appear at last before God in Zion. But whence comes this security? whence this confidence of heart in God? It is revealed in this, that God is looking on the face of His Anointed. Indeed, we cannot but think, as we read the psalm; of Him who had left the glory which He had with the Father, and has returned to it; though here it is the earthly house of God’s rest in Israel that is the goal of these pilgrim feet. Still, whatever be the surroundings. it is God Himself that is sought, as by every soul that has been touched by divine grace; and we have never found any difficulty in translating these intense longings into Christian speech. The Spirit of Christ breathes in them, and unites the hearts of His own in one desire, whatever may be the variety in its expression.
Another testimony to what is in this psalm is found in the al-haggittith of the title; which here, as in the eighth and eighty-first psalms, speaks of the joy that springs out of sorrow, -nay, of the surpassing joy that has come to us out of the One great Sorrow (see p. 38). Thus again we recognize the "Anointed," upon whose face Jehovah is besought to look. And this agrees with all that precedes and follows, while it gives fullness of meaning to much that otherwise would lack in definiteness and unity of purpose. This distinctness of outline shows when we have got the focus duly adjusted to the object before us.
1. The cry of heart is after the "living God" -a simple and even a poor expression; one would say; for the least truth to affirm about God is that He is "living." But this only shows how poor are we, who need to remind ourselves that He is this. He, Jehovah of hosts, around Whom move the myriad forces of the universe in sympathetic obedience; -He in Whom we and all else His creatures, "live and move and have our being," -He Himself lives! Yes we are poor enough even to need the being reminded and to find the consolation of this. And how good a thing is it, in the midst of a world in which evil seems oft to be gaining the day, and when He is silent and still, and we cry, "How long?" but He stirs not, -how good is it then to stay our souls with the assurance, "Yet God liveth"!
The soul here knows, too, that this God is One who draws near to men; yea, in the memory of the past and in the sweet vision of the future, tabernacles among them. Lovely, indeed, the tabernacles of Jehovah of hosts! The very thought of it tells what He is, -that He is -how unspeakably! -gracious. Yet there is distance now, and he who speaks longs, yea, faints with desire, to pass it and to be with Him. His heart and his very flesh cry out for the living God: it is a longing so intense that the body feels and thrills with it.
2. It is a fact "well-known in history, that small birds lived undisturbed within the precincts of the temple" (Moll). How suited a testimony to the Maker of all, who dwelt there! The spirit of the psalmist carries him there now, as if he were one of those unchecked dwellers in Jehovah’s courts; and the sparrow and the swallow become figures by which he would have us know what answers there the longings of heart which he has been expressing. He himself is the sparrow that has found a house, the social bird which, as found alone upon the house-top, is the very image of desolation (Psa 102:7), but which now has all that heart can desire in nearness to its Maker. How wonderful to know, as we now know, that He, in truth of manhood, has drawn near to us, to seek our companionship! and that we are to be with Him, in all that this implies, forever! Who would not give Him -alas, rather, who does give Him aright, that which He seeks for from us and in us? and which we are not to wait for in eternity, but to yield Him now. "I call you not servants," He says, "for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth; but I have called you friends: for all things that I have heard of My Father I have made known unto you" (Joh 15:15). Have we at all entered into this? What would the word of God be to us, if indeed we had! How would its "deep things" delight us, as the Spirit of God within us searched them out! How many of its inmost recesses would be left unpenetrated! And what ecstatic joy would there not be for us! what assurance of faith, of hope, of understanding, would we not gain!
Yet the "sparrow" -two of which are sold for a farthing -speaks also of something else in us which the presence of God would work, and which is every way of the greatest importance, the sense of littleness, yea, of nothingness before Him. The abasing of pride is the surest accompaniment and sign of being brought nigh to Him; "the proud He beholden afar off."
The swallow is, according to the meaning of the word (deror) the bird of freedom. Its bold, dashing flight and migratory habits naturally speak of this. But this free-roaming bird can be held by its affections; and the "place where she may lay her young" claims her effectually. But the nest here is in a place where no swallow could place hers: faith finds its satisfaction and rest in Jehovah’s altars, and these have no prohibition for it, but a welcome and a home.
