Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 84:1
To the chief Musician upon Gittith, A Psalm for the sons of Korah. How amiable [are] thy tabernacles, O LORD of hosts!
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.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
1, 2. The Psalmist’s delight in the house of God.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
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.
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.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Psa 84:1-12
How amiable are Thy tabernacles, O Lord of Hosts!
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.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
PSALM LXXXIV
The psalmist longs for communion with God in the sanctuary,
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.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Thy tabernacle, called tabernacles, either
1. Because it consisted of several parts; or,
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.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
1. amiablenot lovely, butbeloved.
tabernacles (Ps43:3).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
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, 2Sa 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.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
How loved and lovely ( ) is the sacred dwelling-place ( plur. as in Psa 43:3) of the all-commanding, redemptive God, viz., His dwelling-place here below upon Zion! Thither the poet is drawn by the deeply inward yearning of love, which makes him pale ( from , to grow pale, Psa 17:12) and consumes him ( as in Job 19:27). His heart and flesh joyfully salute the living God dwelling there, who, as a never-failing spring, quenches the thirst of the soul (Psa 42:3); the joy that he feels when he throws himself back in spirit into the long-denied delight takes possession even of his bodily nature, the bitter-sweet pain of longing completely fills him (Psa 63:2). The mention of the “courts” (with the exception of the Davidic Psa 65:5, occurring only in the anonymous Psalms) does not preclude the reference of the Psalm to the tent-temple on Zion. The Tabernacle certainly had only one ; the arrangement of the Davidic tent-temple, however, is indeed unknown to us, and, according to reliable traces,
(Note: Vid., Knobel on Exodus, S. 253-257, especially S. 255.)
it may be well assumed that it was more gorgeous and more spacious than the old Tabernacle which remained in Gibeon. In Psa 84:4 the preference must be given to that explanation which makes dependent upon , without being obliged to supply an intermediate thought like (with hardening Dagesh like , Gen 19:38, vid., the rule at Psa 52:5) and as a more definite statement of the object which the poet has in view. The altars, therefore, or (what this is meant to say without any need for taking as a preposition) the realm, province of the altars of Jahve – this is the house, this the nest which sparrow and swallow have found for themselves and their young. The poet thereby only indirectly says, that birds have built themselves nests on the Temple-house, without giving any occasion for the discussion whether this has taken place in reality. By the bird that has found a comfortable snug home on the place of the altars of Jahve in the Temple-court and in the Temple-house, he means himself. (from ) is a general name for whistling, twittering birds, like the finch
(Note: Vid., Tobler, Denkbltter aus Jerusalem, 1853, S. 117.)
and the sparrow, just as the lxx here renders it. is not the turtle-dove (lxx, Targum, and Syriac), but the swallow, which is frequently called even in the Talmud (= ), and appears to take its name from its straightforward darting, as it were, radiating flight (cf. Arabic jadurru of the horse: it darts straight forward). Saadia renders durje , which is the name of the sparrow in Palestine and Syria (vid., Wetzstein’s Excursus I). After the poet has said that his whole longing goes forth towards the sanctuary, he adds that it could not possibly be otherwise ( standing at the head of the clause and belonging to the whole sentence, as e.g., in Isa 30:33; Ewald, 352, b): he, the sparrow, the swallow, has found a house, a nest, viz., the altars of Jahve of Hosts, his King and his God (Psa 44:5; Psa 45:7), who gloriously and inaccessibly protects him, and to whom he unites himself with most heartfelt and believing love. The addition “where ( as in Psa 95:9; Num 20:13) she layeth her young,” is not without its significance. One is here reminded of the fact, that at the time of the second Temple the sons of the priests were called , and the Levite poet means himself together with his family; God’s altars secure to them shelter and sustenance. How happy, blessed, therefore, are those who enjoy this good fortune, which he now longs for again with pain in a strange country, viz., to be able to make his home in the house of such an adorable and gracious God! here signifies, not “constantly” (Gen 46:29), for which would have been used, but “yet,” as in Psa 42:6. The relation of Psa 84:5 to Psa 84:5 is therefore like Psa 41:2. The present is dark, but it will come to pass even yet that the inmates of God’s house ( , Eph 2:10) will praise Him as their Helper. The music here strikes in, anticipating this praise.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
| The Pleasures of Public Worship; Benefit of Public Worship. | |
To the chief musician upon Gittith. A psalm for the sons of Korah.
1 How amiable are thy tabernacles, O LORD of hosts! 2 My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the courts of the LORD: my heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God. 3 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. 4 Blessed are they that dwell in thy house: they will be still praising thee. Selah. 5 Blessed is the man whose strength is in thee; in whose heart are the ways of them. 6 Who passing through the valley of Baca make it a well; the rain also filleth the pools. 7 They go from strength to strength, every one of them in Zion appeareth before God.
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 (v. 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.
II. The longing desire he had to return to the enjoyment of public ordinances, or rather of God in them, v. 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! 1 John i. 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, v. 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 (Ps. lv. 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 (Ps. cii. 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, Ps. civ. 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 (Prov. xxvii. 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 (v. 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, Deut. xvi. 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, v. 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, Prov. xviii. 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, v. 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 (v. 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 xvii. 9. Thus it is promised that those that wait on the Lord shall renew their strength, Isa. xl. 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, John i. 16. They shall be changed from glory to glory (2 Cor. iii. 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.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
Psalms 84
Blessedness of Sanctuary Worship
Scripture v. 1-12:
Verse 1 reads, “How amiable (lovely) are thy tabernacles, O Lord of hosts!” ft is most generally believed that this was written after David was driven from his home and city by his own son, Absalom. His life half been mostly spent near the Tabernacle of the Lord of hosts. But, lo, in his old age his own son turned traitor against him and he fled his home to save his life. As he left the city it is said,
“He 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.” 1Sa 15:30.
And then in lonely exile away from home he poured forth his love and longing to be once again in the house of God back home. How sweet are memories of happy hours spent in the house of God!
The term “tabernacles” seems to indicate that every part of the house of God was sacred to him, even in memory. He had formerly vowed, “One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after; that I dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life,” Psa 27:4. But now he had come to the place in life he could not even enter the house of the Lord. He had excellent reasons for still loving the house of God, although an exile from it. And so do we.
We should cherish the House of God because it is there most men are saved. We should love the House of God because it is the appointed place of Holy Fellowship. It is the place of social prayer and praise together. It is the appointed place for instruction and exhortation in the Lord. It is the place the Lord promised to be with His people always. On the basis of this, “Let us consider one another to provoke unto love and good works: Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another; and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching,” Heb 10:24-25; 2Ch 7:15-16.
Verse 2 reads, ” My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the courts of the Lord: my heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God.” The intense pining of David’s soul affected his entire being physically and affectionately. The intensity of the original language indicates that he was almost to the point of fainting through exhaustion, so deep was his yearning after the courts of the Lord. Yet, it was really the LORD more than the mere furnishings of the temple that he desired. Religious ordinances and forms are meaningless unless God is present in the power of His Spirit.
This man “after God’s own heart” often thirsted for personal fellowship with Him. Of this Psa 42:1-2 reads, “As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God. My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God: when shall I come and appear before God?” See also Psa 63:1.
Verses 3, 4 read, “Yea, the sparrow hath found an house, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, even thine altars, O Lord of hosts, my fling, and my God. Blessed are they that dwell in thy house: they will be still praising thee.”
David recalled the sparrows and swallows that built their nests near the altars of the Lord. Perhaps he had watched them as he had gone in and out of the tabernacle of the Lord in former years. It seems that he now envied them. He would have been happy only to have looked upon the tabernacle of the Lord as people went in and out once again. But he was an exile from home, from the tabernacle, God’s meeting place with men.
David then declared that those who “dwelt” in the Lord’s house would still be praising thee. It seems that he longed only to have the experience of the priests and scribes who remained in the house of the Lord when he had fled for his life. This indicates that David longed for intimate fellowship with God the rest of the days of his life. He longed to be a “pillar in the temple of God, and go no more out,” Rev 3:12. David in exile, in old age, longed not for his own home, not his kingdom, but FOR THE HOUSE OF THE LORD. O, Blessed are those who come down to old age with this longing, for they shall soon depart “to dwell in the house of the Lord forever,” Psa 23:6.
Verses 4-6 pronounce blessings on certain people. “Blessed is the man whose strength is in thee; in whose heart are the ways of them.” This refers to those who do love and rejoice in God even though they are not officials in the house of God. Yet they love and respect those who are officials in the house of the Lord. Verse 6 adds, “Who passing through the valley of Baca make it a well; the rain also filleth the pools.” The word “Baca”, means “to weep.” The meaning is that those are blessed, who, by faith and endurance, try to make the dreary spots of life a source of spiritual victory in gaining patience.
The “pure in heart” should be able to see God anywhere. He who worships God rightly today carries his own Holy of Holies with him and communes with God wherever he may pause to rest or worship. With the fires of God’s love burning within his soul one never need complain of the cold. He may “stir up the gift” (the fire) within him at any time. To such as stay near God the valley of “Baca* (weeping) may be turned into a well of “artesan flow”, springing up into eternal life, (2Ti 1:6; Joh 4:14).
Verse 7 reads, “They go from strength to strength, every one of them in Zion appeareth before God.” In spite of the toils of the way as men go up to Zion, they are preserved and everyone that starts to Zion arrives, Php_1:7. Here is assurance of protection from the moment of salvation until one has passed through the gates into the city of God. One enters this way, this true way to Zion, the city of God by faith in Jesus Christ, Joh 14:6; Joh 3:18; Joh 8:24. And when one has entered the narrow way by faith he shall never perish along the road to the HOUSE OF THE LORD, 2Co 5:1; 1Jn 3:1-3.
Verses 8, 9 read, “O Lord God of hosts, hear my prayers give ear, O God to Jacob … Behold, O God our shield, and look upon the face of thine anointed.”
The prayer of David is addressed to the “Master” of the hosts of the God of heaven, even Jesus Christ. It is made to the God of Jacob, “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?” Dan 4:35. God is covenanted with the seed of Jacob. David recognized this in his prayer. Isa 45:19 reads, “I said not unto the seed of Jacob, Seek ye me in vain.” He had pledged His mercy to them when they called upon Him. David called. He further addressed God as “our shield.” He trusted in God’s protecting care and thus claimed the promise God had made to Abraham, “Fear not, Abram: I am thy shield,” Gen 15:1. The Psalmist further appealed to God to “look upon the face” of His anointed. David was God’s anointed king. He desired only that God would look upon him, have favor upon him, that he might return for the joys and fellowship of Sanctuary worship back home.
Verse 10 testifies, “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.” The Psalmist here states that one day spent in God’s house is better than a thousand spent elsewhere. He contends that he had rather be an occupant of the “lowliest” office in the house of God than to dwell in ease among the heathen. This is a noble desire.
Verse 11 reads, “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.” God is here declared to be a “sun.” Like the sun he imparts life, produces fruitfulness, and dispenses light, without which man would be in blackness of sin, without light, and spiritual fruitfulness. God is also called a shield, an armor or protection of His people from enemies. ft is declared that He will give grace and glory and withhold no good thing from them that walk uprightly. If it is good for them, He in His goodness, who knoweth our frame will not withhold it, Php_4:19. his ours to walk uprightly, Gal 5:25; Eph 5:16-17.
Verse 12 concludes, “O Lord of hosts, blessed is the man that trusteth in thee.” The Master of the heavenlies is here addressed. The Psalmist declared that “blessed” or “spiritually prosperous” was the man that trusteth in the Lord. And David longed to trust Him and be in His very presence, back home in the sanctuary of God once more.
Does some “exile from home,” from fellowship with God, read this message? Have sin and disappointments of life led you afar from God and the blessedness once you knew, “When first you met the Lord?” then, like David, pray for restoration to God’s fellowship with God’s people in God’s sanctuary. Forgiveness is promised to you if only you will confess to the Lord. Likely Christian friends will also forgive you and restore you to their fellowship when they know the longings of your heart again, 1Jn 1:9.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
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.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
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)
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 exiles longing for the house of God, Psa. 84:1-4; Religious progress, Psa. 84:5-7; and The exiles prayer, Psa. 84:8-12.
THE EXILES 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 thisthe 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 exiles 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 experiencesin penitence, prayer, praise, aspiration, adorationis 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 Lords 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 converseMy 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 Gods 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 Fathers house above, have reached the fulness of that the foretaste of which David here speaks of. They dwell in Gods 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;
Calld the full power of faith to prove,
Let all my hallowd 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 Gods law. Hengstenbergs 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 Gods promise our strength, we must make Gods Word our rule, and walk by it. There can be no true religious progress except Gods 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 births 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 creationin 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 Fathers 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 EXILES 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 Gods 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. Davids 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? Davids 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 Masters 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 Lords 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 Saviours 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 Ministers Companion.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Psalms 84
DESCRIPTIVE TITLE
The Longing of a Levite for the Habitations of Jehovah in Zion, with Inspiring Memories of a Past Pilgrimage and Exultant Joy in Renewed Service.
ANALYSIS
Stanza I., Psa. 84:1-4, In the Intense Longing of his soul, the Psalmist Draws a Picture from Memory of the Joyous Scene in the Temple Courts, where Birds and Men Evermore Offer Praise. Stanza II., Psa. 84:5-9, He traces a Pilgrim Journey Zionwards; recalling the Cheer by the Way, the Growing Enthusiasm, the Final Hope, and the Impassioned Prayer for the King. Stanza III., Psa. 84:10-12, Renewed Experience of his Levitical Duties, leads him to Contrast his Present Privileges with his Past Detention in the Tents of the Lawless; and moves him to Admire the Character and Gifts of the God whom he Serves. A Three-fold Refrain Adapts the psalm to the Levites, to the King, and to Every Believer in Israel.
(Lm.) Psalm.
1
How greatly to be loved are thy habitations Jehovah of hosts!
2
My soul longeth yea even languisheth for the courts of Jehovah,
my heart and my flesh ring out their joy unto the God of my life.
3
Even the bird hath found her a house,
and the swallow a nest for herself where she hath laid her young:
4
At thine altars is praise evermore offered thee[178] my King and my God.
[178] Two words transposed from next verse: thus avoiding too close an association of the birds with the altars.
Jehovah of hosts! how happy are they who abide in thy courts![179]
[179] As it is the happiness of a Levite to abide.
5
Highways are in their hearts as they pass through the valley of Baca:[180]
[180] Or: balsam-tree; or, weeping.
6
A place of springs they make it[181] yea with blessings the early rain doth enrobe it.
[181] Or (by changing a vowel): he maketh it.
7
They go from strength to strength[182]The God of gods will be seen in Zion![183]
[182] Or: from battlement to battlement.
[183] So in Sep. Cp. G. Intro. 457459; and Psa. 17:15; Psa. 42:2.
8
Jehovah God of hosts! oh hear my prayer, oh give ear thou God of Jacob!
9
Our shield behold thou O God, and look well on the face of thine Anointed!
Jehovah of hosts! how happy the man whose stronghold is in thee![184]
[184] Transposed, w. Br., from beginning of stanza; so yielding a threefold refrain to the psalm.
10
Surely better is one[185] day in thy courts than a thousand,
[185] Found in Sep.
I choose to be on guard at the threshold in the house of my God,[186]
[186] Eminently suited to a Levite.
rather than to be dwelling in the tents of the lawless.[187]
[187] Sometimes=foreigner.
11
For a sun and shield is Jehovah my God,
kindness and faithfulness he loveth,[188]
[188] Pound in Sep.: apparently original.
grace[189] and glory he giveth;
[189] GraciousnessDr.
Jehovah withholdeth no good thing from them who walk without blame.
12
Jehovah of hosts, how happy the man who trusteth in thee!
(Lm.) To the Chief Musician.
(CMm.) For the sons of korah = The venerables of song.[190]
[190] See Intro., Chapter II., 3.
PARAPHRASE
Psalms 84
How lovely is Your Temple, O Lord of the armies of heaven.
2 I long, yes, pant with longing to be able to enter Your courtyard and come near to the Living God.
3 Even the sparrows and swallows are welcome to come and nest among Your altars and there have their young, O Lord of heavens armies, my King and my God!
4 How happy are Your priests who can always be in Your Temple, singing Your praises.
5 Happy are those who are strong in the Lord, who want above all else to follow Your steps.
6 When they walk through the Valley of Weeping it will become a place of springs where pools of blessing and refreshment collect after rains!
7 They will grow constantly in strength and each of them is invited to meet with the Lord in Zion!
8 O Jehovah, God of the heavenly armies, hear my prayer! Listen, God of Israel!
9 O God, our Defender and our Shield, have mercy on the one You have anointed as Your king.[191]
[191] Literally, Your anointed.
10 A single day spent in Your Temple is better than a thousand anywhere else! I would rather be a doorman of the Temple of my God than live in palaces[192] of wickedness.
[192] Literally, tents.
11 For Jehovah God is our Light and our Protector. He gives us grace and glory. No good thing will He withhold from those who walk along His paths.[193]
[193] Literally, walk uprightly.
12 O Lord of the armies of heaven, blessed are those who trust in You.
EXPOSITION
Probably no circumstances better suit the origin of this psalm than those with which the Asaphic psalms have already made us familiar. Givena time when the Assyrians, after long devastating the North, are in abeyance, and pilgrim-bands are again frequenting the ways to Zion; and givena Levite singer and door-keeper who has for weary years been prevented from going up to Jerusalem to discharge his duties, but is now fondly counting on a return to his place in the Temple courts; and conditions are provided well fitted to the composition of this beautiful pilgrim-song.
After an outburst of intense love and desire for the holy place where he has aforetime experienced so much blessing (Psa. 84:1-2), the writer shows his near intimacy with the courts of Jehovah, by one of those touches of memory which only a resident in the Temple-chambers would have had at his command. He had many a time of old watched the little birds building their nests in the nooks and crannies of the Temple courts; and perchance had little by little come to observe that the music of the choirs and congregation was accustomed to provoke the feathered songsters in their own way to join in the strains. Memory brings back the whole scene: Birds, nestling close byand singing; priests and Levites, officiatingand singing; visiting worshippers, bringing their offeringsand singing: all in delightful unison. His reminiscence includes in it no awkward juxtaposition of the birds, rather than of the men, with the altar; but simply and naturally reproduces the harmonious whole; and excites his intense desire to share in such joy once more (Psa. 84:3-4).
But he is not there yet, and his mind is drawn to incidents likely to occur in the journey thither. Many a time has he traversed the roads leading to Zion; and he is able to clothe the ascent with probable incidents, such as he had aforetime known, or such as recent events would easily suggest. The highways are in the minds of pilgrims long before they start, as they think of the re-unions oft occurring as they go along; or, it may be, they wonder whether the highways will now be safe, or whether prudence may not suggest the preference of by-ways through secluded valleys, one such coming to his mind as his song is evolvedthe memorable Valley of Baca, or Balsam-vale, or Vale of Weeping, entered with misgiving overnight in weariness and thirst, only to find that by morning the early rain has filled the pools and covered the sterile valley with a carpet of blessing. And, whereas, commonly, travellers become the more wearied the farther they go, he has often noticed that as they near their goal on this journey, enthusiasm rises, and at every step their strength increases. The alternative rendering of this clause is suggestive: they go from battlement to battlementfrom one entrenched halting-place to another; which might be very prudent if any of the enemy were still lurking in the land. But the all-animating thought is: The God of gods will be seen in Zion!some reflection of his shekinah glory; and therewith, it may be, some new prophetic discovery of his ways with Israel, and of his gracious purpose for the future (Psa. 84:5-7).
