Psalm LXXXIV

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 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.

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.

* Stanley (Palestine and Sinai, p. .S.Sfi), “pa.^tures of God,” nr pasture-grounds.

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.

8 O Lord God of hosts, hear my prayer: Give ear, O God of Jacob. Selah.

9 Behold, O God our shield, and look upon the face of thine anointed.

10 For a day in thy courts is better than a thousand.

I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness.

11 For the Lord God is a sun and shield: the Lord will give grace and glory. No good thing will he withhold, from them that walk uprightly.

12 O Lord of hosts, blessed is the man that trusteth in thee.

Tholuck has suggested that this Psahii may have been sung at Mahanaim, during David’s flight. But, at any rate, it is for all times. We are now with the Lord’s “hidden ones” in their quiet land, where they wait on their God. We see here their joys, their earthly heaven. They may see at a distance “the tents of the wicked,” as Balaam from his rocks saw Israel’s; but they feel no envy, they desire nothing of the luxuries there, they seek not the fame of being one of these “men of renown.” Like the first Psalm “on Glttith” that we met with (Psa. viii.), this “Psalm of, or for, the sons of Korah,”* celebrates the excellencies of the Lord’s name, for it presents us with the pleasant sight of a company of worshippers going up to the house of the Lord.

That pilgrimage of Israel, to the place where the Lord had put his name, was significant of more than met the eye. It told of other pilgrims who should in after ages travel through the world with their heart toward the Lord, and their hope fixed on seeing him revealed at the end of their pilgrimage in another manner than they knew him by the way. It included, too, the journey of him who, as Chief of Pilgrims, was to take the same road, share the same hardships, feel the same longings, hope for the same resting-place, and enter on the same full enjoyment of the Father’s grace and glory.

It is, then, the Just One and his members on their way to Zion, “the city of the living God,” that forms the essence of the Psalm.

* The sons of Korah kept the gates of the tabernacle, 1 Chron. ix. 19. Hence verse 10 is peculiarly natural in their lips.

The plan. We liavG their setting forth, verse 1, 2.” Hovj beloved

(Jyyy) are thy tabernacles,” they say to the “Lord of Hosts,” in deeper feeling than Num. xxiv. 5, for they love the place because they love the person. They speak to one another in verse 2, “Longing, yea, even fainting has my soul felt for the courts of the Lord.”

“Ml, heart and my flesh sing for joy
Toward God, the Living One!”

We next find objects on the way attracting a moment’s attention, and furnishing help to their thoughts, verse 3.

“Truly* the sparrow reaches her home,
And the swallow her nest,
Where she has placed her young!”

And who is this sparrow? Is it not as Psalm xi. 2, a name for the feeble homeless one? Who is this swallow, a wanderer to another clime, though here for a time? It is the pilgrim himself (Hengst.). The pilgrim identifies himself with these birds of the air, and perhaps thinks of his family while he sings of the nest —

“Thy altars, 0 Lord of Hosts (see Num. iv. 31, altar of sacrifice and altar of incense.) My King and my God!”

The pilgrim-sparrow has found thine altars, 0 Lord of Hosts! The stranger-swallow has found thine altars! They could not be a home for the birds, but they are so to him. There is the home and the nest! That atoning altar of sacrifice speaks peace! That golden altar of incense holds out acceptance through the infinite merits of the sacrifice offered; here is my home, my nest ;j- for here is God, my God and my king, who will care for me, defend me, be all in all to me.

The pilgrim (verse 4, which is followed by the “<Se?a7i”-pause), seems to rest by the way — he is under some fig-tree, at some

* This is a common use of DJ, Job xviii. 5. “Yea (D^)), the light of the wicked shall be put out.” So Ps. xxv. 3, and elsewhere.

t Our English version misleads the reader. The Hebrew does not mean to imply that birds built their nests at the altars: the thing was a moral impossibility. The French is good — “Et moi quand verrai-Je ten nnteU?”

well. He thinks of those who are never away from the Lord, and covets their bhss. But he rises up, verses 5, 6, and journeys on, comforted and strengthened by the thought that they are already blessed whose “strength is in Thee” — and

“In whose heaHs are loays” pilgrim-ways, the roads that are cast up for travelling. Blessed it is to have the resolution to traverse these ways, instead of slothfully abiding at home (Jer. xxxi. 21). They are willing to endure hardship and inconvenience, taking what they find, less or more.

“Passing through the valley of Baca*
They make it a loell — Yea, the pools which the rain has filled.”

Little as there may be of water, that little suffices them on their way. It is a well to them. They find only ‘’pools (which) the early rain has (barely) covered “— but are content with the supply by the way. It is as good and sufficient to them as if showers of the heavy autumnal rains had filled the well. Pilgrims forget the scanty supply at an Inn, when they have abundance in view at the end. Israelites going up to the Passover made light of deficient water, for their hearts were set on reaching Jerusalem. Our Elder Brother, the leader of the pilgrim-band, endured such hardships for the joy set before him — aye, even endured to be “thirsty” on the cross under infinite wrath — and in this he set us an example, as well as wrought out salvation.

In verse 7 we see the arrival of the pilgrims at the.,city.

In verses 8, 9, we hear their prayer when arrived — “0 God, see our shield! (the position of ]^J2 is peculiar) Behold the face of thine Anointed /” Israel’s Priest was “shield and anointed” to the worshippers; Christ is all this in antitype. Christ himself could use this prayer. Identifying himself with the pilgrim-band, they might be supposed pointing to him and saying,” Our shield look

* Valley of tear-shrubs (Hengst), or mulberries. Valley of lamentation, Jammer-thai, (Gesen.) — some sterile, gloomy spot, on the way to .Jerusalem, like that near the barren knoll of Scopos, where Nob once stood. Others suppose the spot where the mulberry-trees grew, 1 Chion. xiv. 15.

upon, 0 God! “While he himself might be supposed seconding the plea by calling the Lord’s attention to himself — “Behold the face of thine Anointed One.”

And now, verses 10, 12, you are made to hear the report of the place given by those who reach it. Israelites would thus commend God’s holy place to their fellows; but they who reach the kingdom, of which all this was the shadow, what would they not say of the glory, and beauty, and bliss, and peace? If a day in the Lord’s typical courts was so satisfying, what would be a day in the kingdom? And if one day, what the Eternal Day, — “dies sempiternus, cui non cedit hesternus, quern non urget crastinus?” (August.)

“For the Lord is a sun and shield;
God giveth grace and glory;
The Lord withholds no good
From them that walk uprightly.’”

The Lord is all brightness and no gloom, and all safety. He gives “honour and glory,” (see Prov. iv. 9, &c.). He leaves not one unsatisfied wish. Not one in that kingdom but ever sings (and O that all on earth heard it now!) —

“0 Lord of Hosts, blessed is the man that trusteth in Thee /”

This is the heartfelt utterance of each one that has travelled

thither; the testimony, ungrudging and unqualified, of

The Righteous One on his way to the city of the Living God.