Thus the link with the title becomes again apparent, and we find how truly it is a psalm "upon the Gittith" which is here. For every Christian heart knows surely what these altars of the sanctuary represent for us. The one efficacious work by which we are reconciled and brought to God is the work of the altar. The blood given upon the altar is that by which atonement for the soul is made; and thus Christ is seen as the answer to the deepest need that we can have, and the One by whom the priestly altar of incense becomes ours, with its sacrifices of praise and of a devoted life.
The happy cry rings out then: "Jehovah of hosts! my King and my God!" How blessed to know that this is our God, on the absolute Throne eternal, changeless in all those attributes upon which faith triumphantly lays hold, and in which it shelters itself from all possible ill.
3. From this it is hardly a transition to the next verse, in which is contemplated the happiness of such dwellers in Jehovah’s house. Their constant occupation is that which certifies their blessedness: "they will still be praising Thee." Praise is but overflowing happiness in the soul conscious of whence this comes; and this continually is but joy continual -a perpetual overflow of it. Such will heaven be: and here on earth we find the beginning of it.
4. Israel is not yet at home with God; but they are on the way there, and already experiencing a happiness which is the result of this. The psalmist proceeds to speak of this with assurance. The way with God is the way to God and the strength that is found in Him is found in and for the way with Him. "Happy is the man," he says, "whose strength is in Thee: in whose heart are the ways," -what ways the verses following make evident: "who, going through the valley of Baca, make it a place of springs; yea, the early rain covereth it with blessings. They go from strength to strength: every one appeareth before God in Zion."
The ways of pilgrims leading up to the city of God are certainly, therefore, what is meant. The valley of Baca is no literal place, but figurative, just as is that which is spoken of it. And so, if the name be taken from the baca-shrub, from which, if wounded, a tear-like liquid exudes, there is none the less clear an intentional connection with bacah, "weeping." The "place of springs" and the "rain" are naturally also an antithesis to this; and altogether they furnish such a picture as will appeal to any one of God’s pilgrims in any dispensation. For all, His miracles of grace are wrought; just as for all who seek strength in Him alone, that strength must prove its sufficiency for all demands upon it. Trial is found, and sorrow, and humiliation; but amid all this are found the sources of plenteous refreshment. How but in a world of sorrow could we have fellowship with the Man of sorrows! How else could we realize the perfection of His path who has "left us an example, that we should walk in His steps"? And then, what spiritual transformations are effected by the direct out-pouring of the rain of heaven!
So "they go from strength to strength:" in the experience of strength all through, even while it leave us in ourselves the consciousness of perfect weakness -and it will, and ought; for so is it plain that the strength is ministered, and is of God; and the tenderness of divine love gains on us continually: -the power for us is also power over us.
Divine grace is full and assured: "every one of them appeareth before God in Zion." There is no uncertainty or ambiguity about this.
5. The last section shows us now, as it appears, a soul embarking on this pilgrimage. His face is set toward the house of God, and he starts with a prayer to Him on whom he realizes his dependence. He addresses Him moreover not only as "Jehovah, God of hosts," whom he needs to be a defence about him; but also as "the God of Jacob," recognizing his need of the grace which this term expresses. And now we come to see afresh the ground of his assurance: "Behold," he says, "O God our shield; and look upon the face of Thine Anointed." "The confirmation in ver. 11," observes Delitzsch, "puts the fact that we have before us a psalm belonging to the time of David’s persecution by Absalom beyond all doubt. Manifestly, when his king prevails, the poet will at the same time be restored to the sanctuary." Even taken in this way, the typical significance is not difficult to discern. How much more when we realize the application to the latter days: for what anointed beside One can then be thought of? There will be no king in Israel then; and to speak, as some do, of Israel as this is entirely strange to Scripture. On the other hand, that the doctrine of acceptance in Christ should take the form of prayer in the Old Testament, is no real difficulty. Israel looked in hope for what we, more favored, see as already accomplished.