But this Levite thinks of his earthly king as well as of his heavenly; and calling to mind how much all Israel in general and the Levites in particular are indebted to the good King Hezekiah who is shielding them from foreign foes and home neglect, the psalmist waxes importunate in his prayers for him: Jehovah God of hosts! oh hear my prayer, Oh give ear, thou God of Jacob; and do this for usOur shield behold thou, and shield him in mercy to us, O God, And look well, look intently, and with love as thou lookest, on the face of thine Anointed. Jehovah of hosts! how happy the manwho is like the good king whom thou hast now given to uswho, in presence of Sennacherib and all his hosts, has found that his stronghold is in thee.
But events move on. Our Levite has been once more in his office, and spent a happy day in Jehovahs service. And he seems to say: How much better this than the life I have lived of late! Prevented from going up to Jerusalem, owning no possessions among the tribes, and compelled, it may be, to do menial work for a piece of bread in the tents of the invading foreigners, he has felt all the humiliation of it, all the bitterness. Better thisbetter thusa thousand times better! And then in the ecstasy of his joy, his soul rises up to his God, and dwells upon the fruitful theme of his perfections. For a sungiving heat and light, knowledge and love; and shieldaffording protection from foes without and foes within, is Jehovah my God. Kindness and faithfulness he loveth, because they exist in himself, and he would have them exist also in me; kindness, first, without which he would not have created and redeemed, faithfulness also, by virtue of which he fulfils his promises and keeps his covenant. Grace and glory he giveth: grace, now, to enable me to resist the enticements of sinners and the clamourings of selfishness, and so become kind and faithful like himself; and glory, hereafter, when he has completed and perfected my character. For, truly, character he seeks, and hence would teach me to walk uprightly, perfectly, wholeheartedly, without blame; and from such he withholdeth no good thing: least of all the glory of a perpetual, perfected, personal existence. And this is Biblical Immortality. To produce this, is the end of Divine Revelation; and the subjective instrument of its production being faith in a Perfect God, therefore, O Jehovah of hosts,thyself that Perfect Onehow happy the man who trusteth in thee!
QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION
1.
Rotherham describes the circumstances behind this psalm in a most effective way. Retell them in your own words.
2.
What particular desire of the heart is satisfied in the worship of God?
3.
The sparrows were no distraction to the psalmist. Would they be to others? Should they be?
4.
How could we apply Psa. 84:4 to our situation?
5.
Who do you know who has claimed the promise of Psa. 84:11?
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
(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.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
1. Amiable Lovely.
Tabernacles The plural form can mean nothing more than the apartments and cloisters of the sacred place.
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.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Psalms 84
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!
Psa 42:1
“But if it be necessary also from the ancient Scriptures to bring forward the three who made a symphony on earth, so that the Word was in the midst of them making them one, attend to the superscription of the Psalms, as for example to that of the forty-first, which is as follows: ‘Unto the end, unto understanding, for the sons of Korah.’ For though there were three sons of Korah whose names we find in the Book of Exodus, Aser, which is, by interpretation, ‘instruction,’ and the second Elkana, which is translated, ‘possession of God,’ and the third Abiasaph, which in the Greek tongue might be rendered, ‘congregation of the father,’ yet the prophecies were not divided but were both spoken and written by one spirit, and one voice, and one soul, which wrought with true harmony, and the three speak as one, ‘As the heart panteth after the springs of the water, so panteth my soul alter thee, O God.’ But also they say in the plural in the forty-fourth Psalm, ‘O God, we have heard with our ears.’” ( Origen’s Commentary on Mat 14:1) [90]
[90] Origen, Origen’s Commentary on Matthew, trans. Allan Menzies, in The Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 9, ed. Allan Menzies (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, c1896, 1906), 495.
Psa 84:7 They go from strength to strength, every one of them in Zion appeareth before God.
Psa 84:7
“As Martha in her desire to minister to Me forfeited My nearness, so thou hast done. My child, I have need of nothing. I desire only thy love. Give Me this first always, and whatsoever service may follow, thou wilt then do with light feet and a heart set free. Abandon to Me thy whole being, and I will then work in and through thee in such a way that even as I am using thee, thou shalt simultaneously experience My energizing power; so that in the very process of giving, thou shalt in very truth receive even beyond what ye give, and shall in each instance emerge richer and stronger. There is no loss when ye serve Me thus. For when thy life is wholly lost in My life, there is never anything but gain. As the prophet of old exclaimed, ‘ They go from strength to strength ’. Only sin worketh death and loss. Righteousness worketh life and health.” [91]
[91] Frances J. Roberts, Come Away My Beloved (Ojai, California: King’s Farspan, Inc., 1973), 79.
Psa 84:10 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.
Psa 84:10
Psa 84:11 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.
Psa 84:12
Longing for the Beauty of the Word of God.
v. 1. How amiable are Thy tabernacles, v. 2. My soul longeth, v. 3. Yea, the sparrow hath found an house and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, v. 4. Blessed are they that dwell in Thy house, v. 5. Blessed is the man whose strength is in Thee, v. 6. who, passing through the Valley of Baca, v. 7. They go from strength to strength, v. 8. O Lord God of hosts, hear my prayer; give ear, v. 9. Behold, O God. our Shield, v. 10. For a day in Thy courts, v. 11. For the Lord God is a Sun, v. 12. O Lord of hosts, blessed is the man that trusteth in Thee, EXPOSITION
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 (Psa 84:1-4, Psa 84:10), and there is an anointed king upon the throne (Psa 84:9).
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.”
Psa 84:1
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. Psa 132:3, Psa 132:8, Psa 132:12).
Psa 84:2
My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the courts of the Lord. These expressions do not imply that the writer is absent from the temple, but only that his delight in it is never satiated. My heart and my flesh; i.e. my whole nature. Crieth out for the living God; rather, rejoiceth; or “sings out a note of joy” unto the living God. So Hengstenberg, who says, “The verb is of frequent occurrence in the Psalms, and always signifies to rejoice.” Compare the comment of Professor Cheyne.
Psa 84:3
Yea, the sparrow hath found an house, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young. Both sparrows and swallows abound in Palestine. Canon Tristram found the nest of a sparrow “so closely allied to our own that it is difficult to distinguish it,” in a chink of the Haram wall at Jerusalem, near the Golden Gate. An anecdote related by Herodotus shows that sparrows built about the Greek temples. The general meaning of the figure in this place seems to be, “If even birds love to build their nests, as they do, in the sacred precincts, how much more reason has the believing heart to find its home in the house of its God!” But the psalmist thinks it enough to suggest the parallel, and does not stop to carry it out. Even thine altars. The “altar” is put, by metonymy, for the temple itself. O Lord of hosts, my King, and my God (comp. Psa 5:2).
Psa 84:4
Blessed are they that dwell in thy house. As the Korahite Levites did, being “keepers of the gates” of the Lord’s house (1Ch 9:19; 1Ch 26:1). They will be still praising thee. It is their privilege to be always praising thee. “The speaker regards the temple as predominantly the house of praise” (Cheyne).
Psa 84:5
Blessed is the man whose strength is in thee. God is the “Strength” of all who trust in him. The psalmist seems to mean that mere dwelling in the house of God is not enough for blessedness. Trust in Godhaving God for one’s Strengthis also requisite (comp. Psa 84:12). In whose heart are the ways of them; literally, in whose heart are highways. The “highways” intended are probably those of holiness (comp. Pro 16:17 and Isa 35:8).
Psa 84:6
Who passing through the valley of Baca make it a wall; rather, through the valley of weeping ( , LXX.). So Hupfeld. Hengstenberg, Kay, and the Revised Version; compare Hosea’s “valley of Achor,” i.e. “of Grief.” When the righteous pass through a time of suffering or calamity, they turn it into a time of refreshment. The rain also filleth the pools; rather, the early rain (Joe 2:23) covereth it with blessings. The rain of God’s grace mantles all the valley with a luxuriant vegetation; in other words, the blessing of God rests on those who act as above described, and causes them ever to increase in righteousness and true holiness.
Psa 84:7
They go from strength to strength. Their spiritual course is one of continually greater vitality and vigour. Every one of them in Zion appeareth before God. Either “Each in his turn appears to render thanks and praise before God’s holy seat on Mount Zion;” or “Each in his turn shall appear before God’s throne in the true Zion, heaven.”
Psa 84:8
O Lord God of hosts, hear my prayer. The prayer of Psa 84:9. Give ear, O God of Jacob (comp. Psa 20:1; Psa 46:7, Psa 46:11; Psa 75:9; Psa 76:6; Psa 81:1, Psa 81:4, etc.).
Psa 84:9
Behold, O God our Shield; i.e. ‘ ‘our Protection and Defense” (comp. Psa 33:20; Psa 59:11; Psa 89:18). And look upon the face of thine anointed. Regard our Mug with favour; let the light of thy countenance shine upon him.
Psa 84:10
For a day in thy courts is better than a thousand; i.e. than any number of days elsewhere. It is difficult to trace any connection between these concluding verses. They appear to consist of distinct thoughts, which arise in the writer’s mind, and are jotted down as they occur to him. One is a thought of loyalty, which finds vent in a prayer for the king (Psa 84:9). Another is a reflection of the main thought of the psalm, the incomparable blessedness of dwelling in God’s house. A third (Psa 84:11, Psa 84:12) is the joy and glory of perpetual communion with God and trust in God. See the remarks of Professor Cheyne. I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God; literally, at the threshold; but the meaning is well expressed by the Authorized Version. “Doorkeepers in the house of their God” was exactly what the Korahite Levites were (1Ch 9:19; 1Ch 26:1, 1Ch 26:12-19). Than to dwell in the tents of wickedness. As their ancestor, Korah, had done (Num 16:26).
Psa 84:11
For the Lord God is a Sun and Shield; i.e. not only a “Shield” or protection, as he has been already called (Psa 84:9), but also a “Sun,” the source of life and light, of joy and happiness (comp. Isa 60:19, Isa 60:20; Mal 4:2). The Lord will give grace and glory. Inward grace, outward splendour and glory (Rev 21:11-24). No good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly (see 1Co 2:9; 1Ti 4:8; and Psa 34:10).
Psa 84:12
O Lord of hosts, blessed is the man that trusteth in thee (comp. Psa 2:12).
HOMILETICS
Psa 84:6
Living water from hidden springs.
“Passing a well.” “The valley of Baca,” i.e. of weeping, or lamentation. The image is of a company of pilgrims towards the holy city, whose way lies through a desolate, sterile valley. In that “dry and thirsty land” many a traveller has fainted with thirst. On those rugged rocks many a feeble or heedless foot has slipped, many a pilgrim fallen. But if “the blessings of heaven above” and “the precious things of the earth” be denied, there is yet “the blessing of the deep that worketh under.” The pilgrims gird their loins, pitch their tents, and dig deep. Cool treasures of living water from hidden springs reward their toil. At morning they go on their way with a new song of praise, and leave a blessing for those who follow.
I. OUR WAY, AS PILGRIMS TO THE BETTER LAND, LIES THROUGH THE VALLEY OF TEARS. Sometimes, thoughtlessly or bitterly (in either case ungratefully), this name is applied to human life as a whole. Untrue and unreasonable. If life has its dangers and deserts, weary wastes, gloomy gorges, perilous passages, it has also breezy sunny uplands, smiling valleys, fields of happy fruitful labour, quiet resting places, cheered by bright hopes, warm affections, pleasant memories. Many a light-hearted company marches for leagues with unbroken ranks. It is as untrue that life is all sorrow, as that it is all joy. But the valley of weeping has to be crossed. There are lives whose whole course is within its shadow. The happiest path runs so near its border that at any moment we may enter it; perhaps soon to emerge; perhaps not till the pilgrimage be ended. No unfrequented spot. If we take account of bleeding or broken hearts and shadowed hair all over the worlda life failing with each soundwe shall acknowledge that in this wide sense earth may not untruly be called “the valley of tears.”
II. HIDDEN WELL SPRINGS OF COMFORT AND BLESSING are provided by God for his children when passing through the valley of weeping. Comfort under trial, blessing through trial, hope beyond trial.
1. Sorrow for sin is the condition of the joy of forgiveness (Mat 5:4). Violent emotion is not necessary; but a true sense of the guilt, as well as evil, of sin. Peace with God precedes peace in God. The deeper the sorrow, the sweeter the joy. Shallow views of sin are one of the chief dangers of our day; begetting shallow views of atonement, and of the relation of Christ’s death to our sins and “the sin of the world” (Joh 1:29; 1Jn 2:2).
2. God‘s presence and love, our Saviour’s sympathy, the power of the Holy Spirit as “the Comforter,” are felt in trouble as at no other time. In the night the stars shine (Psa 46:1). To bear trouble patiently is the part of a wise brave man, Christian or not; but comfort in trouble is the exclusive privilege of the Christian.
3. The discipline of sorrow produces rich fruitsstronger faith, deeper humility, a new sense of the value of prayer and of the preciousness of God’s promises; patience, courage, detachment from the world, power to sympathize (Jas 1:2, Jas 1:3; 1Pe 1:6, 1Pe 1:7; Heb 12:10; Psa 119:67, Psa 119:71).
4. “We are saved by hope.“ (Rom 8:24.) No grief so heavy as despair. None intolerable if hope shines ahead. A hidden well (Col 3:3), but whose streams can refresh the dreariest, weariest stages of pilgrimage (2Co 4:16-18). Christ’s atonement lifts from our heart the burden of the past. His sympathy and mediation bring every moment of the present into living happy relation to God. But his resurrection and ascension bind our own earthly life to the glorious immortal future (Joh 14:1-3, Joh 14:19; Heb 6:19).
Psa 84:10
Delight in God’s worship and service.
“A day in thy courts,” etc. Of all the hundred and fifty holy songs composing the Psalter, none breathes a more intense spirit of exalted devotion than this, or in language and imagery more poetical and musical. It shares this character with other psalms ascribed to “the sons of Korah.” Their ancestor Korah perished miserably in his rebellion against Moses and Aaron, at the very door of the tabernacle (Num 16:1-50.). Yet his descendants had the charge of guarding the temple gates, no mean office (1Ch 9:17-19; 1Ch 23:5; 1Ch 26:1, 1Ch 26:12); and were likewise leaders of the temple music, Heman being one of them (1Ch 6:33-37; 1Ch 25:1, 1Ch 25:5). Although it often happens that the father’s sins are visited on the children, yet there is no unchangeable doom, no bar sinister on their escutcheon, no barrier against their renewed consecration and acceptance. The sentiment of the text isDelight in God‘s worship and service. “A day,” etc. Secondly, a single day so spentin worship, such as every devout Israelite partook, and service, the privilege of a Leviteoutweighs in true joy and solid worth all the time spent in mere worldly business or pleasure.
I. THIS IS THE LANGUAGE OF A HEART WHICH DELIGHTS IN GOD. Not every one can say this. For a worldling it would be rank hypocrisy. In Malachi’s day there were those who said, “What a weariness!” (Mal 1:13). Are there not even real Christians for whom such a sentiment is an exaggeration; whose sense of duty exceeds their sense of privilege; to whom the sabbath brings the shadows of constraint rather than the lamp of joy? Their worship has a slightly penitential flavour rather than a rich fragrance of joy. They have not learned the secret of the son of Korah (Psa 63:4), or of David (Psa 63:1-3). Joyless service is neither profitable nor acceptable. These are heart-searching considerations. If we can venture to think of anything as bringing sadness to our heavenly Father’s heart, would it not be thisthat his children take small delight in drawing near to him? We live at too low a level, among the clouds, when we might be in the sunshine and pure air of the mountain top.
II. THE SOURCES OF THIS DELIGHT ARE MANIFOLD.
1. The joy of praise, worship, adoration. Notice how inseparably praise and rejoicing are united in the Bible, especially in this Book of Psalms. “That God is what he is” (says John Howe) is the source of infinite joy to his children.
2. The joy of personal communion with God. He is “our God” (Psa 48:14); “my God” (Psa 42:1, Psa 42:2, Psa 42:6; Php 4:19).
3. The joy of fellowship with God‘s people. (1Jn 1:3.) Common prayer, harmonious praise, public worship, have blessings and promises distinctively their own. It was when all the hundred and twenty “continued with one accord in prayer and supplication,” the blessing of Pentecost came. When “many were gathered praying,” Peter was set free (comp. Act 4:24, Act 4:31).
4. The joy of service. A Christian, whether a minister or private Church-member, can be more than “a doorkeeper”a door opener; setting wide the gate of the city of refuge to the refugee from sin; opening the door of the kingdom to the young, and leading them through the gate Beautiful into the temple; helping fellow believers to enter with boldness “into the holiest” (Heb 10:19, Heb 10:20). All that the ancient psalmist found in the temple, we have, not in shadow, but realitythe one sacrifice (Heb 10:2, Heb 10:4,Heb 10:10,Heb 10:12); the Divine Priest (Heb 8:1, Heb 8:2); the true holy of holies (Heb 9:8-12, Heb 9:24); and in place of the ceremonial service of the Levites, to maintain which the free will offerings of the people were dedicated, the ministry of truth, the relief of need and suffering the wide world over, and the spread throughout the world of the gospel and kingdom of Christ (1Pe 2:5). Which way does the balance incline? which has really our heart’s devotion and yields supreme delightGod’s service or the world’s?
HOMILIES BY S. CONWAY
Psa 84:1-12
The soul’s sweet home.
This is one of the Korahite psalms, like Psa 42:1-11; Psa 43:1-5; 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 psalmthat 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. The Korahites were (1Ch 9:17) keepers of the door of the tabernacle, and, in 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. The writer longs to be again at his loved work in the courts of the Lord. Hence he tells:
1. Of the loveliness of God‘s house, in his esteem.
2. Of his intense desire for it. (Psa 43:2.) 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 learnthat 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. Psa 43:1 distinctly affirms this: the earthly tabernacle being the type of the soul in which God dwells. Psa 43:2 declares that he cannot live without God. Psa 43:3 : 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 Godin God as seen in his altars, type of the sacrifice of Christ. Psa 43:4 : he celebrates the blessedness of suchtheir life is one continued song. Psa 43:5 : and of those whose strengththeir confident trustis 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). Verse 6: their sorrow is turned into joy. Verse 7: their trust strengthens evermore; they see God as they worship. Verses 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.
Psa 84:3
Sanctuary birds.
The sparrow and the swallow told of here are apt types of those servants of God who find in him what these birds found in the temple. The comparison of the soul of one of God’s people to a bird is not unusual (see Psa 11:1-7.). Note
I. SOME OF THEIR CHARACTERISTICS.
1. Such as are negative. They are not distinguished, like the eagle and many others, but of a very humble and lowly sort; nor powerful and strong; nor beautiful; nor valuable”Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing?”nor numerous, that is, in comparison with the vast multitude of birds generally; nor, in themselves, attractive and beloved, like the dove. But neither are they cruel like the eagle, nor “foul like the vulture, nor greedy as the cormorant, nor bloodthirsty as the hawk, nor hardhearted as the ostrich, nor depending upon men for support as the fowls of the farmyard, nor loving darkness like the owl” (Spurgeon). All these negative qualities suggest the opposite ones in those who delight in God. But there are also:
2. Such as are positive. They are the lowly ones, restless till they find their home; seekers,they “find” the rest they desire; true to their homes; trustful,in what strange places their nests are often found, under the eaves of cottages, and in all manner of accessible places, where any one could reach them, but they seem to trust that no one will harm them! Are not these characteristics like those of the souls of whom these birds are the types?
II. THEIR ENCOURAGEMENTS.
1. There are the altars of God for them; they have not to provide such home.
2. When they come they are never driven away.
III. THEIR DISCOVERIES. They find:
1. A habitation, strong, comfortable, abiding.
2. A home. The Church is a home for the soul.
IV. THEIR YOUNG. Their home is in the courts of the Lord. So will the faithful servants of God seek that their offspring shall find their home in the Church of God. “Children should be housed in the house of God. The sanctuary of God should be the nursery of the young.” Happy those children whose parents seek for this above all else!S.C.
