Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 84:8
O LORD God of hosts, hear my prayer: give ear, O God of Jacob. Selah.
8. A prayer for favourable audience, uttered apparently by the Psalmist as the leader of the pilgrims on their arrival in the Temple.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
O Lord God of hosts – See the notes at Psa 84:1. God is appealed to here as a God of power; as a God who is able to accomplish all his purposes, and to impart every needed blessing.
Hear my prayer – A prayer of the psalmist that he might also have a place among the servants of God in their worship, Psa 84:2. To this earnestness of prayer he is excited by the view which he had of the blessedness of those who went with songs up to Zion. His soul longs to be among them; from the sight of them his prayer is the more fervent that he may partake of their blessedness and joy.
Give ear, O God of Jacob – With whom Jacob wrestled in prayer, and prevailed. Gen 32:24-30. On the phrase, give ear, see the notes at Psa 5:1.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 8. Hear my prayer] Let us be restored to thy sanctuary, and to thy worship.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
O Lord God of hosts, who canst easily remove and subdue those enemies of mine who banish and keep me from the place of thy worship,
hear my prayer, in restoring me to thy house and service; which is my chief desire, Psa 84:2,3.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
O Lord God of hosts, hear my prayer,…. the redemption of the captives, says Kimchi; for the building of the house, the temple, according to Jarchi; but rather for the courts of God, an opportunity of attending them, and for the presence of God in them; see Ps 84:2 in which he might hope to succeed, from the consideration of the Lord’s being the God of hosts, or armies, in heaven and in earth; and so was able to do everything for him, and more for him than he could ask or think; his arm was not shortened, nor his ear heavy, Isa 59:1, and as this character is expressive of his power, the following is of his grace:
give ear, O God of Jacob; he being the covenant God of the people of Israel in general, and of David in particular; from whence he might comfortably conclude he would give ear to him, and it carries in it an argument why he should.
Selah. [See comments on Ps 3:2].
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
| Delight in God’s Ordinances. | |
8 O LORD God of hosts, hear my prayer: give ear, O God of Jacob. Selah. 9 Behold, O God our shield, and look upon the face of thine anointed. 10 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. 11 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. 12 O LORD of hosts, blessed is the man that trusteth in thee.
Here, I. The psalmist prays for audience and acceptance with God, not mentioning particularly what he desired God would do for him. He needed to say no more when he had professed such an affectionate esteem for the ordinances of God, which now he was restrained and banished from. All his desire was, in that profession, plainly before God, and his longing, his groaning, was not hidden from him; therefore he prays (Psa 84:8; Psa 84:9) only that God would hear his prayer and give ear, that he would behold his condition, behold his good affection, and look upon his face, which way it was set, and how his countenance discovered the longing desire he had towards God’s courts. He calls himself (as many think) God’s anointed, for David was anointed by him and anointed for him. In this petition, 1. He has an eye to God under several of his glorious titles–as the Lord God of hosts, who has all the creatures at his command, and therefore has all power both in heaven and in earth,–as the God of Jacob, a God in covenant with his own people, a God who never said to the praying seed of Jacob, Seek you me in vain,–and as God our shield, who takes his people under his special protection, pursuant to his covenant with Abraham their father. Gen. xv. 1, Fear not, Abraham, I am thy shield. When David could not be hidden in the secret of God’s tabernacle (Ps. xxvii. 5), being at a distance from it, yet he hoped to find God his shield ready to him wherever he was. 2. He has an eye to the Mediator; for of him I rather understand those words, Look upon the face of thy Messiah, thy anointed one, for of his anointing David spoke, Ps. xlv. 7. In all our addresses to God we must desire that he would look upon the face of Christ, accept us for his sake, and be well-pleased with us in him. We must look with an eye of faith, and then God will with an eye of favour look upon the face of the anointed, who does show his face when we without him dare not show ours.