Thus now the psalmist’s heart bursts out afresh with desire towards the sanctuary from which he is yet absent. He would rather stand even at the threshold of the house of God, than dwell in the tents -the mere temporary dwellings -of the wicked. "For a sun and a shield is Jehovah Elohim" -not a sun which smiles, but which shields: and this is true of the natural sun even; in a way we feebly realize. Cholera will take the sunless side of a street, and the other will escape it. But the image (only found here in Scripture) necessarily reminds us of Him in whom God has manifested Himself -in whom the glory of the Light has clothed a body, to become for us the Luminary of the day. Who can resist here the thought that Christ is again thus designedly brought before us? if not in that of the writer, yet in the thought of the Spirit, as moved of Whom he writes.
Naturally it follows that "Jehovah giveth grace and glory": only as grace could He give glory; and glory is the crown, not of our ways, but of His ways with us. Yet it is to the upright in heart and walk; for grace makes such: "no good will He withhold from those that walk uprightly." Well may the conclusion be: "Jehovah of hosts; happy is the man that trusteth in Thee."
F. W. Grant, The Numerical Bible (4th ed., 1903) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Alexander MacLaren 1905 · Public Domain On vv3, 5, 12
Psalms
SPARROWS AND ALTARS
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Psa 84:3.
The well-known saying of the saintly Rutherford, when he was silenced and exiled from his parish, echoes and expounds these words. ‘When I think,’ said he, ‘upon the sparrows and swallows that build their nests in the kirk of Anwoth, and of my dumb Sabbaths, my sorrowful, bleared eyes look asquint upon Christ, and present Him as angry.’ So sighed the Presbyterian minister in his compelled idleness in a prosaic seventeenth-century Scotch town, answering his heart’s-brother away back in the far-off time, and in such different circumstances. The Psalmist was probably a member of the Levitical family of the Sons of Korah, who were ‘doorkeepers in the house of the Lord.’ He knew what he was saying when he preferred his humble office to all honours among the godless. He was shut out by some unknown circumstances from external participation in the Temple rites, and longs to be even as one of the swallows or sparrows that twitter and flit round the sacred courts. No doubt to him faith was much more inseparably attached to form than it should be for us. No doubt place and ritual were more to him than they can permissibly be to those who have heard and understood the great charter of spiritual worship spoken first to an outcast Samaritan of questionable character: ‘Neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem shall men worship the Father.’ But equally it is true that what he wanted was what the outward worship brought him, rather than the worship itself. And the psalm, which begins with ‘longing’ and ‘fainting’ for the courts of the Lord, and pronouncing benedictions on ‘those that dwell in Thy house,’ works itself clear, if I might so say, and ends with ‘O Lord of Hosts! Blessed is the man that trusteth in Thee’-for he shall ‘dwell in Thy house,’ wherever he is. So this flight of imagination in the words of my text may suggest to us two or three lessons.
I. I take it first as pointing a bitter and significant contrast.
‘The sparrow hath found a house, and the swallow a nest for herself,’ while I! We do not know what the Psalmist’s circumstances were, but if we accept the conjecture that he may have accompanied David in his flight during Absalom’s rebellion, we may fancy him as wandering on the uplands across Jordan, and sharing the agitations, fears, and sorrows of those dark hours, and in the midst of all, as the little company hurried hither and thither for safety, thinking, with a touch of bitter envy, of the calm restfulness and serene services of the peaceful Temple.
But, pathetic as is the complaint, when regarded as the sigh of a minister of the sanctuary exiled from the shrine which was as his home, and from the worship which was his occupation and delight, it sounds a deeper note and one which awakens echoes in our hearts, when we hear in it, as we may, the complaint of humanity contrasting its unrest with the happier lot of lower creatures. Do you remember who it was that said-and on what occasion He said it-’Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have roosting-places, but the Son of Man hath not where to lay His head’? That saying, like our text, has a narrower and a wider application. In the former it pathetically paints the homeless Christ, a wanderer in a land peculiarly ‘His own,’ and warns His enthusiastic would-be follower of the lot which he was so light-heartedly undertaking to share. But when Jesus calls Himself ‘Son of Man,’ He claims to be the realised ideal of humanity, and when, as in that saying, He contrasts the condition of ‘the Son of Man’ with that of the animal creation, we can scarcely avoid giving to the words their wider application to the same contrast between man’s homelessness and the creatures’ repose which we have found in the Psalmist’s sigh.