Psa 84:10
Strange preferences.
I. THOSE HERE NAMED.
1. That a day spent in God‘s courts is better than a thousand anywhere else. But such preference makes it certain that not any day in God’s courts can be meant; for too many days are spent there which might just as well be spent elsewhere. They bring no good to any one, but rather harm. For the worship on such days is but formal, hypocritical, has no heart in it. But the day the psalm tells of must be one in which the soul really communes with God, in which God is worshipped in spirit and in truth.
2. That the humblest service in the house of God is better than the most rich and luxurious life in the tents of wickedness. But here again the service meant must be the reverse of formal, perfunctory, grudging; for if the service were of such sort, one might almost as well be in the tents of wickedness. And that dwelling in those tents cannot mean an unwilling, a forced dwelling, like that told of in Psa 120:5. Many servants of God have had and still have so to dwell amongst wickedness; they are not happy in it, would not be where they are could they help it, but they cannot. Hence if they be “lights shining in the darkness,” then they are rendering high service to God, and great shall be their reward. But the dwelling told of is one which is chosen and loved. But, the psalmist says, the meanest place in God’s house is better than that. “I had rather be a doorkeeper,” etc.
II. SUCH PREFERENCES ARE VERY STRANGE. For few sympathize with them; even good people might be slow to make such affirmation about a single day in God’s house being better than a thousand anywhere else. Most people think that those who make such choice are either madmen or fools. They are despised as enthusiasts, or hypocrites, or fanatics.
III. NEVERTHELESS, SUCH PREFERENCES ARE REAL FACTS. He who wrote this psalm was but one of myriads more. He who does not put God first may have much good about him, as had the young ruler told of in the Gospels, but he cannot have eternal life.
IV. AND THEY CAN BE ABUNDANTLY JUSTIFIED.
1. The first-named canthe one day over the thousand. For what gives value to time? Not its duration, but its employment, what you do with it. Which do we deem most worththe comparatively short-lived empire of Greece, or the thousands of years of Chinese lifeif life it can be called? There may be one day in your life which you remember more than whole years beside, for it more influenced and blessed you than all the myriad other days which have gone by and are forgotten. It is the day filled with energies of the mind, heart, spirit; with memories of inspiring deeds; with influences which tell upon you and others. Cf. King Henry V.’s address to his soldiers at Agincourt
“He that outlives this day and comes safe home, But the day of real worship and communion with God is a day more filled with energies, memories, influences, than can any others be. How many of these others only drag down the soul! but a day with God!
2. And so the humblest service/or God is to be preferred. For such service is shared in by the noblest, unites us to God, breaks the chain of sin, prepares for heaven, robs care of its sting, etc. Therefore the psalmist’s choice is right; let it be ours!S.C.
HOMILIES BY R. TUCK
Psa 84:1
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 Psa 42:1-11; Psa 44:1-26. 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 Psa 44:2, “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.
Psa 84:2
God the Living One.
The precise expression here used is only found besides in Psa 42:2. “In the New Testament the name ‘living God’ is found in St. Matthew’s and St. John’s Gospels, in the speech of Paul and Barnabas in the Acts (Act 14:14), in several of St. Paul’s Epistles, four times in the Epistle to the Hebrews, and once in the Revelation.” It is difficult to treat this subject as a universal experience, because our hearts are so full of the risen and living Christ, God manifest in the flesh, God manifest in the spirit. He is God, the living God, ever with us, as Helper, Inspirer, Comforter, and Sanctifier; but we may helpfully try to take the position of a “son of Korah,” and begin by considering what the “living God” was to him.
I. GOD THOUGHT OF IN MAN‘S MEDITATIONS. Why did it not suffice this writer to read his Bible, study and think about God, in the land beyond the Jordan? A man can have feast times, times of spiritual refreshing, in the privacy of his home, and in the midst of God’s handiwork in nature. And every man ought to have such thoughts of God; nourish and cherish them. But here is the fact of human experienceGod thought has never wholly sufficed and satisfied any human being yet, because man is a composite being. He is not all thought. He has a body. And this very thinking is dependent on the help that symbolsrelative to the bodycan bring. Devotees may strive to become all thought. They do not thus transcend human nature, they degrade it. We must have more concerning our God than mere thinking about him; and therefore this Korahite longs for his revealed Presence in the temple.
II. GOD REALIZED THROUGH APPOINTED SYMBOLS. Pious souls have always recognized a sense in which God is specially present in his sanctuaries, and in his sacraments. God taught this to all the ages by the manifestation of his Presence in Jewish tabernacle and temple, by the brooding cloud and the Shechinah light. What the psalmist dwells on is, that he used to realize God’s nearness when he looked on his dwelling place, shared in his worship, and heard his priests. Urge that only at spiritual peril can men neglect the symbols of the presence and working of the living God.
III. GOD FELT IN MAN‘S HEART AND LIFE. This is the full realization of God as the Living One, living and working in us. Show this is an advance on sentiment, or mere thought of God, and on formalism, or mere outward worship of God. It is God in us, the inspiration of all good. It is “Christ our Life.”R.T.
Psa 84:3
Envy at the birds.
The man prevented from sharing in the public worship of the temple thinks enviously of the very sparrows and swallows that flit through its courts and build their nests under its eaves. Sparrows are very abundant in the East. Swallows make their nests, not only in the verandahs, but even in the rooms, within the mosques, and in the sacred tombs. Josephus tells us that the outer courts of the temple were planted with trees. “It is a singularly natural and beautiful conception which makes the psalmist think of the birds haunting there, as seeking the protection of God’s altar for their young, and so enjoying a privilege which as yet he has not.” Evidently what is chiefly in his mind is the sense of peace and security which the birds have who make their homes within the precincts of God’s temple. No one disturbs them. There are too many people about for birds of prey to venture near. In the temple courts the poet thinks of them as away from all the “stress and strain” of life. Compare “He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.”
I. THE PSALMIST ENVIES THE BIRDS THEIR SECURITY. Probably he wrote when the land was in a disturbed state, and there was no restfulness or safety for any one anywhere. And he must have felt this even more in the open and exposed districts beyond the Jordan. Illustrate from the idea of “sanctuary,” which was, in old times, attached to the temples. Once within them, no foe could assail. Dr. Turner tells us that in Samoa, the manslayer flies to the house of the chief of the village; and in nine cases out of ten he is perfectly safe, if only he remains there. See how jealously Jews guarded their temple from the intrusion of strangers. In London of the olden time, Whitefriars, Westminster, and the Savoy were sanctuaries for all criminals except traitors. This feeling of security the Christian gains out of his daily apprehension of the Divine presence and defence. Round about him are the everlasting arms. He lives within the overshadowing spiritual temple. “What can harm us, if we be followers of that which is good,” and have God upon our side?
II. THE PSALMIST ENVIES THE BIRDS THEIR PEACE. Illustrate by dwelling fully on that strange, yet delightful quietness, restfulness, solemnity, which come upon us when we enter a cathedral. We feel as we feel nowhere else in the world. Our feeling answers to that of the Jew when entering his temple. Show how nourishing to all the finest elements of soul life that atmosphere of peace is.R.T.
Psa 84:5, Psa 84:6
The joy of the pilgrims.
In these verses there is a blending of the real and the figurative; the actual journey towards Zion is represented as accompanied with ideal blessings of peace and refreshment. The poet has thought of the blessedness of those who dwell constantly in God’s house. Now he thinks of the blessedness of those who are permitted to go there, and to tarry there for a while. And this leads him to recall what happy times he had known, even in the journeys to Jerusalem. Perowne says of the pilgrims to Zion, “Every spot of the familiar read, every station at which they have rested, lives in their heart. The path may be dry and dusty, through a lonely and sorrowful valley, but nevertheless they love it. The pilgrim band, rich in hope, forget the trials and difficulties of the way; hope changes the rugged and stony waste into living fountains.” The valley of Baca was the valley which led up from Jordan toward Jerusalem, and whose famous balsam trees wept balms. The thought for our consideration is thisthe hearts that are truly set on God, and filled with desire to join in God’s worship, will cheerfully bear, and successfully master, all the difficulties that may be in their way. They make the very “valley of Baca” refreshing as a spring.
I. THE CHRISTIAN PILGRIM FINDS HIS WAY LIES THROUGH VALLEYS OF BACA. Two explanations of this valley are given. Some say it means “wet, marshy places;” others say, “dry, sandy places.” Clearly it means something trying and difficult for pilgrims. We know well that there are difficulties in the way of our effort to live the godly life; valleys of Baca in our pilgrim route to the eternal temple of the holy.
1. There are valleys of weeping; sorrows, both outward and inward (valleys of balsam, or weeping).
2. Valleys of unrelieved want; desert places. Illustrate the ever-varied, ever-unquenchable thirst of the spiritual life.
II. A BRAVE, EARNEST SPIRIT WILL MAKE A WAY THROUGH THESE VALLEYS OF BACA. Times of trouble we must have, but everything depends on the spirit in which we approach them, and deal with them. The true heart is helped to triumph over the difficulties of the way, by keeping ever in mind the end it has in view. Lead on to show how the heaven of established holiness, and near communion with God, becomes the inspiration to overcoming the difficulties of the way.
III. GOD RESPONDS TO THE EARNEST MAN IN THE VALLEYS OF BACA. If they dig pools in the desert, God will be sure to fill them with his genial rains. God is to us in blessing as we are to him in trust.R.T.
Psa 84:7
Stages of spiritual progress.
“The very journeys to the temple, often toilsome and hazardous, take on a certain sacredness from memory, imagination, and desire, insomuch that they can say that ‘the highways to Zion are in their hearts.’ They remember how they wept with vague, almost joyful emotion as they passed through the valley of Baca, and how they went ‘from strength to strength,’ that is, grew stronger and stronger, more and more joyful, as they topped the hills round about Jerusalem.” Illustrate by the growing excitement we feel when nearing home after a time of prolonged absence. Every mile finds us more and more anxious to catch a sight of familiar scenes. It might be reasonably expected that the long and trying journey would make the pilgrims feel weary and indifferent. Instead of that, their souls master their circumstances, and they are brighter and more cheerful at the end than at the beginning. So do we see aged Christians who, for sunny faces and happy ways altogether, put to shame young beginners in the pilgrim path. They have evidently gone “from strength to strength.”
I. SPIRITUAL PILGRIMS MUST “KEEP ON.” According to the figures of the text, they must not be stopping, or idling, or taking up any interests on the way; day by day, persistently, they must be going forward; every day getting a day’s march nearer Zion. A pilgrim must just “keep on.” So we are called to “patient continuance in well doing;” to day-by-day persistent goodness; and this of itself may become wearisome. It is the hardest thing given us to do, this keeping on, day by day, in the same scenes, and doing the same work. But it is never really a mere keeping on. We may not realize the joy of it, but the fact is that, in keeping on, we are going “from strength to strength.”
II. IN “KEEPING ON,” SPIRITUAL PILGRIMS FIND THEMSELVES EVER BETTER ABLE TO KEEP ON. Every difficulty overcome means a higher strength to overcome difficulties. Every joy felt in a spiritual triumph is cheer for dealing with new anxieties. Every day of Christian life is a step; from it we get power to take a step higher. The man who has lived well his Christian life today is in fact, and ought to be in feeling, a stronger man to live his Christian life tomorrow. And so, making the day’s experience a step up, he finds power and joy increasing as he nears the city of God, the heavenly Jerusalem. A Christian life may be exhausting for the body, but “as the outward man perishes, the inward man is renewed day by day.”R.T.
Psa 84:9
The shield figure.
In this psalm we find three names for God, “God of hosts,” “God of Jacob,” “God our Shield.” To Abraham God had said, “Fear not, I am thy Shield, and thy exceeding great Reward.” And in the fifth psalm we read, “Thou, Lord, wilt bless the righteous; with favour wilt thou compass him as with a shield.” Moses exclaims (Deu 33:29), “Happy art thou, O Israel! who is like unto thee, O people saved by the Lord, the Shield of thy help?” And one of the later psalms (115) has this for a refrain, “O Israel, trust thou in the Lord; he is their Help and their Shield.” The prayer of the text is urged by two metaphors”Thou my Shield;” “I thine anointed.”
I. GOD MAY BE THOUGHT OF AS OUR SHIELD. Shields were peculiar to the hand-to-hand warfare of ancient times. They were of two kindsone very large, protecting the whole body; another smaller, used by light-armed troops very skilfully. They were sometimes made of light wood, covered with bull’s hide of two or three thicknesses, plated with metal; sometimes they were studded with nails or metal pins. They were smeared with oil, both to prevent them from injury by weather, and to render them so smooth that missiles might the more readily glance off. Show that so varied and so complicated is religious life we are glad of the help of all kinds of metaphor. As Christ is set under many names, so God is set under many relations. Christian life, conceived as a warfare, has its defensive and offensive sides. Under the shadow of God, as a Shield, men find defence. Compare figure of the “strong Tower,” into which “the righteous runs and is safe.” There are times in our Christian warfare when we can only act on the defensive. Then God is our Shield. Under the shadow of God, as a Shield, attacks were made. Describe the ancient mode of attacking a fortress, under shields placed together so as to make a protecting roof, which secured the soldiers from hostile missiles. There is “offensive war” sometimes in Christian life. Prevailing evils must be vigorously attacked. We may be sure of God’s shield in all active service. The psalmist here is writing as a civilian, and a Levite, and thinks lovingly of God as his Defence from the perils of the pilgrim way.
II. WE MAY THINK OF OURSELVES AS GOD‘S ANOINTED. It is as though the psalmist had said, “Recognize the face that is uplifted to thee.” Though the term “anointed” will suit David, it will equally suit the priest and the Levite, as set apart, anointed for the special service of God’s temple. If God has brought us into close and loving relations of service to him, he has given us a plea to use in prayer. We may say, “Look upon the face of thine anointed.”R.T.
Psa 84:10
The joy of doing little things for God.
“I had rather be a doorkeeper;” literally, “stand or lie on the threshold.” A missionary tells us that in India the office of doorkeeper is truly respectable and confidential. Doorkeepers of temples are men of the greatest dignity and power; whereas the psalmist was thinking of the lowliest and most humble situation. “I would rather choose to sit at the threshold.” This is the situation of the devotee and the beggar. “Excuse me, sir, I pray you; I had better lie at the threshold than do that,” is a frequent mode of expression among Orientals. The psalmist prefers the situation and attitude of a beggar, at the threshold of the house of the Lord, to the most splendid dwellings of the wicked. From 1Ch 26:12-19 we learn that the sons of Korah, or Kore, were the porters of the gates of the Lord’s house. “To these ministers of the sanctuary none seem so blessed as they who dwell in God’s house, and are forever praising him. To these keepers of the temple gates one day in the sacred courts is better than a thousand spent elsewhere; and they would rather be doorkeepers in the house of God than sit and be served as chiefs in alien tents.”
I. LITTLE THINGS ARE AS TRULY “SERVICE” AS GREAT ONES. They are necessary in their places. They are fitted to those of moderate or small capacities. To God the little things of service are as acceptable as the great things. Find any earthly sphere, and take the little things of it away. What an upset of the whole would result! The doorkeeper at the gate was as important in his way as the priest at the altar. We can do our “little things” for God cheerfully, when we can fully realize that they are servicejust our service.
II. LITTLE THINGS CAN EXPRESS CHARACTER AS TRULY AS GREAT ONES. A little pool can mirror the sun as truly as the widespreading lake. A dewdrop can refresh the earth, in its way, as truly as the thundershower in its. God is the reader of motives, and accepts the actor rather than the act. It often, indeed, takes more and nobler character to do a small deed well than to do a large one. There is much to help a priest to be noble; there is but little to help a mere doorkeeper, and he has to fall back upon principle. Let but a man rightly esteem doing anything for God, and he will be full of holy joy in being permitted to do some “little thing.”R.T.
Psa 84:11, Psa 84:12
Conditional bestowments.
What God is to his people, and what he does for them, may be put into two figures, and expressed in two plain statements. But what he is to them, and what he does for them, depend on what they are in themselves, and what they are toward him. This the sincerely good man is always willing to recognize.
I. THE DIVINE BESTOWMENTS.
1. Suggested by two figures.
(1) “The Lord God is a Sun.“ This figure for God is only used in this place. The sun in nature is the source of light, life, warmth, beauty, fruitfulness. The psalmist seems, even in this figure, to have God’s defendings chiefly in mind. God is Light against darkness, which Easterns so greatly fear.
(2) “The Lord God is a Shield.” See this figure treated in the homily on Psa 84:9. We may add the picture of the tents of the army ranged in circles round the king’s tent, and forming an almost impregnable shield; so “the Lord is round about his people.” Some have suggested making one figure of the two, and reading it, “The Lord God is a bright and shining Shield.” They think reference may be to the brazen shields, which were kept polished, so that, catching the sun’s rays, they might dazzle the enemy.
2. Suggested by two statements.
(1) “The Lord will give grace and glory.” We may think of Divine bestowment exactly according with human necessities. Grace fits into all present needs; glory fits into all future needs. But the psalmist probably used the terms as figures for the two things he neededhelp and success.
(2) “No good thing will he withhold.” A carefully qualified promise. It does not say, “Nothing will he withhold.” It is “no good thing;” and no one can decide what is good for us as he can who has the infinite knowledge, and is the infinite Wisdom and Love.
II. THE DIVINE CONDITIONS. “From them that walk uprightly.” That being regarded as the sure sign that the heart is right with God. A man may walk uprightly before his fellows who is not heart right with God. But this is quite certainif a man does not walk uprightly, he cannot be right with God. God is an unstinted Giver; we put the limitations by the failure of our faith, love, submission, and obedience. God would have his bestowmeuts to be the best possible blessing to us; and therefore they are withheld until it is quite plain that we are prepared to make the best of them.R.T.
HOMILIES BY C. SHORT
Psa 84:1-7
The glory of worship.
I. HELPS US TO REALIZE OUR NEARNESS TO GOD. (Psa 84:1.) “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. (Psa 84:2.)
III. IT GIVES THE SENSE OF BEING AT HOME WITH GOD. (Psa 84:3.) 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. (Psa 84:4.)
V. WE BECOME CONSCIOUS OF A STRENGTH DERIVED FROM GOD. (Psa 84:5.)
VI. IT CREATES SPRINGS OF REFRESHMENT IN THE WILDERNESS. In the weeping vale (Psa 84:6). “The early rain cometh in with blessings.”
VII. IT CONSTANTLY RENEWS AND INCREASES OUR SPIRITUAL STRENGTH. (Psa 84:7.) VIII. IT WILL BRING US AT LENGTH TO THE VISION OF GOD IN HEAVEN. (Psa 84:7.)S.
Psa 84:11
What God is to his people.
I. GOOD MEN ENJOY THE GRANDEST EXPERIENCES.
1. God is to them a Sun and Shield. These figures refer to our moral state as dark and dangerous. Alienation of the soul from God is a state of darkness. God is the Source of our light and life and joy. Our danger islife is a great battlefield. We have protection from God if we are on his side. The battle is his.
2. He gives to them grace and glory. Grace is unmerited favour. The favour of God to man has been in the exercise of his mercy. “Hath not dealt with us after our sins,” etc. Glory is the perfecting the work of grace, in the revelations and rewards of eternity. The beginning, the continuance, and the end of life are from God.
3. He holds back from them no good thing. This includes the bestowment of all real good. And he has given us a proof and pledge in the gift of Christ. “If God spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all,” etc.
II. SOME GOOD MEN DO NOT ENJOY THE FULL EXTENT OF THESE PROMISES.
1. Because their characters do not answer to the description of the text. They do not walk uprightly, or only do so very imperfectly. None of us translates the theory of the Christian life into our actual practice.
