Psalm 84:1-11

My Soul Longs for the Courts of the Lord

1 How ¹lovely is your ²dwelling place, O Lord of hosts!

2 My soul ³longs, yes, ⁴faints for the courts of the Lord; my heart and flesh sing for joy to ⁵the living God.

3 Even the sparrow finds a home, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, at your altars, O Lord of hosts, ⁶my King and my God.

4 ⁷Blessed are those who dwell in your house, ever ⁸singing your praise! Selah

5 Blessed are those whose strength is in you, ⁹in whose heart are the highways to Zion. ^[a]

6 As they go through the Valley of Baca they make it a place of springs; ¹⁰the early rain also covers it with ¹¹pools.

7 They go ¹²from strength to strength; each one ¹³appears before God in Zion.

8 O ¹⁴Lord God of hosts, hear my prayer; give ear, O God of Jacob! Selah

9 ¹⁵Behold our ¹⁶shield, O God; look on the face of your anointed!

10 For a day ¹⁷in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere. I would rather be ¹⁸a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness.

11 For the Lord God is ¹⁹a sun and ²⁰shield; the Lord bestows favor and honor. ²¹No good thing does he withhold from those who ²²walk uprightly.

Psalm 84:1-11 Meaning and Commentary

To the chief Musician upon Gittith, A Psalm for the sons of Korah. Of "gittith," See Gill on "Ps 8:1." The Targum renders it here, as there, "to praise upon the harp that was brought from Gath;" and of the sons of Korah, See Gill on "Ps 42:1" and the argument of this psalm is thought to be much the same with that and Psalm 43:1. It was, very probably, written by David; to whom the Targum, on Psalm 84:8, ascribes it; though it does not bear his name, the spirit it breathes, and the language in which it is written, show it to be his; though not when he was an exile among the Philistines, in the times of Saul, as some in Kimchi think; for then the ark was not in Zion, as is suggested Psalm 84:7, but elsewhere; for it was brought thither by David, after he was king of Israel, 2 Samuel 7:2, but rather when he fled from his son Absalom; though there is nothing in it that necessarily supposes him to be banished, or at a distance from the house of God; only he expresses his great affection for it, and his earnest desires for returning seasons and opportunities of worshipping God in it; and the general view of it is to set forth the blessedness of such who frequently attend divine service: the inscription of it, in the Syriac version, is, "for the sons of Korah, when David meditated to go out of Zion, to worship in the house of God: and it is called a prophecy concerning Christ, and concerning his church," as it undoubtedly is. Bishop Patrick thinks it was composed by some pious Levite in the country, when Sennacherib's army had blocked up the way to Jerusalem, and hindered them from waiting upon the service of God at the temple; and others refer it to the times of the Babylonish captivity; and both Jarchi and Kimchi interpret it of the captivity, when the temple and altars of God were in ruins; but this does not agree with the loveliness of them, in which they were at the time of writing this psalm.

Cross References

• 1. 84:1 [Ps. 27:4]
• 2. 84:1 Ps. 43:3; 132:5
• 3. 84:2 [Ps. 42:1, 2; 63:1]
• 4. 84:2 [Ps. 73:26; 119:81; 143:6; Job 19:27]
• 5. 84:2 See Ps. 42:2
• 6. 84:3 Ps. 5:2
• 7. 84:4 See Ps. 65:4
• 8. 84:4 Ps. 42:5, 11; 43:5
• 9. 84:5 [Ps. 122:1]
• 10. 84:6 Joel 2:23
• 11. 84:6 Ezek. 34:26
• 12. 84:7 Prov. 4:18; Isa. 40:31; [John 1:16; 2 Cor. 3:18]
• 13. 84:7 See Ps. 42:2
• 14. 84:8 See Ps. 59:5
• 15. 84:9 Ps. 80:14
• 16. 84:9 See Ps. 3:3
• 17. 84:10 ver. 2
• 18. 84:10 1 Chr. 26:19
• 19. 84:11 Isa. 60:19, 20; See Ps. 27:1; Mal. 4:2; Rev. 21:23
• 20. 84:11 [See ver. 9 above]
• 21. 84:11 Ps. 85:12; [Ps. 34:9, 10; Matt. 6:33; 7:11]
• 22. 84:11 Ps. 15:2; Prov. 2:7

Footnotes

• [a] 84:5 Hebrew lacks 'to Zion'