Yes! There is only one being in this world that does not fit the world that he is in, and that is man, chief and foremost of all. Other beings perfectly correspond to what we now call their ‘environment.’ Just as the soft mollusc fits every convolution of its shell, and the hard shell fits every curve of the soft mollusc, so every living thing corresponds to its place and its place to it, and with them all things go smoothly. But man, the crown of creation, is an exception to this else universal complete adaptation. ‘The earth, O Lord! is full of Thy mercy,’ but the only creature who sees and says that is the only one who has further to say, ‘I am a stranger on the earth.’ He and he alone is stung with restlessness and conscious of longings and needs which find no satisfaction here. That sense of homelessness may be an agony or a joy, a curse or a blessing, according to our interpretation of its meaning, and our way of stilling it. It is not a sign of inferiority, but of a higher destiny, that we alone should bear in our spirits the ‘blank misgivings’ of those who, amid unsatisfying surroundings, have blind feelings after ‘worlds not realised,’ which elude our grasp. It is no advantage over us that every fly dancing in the treacherous gleams of an April sun, and every other creature on the earth except ourselves, on whom the crown is set, is perfectly proportioned to its place, and has desire and possessions absolutely conterminous.
‘The son of man hath not where to lay his head.’ Why must he alone wander homeless on the bleak moorland, whilst the sparrows and the swallows have their nests and their houses? Why? Because they are sparrows and swallows, and he is man, and ‘better than many sparrows.’ So let us lay to heart the sure promises, the blessed hopes, the stimulating exhortations, which come from that which, at first sight, seems to be a mystery and half an arraignment of the divine wisdom, in the contrast between the restlessness of humanity and the reposeful contentment of those whom we call the lower creatures. Be true to the unrest, brother! and do not mistake its meaning, nor seek to still it, until it drives you to God.
II. These words bring to us a plea which we may use, and a pledge on which we may rest.
‘Thine altars, O Lord of hosts! my King and my God.’ The Psalmist pleads with God, and lays hold for his own confidence upon the fact that creatures which do not understand what the altar means, may build beside it, and those which have no notion of who the God is to whom the house is sacred, are yet cared for by Him. And he thinks to himself, ‘If I can say “My King and my God,” surely He that takes care of them will not leave me uncared for.’ The unrest of the soul that is capable of appropriating God is an unrest which has in it, if we understand it aright, the assurance that it shall be stilled and satisfied. He that is capable of entering into the close personal relationship with God which is expressed by that eloquent little pronoun and its reduplication with the two words, ‘King’ and ‘God’-such a creature cannot cry for rest in vain, nor in vain grope, as a homeless wanderer, for the door of the Father’s house.
‘Doth God care for oxen; or saith He it altogether for our sakes?’ ‘Consider the fowls of the air; your heavenly Father feedeth them.’ And the same argument which the Apostle used in the one of these sayings, and our Lord in the other, is valid and full of encouragement when applied to this matter. He that ‘satisfies the desires of every living thing,’ and fills full the maw of the lowest creature; and puts the worms into the gaping beak of the young ravens when they cry, is not the King to turn a deaf ear, or the back of His hand, to the man who can appeal to Him with this word on his lips, ‘My King and my God!’ We grasp God when we say that; and all that we see of provident recognition and supply of wants in dealings with these lower creatures should encourage us to cherish calm unshakable confidence that every true desire of our souls after Him is as certain to be satisfied.
And so the glancing swallows around the eaves of the Temple and the twittering sparrows on its pinnacles may proclaim to us, not only a contrast which is bitter, but a confidence which is sweet. We may be sure that we shall not be left uncared for amongst the many pensioners at His table, and that the deeper our wants the surer we are of their supply. Our bodies may hunger in vain-bodily hunger has no tendency to bring meat; but our spirits cannot hunger in vain if they hunger after God; for that hunger is the sure precursor and infallible prophet of the coming satisfaction.