II. He pleads his love to God’s ordinances and his dependence upon God himself.
1. God’s courts were his choice, v. 10. A very great regard he had for holy ordinances: he valued them above any thing else, and he expresses his value for them, (1.) By preferring the time of God’s worship before all other time: A day spent in thy courts, in attending on the services of religion, wholly abstracted from all secular affairs, is better than a thousand, not than a thousand in thy courts, but any where else in this world, though in the midst of all the delights of the children of men. Better than a thousand, he does not say days, you may supply it with years, with ages, if you will, and yet David will set his hand to it. “A day in thy courts, a sabbath day, a holy day, a feast-day, though but one day, would be very welcome to me; nay” (as some of the rabbin paraphrase it), “though I were to die for it the next day, yet that would be more sweet than years spent in the business and pleasure of this world. One of these days shall with its pleasure chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight, to shame, as not worthy to be compared.” (2.) By preferring the place of worship before any other place: I would rather be a door-keeper, rather be in the meanest place and office, in the house of my God, than dwell in state, as master, in the tents of wickedness. Observe, He calls even the tabernacle a house, for the presence of God in it made even those curtains more stately than a palace and more strong than a castle. It is the house of my God; the covenant-interest he had in God as his God was the sweet string on which he loved dearly to be harping; those, and those only, who can, upon good ground, call God theirs, delight in the courts of his house. I would rather be a porter in God’s house than a prince in those tents where wickedness reigns, rather lie at the threshold (so the word is); that was the beggar’s place (Acts iii. 2): “no matter” (says David), “let that be my place rather than none.” The Pharisees loved synagogues well enough, provided they might have the uppermost seats there (Matt. xxiii. 6), that they might make a figure. Holy David is not solicitous about that; if he may but be admitted to the threshold, he will say, Master, it is good to be here. Some read it, I would rather be fixed to a post in the house of my God than live at liberty in the tents of wickedness, alluding to the law concerning servants, who, if they would not go out free, were to have their ear bored to the door-post, Exo 21:5; Exo 21:6. David loved his master and loved his work so well that he desired to be tied to this service for ever, to be more free to it, but never to go out free from it, preferring bonds to duty far before the greatest liberty to sin. Such a superlative delight have holy hearts in holy duties; no satisfaction in their account comparable to that in communion with God.
2. God himself was his hope, and joy, and all. Therefore he loved the house of his God, because his expectation was from his God, and there he used to communicate himself, v. 11. See, (1.) What God is, and will be, to his people: The Lord God is a sun and shield. We are here in darkness, but, if God be our God, he will be to us a sun, to enlighten and enliven us, to guide and direct us. We are here in danger, but he will be to us a shield to secure us from the fiery darts that fly thickly about us. With his favour he will compass us as with a shield. Let us therefore always walk in the light of the Lord, and never throw ourselves out of his protection, and we shall find him a sun to supply us with all good and a shield to shelter us from all evil. (2.) What he does, and will, bestow upon them: The Lord will give grace and glory. Grace signifies both the good-will of God towards us and the good work of God in us; glory signifies both the honour which he now puts upon us, in giving us the adoption of sons, and that which he has prepared for us in the inheritance of sons. God will give them grace in this world as a preparation for glory, and glory in the other world as the perfection of grace; both are God’s gift, his free gift. And as, on the one hand, wherever God gives grace he will give glory (for grace is glory begun, and is an earnest of it), so, on the other hand, he will give glory hereafter to none to whom he does not give grace now, or who receive his grace in vain. And if God will give grace and glory, which are the two great things that concur to make us happy in both worlds, we may be sure that no good thing will be withheld from those that walk uprightly. It is the character of all good people that they walk uprightly, that they worship God in spirit and in truth, and have their conversation in the world in simplicity and godly sincerity; and such may be sure that God will withhold no good thing from them, that is requisite to their comfortable passage through this world. Make sure grace and glory, and other things shall be added. This is a comprehensive promise, and is such an assurance of the present comfort of the saints that, whatever they desire, and think they need, they may be sure that either Infinite Wisdom sees it is not good for them or Infinite Goodness will give it to them in due time. Let it be our care to walk uprightly, and then let us trust God to give us every thing that is good for us.