2. They often mistake what are the good things of life. Many things, accounted good by the false judgments of the world, are bad. Things good for some men are bad for others. Things good for us at one time are bad at another. But the absolutely good thingsgood independently of all circumstancesare meant in the text. To walk in God’s light; to see all things in the light that falls from his character; to enjoy his help and protection from spiritual danger; to have his grace now and his glory in prospect;these are the good things they enjoy who walk uprightly.S.
Psalms 84.
The prophet, longing for the communion of the sanctuary, sheweth how blessed they are that dwell therein: he prayeth to be restored unto it.
To the chief musician upon Gittith, A psalm for the sons of Korah.
Title. lamnatseach al haggittith.] This psalm contains the ardent desires of a pious soul towards God; a pathetic expression of the benefits and joy of his public service; and an encouragement of the people to make the ways thither from all quarters fair and passable. Bishop Patrick thinks that it was composed by some pious Levite, when Sennacherib’s army had blocked up the way to Jerusalem, and hindered him from waiting upon the service of God at the temple. But Dr. Delaney has suggested, that it was written by David when he was at peace from all his enemies, and, having settled the ark in its place, had set his heart upon building a temple to God. Let us suppose then, what is not at all unnatural, says this learned writer, that David, upon conceiving this great design of building the temple, had poured out his purpose in fervent prayer to God, imploring his aid and protection, and confiding in his support to the accomplishment of it: Could any words more aptly or emphatically express the fulness of his heart upon this head than those of this psalm? Let us suppose him to have communicated any psalm that he composed upon this occasion to Nathan, his prophet and friend: what other answer could the prophet make to him, on a supposition that this was the very psalm so communicated, than that which we find recorded of him, 2Sa 7:3. Go, do all that is in thine heart, for the Lord is with thee? Life of David, b. 3: Psa 100:1.
Psalms 84
To the chief Musician upon Gittith, A Psalm for the sons of Korah
2How amiable are thy tabernacles,
O Lord of hosts!
3My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the courts of the Lord:
My heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God.
4Yea, 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.
5Blessed are they that dwell in thy house:
They will be still praising thee. Selah.
6Blessed is the man whose strength is in thee;
In whose heart are the ways of them.
7Who passing through the valley of Baca
Make it a well; 8They go from strength to strength,
Every one of them in Zion appeareth before God.
9O Lord God of hosts, hear my prayer:
Give ear, O God of Jacob. Selah.
10Behold, O God our shield,
And look upon the face of thine anointed.
11For a day in thy courts is better than a thousand.
I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God, 12For the Lord God is a sun and shield:
The Lord will give grace and glory: 13O 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 Gods 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 Davids 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 (Rosenmller, Hengst.) or praying for him as the anointed, and expecting his own return home with the kings 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 Davids 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 Gods 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 Gods 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 Gods 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 Gods 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, Rosenmller). 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, 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 mans 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 Gods 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 (Bttcher). We may therefore hold to the Rabbinical explanation of derr. Should it, however, correspond to the word dri 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 Tsippr 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 Gods 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 is iteratio, so that it is much better to adhere to it in this place. The praise that resounds through Gods 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 [roads) must be given up, and = (confidence, Hupf.) be read in its place as the Chald has already paraphrased it? Or should we rather insert , because the Sept. has here as in 2Ch 9:11, rendered ? 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, Bttcher, 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 Gods 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 . The rabbins have explained these to be mulberries, but later writers, more correctly (see Faber on Harmers 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, Realwrterbuch). There were undoubtedly several of these Baca-valleys: and being employed here as a play upon (=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 (Kster). 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 (Sept. ), Jdg 2:1, which again might properly have been = (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 Jsus, Ch. 4). For apart from the fact, that the dropping from the rock called weeping in Job 28:11, is there called and not , it is not said here that the pilgrims made that valley a =bivouac, before Jerusalem (Knapp), but =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 denotes also in Joe 2:23, as 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 ( 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 (Bttcher), 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 here stands for , 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.: . Exception was made to the unusual combination of instead of , with, ; the allusion to immediately preceding and to in verse 3, was overlooked; and it was suggested that the true reading was .
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 Gods 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 minds 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 Davids 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 Gods 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 pilgrims 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 Gods, has as much reason for rejoicing as for longing.Man must seek at Gods 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 Gods house, walks in Gods 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 Gods 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 Gods 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 Gods 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 Gods 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 Gods 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.Gods 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 Gods praise!Guenther: First, the longing after Gods house and communion with Him; next, an indication of the way to the object of desire; thirdly, the reward of residence in Gods 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.
DISCOURSE: 639 Psa 84:1-4. Haw amiable are thy tabernacles, O Lord of Hosts! My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth, for the courts of the Lord: my heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God. Yea, the sparrow hath found an house, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, even thine altars, O Lord of Hosts, my King and my God. Blessed are they that dwell in thine house: they will be still praising thee.
TRULY it is sweet to read of the experience of the saints, and to be able to appeal to it in vindication of our own experience. I wonder not that the world should cry out against the people of the Lord as enthusiastic and absurd; for they cannot by any means conceive how a person should lose all relish for carnal delights, and find all his happiness in employments wherein they see nothing but restraint and melancholy. But, indeed, there is a delight in communion with a reconciled God, an ineffable joy, with which the stranger intermeddleth not. This is well expressed in the passage before us; from whence I shall take occasion to shew,
I.
The light in which we should view divine ordinances
Certainly the expressions here used in reference to them are exceeding strong. To a mind not conversant with the subject, they would appear rather like the flights of a poetical imagination than as the dictates of sober judgment. But they are not a whit too strong, if viewed in reference to the object respecting which they treat. Both body and soul may well unite in the feelings here expressed, feelings of intense desire, such as envies the very birds the privilege they enjoy of building their nests around the sacred edifice where Gods presence is enjoyed. Truly the tabernacles of the Most High will appear amiable, if we consider that in them,
1.
Gods presence is vouchsafed
[Formerly God dwelt in his sanctuary by the Shechinah, a bright cloud, the symbol of his presence, which was in itself visible to the eye of sense, though it was seen only by the High Priest, and that only on one day in the year. Now, his presence is visible only to the eye of faith (for there is an eye that seeth Him that is invisible [Note: Heb 11:27.]), and by him who possesses a spiritual discernment, even though he be the least and meanest of Gods children, the divine presence is both seen and felt. What else is the meaning of those words, If a man love me, my Father will love him; and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him? Yes, verily, God will manifest himself to his believing people as he does not unto the world [Note: Joh 14:21-23.]: he will, in an especial manner, draw nigh to those who draw nigh to him: Wherever two or three are met together in his name, he will be in the midst of them; and to every weeping suppliant he will say, Behold me, behold me [Note: Isa 65:1.]! Here I am [Note: Isa 58:9.].]
2.
His blessings are dispensed
[In the days of our blessed Lord, we are informed, that multitudes, labouring under every kind of malady, thronged about him; and that virtue went forth from him to heal them all [Note: Luk 6:19,]. Somewhat similar to this may yet be seen under the ministration of the Gospel. Multitudes, oppressed with every species of mental trouble, approach the Majesty of heaven, to pour out before him their supplications, and to receive from him a supply for their diversified necessities. The weary and heavy-laden sinner sues for pardon and peace: the soul, harassed with temptations, implores strength whereby to cope with its great Adversary, and to fulfil the will of God: in a word, whatever be mens trials, thither they bring them all; and there they look for aid; and there, through the ministry of the Word, they actually find mercy and grace to help them in the time of need. To every distinct case God mercifully suits his aid; and the succour afforded by him proves sufficient for them all: so that, as thousands can testify, when they have come hungering and thirsting for the blessings of salvation, they have not been sent empty away, but have been filled and satisfied with the plenteousness of Gods house, and had all their sorrows turned into joy.]
3.
His name is glorified
[Every one, entering the house of God in a becoming spirit, feels a consciousness, that he is approaching a Father and a Friend; yea, a Friend who is infinitely more willing to give than the most oppressed suppliants can be to ask, and willing to give exceedingly above all that they can either ask or think. Conceive of millions assembled at the very same instant of time, in every quarter of the globe, thus honouring their God as omnipresent to hear their prayers, and omnipotent to supply their wants. Who must not love those ordinances where God is so exalted? Again, amidst all the millions that have been relieved, there is but one sentiment of gratitude to God as their Almighty and all-gracious Benefactor. Verily, in this respect the tabernacles of the Most High on earth resemble his house above, where all the hosts, whether of saints or angels, join in one harmonious song of praise to their creating and redeeming God. Say, are not Gods tabernacles amiable in such a view as this? and can any one long for them with too intense desire, or enter them with too sublime delight?] II.
The blessedness of those who estimate them aright
As for those who only occasionally visit the house of God, merely for form sake or to perform a duty, it cannot be expected that they should derive much benefit to their souls. But those who, in the habit of their minds, dwell, as it were, in Gods courts, will find their souls exceedingly elated and comforted. They will acquire, yea, and speedily too attain, a disposition of mind that is little understood by the world at large, a spirit of praise and thanksgiving, not unlike to that which animates the hosts above.
1.
Their occasions for praise will incessantly be renewed
[Not a prayer they offer shall ever go forth in vain. Their access to God will become more intimate, their confidence in him more entire, their communion with him more sweet, and their communications from him more abundant. As every day brings with it fresh temporal benefits, so will their stock of spiritual blessings be daily multiplied, so that it shall appear to them as if a new series of mercies were every day begun; a series, for the acknowledgment of which an eternity of ages would scarcely suffice.]
2.
In the exercise of praise they will abound more and more
[I say not that they will cease to pray; for their need of prayer will never cease, till they arrive in heaven itself. But their devotions will more assume the character of praise: their view of the divine perfections will be greatly enlarged; and their sense of Gods mercies be deepened, insomuch that they will see mercy in every thing, and be disposed in every thing to give thanks. Their very trials and afflictions will be regarded as tokens of Gods love, and as incentives to praise Him who giveth songs in the night. If their tribulations be great, they will glory in them, as contributing both to their present [Note: Rom 8:28.] and eternal welfare [Note: 2Co 4:17-18.]. Behold the Apostles just dismissed from scourging and imprisonment! they go forth rejoicing that they are counted worthy to suffer shame for Christs sake. Behold Paul and Silas also with their feet made fast in the stocks, whilst their backs are yet bleeding by the stripes just recently inflicted on them! Do they mourn and weep? No, they sing praises unto God at midnight. Now, all this was the fruit of communion with God: and in proportion as we also live nigh to God in prayer, we shall surely find, whether in life or death, little else than occasions of praise. In whatever state we be, we shall be uttering thanksgivings to God; yea, come what may, we shall be still praising him.]
SEE, then, I pray you, The happiness of the saints
[I may appeal to you, whether the worldling has any source of joy that can be compared with this? No, verily; the first monarch upon earth that is ignorant of God, fcedeth only upon husks: whereas the true saint, though poor as Lazarus himself, eateth of angels food ]
2.
The blessedness of heaven
[If such be Gods courts below, what must heaven itself be? Well may we long to be there. Well may we desire to depart and be with Christ, where we shall behold him face to face. I need not say, how blessed are that choir who day and night incessantly sing praises to God and to the Lamb. But may we so anticipate that employment, that we may be prepared to join in it to all eternity! Amen, and Amen.]
CONTENTS
We have here the earnest longings and devout aspirations of the soul for personal communion with God in Christ. The blessedness of that man is sublimely set forth who hath a God in Christ for his portion.
To the chief musician upon Gittith, A Psalm for the sons of Korah.
Though the latter part of this rapturous Psalm evidently belongs to the church, and is the language of the church concerning Christ; yet I do not see wherefore the former part may not be supposed to be the language of Christ. It is well known that our Lord spent whole nights in prayer to God; and the holy nature of the man Christ Jesus, we may well suppose, longed for the everlasting and uninterrupted enjoyment of God above. I beg the Reader to mark the vehemency of expression in these verses. Oh! for such holy longings of soul! Oh! for more of the spirit of Jesus!
Psa 84
Foxe, in his Book of Martyrs, under the year 1554, in the reign of Queen Mary, gives an account of the youthful martyr. It is taken from his brother’s narration. ‘He suffered with great constancy, and recited the 84th Psalm as he was a-dying. Then there was a gentleman who said, “I pray God have mercy upon his soul”. The people said, “Amen, Amen”. Immediately fire was made. Then William cast his Psalter right into his brother’s hand, who said, “William, think on the holy passion of Christ, and be not afraid of death!” And William answered, “I am not afraid”. Then, lifting up his hands to heaven, he said, “Lord, Lord, Lord, receive my spirit”; and, casting down his head again into the smothering smoke, he yielded up his life for the truth, sealing it with his blood to the praise of God.’ John Ker.
Delight in God’s House
Psa 84:1
The utterance of a Hebrew exile who is cut off from the privileges of worship and sacrifice on Mount Zion. The Psalmist prays that he, though distant, may share the blessing of those who can enter the holy place of the tabernacles of the Most High. And thus the close of the Psalm suggests that grace and glory are not altogether confined to the temple courts.
I. Even in the Old Testament no local sanctuary has a monopoly of the Divine Presence. And in the New Testament we realize that the Most High dwelleth not in temples made with hands. It has seemed easy and natural for Christians to chant this Psalm, referring it to the services of the Christian Church. Nevertheless we must distinguish and discriminate in our application of its phrases, and interpret them in the clear light of the argument of the Epistle to the Hebrews: ‘Ye are come unto Mount Zion, unto the heavenly Jerusalem’.
II. It may even be questioned whether Christians should call any earthly building ‘the House of God’. God’s house for each individual man is just the place where he finds himself at home with God: ‘any place where God grants the vision, where God lets down the ladder’.
III. Yet this expresses only part of the total truth. Christianity is supremely a fellowship, and we realize the living God in the fellowship of His children. It is among the gathered company of believers that Christ manifests His real presence, and fulfils His promise to their corporate and collective faith.
T. H. Darlow, The Upward Calling, p. 232.
The House of God
Psa 84:1
This is the language of love, and in this brief sentence is forcibly expressed the royal Psalmist’s impassioned love for God, through the medium of His recognized abode.
I. The Object. ‘Tabernacles’ signifies places of temporary rather than of fixed or permanent abode; and in this is implied the evanescent, short-lived nature of the race, and all that belongs to sublunary existence.
II. The Special Significance of this Appellation. The advantages such Divine favour affords:
a. As a source of comfort and rejoicing.
b. As essential to faith, faithfulness, and success.
III. The House of God as a Blessed Reality. The powers of darkness foiled, and victory on Israel’s side.
Christian Worship
Psa 84:1
This Psalm was written evidently under circumstances of some deep sorrow or anxiety which had caused absence, and that a constrained absence, from the tabernacles of the Lord. The Psalm further describes the going up of the pilgrims of Zion to the Temple of Jerusalem, and the increasing blessing that they felt in communion with one another, journeying all toward Jerusalem.
I. What is the position of affairs as appertaining to the interpretation of this Psalm? There was private worship then as now. Many of the Scriptures of the Old Testament enforced that duty; and there is public worship now as there was then, with all the Old Testament lessons carried forward, and all the New Testament lessons adding on their special edification and example.
II. In the New Testament the great rubric of public worship is this, ‘Wheresoever two or three are gathered together in My name,’ says Christ, ‘there am I in their midst’. And we have this additional command in the words of the Apostle, ‘Forsaking not the assembling yourselves together as the manner of some is’. We urge these things because of two classes of men: ( a ) First because of the careless and the thoughtless who think they can live, but know that they cannot die, without the means of grace, and who seldom if ever attend the house of God. ( b ) Another class consists of some amongst our own selves who are so spiritual in their own mind, or in their own understanding of themselves, that they have no sympathy for those that are without, despise anything like material or concrete methods for conducting the worship of God, and esteem buildings, systems, forms, and all externals as nothing worth at all. In enforcing upon the careless and the thoughtless the important duty of public worship, you include the importance of private worship; because those persons who neglect public worship are almost sure to neglect private worship too; whereas, those that attend private worship are those that most value and appreciate the public worship of God in the communion of His people.
III. In the dispensation of the Spirit in which we now live amid all the spiritual demands of the New Testament Church, God still has appointed and approved of the outward and the visible means of grace. Is it by dreams and visions that God makes known His mind to us? No, but by His holy word which is a book a book, a tangible, real, genuine, veritable book, so far external as to be a book printed on paper, and printed with ink, just as other books are, and that is the way in which God communicates whatever of His mind we have ever attained.
References. LXXXIV. 1. R. D. B. Rawnsley, Sermons in Country Churches (3rd Series), p. 293. LXXXIV. 1, 2. C. Bradley, Faithful Teaching, p. 116. LXXXIV. 3. Spurgeon, My Sermon Notes Genesis to Proverbs, p. 154. LXXXIV. 6. P. Brooks, The Mystery of Iniquity, p. 18. Spurgeon, Morning by Morning, p. 257. LXXXIV. 7. J. Keble, Village Sermons on the Baptismal Service, p. 301. H. M. Butler, Harrow School Sermons (2nd Series), p. 230.
The Glorious Lamp of Heaven
Psa 84:11
I. The progress of our life is not unlike the progress of astronomy. We all begin in one way or other by making this earth on which we dwell the centre. The strange thing is that while this remains the centre, for us as for the astronomers much is dark. A thousand problems baffle our inquiry, and a thousand questions are answered by a cry. But the day comes and it comes to every man when he has his choice of being a Copernicus. He has his choice of making the great refusal, or of making the grandest of all discoveries, for the greatest discovery a man can make is that God is the centre of the system.
II. How beneficent is the power of the sun, and yet from what a vast distance it is exercised. I am sure that most of us have been oppressed at times by the thought of a distant God. Like Job we have looked to the right hand and He was not there, and to the left and have seen nothing of His form, until under the weight of thoughts like these the distance of the Almighty Father chills us, and we cannot pray with realizing power nor can we walk with realizing faith. Tempted and tried thus let us recall our text: ‘The Lord God is a shield He is a sun’. Wherever His Throne be, in distances illimitable, shall He be outmatched in power by His creature?
III. Without the atmosphere the sun could never bless us. May I not use that mystery of nature to illuminate a kindred mystery of grace? It is one of the ways of God in all His workings to grant His blessings through an intermediary. Christ is the mediator of the better covenant. Through Him the sunshine of heaven’s love can reach us and in the rays of that sunshine we are blessed.
G. H. Morrison, The Unlighted Lustre, p. 65.
Psa 84:11
‘No good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly.’ When Thomas Carlyle was leaving, in doubt and despondency, his quiet mountain home at Craigenputtock for the untried tumult of London, he quoted part of this verse for comfort to his brother Alexander and himself, but mingled it with the words of another passage, Rom 8:28 .
J. K.
References. LXXXIV. 11. R. S. Candlish, Sonship and Brotherhood of Believers, pp. 66, 79. LXXXIV. 11, 12. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxviii. No. 1699. LXXXIV. 12. H. P. Wright, Preacher’s Magazine, vol. xix. p. 80. LXXXIV. International Critical Commentary, vol. ii. p. 224. E. Johnson, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxv. p. 75.
PSALMS
XI
AN INTRODUCTION TO THE BOOK OF PSALMS
According to my usual custom, when taking up the study of a book of the Bible I give at the beginning a list of books as helps to the study of that book. The following books I heartily commend on the Psalms:
1. Sampey’s Syllabus for Old Testament Study . This is especially good on the grouping and outlining of some selected psalms. There are also some valuable suggestions on other features of the book.
2. Kirkpatrick’g commentary, in “Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges,” is an excellent aid in the study of the Psalter.
3. Perowne’s Book of Psalms is a good, scholarly treatise on the Psalms. A special feature of this commentary is the author’s “New Translation” and his notes are very helpful.
