Psaume 84:2-12

2 Éternel des armées, que tes tabernacles sont aimables!

3 Mon âme languit, même elle se consume après les parvis de l'Éternel; mon cœur et ma chair crient vers le Dieu vivant.

4 Le passereau même a bien trouvé une maison, et l'hirondelle son nid où elle a mis ses petits. Tes autels, ô Éternel des armées, mon roi et mon Dieu!

5 Heureux ceux qui habitent ta maison, qui te louent incessamment! Sélah (pause).

6 Heureux l'homme dont la force est en toi, ceux qui aiment les chemins de ta maison!

7 Passant par la vallée de Baca (Larmes), ils en font une source vive; et la pluie d'automne la couvre de biens.

8 Ils vont de force en force pour se présenter devant Dieu en Sion.

9 Éternel, Dieu des armées, écoute ma prière! Dieu de Jacob, prête l'oreille!

10 O Dieu, notre bouclier, vois et regarde la face de ton Oint!

11 Car un jour dans tes parvis vaut mieux que mille ailleurs. J'aime mieux me tenir sur le seuil, dans la maison de mon Dieu, que d'habiter dans les tentes des méchants.

12 Car l'Éternel Dieu est un soleil et un bouclier; l'Éternel donne la grâce et la gloire; il ne refuse aucun bien à ceux qui marchent dans l'intégrité.

Psaume 84:2-12 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.