These words not only may hearten us with confidence that our desires will be satisfied if they are set upon Him, but they point us to the one way by which they are so. Say ‘My King and my God!’ in the deepest recesses of a spirit conscious of His presence, of a will submitting to His authority, of emptiness expectant of His fulness; say that, and you are in the house of the Lord. For it is not a question of place, it is a question of disposition and desire. This Psalmist, though, when he began his song, he was far away from the Temple, and though he finished it sitting on the same hillside on which he began it, when he had ended it was within the curtains of the sanctuary and wrapt about with the presence of his God. He had regained as he sang what for a moment he had lost the consciousness of when he began-viz. the presence of God with him on the lone, dreary expanse of alien soil as truly as amidst the sanctities of what was called His House.
So, brethren! if we want rest, let us clasp God as ours; if we desire a home warm, safe, sheltered from every wind that blows, and inaccessible to enemies, let us, like the swallows, nestle under the eaves of the Temple. Let us take God for our Hope. They that hold communion with Him-and we can all do that wherever we are and whatever we may be doing-these, and only these, ‘dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of their lives.’ Therefore, with deepest simplicity of expression, our psalm goes on to describe, as equally recipients of blessedness, ‘those that dwell in the house of the Lord,’ and those in ‘whose heart are the ways’ that lead to it, and to explain at last, as I have already pointed out, that both the dwellers in, and the pilgrims towards, that intimacy of abiding with God are included in the benediction showered on those who cling to Him, ‘Blessed is the man that trusteth in Thee!’
III. Lastly, we may take this picture of the Psalmist’s as a warning.
Sparrows and swallows have very small brains. They build their nests, and they do not know whose altars they are flitting around. They pursue the insects on the wing, and they twitter their little songs; and they do not understand how all their busy, glancing, brief, trivial life is being lived beneath the shadow of the cherubim, and all but in the presence of the veiled God of the Shekinah.
There are too many people who live like that. We are all tempted to build our nests where we may lay our young, or dispose of ourselves or our treasures in the very sanctuary of God, with blind, crass indifference to the Presence in which we move. The Father’s house has many mansions, and wherever we go we are in God’s Temple. Alas! some of us have no more sense of the sanctities around us, and no more consciousness of the divine Eye that looks down upon us, than if we were so many feathered sparrows flitting about the altar.
Let us take care, brethren! that we give our hearts to be influenced, and awed, and ennobled, and tranquillised by the sense of ever more being in the house of the Lord. Let us see to it that we keep in that house by continual aspiration, cherishing in our hearts the ways that lead to it; and so making all life worship, and every place what the pilgrim found the stone of Bethel to be, a house of God and a gate of heaven. For everywhere, to the eye that sees the things that are, and not only the things that seem-and to the heart that feels the unseen presence of the One Reality, God Himself-all places are temples, and all work may be beholding His beauty and inquiring in His sanctuary; and everywhere, though our heads rest upon a stone, and there be night and solitude around us, and doubt and darkness in front of us, and danger and terror behind us, and weakness within us, as was the case with Jacob, there will be the ladder with its foot at our side and its top in the heavens; and above the top of it His face, which when we see it look down upon us, makes all places and circumstances good and sweet.
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. R. Dummelow 1909 · Public Domain On v1 This Ps. sets forth the attractiveness of the Temple…
This Ps. sets forth the attractiveness of the Temple and its worship (Psa_84:1-4), and the happiness of the pilgrims who gather to it from different parts of the land (Psa_84:5-7). After a prayer for God's favour (Psa_84:8-9), it speaks of the privilege of the humblest office in the Temple (Psa_84:10), and closes by describing the graciousness of God (Psa_84:11), and the blessedness of trusting Him (Psa_84:12). The Ps. belongs to a period when the Temple was standing, and when its services were regularly carried on. If Psa_84:9 is a prayer for the king, it must be the first Temple that is in view. Psalms 42, 43 have points of resemblance to this one, and may possibly be by the same author.