4. Spurgeon’s Treasury of David. This is just what the title implies. It is a voluminous, devotional interpretation of the Psalms and helpful to those who have the time for such extensive study of the Psalter.
5. Hengstenburg on the Psalms. This is a fine, scholarly work by one of the greatest of the conservative German scholars.
6. Maclaren on the Psalms, in “The Expositor’s Bible,” is the work of the world’s safest, sanest, and best of all works that have ever been written on the Psalms.
7. Thirtle on the Titles of the Psalms. This is the best on the subject and well worth a careful study.
At this point some definitions are in order. The Hebrew word for psalm means praise. The word in English comes from psalmos , a song of lyrical character, or a song to be sung and accompanied with a lyre. The Psalter is a collection of sacred and inspired songs, composed at different times and by different authors.
The range of time in composition was more than 1,000 years, or from the time of Moses to the time of Ezra. The collection in its present form was arranged probably by Ezra in the fifth century, B.C.
The Jewish classification of Old Testament books was The Law, the Prophets, and the Holy Writings. The Psalms was given the first place in the last group.
They had several names, or titles, of the Psalms. In Hebrew they are called “The Book of Prayers,” or “The Book of Praises.” The Hebrew word thus used means praises. The title of the first two books is found in Psa 72:20 : “The prayers of David the son of Jesse are ended.” The title of the whole collection of Psalms in the Septuagint is Biblos Psalman which means the “Book of Psalms.” The title in the Alexandrian Codex is Psalterion which is the name of a stringed instrument, and means “The Psalter.”
The derivation of our English words, “psalms,” “psalter,” and “psaltery,” respectively, is as follows:
1. “Psalms” comes from the Greek word, psalmoi, which is also from psallein , which means to play upon a stringed instrument. Therefore the Psalms are songs played upon stringed instruments, and the word here is used to apply to the whole collection.
2. “Psalter” is of the same origin and means the Book of Psalms and refers also to the whole collection.
3. “Psaltery” is from the word psalterion, which means “a harp,” an instrument, supposed to be in the shape of a triangle or like the delta of the Greek alphabet. See Psa 33:2 ; Psa 71:22 ; Psa 81:2 ; Psa 144:9 .
In our collection there are 150 psalms. In the Septuagint there is one extra. It is regarded as being outside the sacred collection and not inspired. The subject of this extra psalm is “David’s victory over Goliath.” The following is a copy of it: I was small among my brethren, And youngest in my father’s house, I used to feed my father’s sheep. My hands made a harp, My fingers fashioned a Psaltery. And who will declare unto my Lord? He is Lord, he it is who heareth. He it was who sent his angel And took me from my father’s sheep, And anointed me with the oil of his anointing. My brethren were goodly and tall, But the Lord took no pleasure in them. I went forth to meet the Philistine. And he cursed me by his idols But I drew the sword from beside him; I beheaded him and removed reproach from the children of Israel.
It will be noted that this psalm does not have the earmarks of an inspired production. There is not found in it the modesty so characteristic of David, but there is here an evident spirit of boasting and self-praise which is foreign to the Spirit of inspiration.
There is a difference in the numbering of the psalms in our version which follows the Hebrew, and the numbering in the Septuagint. Omitting the extra one in the Septuagint, there is no difference as to the total number. Both have 150 and the same subject matter, but they are not divided alike.
The following scheme shows the division according to our version and also the Septuagint: Psalms 1-8 in the Hebrew equal 1-8 in the Septuagint; 9-10 in the Hebrew combine into 9 in the Septuagint; 11-113 in the Hebrew equal 10-112 in the Septuagint; 114-115 in the Hebrew combine into 113 in the Septuagint; 116 in the Hebrew divides into 114-115 in the Septuagint; 117-146 in the Hebrew equal 116-145 in the Septuagint; 147 in the Hebrew divides into 146-147 in the Septuagint; 148-150 in the Hebrew equal 148-150 in the Septuagint.
The arrangement in the Vulgate is the same as the Septuagint. Also some of the older English versions have this arangement. Another difficulty in numbering perplexes an inexperienced student in turning from one version to another, viz: In the Hebrew often the title is verse I, and sometimes the title embraces verses 1-2.
The book divisions of the Psalter are five books, as follows:
Book I, Psalms 1-41 (41 chapters)
Book II, Psalms 42-72 (31 chapters)
Book III, Psalms 73-89 (17 chapters)
Book IV, Psalms 90-106 (17 chapters)
Book V, Psalms 107-150 (44 chapters)
They are marked by an introduction and a doxology. Psalm I forms an introduction to the whole book; Psa 150 is the doxology for the whole book. The introduction and doxology of each book are the first and last psalms of each division, respectively.
There were smaller collections before the final one, as follows:
Books I and II were by David; Book III, by Hezekiah, and Books IV and V, by Ezra.
Certain principles determined the arrangement of the several psalms in the present collection:
1. David is honored with first place, Book I and II, including Psalms 1-72.
2. They are grouped according to the use of the name of God:
(1) Psalms 1-41 are Jehovah psalms;
(2) Psalms 42-83 are Elohim-psalms;
(3) Psalms 84-150 are Jehovah psalms.
3. Book IV is introduced by the psalm of Moses, which is the first psalm written.
4. Some are arranged as companion psalms, for instance, sometimes two, sometimes three, and sometimes more. Examples: Psa 2 and 3; 22, 23, and 24; 113-118.
5. They were arranged for liturgical purposes, which furnished the psalms for special occasions, such as feasts, etc. We may be sure this arrangement was not accidental. An intelligent study of each case is convincing that it was determined upon rational grounds.
All the psalms have titles but thirty-three, as follows:
In Book I, Psa 1 ; Psa 2 ; Psa 10 ; Psa 33 , (4 are without titles).
In Book II, Psa 43 ; Psa 71 , (2 are without titles).
In Book IV, Psa 91 ; Psa 93 ; Psa 94 ; Psa 95 ; Psa 96 ; Psa 97 ; Psa 104 ; Psa 105 ; Psa 106 , (9 are without titles).
In Book V, Psa 107 ; III; 112; 113; 114; 115; 116; 117; 118; 119; 135; 136; 137; 146; 147; 148; 149; 150, (18 are without titles).
The Talmud calls these psalms that have no title, “Orphan Psalms.” The later Jews supply these titles by taking the nearest preceding author. The lack of titles in Psa 1 ; Psa 2 ; and 10 may be accounted for as follows: Psa 1 is a general introduction to the whole collection and Psa 2 was, perhaps, a part of Psa 1 . Psalms 9-10 were formerly combined into one, therefore Psa 10 has the same title as Psa 9 .
QUESTIONS
1. What books are commended on the Psalms?
2. What is a psalm?
3. What is the Psalter?
4. What is the range of time in composition?
5. When and by whom was the collection in its present form arranged?
6. What the Jewish classification of Old Testament books, and what the position of the Psalter in this classification?
7. What is the Hebrew title of the Psalms?
8. Find the title of the first two books from the books themselves.
9. What is the title of the whole collection of psalms in the Septuagint?
10. What is the title in the Alexandrian Codex?
11. What is the derivation of our English word, “Psalms”, “Psalter”, and “Psaltery,” respectively?
12. How many psalms in our collection?
13. How many psalms in the Septuagint?
14. What about the extra one in the Septuagint?
15. What is the subject of this extra psalm?
16. How does it compare with the Canonical Psalms?
17. What is the difference in the numbering of the psalms in our version which follows the Hebrew, and the numbering in the Septuagint?
18. What is the arrangement in the Vulgate?
19. What other difficulty in numbering which perplexes an inexperienced student in turning from one version to another?
20. What are the book divisions of the Psalter and how are these divisions marked?
21. Were there smaller collections before the final one? If so, what were they?
22. What principles determined the arrangement of the several psalms in the present collection?
23. In what conclusion may we rest concerning this arrangement?
24. How many of the psalms have no titles?
25. What does the Talmud call these psalms that have no titles?
26. How do later Jews supply these titles?
27. How do you account for the lack of titles in Psa 1 ; Psa 2 ; Psa 10 ?
XII
AN INTRODUCTION TO THE BOOK OF PSALMS (CONTINUED)
The following is a list of the items of information gathered from the titles of the psalms:
1. The author: “A Psalm of David” (Psa 37 ).
2. The occasion: “When he fled from Absalom, his son” (Psa 3 ).
3. The nature, or character, of the poem:
(1) Maschil, meaning “instruction,” a didactic poem (Psa 42 ).
(2) Michtam, meaning “gold,” “A Golden Psalm”; this means excellence or mystery (Psa 16 ; 56-60).
4. The occasion of its use: “A Psalm of David for the dedication of the house” (Psa 30 ).
5. Its purpose: “A Psalm of David to bring remembrance” (Psa 38 ; Psa 70 ).
6. Direction for its use: “A Psalm of David for the chief musician” (Psa 4 ).
7. The kind of musical instrument:
(1) Neginoth, meaning to strike a chord, as on stringed instruments (Psa 4 ; Psa 61 ).
(2) Nehiloth, meaning to perforate, as a pipe or flute (Psa 5 ).
(3) Shoshannim, Lilies, which refers probably to cymbals (Psa 45 ; Psa 69 ).
8. A special choir:
(1) Sheminith, the “eighth,” or octave below, as a male choir (Psa 6 ; Psa 12 ).
(2) Alamoth, female choir (Psa 46 ).
(3) Muth-labben, music with virgin voice, to be sung by a choir of boys in the treble (Psa 9 ).
9. The keynote, or tune:
(1) Aijeleth-sharar, “Hind of the morning,” a song to the melody of which this is sung (Psa 22 ).
(2) Al-tashheth, “Destroy thou not,” the beginning of a song the tune of which is sung (Psa 57 ; Psa 58 ; Psa 59 ; Psa 75 ).
(3) Gittith, set to the tune of Gath, perhaps a tune which David brought from Gath (Psa 8 ; Psa 81 ; Psa 84 ).
(4) Jonath-elim-rehokim, “The dove of the distant terebinths,” the commencement of an ode to the air of which this song was to be sung (Psa 56 ).
(5) Leannoth, the name of a tune (Psa 88 ).
(6) Mahalath, an instrument (Psa 53 ); Leonnoth-Mahaloth, to chant to a tune called Mahaloth.
(7) Shiggaion, a song or a hymn.
(8) Shushan-Eduth, “Lily of testimony,” a tune (Psa 60 ). Note some examples: (1) “America,” “Shiloh,” “Auld Lang Syne.” These are the names of songs such as we are familiar with; (2) “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing” and “There Is a Fountain Filled with Blood,” are examples of sacred hymns.
10. The liturgical use, those noted for the feasts, e.g., the Hallels and Hallelujah Psalms (Psalms 146-150).
11. The destination, as “Song of Ascents” (Psalms 120-134)
12. The direction for the music, such as Selah, which means “Singers, pause”; Higgaion-Selah, to strike a symphony with selah, which means an instrumental interlude (Psa 9:16 ).
The longest and fullest title to any of the psalms is the title to Psa 60 . The items of information from this title are as follows: (1) the author; (2) the chief musician; (3) the historical occasion; (4) the use, or design; (5) the style of poetry; (6) the instrument or style of music.
The parts of these superscriptions which most concern us now are those indicating author, occasion, and date. As to the historic value or trustworthiness of these titles most modern scholars deny that they are a part of the Hebrew text, but the oldest Hebrew text of which we know anything had all of them. This is the text from which the Septuagint was translated. It is much more probable that the author affixed them than later writers. There is no internal evidence in any of the psalms that disproves the correctness of them, but much to confirm. The critics disagree among themselves altogether as to these titles. Hence their testimony cannot consistently be received. Nor can it ever be received until they have at least agreed upon a common ground of opposition.
David is the author of more than half the entire collection, the arrangement of which is as follows:
1. Seventy-three are ascribed to him in the superscriptions.
2. Some of these are but continuations of the preceding ones of a pair, trio, or larger group.
3. Some of the Korahite Psalms are manifestly Davidic.
4. Some not ascribed to him in the titles are attributed to him expressly by New Testament writers.
5. It is not possible to account for some parts of the Psalter without David. The history of his early life as found in Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, and 1and 2 Chronicles, not only shows his remarkable genius for patriotic and sacred songs and music, but also shows his cultivation of that gift in the schools of the prophets. Some of these psalms of the history appear in the Psalter itself. It is plain to all who read these that they are founded on experience, and the experience of no other Hebrew fits the case. These experiences are found in Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, and 1 and 2 Chronicles.
As to the attempt of the destructive critics to rob David of his glory in relation to the Psalter by assigning the Maccabean era as the date of composition, I have this to say:
1. This theory has no historical support whatever, and therefore is not to be accepted at all.
2. It has no support in tradition, which weakens the contention of the critics greatly.
3. It has no support from finding any one with the necessary experience for their basis.
4. They can give no reasonable account as to how the titles ever got there.
5. It is psychologically impossible for anyone to have written these 150 psalms in the Maccabean times.
6. Their position is expressly contrary to the testimony of Christ and the apostles. Some of the psalms which they ascribe to the Maccabean Age are attributed to David by Christ himself, who said that David wrote them in the Spirit.
The obvious aim of this criticism and the necessary result if it be Just, is a positive denial of the inspiration of both Testaments.
Other authors are named in the titles, as follows: (1) Asaph, to whom twelve psalms have been assigned: (2) Mosee, Psa 90 ; (3) Solomon, Psa 72 ; Psa 127 ; (4) Heman, Psa 80 ; (5) Ethem, Psa 89 ; (6) A number of the psalms are ascribed to the sons of Korah.
Not all the psalms ascribed to Asaph were composed by one person. History indicates that Asaph’s family presided over the song service for several generations. Some of them were composed by his descendants by the game name. The five general outlines of the whole collection are as follows:
I. By books
1. Psalms 1-41 (41)
2. Psalms 42-72 (31)
3. Psalms 73-89 (17)
4. Psalms 90-106 (17)
5. Psalms 107-150 (44)
II. According to date and authorship
1. The psalm of Moses (Psa 90 )
2. Psalms of David:
(1) The shepherd boy (Psa 8 ; Psa 19 ; Psa 29 ; Psa 23 ).
(2) David when persecuted by Saul (Psa 59 ; Psa 56 ; Psa 34 ; Psa 52 ; Psa 54 ; Psa 57 ; Psa 142 ).
(3) David the King (Psa 101 ; Psa 18 ; Psa 24 ; Psa 2 ; Psa 110 ; Psa 20 ; Psa 20 ; Psa 21 ; Psa 60 ; Psa 51 ; Psa 32 ; Psa 41 ; Psa 55 ; Psa 3:4 ; Psa 64 ; Psa 62 ; Psa 61 ; Psa 27 ).
3. The Asaph Psalms (Psa 50 ; Psa 73 ; Psa 83 ).
4. The Korahite Psalms (Psa 42 ; Psa 43 ; Psa 84 ).
5. The psalms of Solomon (Psa 72 ; Psa 127 ).
6. The psalms of the era of Hezekiah and Isaiah (Psa 46 ; Psa 47 ; Psa 48 )
7. The psalms of the Exile (Psa 74 ; Psa 79 ; Psa 137 ; Psa 102 )
8. The psalms of the Restoration (Psa 85 ; Psa 126 ; Psa 118 ; 146-150)
III. By groups
1. The Jehovistic and Elohistic Psalms:
(1) Psalms 1-41 are Jehovistic;
(2) Psalms 42-83 are Elohistic Psalms;
(3) Psalms 84-150 are Jehovistic.
2. The Penitential Psalms (Psa 6 ; Psa 32 ; Psa 38 ; Psa 51 ; Psa 102 ; Psa 130 ; Psa 143 )
3. The Pilgrim Psalms (Psalms 120-134)
4. The Alphabetical Psalms (Psa 9 ; Psa 10 ; Psa 25 ; Psa 34 ; Psa 37 ; 111:112; Psa 119 ; Psa 145 )
5. The Hallelujah Psalms (Psalms 11-113; 115-117; 146-150; to which may be added Psa 135 ) Psalms 113-118 are called “the Egyptian Hallel”
IV. Doctrines of the Psalms
1. The throne of grace and how to approach it by sacrifice, prayer, and praise.
2. The covenant, the basis of worship.
3. The paradoxical assertions of both innocence & guilt.
4. The pardon of sin and justification.
5. The Messiah.
6. The future life, pro and con.
7. The imprecations.
8. Other doctrines.
V. The New Testament use of the Psalms
1. Direct references and quotations in the New Testament.
2. The allusions to the psalms in the New Testament. Certain experiences of David’s life made very deep impressions on his heart, such as: (1) his peaceful early life; (2) his persecution by Saul; (3) his being crowned king of the people; (4) the bringing up of the ark; (5) his first great sin; (6) Absalom’s rebellion; (7) his second great sin; (8) the great promise made to him in 2Sa 7 ; (9) the feelings of his old age.
We may classify the Davidic Psalms according to these experiences following the order of time, thus:
1. His peaceful early life (Psa 8 ; Psa 19 ; Psa 29 ; Psa 23 )
2. His persecution by Saul (Psa 59 ; Psa 56 ; Psa 34 ; Psa 7 ; Psa 52 ; Psa 120 ; Psa 140 ; Psa 54 ; Psa 57 ; Psa 142 ; Psa 17 ; Psa 18 )
3. Making David King (Psa 27 ; Psa 133 ; Psa 101 )
4. Bringing up the ark (Psa 68 ; Psa 24 ; Psa 132 ; Psa 15 ; Psa 78 ; Psa 96 )
5. His first great sin (Psa 51 ; Psa 32 )
6. Absalom’s rebellion (Psa 41 ; Psa 6 ; Psa 55 ; Psa 109 ; Psa 38 ; Psa 39 ; Psa 3 ; Psa 4 ; Psa 63 ; Psa 42 ; Psa 43 ; Psa 5 ; Psa 62 ; Psa 61 ; Psa 27 )
7. His second great sin (Psa 69 ; Psa 71 ; Psa 102 ; Psa 103 )
8. The great promise made to him in 2Sa 7 (Psa 2 )
9. Feelings of old age (Psa 37 )
The great doctrines of the psalms may be noted as follows: (1) the being and attributes of God; (3) sin, both original and individual; (3) both covenants; (4) the doctrine of justification; (5) concerning the Messiah.
There is a striking analogy between the Pentateuch and the Psalms. The Pentateuch contains five books of law; the Psalms contain five books of heart responses to the law.
It is interesting to note the historic controversies concerning the singing of psalms. These were controversies about singing uninspired songs, in the Middle Ages. The church would not allow anything to be used but psalms.
The history in Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, and 1 and 2 Chronicles, and in Ezra and Nehemiah is very valuable toward a proper interpretation of the psalms. These books furnish the historical setting for a great many of the psalms which is very indispensable to their proper interpretation.
Professor James Robertson, in the Poetry and Religion of the Psalms constructs a broad and strong argument in favor of the Davidic Psalms, as follows:
1. The age of David furnished promising soil for the growth of poetry.
2. David’s qualifications for composing the psalms make it highly probable that David is the author of the psalms ascribed to him.
3. The arguments against the possibility of ascribing to David any of the hymns in the Hebrew Psalter rests upon assumptions that are thoroughly antibiblical.
The New Testament makes large use of the psalms and we learn much as to their importance in teaching. There are seventy direct quotations in the New Testament from this book, from which we learn that the Scriptures were used extensively in accord with 2Ti 3:16-17 . There are also eleven references to the psalms in the New Testament from which we learn that the New Testament writers were thoroughly imbued with the spirit and teaching of the psalms. Then there are eight allusions ‘to this book in the New Testament from which we gather that the Psalms was one of the divisions of the Old Testament and that they were used in the early church.