Lastly, He pronounces those blessed who put their confidence in God, as he did, v. 12. Those are blessed who have the liberty of ordinances and the privileges of God’s house. But, though we should be debarred from them, yet we are not therefore debarred from blessedness if we trust in God. If we cannot go to the house of the Lord, we may go by faith to the Lord of the house, and in him we shall be happy and may be easy.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
8 O Jehovah, God of Hosts! hear my prayer. David, instead of acting like worldly men, who foolishly and unprofitably distress and torment themselves by inwardly cherishing their desires, very wisely directs his wishes and prayers to God. From this it is also evident, that he was not accustomed to indulge in ostentatious boasting, as is the case with many hypocrites, who present to outward appearance a wonderful ardor of zeal, while yet the omniscient eye of God sees nothing but coldness in their hearts. In the first place, he supplicates in general, that God would vouchsafe to hear him. He next anticipates a temptation which might very readily arise from his being at present apparently cut off from the Church, and wards it off, by associating and ranking himself with all true believers, under the protection of God. Had he not been a member of the Church, he could not have said generally, and as it were in the person of all its members, Our shield. Having made this statement, he uses language still more expressive of high privilege, adducing the royal anointing with which God had honored him by the hand of Samuel, 1Sa 16:12. These words, Look upon the face of thy anointed, are very emphatic, and yet many interpreters pass over them very frigidly. He encourages himself in the hope of obtaining the favor of God, from the consideration that he had been anointed king in compliance with a divine command. Knowing, however, that his kingdom was merely a shadow and type of something more illustrious, there is no doubt, that in uttering these words, the object which he aspired after was, to obtain the divine favor through the intervention of the Mediator of whom he was a type. I am personally unworthy, as if he had said, that thou shouldest restore me, but the anointing by which thou hast made me a type of the only Redeemer will secure this blessing for me. We are thus taught, that the only way in which God becomes reconciled to us is through the mediation of Christ, whose presence scatters and dissipates all the dark clouds of our sins.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
A new subject is evidently opened at this verse: Here is a soul calling upon God as a covenant God, the God of Jacob; and in his name prays to be heard.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Psa 84:8 O LORD God of hosts, hear my prayer: give ear, O God of Jacob. Selah.
Ver. 8. O Lord God of hosts, hear my prayer ] Satisfy my yearnings, pantings, and inquietations of mind after the liberty of thy sanctuary, Psa 84:2 . These very desires he calleth prayers.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Psa 84:8-12
😯 Lord God of hosts, hear my prayer;
Give ear, O God of Jacob! Selah.
9Behold our shield, O God,
And look upon the face of Your anointed.
10For a day in Your courts is better than a thousand outside.
I would rather stand at the threshold of the house of my God
Than dwell in the tents of wickedness.
11For the Lord God is a sun and shield;
The Lord gives grace and glory;
No good thing does He withhold from those who walk uprightly.
12O Lord of hosts,
How blessed is the man who trusts in You!
Psa 84:8-9 There are four imperatives used in two parallel lines.
1. hear – BDB 1033, KB 1570, Qal
2. give ear – BDB 24, KB 27, Hiphil
3. behold – BDB 906, KB 1157, Qal
4. look – BDB 613, KB 661, Hiphil
These are prayer requests for YHWH to restore access to temple worship. Notice how the plurals of Psa 84:4-7 return to the singulars of Psa 84:2-3!
Psa 84:8-9 is a prayer for a person’s restoration to temple worship and for this to come about by God strengthening and empowering Israel’s king (Psa 84:9 b)!
Psa 84:8 God of hosts Sabaoth (BDB 838) usually has a military connotation (i.e., Joshua), God, the commander of the heavenly army. In a Babylonian astral idolatry context it refers to the stars. YHWH is the creator and controller of all heavenly lights.
Psa 84:9 our shield This is a title for God (cf. Gen 15:1; Deu 33:29; Psa 18:2; Psa 115:9-11) or Israel’s king.
Your anointed This could refer to the High Priest (cf. Lev 4:3; Zechariah 3-4), but probably the King (cf. Psa 2:2; Psa 132:17; 1Sa 2:35; 1Sa 16:6; 2Sa 19:21). In Psa 89:18 both shield and king are used of the King of Israel.