Title.—Gittith] see on Psalms 8.
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1. How amiable] RM 'how lovely,' and how lovable.
4. They that dwell in thy house] the priests and other Temple officials.
5. The ways of them'] RV 'the high ways to Zion.' The reference is to Israelites whose hearts are set on the journey to Jerusalem.
6. Baca] RM 'balsam trees,' which grow in dry situations. This fact gives the v. its point. The pilgrim heart finds refreshment even on thirsty ground.
A well] RV 'a place of springs.' The rain.. pools] RV 'the early rain covereth it with blessings.'
7. From strength to strength] The pilgrimage brings no weariness, but the opposite: see Isa_40:31, and cp. 'The Pilgrim's Progress.'
9. Our shield] This phrase may either refer to God (see Psa_84:11) or to the king, in parallelism with 'thine anointed' in the following clause: see Psa_89:18 RV. Look upon the face] regard with favour. Thine anointed] probably the king. Some suggest that the high priest or the nation as a whole may be meant.
10. Better than a thousand] spent elsewhere.
A doorkeeper] This was the special duty of the sons of Korah, who are mentioned in the title of the Ps. (1Ch_9:19).
J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On vv1, 6 See title note; (See Scofield "Psa 8:1").
Gittith
See title note; (See Scofield "Psa 8:1").
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Arno C. Gaebelein 1922 · Public Domain On v1 Psalm 84-89
Psalm 84-89
Psalm 84
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In View of the Sanctuary
1. Heart longings (Psa 84:1-7)
2. In the sanctuary (Psa 84:8-12)
The two next Psalms are of the sons of Korah, who themselves are monuments of saving grace. (They were saved from the fate of Korah; see Num 26:10-11.) In these precious outpourings of the heart for the sanctuary of the Lord, we read prophetically the heart longings of the remnant of Israel. They are not yet in possession of the fullest blessings but look forward now to an early realization of all their hopes of being at His altars again. And all they long for will be their happy and lasting portion. They will go from strength to strength; He will be their Sun and Shield; He will give grace and glory. Psa 84:9 shows us our Lord. “Behold, O God our Shield, look upon the face of Thine Anointed (Christ).” It is through Him that all this will be accomplished.
Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On v1 Longing for the Beauty of the Word of God.
Longing for the Beauty of the Word of God.
To the chief musician upon Gittith, to be used in public worship with the accompaniment of a stringed instrument brought by David from the Philistine city of Gath, a psalm for the sons of Korah, one of the members of this family having been the author of this hymn praising the worship of the true God.
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v. 1. How amiable are Thy tabernacles, the places where God revealed Himself being both worthy of love and beloved by those who realize their importance, O Lord of hosts! The plural is used in speaking of God’s habitations, because David had, at this time, erected a splendid tent on Mount Zion, which harbored the Ark of the Covenant, 2Sa 6:17; 2Sa 7:2. But the old Tabernacle near Gibeon was still in use, one of the high priests being on duty there with regular priests and Levites as his assistants, 1Ch 22:19; 2Ch 1:3-5.
v. 2. My soul longeth, with intensive desire, yea, even fainteth, exhausted and almost parched with spiritual thirst, for the courts of the Lord, where the congregation assembled for worship; my heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God, with jubilant rejoicing in the midst of their sorrow, at the prospect of being in the presence of the Lord once more.
v. 3. Yea, the sparrow hath found an house and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, brooding them with tender care, the reference being to the fact that small birds were permitted to build their nests within the precincts of the Temple without being disturbed, even Thine altars, O Lord of hosts; my King, and my God. Even as the birds considered the precincts of the Tabernacle their home, to which they always returned with longing and delight, so the singer regards the habitations of the Lord, the great sanctuaries of the people, as his home on earth and longs to return there, to find both protection and food in his fellowship with God.
v. 4. Blessed are they that dwell in Thy house, enjoying their position as members of the household of God; they will be still praising Thee, no matter what outward afflictions tend to take away their feeling of happiness. Selah. While the poet waits for the removal of the obstructions which are keeping him from visiting the Sanctuary, he carries out the thought of the blessed fellowship with God, the believer’s bond of union with Jehovah.