QUESTIONS
1. Give a list of the items of information gathered from the titles of the psalms.
2. What is the longest title to any of the psalms and what the items of this title?
3. What parts of these superscriptions most concern us now?
4. What is the historic value, or trustworthiness of these titles?
5. State the argument showing David’s relation to the psalms.
6. What have you to say of the attempt of the destructive critics to rob David of his glory in relation to the Psalter by assigning the Maccabean era as the date of composition?
7. What the obvious aim of this criticism and the necessary result, if it be just?
8. What other authors are named in the titles?
9. Were all the psalms ascribed to Asaph composed by one person?
10. Give the five general outlines of the whole collection, as follows: I. The outline by books II. The outline according to date and authorship III. The outline by groups IV. The outline of doctrines V. The outline by New Testament quotations or allusions.
11. What experiences of David’s life made very deep impressions on his heart?
12. Classify the Davidic Psalms according to these experiences following the order of time.
13. What the great doctrines of the psalms?
14. What analogy between the Pentateuch and the Psalms?
15. What historic controversies concerning the singing of psalms?
16. Of what value is the history in Samuel, 1 Kings and 2 Chronicles, and in Ezra and Nehemiah toward a proper interpretation of the psalms?
17. Give Professor James Robertson’s argument in favor of the Davidic authorship of the psalms.
18. What can you say of the New Testament use of the psalms and what do we learn as to their importance in teaching?
19. What can you say of the New Testament references to the psalms, and from the New Testament references what the impression on the New Testament writers?
20. What can you say of the allusions to the psalms in the New Testament?
XVII
THE MESSIAH IN THE PSALMS
A fine text for this chapter is as follows: “All things must be fulfilled which were written in the Psalms concerning me,” Luk 24:44 . I know of no better way to close my brief treatise on the Psalms than to discuss the subject of the Messiah as revealed in this book.
Attention has been called to the threefold division of the Old Testament cited by our Lord, namely, the Law, the Prophets, and the Psalms (Luk 24:44 ), in all of which were the prophecies relating to himself that “must be fulfilled.” It has been shown just what Old Testament books belong to each of these several divisions. The division called the Psalms included many books, styled Holy Writings, and because the Psalms proper was the first book of the division it gave the name to the whole division.
The object of this discussion is to sketch the psalmist’s outline of the Messiah, or rather, to show how nearly a complete picture of our Lord is foredrawn in this one book. Let us understand however with Paul, that all prophecy is but in part (1Co 13:9 ), and that when we fill in on one canvas all the prophecies concerning the Messiah of all the Old Testament divisions, we are far from having a perfect portrait of our Lord. The present purpose is limited to three things:
1. What the book of the Psalms teaches concerning the Messiah.
2. That the New Testament shall authoritatively specify and expound this teaching.
3. That the many messianic predictions scattered over the book and the specifications thereof over the New Testament may be grouped into an orderly analysis, so that by the adjustment of the scattered parts we may have before us a picture of our Lord as foreseen by the psalmists.
In allowing the New Testament to authoritatively specify and expound the predictive features of the book, I am not unmindful of what the so-called “higher critics” urge against the New Testament quotations from the Old Testament and the use made of them. In this discussion, however, these objections are not considered, for sufficient reasons. There is not space for it. Even at the risk of being misjudged I must just now summarily pass all these objections, dismissing them with a single statement upon which the reader may place his own estimate of value. That statement is that in the days of my own infidelity, before this old method of criticism had its new name, I was quite familiar with the most and certainly the strongest of the objections now classified as higher criticism, and have since patiently re-examined them in their widely conflicting restatements under their modern name, and find my faith in the New Testament method of dealing with the Old Testament in no way shattered, but in every way confirmed. God is his own interpreter. The Old Testament as we now have it was in the hands of our Lord. I understand his apostle to declare, substantially, that “every one of these sacred scriptures is God-inspired and is profitable for teaching us what is right to believe and to do, for convincing us what is wrong in faith or practice, for rectifying the wrong when done, that we may be ready at every point, furnished completely, to do every good work, at the right time, in the right manner, and from the proper motive” (2Ti 3:16-17 ).
This New Testament declares that David was a prophet (Act 2:30 ), that he spake by the Holy Spirit (Act 1:16 ), that when the book speaks the Holy Spirit speaks (Heb 3:7 ), and that all its predictive utterances, as sacred Scripture, “must be fulfilled” (Joh 13:18 ; Act 1:16 ). It is not claimed that David wrote all the psalms, but that all are inspired, and that as he was the chief author, the book goes by his name.
It would be a fine thing to make out two lists, as follows:
1. All of the 150 psalms in order from which the New Testament quotes with messianic application.
2. The New Testament quotations, book by book, i.e., Matthew so many, and then the other books in their order.
We would find in neither of these any order as to time, that is, Psa 1 which forecasts an incident in the coming Messiah’s life does not forecast the first incident of his life. And even the New Testament citations are not in exact order as to time and incident of his life. To get the messianic picture before us, therefore, we must put the scattered parts together in their due relation and order, and so construct our own analysis. That is the prime object of this discussion. It is not claimed that the analysis now presented is perfect. It is too much the result of hasty, offhand work by an exceedingly busy man. It will serve, however, as a temporary working model, which any one may subsequently improve. We come at once to the psalmist’s outline of the Messiah.
1. The necessity for a Saviour. This foreseen necessity is a background of the psalmists’ portrait of the Messiah. The necessity consists in (1) man’s sinfulness; (2) his sin; (3) his inability of wisdom and power to recover himself; (4) the insufficiency of legal, typical sacrifices in securing atonement.
The predicate of Paul’s great argument on justification by faith is the universal depravity and guilt of man. He is everywhere corrupt in nature; everywhere an actual transgressor; everywhere under condemnation. But the scriptural proofs of this depravity and sin the apostle draws mainly from the book of the Psalms. In one paragraph of the letter to the Romans (Rom 3:4-18 ), he cites and groups six passages from six divisions of the Psalms (Psa 5:9 ; Psa 10:7 ; Psa 14:1-3 ; Psa 36:1 ; Psa 51:4-6 ; Psa 140:3 ). These passages abundantly prove man’s sinfulness, or natural depravity, and his universal practice of sin.
The predicate also of the same apostle’s great argument for revelation and salvation by a Redeemer is man’s inability of wisdom and power to re-establish communion with God. In one of his letters to the Corinthians he thus commences his argument: “For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this world? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? -For after that in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preach-ing to save them that believe.” He closes this discussion with the broad proposition: “The wisdom of this world is foolishness with God,” and proves it by a citation from Psa 94:11 : “The Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise, that they are vain.”
In like manner our Lord himself pours scorn on human wisdom and strength by twice citing Psa 8 : “At that time Jesus answered and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and hast revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father: for so it seemed good in thy sight” (Mat 11:25-26 ). “And when the chief priests and scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children that were crying in the temple and saying, Hosanna to the Son of David; they were sore displeased, and said unto him, Hearest thou what these say? And Jesus saith unto them, Yea; have ye never read, Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise?” (Mat 21:15-16 ).
But the necessity for a Saviour as foreseen by the psalmist did not stop at man’s depravity, sin, and helplessness. The Jews were trusting in the sacrifices of their law offered on the smoking altar. The inherent weakness of these offerings, their lack of intrinsic merit, their ultimate abolition, their complete fulfilment and supercession by a glorious antitype were foreseen and foreshown in this wonderful prophetic book: I will not reprove thee for thy sacrifices; And thy burnt offerings are continually before me. I will take no bullock out of thy house, Nor he-goat out of thy folds. For every beast of the forest is mine, And the cattle upon a thousand hills. I know all of the birds of the mountains; And the wild beasts of the field are mine. If I were hungry, I would not tell thee; For the world is mine, and the fulness thereof. Will I eat the flesh of bulls, Or drink the blood of goats? Psa 50:8-13 .
Yet again it speaks in that more striking passage cited in the letter to the Hebrews: “For the law having a shadow of good things to come, not the very image of the things, can never with the same sacrifices year by year, which they offer continually, make the comers thereunto perfect. For then would they not have ceased to be offered? because that the worshipers, once purged should have no more consciousness of sins. But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance made of sins year by year. For it is impossible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sins. Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldst not, But a body didst thou prepare for me; In whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hadst no pleasure: Then said I, Lo, I am come (In the roll of the book it is written of me) To do thy will, O God. Saying above, Sacrifice and offering and whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou wouldst not, neither hadst pleasure therein, (the which are offered according to the law), then hath he said, Lo, I am come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second” (Heb 10:1-9 ).
This keen foresight of the temporary character and intrinsic worthlessness of animal sacrifices anticipated similar utterances by the later prophets (Isa 1:10-17 ; Jer 6:20 ; Jer 7:21-23 ; Hos 6:6 ; Amo 5:21 ; Mic 6:6-8 ). Indeed, I may as well state in passing that when the apostle declares, “It is impossible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins,” he lays down a broad principle, just as applicable to baptism and the Lord’s Supper. With reverence I state the principle: Not even God himself by mere appointment can vest in any ordinance, itself lacking intrinsic merit, the power to take away sin. There can be, therefore, in the nature of the case, no sacramental salvation. This would destroy the justice of God in order to exalt his mercy. Clearly the psalmist foresaw that “truth and mercy must meet together” before “righteousness and peace could kiss each other” (Psa 85:10 ). Thus we find as the dark background of the psalmists’ luminous portrait of the Messiah, the necessity for a Saviour.
2. The nature, extent, and blessedness of the salvation to be wrought by the coming Messiah. In no other prophetic book are the nature, fullness, and blessedness of salvation so clearly seen and so vividly portrayed. Besides others not now enumerated, certainly the psalmists clearly forecast four great elements of salvation:
(1) An atoning sacrifice of intrinsic merit offered once for all (Psa 40:6-8 ; Heb 10:4-10 ).
(2) Regeneration itself consisting of cleansing, renewal, and justification. We hear his impassioned statement of the necessity of regeneration: “Behold, I was shapen in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me. Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts,” followed by his earnest prayer: “Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me,” and his equally fervent petition: “Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. Purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean; wash me and I shall be whiter than snow” (Psa 51 ). And we hear him again as Paul describes the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputes righteousness without works, saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, And whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not reckon sin Psa 32:1 ; Rom 4:6-8 .
(3) Introduction into the heavenly rest (Psa 95:7-11 ; Heb 3:7-19 ; Heb 4:1-11 ). Here is the antitypical Joshua leading spiritual Israel across the Jordan of death into the heavenly Canaan, the eternal rest that remaineth for the people of God. Here we find creation’s original sabbath eclipsed by redemption’s greater sabbath when the Redeemer “entered his rest, ceasing from his own works as God did from his.”
(4) The recovery of all the universal dominion lost by the first Adam and the securement of all possible dominion which the first Adam never attained (Psa 8:5-6 ; Eph 1:20-22 ; Heb 2:7-9 ; 1Co 15:24-28 ).
What vast extent then and what blessedness in the salvation foreseen by the psalmists, and to be wrought by the Messiah. Atoning sacrifice of intrinsic merit; regeneration by the Holy Spirit; heavenly rest as an eternal inheritance; and universal dominion shared with Christ!
3. The wondrous person of the Messiah in his dual nature, divine and human.
(1) His divinity,
(a) as God: “Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever” (Psa 45:6 and Heb 1:8 ) ;
(b) as creator of the heavens and earth, immutable and eternal: Of old didst thou lay the foundation of the earth; And the heavens are the work of thy hands. They shall perish, but thou shalt endure; Yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment; As a vesture shalt thou change them, and they shall be changed. But thou art the same, And thy years shall have no end Psa 102:25-27 quoted with slight changes in Heb 1:10-12 .
(c) As owner of the earth: The earth is the Lord’s and the fulness thereof; The world, and they that dwell therein, Psa 24:1 quoted in 1Co 10:26 .
(d) As the Son of God: “Thou art my Son; This day have I begotten thee” Psa 2:7 ; Heb 1:5 .
(e) As David’s Lord: The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, Until I make thine enemies thy footstool, Psa 110:1 ; Mat 22:41-46 .
(f) As the object of angelic worship: “And let all the angels of God worship him” Psa 97:7 ; Heb 1:6 .
(g) As the Bread of life: And he rained down manna upon them to eat, And gave them food from heaven Psa 78:24 ; interpreted in Joh 6:31-58 . These are but samples which ascribe deity to the Messiah of the psalmists.
(2) His humanity, (a) As the Son of man, or Son of Adam: Psa 8:4-6 , cited in 1Co 15:24-28 ; Eph 1:20-22 ; Heb 2:7-9 . Compare Luke’s genealogy, Luk 3:23-38 . This is the ideal man, or Second Adam, who regains Paradise Lost, who recovers race dominion, in whose image all his spiritual lineage is begotten. 1Co 15:45-49 . (b) As the Son of David: Psa 18:50 ; Psa 89:4 ; Psa 89:29 ; Psa 89:36 ; Psa 132:11 , cited in Luk 1:32 ; Act 13:22-23 ; Rom 1:3 ; 2Ti 2:8 . Perhaps a better statement of the psalmists’ vision of the wonderful person of the Messiah would be: He saw the uncreated Son, the second person of the trinity, in counsel and compact with the Father, arranging in eternity for the salvation of men: Psa 40:6-8 ; Heb 10:5-7 . Then he saw this Holy One stoop to be the Son of man: Psa 8:4-6 ; Heb 2:7-9 . Then he was the son of David, and then he saw him rise again to be the Son of God: Psa 2:7 ; Rom 1:3-4 .
4. His offices.
(1) As the one atoning sacrifice (Psa 40:6-8 ; Heb 10:5-7 ).
(2) As the great Prophet, or Preacher (Psa 40:9-10 ; Psa 22:22 ; Heb 2:12 ). Even the method of his teaching by parable was foreseen (Psa 78:2 ; Mat 13:35 ). Equally also the grace, wisdom, and power of his teaching. When the psalmist declares that “Grace is poured into thy lips” (Psa 45:2 ), we need not be startled when we read that all the doctors in the Temple who heard him when only a boy “were astonished at his understanding and answers” (Luk 2:47 ); nor that his home people at Nazareth “all bear him witness, and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth” (Luk 4:22 ); nor that those of his own country were astonished, and said, “Whence hath this man this wisdom?” (Mat 13:54 ); nor that the Jews in the Temple marveled, saying, “How knoweth this man letters, having never learned?” (Joh 7:15 ) ; nor that the stern officers of the law found their justification in failure to arrest him in the declaration, “Never man spake like this man” (Joh 7:46 ).
(3) As the king (Psa 2:6 ; Psa 24:7-10 ; Psa 45:1-17 ; Psa 110:1 ; Mat 22:42-46 ; Act 2:33-36 ; 1Co 15:25 ; Eph 1:20 ; Heb 1:13 ).
(4) As the priest (Psa 110:4 ; Heb 5:5-10 ; Heb 7:1-21 ; Heb 10:12-14 ).
(5) As the final judge. The very sentence of expulsion pronounced upon the finally impenitent by the great judge (Mat 25:41 ) is borrowed from the psalmist’s prophetic words (Psa 6:8 ).
5. Incidents of life. The psalmists not only foresaw the necessity for a Saviour; the nature, extent, and blessedness of the salvation; the wonderful human-divine person of the Saviour; the offices to be filled by him in the work of salvation, but also many thrilling details of his work in life, death, resurrection, and exaltation. It is not assumed to cite all these details, but some of the most important are enumerated in order, thus:
(1) The visit, adoration, and gifts of the Magi recorded in Mat 2 are but partial fulfilment of Psa 72:9-10 .
(2) The scripture employed by Satan in the temptation of our Lord (Luk 4:10-11 ) was cited from Psa 91:11-12 and its pertinency not denied.
(3) In accounting for his intense earnestness and the apparently extreme measures adopted by our Lord in his first purification of the Temple (Joh 2:17 ), he cites the messianic zeal predicted in Psa 69:9 .
(4) Alienation from his own family was one of the saddest trials of our Lord’s earthly life. They are slow to understand his mission and to enter into sympathy with him. His self-abnegation and exhaustive toil were regarded by them as evidences of mental aberration, and it seems at one time they were ready to resort to forcible restraint of his freedom) virtually what in our time would be called arrest under a writ of lunacy. While at the last his half-brothers became distinguished preachers of his gospel, for a long while they do not believe on him. And the evidence forces us to the conclusion that his own mother shared with her other sons, in kind though not in degree, the misunderstanding of the supremacy of his mission over family relations. The New Testament record speaks for itself:
Son, why hast thou thus dealt with us? behold, thy father and I sought thee sorrowing. And he said unto them. How is it that ye sought me? Knew ye not that I must be in my Father’s house? And they understood not the saying which he spake unto them Luk 2:48-51 (R.V.).
And when the wine failed, the mother of Jesus saith unto him, They have no wine. And Jesus saith unto her, Woman, what have I to do with thee? Mine hour is not yet come. Joh 2:3-5 (R.V.).
And there come his mother and his brethren; and standing without; they sent unto him, calling him. And a multitude was sitting about him; and they say unto him. Behold, thy mother and thy brethren without seek for thee. And he answereth them, and saith, Who is my mother and my brethren? And looking round on them that sat round about him, he saith, Behold, my mother and my brethren) For whosoever shall do the will of God, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother Mar 3:31-35 (R.V.).
Now the feast of the Jews, the feast of tabernacles, was at hand. His brethren therefore said unto him, Depart hence, and go into Judea, that thy disciples also may behold thy works which thou doest. For no man doeth anything in secret, and himself seeketh to be known openly. If thou doest these things, manifest thyself to the world. For even his brethren did not believe on him. Jesus therefore saith unto them, My time is not yet come; but your time is always ready. The world cannot hate you; but me it hateth, because I testify of it, that its works are evil. Go ye up unto the feast: I go not up yet unto this feast; because my time is not fulfilled. Joh 7:2-9 (R.V.).
These citations from the Revised Version tell their own story. But all that sad story is foreshown in the prophetic psalms. For example: I am become a stranger unto my brethren, And an alien unto my mother’s children. Psa 69:8 .
(5) The triumphal entry into Jerusalem was welcomed by a joyous people shouting a benediction from Psa 118:26 : “Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord” (Mat 21:9 ); and the Lord’s lamentation over Jerusalem predicts continued desolation and banishment from his sight until the Jews are ready to repeat that benediction (Mat 23:39 ).
(6) The children’s hosanna in the Temple after its second purgation is declared by our Lord to be a fulfilment of that perfect praise forecast in Psa 8:2 .
(7) The final rejection of our Lord by his own people was also clear in the psalmist’s vision (Psa 118:22 ; Mat 21:42-44 ).
(8) Gethsemane’s baptism of suffering, with its strong crying and tears and prayers was as clear to the psalmist’s prophetic vision as to the evangelist and apostle after it became history (Psa 69:1-4 ; Psa 69:13-20 ; and Mat 26:36-44 ; Heb 5:7 ).
(9) In life-size also before the psalmist was the betrayer of Christ and his doom (Psa 41:9 ; Psa 69:25 ; Psa 109:6-8 ; Joh 13:18 ; Act 1:20 ).
(10) The rage of the people, Jew and Gentile, and the conspiracy of Pilate and Herod are clearly outlined (Psa 2:1-3 ; Act 4:25-27 ).
(11) All the farce of his trial the false accusation, his own marvelous silence; and the inhuman maltreatment to which he was subjected, is foreshown in the prophecy as dramatically as in the history (Mat 26:57-68 ; Mat 27:26-31 ; Psa 27:12 ; Psa 35:15-16 ; Psa 38:3 ; Psa 69:19 ).
The circumstances of his death, many and clear, are distinctly foreseen. He died in the prime of life (Psa 89:45 ; Psa 102:23-24 ). He died by crucifixion (Psa 22:14-17 ; Luk 23 ; 33; Joh 19:23-37 ; Joh 20:27 ). But yet not a bone of his body was broken (Psa 34:20 ; Joh 19:36 ).