For anointed see Special Topic: OT Titles of the Special Coming One.
Psa 84:10 For a day in Your courts is better than a thousand outside This is the use of the term thousand in a symbolic way (see Special Topic: Thousand [eleph] ). The comparison is not fully stated, One day with YHWH in His temple is better than a thousand days anywhere else! (i.e., Psa 27:4).
the threshold It is true that in the ancient world, the threshold (BDB 706) was viewed as potentially demon filled, especially in Roman culture. However, in this context it seems obvious that this is a comparative statement. The psalmist would rather be at the outskirts of the temple than in the plush comfort and hospitality of the wicked.
Some commentators try to make threshold (BDB 706) a title for the Levite gatekeepers (cf. 1Ch 9:19; 1Ch 9:22; 2Ch 23:4). I think threshold (cf. Jdg 19:27; 1Ki 14:17; 2Ch 3:7) fits this context best.
tents of wickedness This is an anachronism from the nomadic days of Israel. The opposite is expressed in Psa 27:5-6.
Psa 84:11 a sun The Aramaic Targums interpret sun (BDB 1039) as bulwark (sun, , BDB 1039; battlements, , BDB 1039, cf. Isa 54:12). Battlement fits the parallelism with shield better. The OT was reluctant to use sun in connection with YHWH because of the widespread worship of the sun in the ANE. If sun is original, then it is a metaphor that focuses on light, truth, health, revelation, blessing, etc. Deity is described in this way in Isa 60:19-20; Mal 4:2; Rev 21:23. He is the true, eternal light.
Psa 84:11-12 This is a summary of the believer’s worldview. God is with us and for us, even when we are physically separated from the designated place of worship. To faithful followers YHWH
1. is sun and shield
2. gives grace and glory
3. withholds no good thing (cf. Psa 34:10 b)
4. blesses those who (conditional element)
a. walk uprightly
b. trust Him
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
This is a study guide commentary which means that you are responsible for your own interpretation of the Bible. Each of us must walk in the light we have. You, the Bible, and the Holy Spirit are priority in interpretation. You must not relinquish this to a commentator.
These discussion questions are provided to help you think through the major issues of this section of the book. They are meant to be thought provoking, not definitive.
1. Why was the psalmist away from the temple?
2. How is this Psalm related to Psalms 42?
3. Is the reference to highways (Psa 84:5) literal or symbolic?
4. Why is Psa 84:6 so hard to translate?
5. To whom does the term anointed (Psa 84:9 b) refer?
6. In what way(s) is YHWH like the sun? Why is this analogy rare in the OT?
7. List the two conditions mentioned in Psa 84:11-12. Is the covenant conditional or unconditional?
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
God of Jacob. Not Israel, but the God (Elohim) Who met Jacob when he had nothing and deserved nothing (but wrath), and promised him everything: thus becoming “the God of all grace”.
Selah. Connecting the request for audience with the words of the prayer, and dividing the Psalm, structurally, into its two parts.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Reciprocal: Psa 55:1 – Give Psa 146:5 – the God
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Psa 84:8-9. O Lord God of hosts Who canst easily remove and subdue those enemies who banish and keep me from the place of thy worship; hear my prayer In restoring me to thy house and service; which is my chief desire, Psa 84:2-3. Behold, O God our shield Look graciously upon me, O thou that takest thy people under thy peculiar protection, pursuant to thy covenant with Abraham our father, and who hast hitherto been our defence against the most powerful enemies; and look upon the face of thine anointed Upon me, who, though a vile sinner, am thine anointed king. Or, by Gods anointed, he may mean Christ, whose proper name is the Messiah, or, the anointed One. So the sense may be, Lord, I deserve not one kind look from thee, because, by my great wickedness, I have procured thy just displeasure and this banishment; but look upon thy Christ, whose coming and meritorious passion, though future to us, are present to thee, and for his sake look upon me.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
3. Praying on the way 84:8-12
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
The pilgrim addressed God in prayer as he traveled. He interceded for the king, who was as a shield for the people, as well as the Lord’s anointed vice regent.