v. 5. Blessed is the man whose strength is in Thee, the might of the All-powerful being made perfect in his own weakness; in whose heart are the ways of them, in whose thoughts were not only the pilgrim routes to Jerusalem, as they led to the Sanctuary at the time of the great festivals, but also the ways of God’s commandments, the following of which would keep the faithful in communion with Jehovah;
v. 6. who, passing through the Valley of Baca, the vale of tears, the picture being that of the toilsome ascent to the hill upon which Jerusalem is situated, make it a well, the divine blessing accompanying the faithful everywhere and supplying the means by which they are refreshed on their journey; the rain also filleth the pools, the reference being to the first fruitful rain after the heat and drought of summer, which quickly changes the parched fields into green meadows.
v. 7. They go from strength to strength, receiving an ever greater amount the nearer they approach the Holy City, everyone of them in Zion appeareth before God, having reached his goal in safety. The prayer of the faithful, therefore, rises up to the throne of Jehovah in a mighty chorus:
v. 8. O Lord God of hosts, hear my prayer; give ear, with close attention, O God of Jacob! Selah. It seems, however, that the psalmist, deprived of this glorious privilege of visiting the Tabernacle of the Lord with the congregation, now sends out an all the more fervent appeal.
v. 9. Behold, O God. our Shield, the great Protector of His children, and look upon the face of Thine anointed, the reference here probably being to David during one of the periods when he was forced to flee from Jerusalem.
v. 10. For a day in Thy courts, spent in worshiping with the congregation, is better than a thousand, such as are spent in the ordinary pursuits of life. I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God, literally, "I prefer to lie upon the threshold," the smallest measure of God’s blessing, the most remote connection with the privilege of partaking in His worship being such a wonderful experience, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness, in the midst of the greatest abundance supplied from earthly sources.
v. 11. For the Lord God is a Sun, shining upon the believers with heavenly light and life, and Shield, protecting them against dangers of every kind; the Lord will give grace and glory, these gifts being the rays coming down from the divine Sun: grace, as the favor of God; glory, the honor He bestows. No good thing will He withhold from them that walk uprightly, making the entire conduct of their life accord with the will of the Lord.
v. 12. O Lord of hosts, blessed is the man that trusteth in Thee, confidently expecting from the great King of heaven all good and all perfect gifts. The application of this psalm, both to the Christian’s longing for the blessings contained in the means of grace and to his eager desire for the final revelation of God’s glory, is obvious and, at the same time, most comforting.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1, 3, 5, 7, 11 General Information:
General Information:
Parallelism is common in Hebrew poetry. (See: Poetry and Parallelism)
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For the chief musician
"This is for the director of music to use in worship"
set to the Gittith
This may refer to a style of music. See how you translated this in Psalms 8:1.
A psalm of the sons of Korah
"This is a psalm that the sons of Korah wrote"
How lovely
"How beautiful"
I long for the courts of Yahweh
"I really want to be in the courts of Yahweh"
the courts of Yahweh
Here "courts" represent the temple. (See: Synecdoche)
my desire for it has made me exhausted
"my desire has exhausted me" or "I am tired because I want it so much"
My heart and all of my being call out
Here "heart" represents the whole person. AT: "I call out with all of my being" (See: Synecdoche)
the living God
This means God is living and he also has the power to cause other things to live.
translationWords
psalm
son
Korah
life
Yahweh of hosts
court
Yahweh
heart
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 9, 10, 11 Ps 84 The psalmist expresses his deep spiritual longing…
Ps 84 The psalmist expresses his deep spiritual longing for God’s presence. He faints with longing as he reflects on the Temple and on pilgrims making the journey to Jerusalem (84:1-7). He prays for himself and for the community (84:8-9). The conclusion of the psalm (84:10-12) clarifies that the Temple represents God—the psalmist truly longs for God’s presence. He knows that God’s goodness is greater than life and that only God can give his people favor and honor (84:10-11).
84:1-4 The psalmist is far from the Temple. He turns toward it in hopeful reflection.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.