The persecution, hatred without a cause, the mockery and insults, are all vividly and dramatically foretold (Psa 22:6-13 ; Psa 35:7 ; Psa 35:12 ; Psa 35:15 ; Psa 35:21 ; Psa 109:25 ).
The parting of his garments and the gambling for his vesture (Psa 22:18 ; Mat 27:35 ).
His intense thirst and the gall and vinegar offered for his drink (Psa 69:21 ; Mat 27:34 ).
In the psalms, too, we hear his prayers for his enemies so remarkably fulfilled in fact (Psa 109:4 ; Luk 23:34 ).
His spiritual death was also before the eye of the psalmist, and the very words which expressed it the psalmist heard. Separation from the Father is spiritual death. The sinner’s substitute must die the sinner’s death, death physical, i.e., separation of soul from body; death spiritual, i.e., separation of the soul from God. The latter is the real death and must precede the former. This death the substitute died when he cried out: “My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me.” (Psa 22:1 ; Mat 27:46 ).
Emerging from the darkness of that death, which was the hour of the prince of darkness, the psalmist heard him commend his spirit to the Father (Psa_31:35; Luk 23:46 ) showing that while he died the spiritual death, his soul was not permanently abandoned unto hell (Psa 16:8-10 ; Act 2:25 ) so that while he “tasted death” for every man it was not permanent death (Heb 2:9 ).
With equal clearness the psalmist foresaw his resurrection, his triumph over death and hell, his glorious ascension into heaven, and his exaltation at the right hand of God as King of kings and Lord of lords, as a high Driest forever, as invested with universal sovereignty (Psa 16:8-11 ; Psa 24:7-10 ; Psa 68:18 ; Psa 2:6 ; Psa 111:1-4 ; Psa 8:4-6 ; Act 2:25-36 ; Eph 1:19-23 ; Eph 4:8-10 ).
We see, therefore, brethren, when the scattered parts are put together and adjusted, how nearly complete a portrait of our Lord is put upon the prophetic canvas by this inspired limner, the sweet singer of Israel.
QUESTIONS
1. What is a good text for this chapter?
2. What is the threefold division of the Old Testament as cited by our Lord?
3. What is the last division called and why?
4. What is the object of the discussion in this chapter?
5. To what three things is the purpose limited?
6. What especially qualifies the author to meet the objections of the higher critics to allowing the New Testament usage of the Old Testament to determine its meaning and application?
7. What is the author’s conviction relative to the Scriptures?
8. What is the New Testament testimony on the question of inspiration?
9. What is the author’s suggested plan of approach to the study of the Messiah in the Psalms?
10. What the background of the Psalmist’s portrait of the Messiah and of what does it consist?
11. Give the substance of Paul’s discussion of man’s sinfulness.
12. What is the teaching of Jesus on this point?
13. What is the teaching relative to sacrifices?
14. What the nature, extent, and blessedness of the salvation to be wrought by the coming Messiah and what the four great elements of it as forecast by the psalmist?
15. What is the teaching of the psalms relative to the wondrous person of the Messiah? Discuss.
16. What are the offices of the Messiah according to psalms? Discuss each.
17. Cite the more important events of the Messiah’s life according to the vision of the psalmist.
18. What the circumstances of the Messiah’s death and resurrection as foreseen by the psalmist?
XV
PSALM AFTER DAVID PRIOR TO THE BABYLONIAN EXILE
The superscriptions ascribed to Asaph twelve palms (Psa 50 ; 73-83) Asaph, Heman, and Jeduthun presided over the Levitical singers in the time of David. Their sons also directed the various bands of musicians (1Ch 25 ). It seems that the family of Asaph for many generations continued to preside over the service of song (Cf. Ezr 3:10 ).
The theme of Psa 50 is “Obedience is better than sacrifice,” or the language of Samuel to Saul when he had committed the awful sin in respect to the Amalekites. This teaching is paralleled in many Old Testament scriptures, for instance, Psa 51:16-17 . For thou delightest not in sacrifice; else would I give it: Thou hast no pleasure in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: A broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.
The problem of Psa 73 is the problem of why the wicked prosper (Psa 73:1-14 ), and its solution is found in the attitude of God toward the wicked (Psa 73:15-28 ). [For a fine exposition of the other psalms of this section see Kirkpatrick or Maclaren on the Psalms.]
The psalms attributed to the sons of Korah are Psa 42 ; Psa 44 ; Psa 45 ; Psa 47 ; Psa 48 ; Psa 49 ; Psa 84 ; Psa 85 ; Psa 87 . The evidence that Psalms 42-43 were one poem is internal. There are three stanzas, each closing with a refrain. The similarity of structure and thought indicates that they were formerly one psalm. A parallel to these two psalms we find in the escape of Christian from the Castle of Giant Despair in Pilgrim’s Progress .
Only two psalms were ascribed to Solomon, viz: Psa 72 and 127. However, the author believes that there is good reason to attribute Psa 72 to David. If he wrote it, then only one was written by Solomon.
The theme of Psa 72 is the reign of the righteous king, and the outline according to DeWitt, which shows the kingdom as desired and foretold, is as follows: (1) righteous (Psa 72:1-4 ) ; (2) perpetual (Psa 72:5-7 ); (3) universal (Psa 72:8-11 ); (4) benign (Psa 72:12-14 ); (5) prosperous (Psa 72:15-17 ).
Psa 127 was written when Solomon built the Temple. It is the central psalm of the psalms of the Ascents, which refer to the Temple. It seems fitting that this psalm should occupy the central position in the group, because of the occasion which inspired it and its relation to the other psalms of the group. A brief interpretation of it is as follows: The house here means household. It is a brief lyric, setting forth the lessons of faith and trust. This together with Psa 128 is justly called “A Song of Home.” Once in speaking to Baylor Female College I used this psalm, illustrating the function of a school as a parent sending forth her children into the world as mighty arrows. Again I used this psalm in one of my addresses in our own Seminary in which I made the household to refer to the Seminary sending forth the preachers as her children.
The psalms assigned to the era of Hezekiah and Isaiah are Psa 46 ; Psa 47 ; Psa 48 . The historical setting is found in the history of the reign of Hezekiel. Their application to Judah at this time is found in the historical connection, in which we have God’s great deliverances from the foreign powers, especially the deliverance from Sennacherib. We find in poetry a description of the destruction and desolation of Jerusalem in the Lamentations of Jeremiah and in Psa 74 ; Psa 79 .
The radical critics ascribe Psa 74 ; Psa 79 to the Maccabean period, and their argument is based upon the use of the word “synagogues,” in Psa 74:8 . The answer to their contention is found in the marginal rendering which gives “places of assembly” instead of “synagogues.” The word “synagogue” is a Greek word translated from the Hebrew, which has several meanings, and in this place means the “place of assembly” where God met his people.
The silence of the exile period is shown in Psa 137 , in which they respond that they cannot sing a song of Zion in a strange land. Their brightening of hope is seen in Psa 102 . In this we have the brightening of their hope on the eve of their return. In Psa 85:10 we have a great text:
Mercy and truth are met together;
Righteousness and peace have kissed each other.
The truth here is God’s law demanding justice; mercy is God’s grace meeting justice. This was gloriously fulfilled in Christ on the cross. He met the demands of the law and offers mercy and grace to all who accept them on the terms of repentance and faith.
Three characteristics of Psa 119 are, first, it is an alphabetical psalm; second, it is the longest chapter in the Bible, and third, it is an expansion of the latter part of Psa 19 . Psalms 146-150 were used for worship in the second temple. The expressions of innocence in the psalms do not refer to original sin, but to a course of conduct in contrast with wicked lives. The psalmists do not claim absolute, but relative sinlessness.
The imprecations in the psalms are real prayers, and are directed against real men who were enemies of David and the Jewish nation, but they are not expressions of personal resentment. They are vigorous expressions of righteous indignation against incorrigible enemies of God and his people and are to be interpreted in the light of progressive revelation. The New Testament contains many exultant expressions of the overthrow of the wicked. (Cf. 1Co 16:22 ; 2Ti 4:14 ; Gal 5:12 ; Rev 16:5-6 ; Rev 18:20 .) These imprecations do not teach that we, even in the worst circumstances, should bear personal malice, nor take vengeance on the enemies of righteousness, but that we should live so close to God that we may acquiesce in the destruction of the wicked and leave the matter of vengeance in the hands of a just God, to whom vengeance belongs (Rom 12:19-21 ).
The clearest teachings on the future life as found in the psalms, both pro and con, are found in these passages, as follows: Psa 16:10-11 ; Psa 17:15 ; Psa 23:6 ; Psa 49:15 ; Psa 73:23-26 . The passages that are construed to the contrary are found in Psa 6:5 ; Psa 30:9 ; Psa 39:13 ; Psa 88:10-12 ; Psa 115:17 . The student will compare these passages and note carefully their teachings. The first group speaks of the triumph over Sheol (the resurrection) ; about awaking in the likeness of God; about dwelling in the house of the Lord forever; about redemption from the power of Sheol; and God’s guiding counsel and final reception into glory, all of which is very clear and unmistakable teaching as to the future life.
The second group speaks of DO remembrance in death; about no profit to the one when he goes down to the pit; of going hence and being no more; about the dead not being able to praise God and about the grave as being the land of forgetfulness ; and about the dead not praising Jehovah, all of which are spoken from the standpoint of the grave and temporal death.
There is positively no contradiction nor discrepancy in the teaching of these scriptures. One group takes the spirit of man as the viewpoint and teaches the continuity of life, the immortality of the soul; the other group takes the physical being of man as the viewpoint and teaches the dissolution of the body and its absolute unconsciousness in the grave.
QUESTIONS
1. How many and what psalms were ascribed to Asaph?
2. Who presided over the Levitical singers in the time of David?
3. What is the theme of Psa 50 , and where do we find the same teaching in the Old Testament?
4. What is the problem of Psa 73 , and what its solution?
5. What psalms are attributed to the sons of Korah?
6. What is the evidence that Psalms 42-43 were one poem and what the characteristic of these two taken together?
7. What parallel to these two psalms do we find in modern literature?
8. What psalms were ascribed to Solomon?
9. What is the theme of Psa 72 ?
10. What is the outline according to DeWitt, which shows the kingdom as desired and foretold?
11. When was Psa 127 written and what the application as a part of the Pilgrim group?
12. Give a brief interpretation of it and the uses made of it by the author on two different occasions.
13. What psalms are assigned to the era of Hezekiah and Isaiah, and what their historical setting?
14. What is their application to Judah at this time?
15. Where may we find in poetry a description of the destruction and desolation of Jerusalem?
16. To what period do radical critics ascribe Psalms 74-79; what is their argument, and what is your answer?
17. Which psalm shows the silence of the exile period and why?
18. Which one shows their brightening of hope?
19. Explain Psa 85:10 .
20. Give three characteristics of Psa 119 .
21. What use was made of Psalms 146-150?
22. Explain the expression of innocence in the psalms in harmony with their teaching of sin.
23. Explain the imprecations in the psalms and show their harmony with New Testament teachings.
24. Cite the clearest teachings on the future life as found in the psalms, both pro and con.
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.
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.
It is “To the chief musician, on the Gittith, for the sons of Korah, a psalm.” Hence in this psalm the joy of dwelling where Jehovah of host dwells, of the living God in His courts fills the heart with blessedness in contemplation; as also the blessedness of going there for those on the way: all summed up in the blessing of trusting Jehovah of hosts.
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Psa 84:1-4
1How lovely are Your dwelling places,
O Lord of hosts!
2My soul longed and even yearned for the courts of the Lord;
My heart and my flesh sing for joy to the living God.
3The bird also has found a house,
And the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young,
Even Your altars, O Lord of hosts,
My King and my God.
4How blessed are those who dwell in Your house!
They are ever praising You. Selah.
Psa 84:1 lovely This adjective is literally beloved (BDB 391). Jerusalem, the city of the Great God, is beautiful, but even more, it is beloved, was is Israel (cf. Psa 127:2).
Your dwelling places This is a parallel poetic relationship with Psa 84:2. Therefore, it must refer to the courts of the temple in Jerusalem (cf. Psa 43:3; Psa 46:4), where God Himself chose to dwell (cf. Deu 12:5; Deu 12:11; Deu 12:14; Deu 12:18; Deu 12:21; Deu 12:26; Deu 14:23-25; Deu 15:20; Deu 16:2; Deu 16:6; Deu 16:11; Deu 16:15; Deu 17:8; Deu 17:10; Deu 18:6; Deu 26:2; Deu 31:11).
Psa 84:2 This verse has three verbs that describe how the psalmist feels about YHWH. It is very similar to another Psalm of KorahPsalms 42 (also note Psalms 63).
1. My soul longed – BDB 493, KB 490, Niphal perfect
2. my soul even yearned – BDB 477, KB 476, Qal perfect, cf. Psa 119:81
3. my heart and my flesh sing for joy – BDB 943, KB 1247, Piel imperfect, cf. Psa 51:14
This emotive language is very powerful. It reminds faithful followers of the wonderful personal side of fellowship with God. The goal is to be with Him! For Israelites that was linked to the temple. For NT believers it is linked to Jesus, the new temple (cf. Joh 2:18-22)!
the living God This is a word play on the meaning of YHWH (I Am Who I Am, cf. Exo 3:14). The God of Israel is the ever-living, only-living God! (cf. Psa 42:2).
See SPECIAL TOPIC: NAMES FOR DEITY .
Psa 84:3 bird This can refer to two things, one literal and one symbolic. The symbolic would mean that the psalmist longs to be close to God in the templeto dwell with God. The small helpless bird symbolizes a person. The literal would mean that the birds have free access even to the holiest places in the temple.
My King YHWH was the true king of the covenant people (cf. 1Sa 8:7). Biblical faith is not a democracy but a theocracy! Jesus put it well in Luk 6:46, Why do you call Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say? See SPECIAL TOPIC: THE KINGDOM OF GOD .
Psa 84:4 How blessed are those who dell in Your house This Psalm is structured around the three uses of the term blessed (BDB 80, Psa 84:4-5; Psa 84:12). It basically means happy (cf. Psa 9:1). It could refer, in this context, to priests or to guests (cf. Psa 23:6; Psa 27:4-6; Psa 65:4).
They are ever praising You Praise characterizes YHWH’s true followers (cf. Psa 42:5; Psa 42:11).
Ever (BDB 728) is used often in this section of the Psalms (cf. Psalms 77 P:7; Psa 78:17; Psa 78:30; Psa 78:32; Psa 83:4). There is an eternal aspect to fellowship with YHWH!
Selah See notes at Psa 3:2
Title. A Psalm. Hebrew. mismor. See App-65.
for the sons of Korah = of, &c. The seventh of nine so ascribed. See note on Psalm 42, and App-63.
How . . . ! Figure of speech. Ecphdnlsis. App-6.
amiable = beloved.
tabernacles = habitations. Hebrew. mishkan (App-40). Perhaps referring to the Mosaic (at Gibeon), and the Davidic (on Zion).
LORD of hosts. Hebrew. Jehovah Sabaioth. App-4. See note on 1Sa 1:3.
Psa 84:1-12 is a beautiful psalm of the tabernacles of God.
How amiable are thy tabernacles, O LORD of hosts! My soul longs, even faints for the courts of the LORD: my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God ( Psa 84:1-2 ).
Jesus said, “Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled” ( Mat 5:6 ). What a beautiful expression this is of the psalmist. “My heart, my flesh cries out for the living God.” Dr. Henry Drummond in his book, The Natural and the Supernatural, says there is within the very protoplasm of man little tentacles that are reaching out for God. My heart, my flesh crying out for Thee, O Lord. And then he said,
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. Blessed are they that dwell in thy house: they will be still praising thee ( Psa 84:3-4 ).
So he had noticed that the swallows had returned to Capistrano and made their nest in the house of God and he is excited over this. No, they’re in the tabernacles. They didn’t first come to San Juan, they came to the tabernacle and there in the altars of God they made their little nest to lay their young. We don’t have swallows, thankfully, around here, because they are dirty. But we do have sparrows that make their nest in the eaves over here, and every time I walk past and I hear the little sparrows and I see them going up in the eaves and all, carrying grass up in there, I think of this particular psalm of David, how that the birds, the sparrows have made their nest and all there at Your altar.
Oh, how blessed it is to be there in the place where praises are going up to God continually. How blessed it is to dwell in the tabernacle and the sanctuary of the Lord and just a place where praises are being offered.
Blessed is the man whose strength is in thee ( Psa 84:5 );
Now the word blessed is happy. “Happy is the man whose strength is in the Lord.” The man who has learned to draw his strength from the Lord.
in whose hearts are the ways of them. Who through passing through the valley of Baca make it a well; and the rain also fills the pools ( Psa 84:5-6 ).
The valley of Baca is a phrase that we don’t quite understand. It would appear to be sort of a dry place. Who even when he passes through dry places it becomes a well and the rain fills the pools.
They go from strength to strength, every one of them that appeareth before the Lord in Zion. O LORD God of hosts, hear my prayer: give ear, O God of Jacob ( Psa 84:7-8 ).
And then the final thought:
Behold, O God our shield, and look upon the face of your anointed. For a day in your courts is better than a thousand anywhere else. I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness ( Psa 84:9-10 ).
Moses chose rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. “A day in Thy courts is better than a thousand anyplace else. I’d rather be a doorkeeper, Lord, in Your house, the lowest place in the house of God than the highest place in the house of Baal.”
For the LORD God is a sun and a shield: the LORD will give grace and glory: and no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly ( Psa 84:11 ).
Isn’t that a beautiful promise? I love that promise, “No good thing will He withhold from those who walk uprightly.”
O LORD of hosts, blessed [or happy] is the man that trusts in thee ( Psa 84:12 ).
So happiness to the man whose strength is in the Lord. Happiness to the man whose trust is in the Lord. “
A Psalm for the sons of Korah. You remember how Korah, Dathan, and Abiram were destroyed because of their rebellion against the Lord, and their revolt against his chosen servant, Moses and Aaron, and you, no doubt, recollect how it is recorded that the children of Korah died not. Why they were spared, we cannot tell, except that it was an act of sovereign grace; and if so, I can understand why they were afterwards selected to be among the chief singers in the house of the Lord, for who can sing so sweetly to the God of grace as the men who have been saved by his sovereign, distinguishing grace This Psalm is for (or, of) the sons of Korah.
Who can praise the blessed God,
Like a sinner saved by grace?
Angels cannot sing so loud,
Though they see him face to face;
Sinless angels neer can know
What a debt saved sinners owe.
Psa 84:1. How amiable are thy tabernacles, O LORD of hosts!
The outer portions and the inner parts as well, how lovely they all are!
To be among thy people, to have sweet fellowship with them, how delightful it is, O Lord of hosts Thou dwellest in thy tabernacles, O Jehovah of hosts, like a king in the center of his army, and thy people encamp round about thee!
Psa 84:2. My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the courts of the LORD:
Those children of God, who have been for even a little while exiled from the court of the Lord, prize them all the more when they get back to them.
Psa 84:2. My heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God.
There gets to be so deep a longing to appear once more in the house of the Lord that even this clay-cold flesh of ours, which with difficulty becomes warm towards good things, at last melts, and joins in the common cry of the believers whole being: My heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God.
Psa 84:3. Yea, the sparrow hath found an house,
She is such a bold bird that she comes and picks up a crumb or two even in the courts of Gods house; so, Lord, let me be one of thy sparrows today:
Yea, the sparrow hath found an house,
Psa 84:3. 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.
Gods house is dear to us for the benefit that it is to ourselves, but it is still dearer to us for our childrens sake, as a nest where we may lay our young. What a double mercy it is when young people love to come with their parents to the house of God!
Psa 84:4. Blessed are they that dwell in thy house: they will be still praising thee. Selah.
The psalmist felt that those who were always in the house of the Lord must always be full of music. I am afraid that it is not so in all cases, yet it should be so.
Psa 84:5. Blessed is the man whose strength is in thee; in whose heart are the ways of them.
The man, who throws his whole heart and soul into his worship of the Lord, and his service for the Lord, is the man who gets the greatest blessing out of the holy exercises in which he takes part. Half-hearted worshippers are an insult to God, but blessed is the man whose strength is in the Lord of hosts, and whose heart is in his ways.
Psa 84:6. Who passing through the valley of Baca make it a well; the rain also filleth the pools.
If they pass through valleys that are dreary and gloomy, they find them to be a benefit and a blessing, for they get refreshments on the road, and help to cheer other travelers also.
Psa 84:7-8. They go from strength to strength, every one of them in Zion appeareth before God. O LORD God of hosts, hear my prayer: give ear, O God of Jacob. Selah.
David cannot go up with the multitude that keeps holy day; as, feeling like Jacob when he was all alone at the brook Jabbok, like him he wrestles with God for a blessing. You can hear him crying out in the wilderness: O Jehovah God of hosts, hear my prayer: give ear, O God of Jacob, and he, who heard the prayer of lonely Jacob by the brook-side, hears the cry of David, and the cries of all his children who cannot join the great assembly of worshippers of God.
Psa 84:9. Behold, O God our shield, and look upon the face of thine anointed.
Jesus is the shield of his people, and he is anointed for his people and there is, in Jesus, so much of all that is good that, when the Father looks upon us in him, he can see goodness even in us poor sinners, for the goodness of Christ overflows to us, and is accounted ours.
Psa 84:10. For a day in thy courts is better than a thousand.
Of course, the psalmist means that a day in Gods courts is better than a thousand spent anywhere else. See how he contrasts nearly three years with a single day, and he might have gone even further, and said, Better be one day with God than a thousand years without him. He gives us another contrast as he goes on to say:
Psa 84:10-12. I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness. 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. O LORD of hosts, blessed is the man that trusteth in thee.
May all of us know that blessedness, for our Lord Jesus Christs sake! Amen.
Psa 84:1-4
THE SUPREME PSALM OF THE SANCTUARY
The title here was given by Fleming James, as quoted by McCullough. “The love of the psalmist for the temple here is not for its own sake, but for the sake of God’s presence to be found there.
The great lesson for Christians here is: “If the ancient temple of the Hebrews inspired such loving devotion and joy as that revealed here, how much more wonderful indeed should be the joy and spiritual exultation of those who actually are in the spiritual body of the Son of God.”?
This psalm is a favorite with many people; and almost everyone recalls a memory verse from it.
Due to the evident fact that the temple services were being conducted in the era when this psalm was written, and to the strong possibility that Psa 84:9 is a reference to the “king,” the psalm was composed during the monarchy, which means that the temple mentioned here was that of Solomon. The psalm is stated to be for the “Sons of Korah” in the superscription, but the actual author of it is unknown.
The psalm naturally falls into three divisions of four verses each, set apart in the text itself by the word “Selah,” following Psa 84:4; Psa 84:8.
We do not believe that any `pilgrimage’ whatever is mentioned in the psalm, that conception having been imported into the psalm and supported by the RSV’s butchering it with several impossible alterations and additions to the sacred text.
Psa 84:1-4
“How amiable are thy tabernacles, O Jehovah of Hosts!
My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the courts of Jehovah;
My heart and my flesh cry out unto the living God.
Yea, the sparrow hath found her a house, where she may lay her young,
Even thine altars, O Jehovah of hosts,
My King, and my God.
Blessed are they that dwell in thy house:
They will be still praising thee.
(Selah)”
“Amiable” (Psa 84:1). The marginal reading here is `lovely,’ which appears preferable.
“My heart and my flesh cry out unto the living God” (Psa 84:2). “Our hearts, O God, were made for thee; and never shall they rest until they rest in thee.” These immortal words of Augustine always come to mind in the contemplation of the thought written here. There is a deep and unquenchable thirst in the hearts of all men for the knowledge of God, and nothing on earth can satisfy it except the worship and adoration of the Creator. Those who do not worship God do not have to wait until the Judgment Day to be lost; they are lost already. Apart from the love of God, no man has any sure anchor; but those who truly seek God and faithfully strive to serve him have laid hold upon the hope `in Christ,’ “a hope both sure and stedfast and which enters into that which is within the veil” (Heb 6:19).
“The sparrow … and the swallow” (Psa 84:3). Small birds had built nests in the temple area, perhaps in crevices and small niches within the temple itself; but the mention of `altars’ cannot be taken as a place where such nests were built. Daily fires upon the temple altars would surely have prevented that. The peace and security which these small creatures found in their temple location suggested to the psalmist the peace and security that he himself felt in coming there to worship.
The mention of the safe nesting place of these tiny birds recalls the plaintive words of Our Savior, who said, “The foxes have holes, and the birds of the heaven have nests; but the Son of Man hath not where to lay his head” (Luk 9:58).
“Blessed are they that dwell in thy house” (Psa 84:4). This blessing of God’s worshippers occurs in all three divisions of the psalm, in the last verse of Division No. 1, in the first verse of Division No. 2, and in the last verse of Division No. 3.
The intense longing of the psalmist for his presence in God’s temple has been used by some as evidence that the psalmist was at the time of this hymn compelled to be absent from the temple, either by exile, illness, or some other hindrance. We cannot find any evidence whatever of such a thing in the psalm.
“The longing after God and the sanctuary, in the first part of this psalm, does not necessarily imply exile from its premises; because such longings for God may be felt when men are nearest to Him, and are, in fact, an element of that nearness.
E.M. Zerr:
Psa 84:1. Amiable means loving or pleasant. There was but one national tabernacle when David wrote his psalms, while the word here is plural. The thought is that it is always pleasant to be in the house of the Lord.
Psa 84:2. This verse practically repeats the thought of the preceding one, but it is expressed as an earnest wish for those tabernacles. It is like the sentiment which David wrote in Psa 122:1.
Psa 84:3. The reference to the sparrow and swallow is figurative and shows the interest God has for the most humble creature. See the teaching of Jesus in Mat 10:29.
Psa 84:4. Psa 84:1 stated that the tabernacles of the Lord were pleasant. In harmony with that fact the present verse would declare it to be a blessed (happy) thing to dwell in the house of the Lord. Such a situation would induce the ones therein to praise Him who was the builder of that house and who gave it the blessings contained.
This is a pilgrim psalm. It falls into three strophes divided by Selahs. The first describes the pilgrims hope (vv. Psa 84:1-4); the second, the pilgrims experience (vv. Psa 84:5-8); the third, pilgrims prayer (vv. Psa 84:9-12).
The hope of the pilgrim is centred in the dwelling-place of God. The earthly temple suggests the heavenly home. It is a place of rest and of worship. The light of it shines upon the pathway, and is the inspiration of the pilgrimage.
The experience of the pilgrim is then described. Faith has an anchorage; it is found in God when the heart is set upon the consummation. Faith has an activity; it passes through dry valleys and fills them with springs of refreshment. Faith has an assurance; it goes from strength to strength, confident of finally appearing before God.
The pilgrim finally pours out his prayer, and it is full of praise and confidence. Its desire is for the vision of God, which by comparison is infinitely to be preferred, even though it be the distant view of a doorkeeper, to all the world has to offer. The lessons of the psalm for all the pilgrims of hope are first, that the heart should be set upon the upper things; secondly, that faith may dig wells in driest places and find the living Water; and finally, that pilgrimage develops strength, rather than produces weakness, as these conditions are fulfilled.
Longing for the House of God
Psa 84:1-12
This is one of the sweetest of the Psalms. David probably composed it during his absence from Jerusalem at the time of Absaloms rebellion, though its final form may have been due to the sons of Korah. It is divided into three parts by the Selahs.
They who dwell in thy house, Psa 84:1-4. The psalmist envies the winged things that rest in those hallowed precincts, and how much more the priests and Levites who serve there! Foxes have holes and birds have nests, but man can rest only in God.
Those in whose hearts are the ways of Zion, Psa 84:5-8. We may not be able actually to walk along those ways, but it is good to tread them in living sympathy with the saints, and to unite ourselves to the pilgrim hosts. Those absent from Gods house may in their heart join the great congregation. Thus dry and desolate valleys may become filled with water springs, making them green and beautiful. When the heart is right with God, the desert becomes a temple, and tears are exchanged for smiles.
The man who trusts in thee, Psa 84:9-12. God is better than His sanctuary. He is a Sun in dark hours, and a Shadow in scorching ones. Grace is His unmerited pardon and blessing to sinners; glory the irradiation of His character, into the likeness of which we shall be changed.
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.
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.
Psalm 84-89
Psalm 84
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.
Gittith
See title note; (See Scofield “Psa 8:1”).
A Psalm: Some suppose this Psalm was composed by David when driven from Jerusalem by Absalom’s rebellion, but it is more probable that it was written at the foundation of the second temple.
for: or, of
How: Psa 36:8, Psa 27:4, Psa 48:1, Psa 48:2, Psa 87:2, Psa 87:3, Psa 122:1, Heb 9:23, Heb 9:24, Rev 21:2, Rev 21:3, Rev 21:22, Rev 21:23
O Lord: Psa 103:20, Psa 103:21, 1Ki 22:19, Neh 9:6, Isa 6:2, Isa 6:3
Reciprocal: Gen 13:4 – Unto Exo 6:24 – Korah Num 16:32 – all the 2Sa 15:25 – he will bring 1Ch 6:37 – Korah 1Ch 29:3 – I have set Psa 26:8 – Lord Psa 42:1 – the sons Psa 84:10 – For Psa 122:9 – the house Psa 137:5 – I forget Isa 38:22 – What Isa 66:10 – all ye that love Eze 24:21 – the desire Zep 3:18 – sorrowful
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.
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.”
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 Lords house, and join with his people in the holy worship there performed. Yea, even fainteth So the Seventy, reading ; the Hebrew, however, , 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.
Though the writer of this psalm is not named in the title, yet it is not doubted but David was the author.
Psa 84:1. How amiable are thy tabernacles. The word is plural, for the tabernacle had three partitions, the outward, and the inner court, and the most holy place. There was the promised presence of the Lord of hosts; he dwelt in his holy habitation. There was the atoning altar, which took away sin. Lev 16:14. There the law was read, and with proper illustrations. There prayer was made in general supplications, as in 1 Kings 8.; and prayer in all particular requests. There psalms were sung, adapted to give utterance to the heart, and to extol the glory of God; and with music to raise the soul above its sorrows. There the Hebrews met at the festivals, and saw the face of one another in the courts of the Lord. Yea, strangers of every cast and colour presented themselves with offerings to the Lord of hosts. Above all, after the prayers were over, the holy prophets preached; men immediately inspired of God, men the most eloquent that ever spake. Men to whom the curtains of futurity stood disclosed; who spake as in the immediate presence of God, and before whom the people were as trembling dust. Oh how they illustrated the law, how they reproved vice, how they argued with sinners of every character, how they denounced judgments on the incorrigible, and closed their fervent addresses with bright and cheering views of the Messiah, and of his kingdom.
Psa 84:3. The swallow. deror, a species of dove. The LXX and Vulgate, the turtle dove.
Psa 84:5. In whose heart are the ways of them. Our translators, by supplying the words of them, which are not in the Hebrew, have confounded the sense. In whose heart are the ways which lead to Zionwho delight to go up to me feasts, and worship in the tabernacle of the Lord of hosts.
Psa 84:6. The valley of Baca; or as many read, Bacah, that is, weeping. But as the name is quite irrelevant to the sense, we ought to follow the LXX, who read, the spring of the sea, or the saline spring, a salt wick, which the people could not drink. Therefore they obviated the difficulty, as far as they could, by digging pools for the rain to fill. This was a shorter route to Jerusalem.
REFLECTIONS.
This evangelical psalm, David composed in one of his expeditions, and probably on a sabbath day. Transporting himself in spirit to the house and altar of God, his heart recalled the sacred scenes in full view; and as though they were just before him, he exclaims, How amiable are thy tabernacles, oh Lord of hosts. I seem to see the altars smoke, and the nation bow, and then to hear them with harp and voice celebrate thy praise. I seem to see thy blessings fall on the crowd, and thy glory to cover the assembly: my soul longeth, yea fainteth for the courts of the Lord.
David envied the birds which had wings, and which built their nests near the altar of the Lord: divine faith sometimes receives great animation from the consideration of small objects.
David more especially envied the happy companies going up to keep the feasts; though they passed through the dry and rugged valley of Baca, for in hot weather they would cheerfully carry water, or after the rainy season they would find pools. He admired their zeal, for they went from strength to strength, they overtook fresh companies, or travelled from stage to stage; so the christian who loves the house of God must make nothing of difficulties. While in health, he should seldom suffer either bad roads or stormy weather to keep him from the Lords house.
David, contrasting the glories of public worship with the vices of a camp, says that a day in the Lord s house was better than a thousand; and that he would rather be a doorkeeper there than dwell in the tents of wickedness. Meanwhile he prayed fervently to the Lord, his shield, that he would look on the face of his anointed. Oh how can christians read this, and lounge in bed on the Lords day till late in the morning. How can they read this, and be indifferent whether they be present or absent at the hours of devotion. Yet when a good man is at a distance, the Lord is a sun to chase away his cold and darkness, to warm and revive his affections with heavenly love, and to make him fruitful as the summer. He kept David in a camp, Obadiah in Ahabs court, and Daniel in the palace of Shushan. The Lord will surely give grace in time, and glory in eternity; and as to temporal mercies, we shall have just such a share as will do us good. Oh Lord, make our piety warm and fervent like that of Davids, that we may be thine in public life, as well as when like Mary seated at thy feet.
LXXXIV. A Pilgrim Psalm.
Psa 84:3. sparrow (rather little bird generally) and swallow are metaphorical for pious Jewish pilgrims. As the birds find their nests and homes, so the Jew, worthy of the name, finds his rest and joy in proximity to the altars of his God. Altars may be a poetical plural, like holy places in Psa 68:35 (cf. especially Psa 132:5; Psa 132:7). To take the words as if they meant that the birds in the literal sense found a home at the altar would involve manifest absurdity. The swallow still haunts the temple-mosque at Jerusalem, but an altar with its crowd of worshippers and its sacrifices by fire is surely the last place which a bird would choose for its nest or even as a favourite resort.
Psa 84:5. Read, in whose heart are ascents (LXX), i.e. pilgrimages to Jerusalem on the height.
Psa 84:6. The meaning is very doubtful. The valley of balsam shrubs (? cf. mg.) is mentioned only here. Possibly there was such a valley on the way to Jerusalem. The Psalmist by a play of words thinks of it as a vale of weeping, barren and repulsive. Cf. Bab el Mandeb, Gate of lamentation, at the narrow and perilous entrance of the Red Sea. Read, perhaps, As they pass through the valley of Baca, He (i.e. God) maketh it a spring.blessings: read pools. The early rain falls in October, before the new farming year begins.
Psa 84:7. Instead of growing weary, the pilgrims are strengthened by that journey. Read, seeth God in Zion.
Psa 84:9. Translate O God, behold our shield and look, etc. The anointed one may be the High Priest (see Lev 4:3; Lev 4:5; Lev 4:16; Lev 6:15).
Psa 84:10. Read, A day in thy courts is better than a thousand away; mg. gives better the sense of what follows.
It has been thought that Psa 84:9; Psa 84:11 f. have been in whole or part interpolated into this Ps. as a liturgical conclusion.
PSALM 84
The path of suffering trodden by the people of God on the way to their blessing.
In its strict interpretation this beautiful psalm refers to God’s earthly people who will reach their future millennial blessings through a path of suffering. Nevertheless, the principles of the psalm have a deeply instructive application to the Christian.
The three divisions of the psalm present, first, the house of God that awaits believers at the end of their journey (vv. 1-4); secondly, the path that leads to God’s house (vv. 5-7); thirdly, the prayer of the man who takes this journey in dependence upon the Lord (vv. 4, 5, 12).
(vv. 1-4) The psalm opens with an expression of delight in the house of God, and of the longing of the soul to reach the courts of the Lord, and the living God. It is realized that the One who finds a home for the worthless bird, and a rest for the restless bird, has most surely a home and a resting place for His people, secured to them through the altar, or the great sacrifice of which the altar speaks. The psalmist sees before him the blessedness of God’s house where God will dwell in the midst of the everlasting praises of His people.
(vv. 5-7) The verses that follow describe the blessedness of the one who is treading the path that leads to Zion. He may have to pass through trial, set forth by the valley of Baca – or weeping as the word signifies; but, even so, he will find that the early rain covereth it with blessing (JND). God uses the trials by the way for the blessing of His people. Thus they grow in grace, and increase in spiritual strength, until at last they appear before God in Zion.
(vv. 8-12) The prayer of the godly soul as he treads the path of trial. His confidence in looking to God, and his one plea, is that Christ – God’s Anointed – is ever before God. On the ground of all that Christ is, the soul can count upon God to be his sun and shield – the One who will supply his needs and protect from harm, who will give grace along the way and glory at the end.
Assured of grace and glory and every good thing, the soul may well conclude, Blessed is the man that trusteth in Thee.
Thus the psalm presents the blessedness of the man that dwells in God’s house (v. 4); the blessedness of the man who is treading the path that leads to God’s house (v. 5); and the blessedness of the man who trusts in the Lord while treading the path that ends in glory (v. 12).
84:1 [To the chief Musician upon Gittith, A Psalm for the sons of Korah.] How amiable [are] thy tabernacles, O {a} LORD of hosts!
(a) David complains that he cannot have access to the Church of God to make profession of his faith, and to profit in religion.
Psalms 84
This psalm, like Psalms 42, 43, expresses the writer’s desire for the Lord’s sanctuary. It is one of the pilgrim or ascent psalms that the Israelites sang as they traveled to the sanctuary to worship God (cf. Psalms 120-134). In it, the unknown writer declared the blessed condition of those who go to the temple to pray to Yahweh. The sons of Korah were those who arranged and or sang this psalm in Israel’s public worship.
1. Longing for the Lord’s presence 84:1-4
The dwelling places of the Lord of armies were His temple and its courtyards. This is where God abode in a localized sense during this period of Israel’s history. He promised to meet with His people in a special way there, mainly through the mediation of the Levitical priests. The ordinary Israelite could not enter the temple building proper but could worship God in its courtyards.
Psa 84:1-12
THE same longing for and delight in the sanctuary which found pathetic expression in Psa 42:1-11 and Psa 43:1-5, 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 Psa 42:1-11 and Psa 43:1-5 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.
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 Psa 42:1-11, 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 Psa 42:1-11 and Psa 43:1-5, 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 way . . . No 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.
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
Buttress, nor coigne of vantage, but these birds
Had made their pendant bed.”
Will stand a tip-toe when this day is named,” etc.
Fuente: The Complete Pulpit Commentary
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
The rain also filleth the pools.
Than to dwell in the tents of wickedness.
No good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly.
Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange
DIVINE ORDINANCES LOVELY
But that this may be more manifest, let us consider,
1.
Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Expositor’s Dictionary of Text by Robertson
Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible
Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: William Kelly Major Works (New Testament)
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Fuente: Through the Bible Commentary
Fuente: Spurgeon’s Verse Expositions of the Bible
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
Fuente: An Exposition on the Whole Bible
Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary
Fuente: The Sermon Bible
Fuente: Gaebelein’s Annotated Bible (Commentary)
Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Fuente: Grant’s Numerical Bible Notes and Commentary
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Fuente: Sutcliffe’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
Fuente: Smith’s Writings on 24 Books of the Bible
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Expositors Bible Commentary