Psa 84:1-4 | KD | STEP | With Ps 83 the circle of the Asaphic songs is closed (twelve Psalms, viz., one in the Second Book and eleven in the Third), and with begins the other half of the Korahitic circle of songs, opened by the last of the Korahitic Elohim-Psalms. True, Hengstenberg (transl. vol. iii. Appendix. p. xlv) says that no one would, with my Symbolae , p. 22, regard this as an Elohimic Psalm; but the marks of the Elohimic style are obvious. Not only that the poet uses Elohim twice, and that in , where a non-Elohimic Psalm ought to have said Jahve ; it also delights in compound names of God, which are so heaped up that Jahve Tsebaoth occurs three times, and the specifically Elohimic Jahve Elohim Tsebaoth once. The origin of this Psalm has been treated of already in connection with its counterpart, Psa 42:1. It is a thoroughly heartfelt and intelligent expression of the love to the sanctuary of Jahve which years towards it out of the distance, and calls all those happy who have the like good fortune to have their home there. The prayer takes the form of an intercession for God’s anointed; for the poet is among the followers of David, the banished one. He does not pray, as it were, out of his soul (Hengstenberg, Tholuck, von Gerlach), but for him; for loving Jahve of Hosts, the heavenly King, he also loves His inviolably chosen one. And wherefore should he not do so, since with him a new era for the neglected sanctuary had dawned, and the delightful services of the Lord had taken a new start, and one so rich in song? With him he shares both joy and brief. With his future he indissolubly unites his own. To the Precentor upon the Gittith , the inscription runs, by Benê-Korah, a Psalm . Concerning על־הגּתּית, vid., on Psa 8:1. The structure of the Psalm is artistic. It consists of two halves with a distichic ashrê -conclusion. The schema is 3. 5. 2 5. 5. 5. 3. 2.

‏ Psalms 84:1-4

Longing for the House of God, and for the Happiness of Dwelling There

With Ps 83 the circle of the Asaphic songs is closed (twelve Psalms, viz., one in the Second Book and eleven in the Third), and with Psa 84:1-12 begins the other half of the Korahitic circle of songs, opened by the last of the Korahitic Elohim-Psalms. True, Hengstenberg (transl. vol. iii. Appendix. p. xlv) says that no one would, with my Symbolae, p. 22, regard this Psa 84:1-12 as an Elohimic Psalm; but the marks of the Elohimic style are obvious. Not only that the poet uses Elohim twice, and that in Psa 84:8, where a non-Elohimic Psalm ought to have said Jahve; it also delights in compound names of God, which are so heaped up that Jahve Tsebaoth occurs three times, and the specifically Elohimic Jahve Elohim Tsebaoth once. The origin of this Psalm has been treated of already in connection with its counterpart, Psa 42:1. It is a thoroughly heartfelt and intelligent expression of the love to the sanctuary of Jahve which years towards it out of the distance, and calls all those happy who have the like good fortune to have their home there. The prayer takes the form of an intercession for God’s anointed; for the poet is among the followers of David, the banished one. ^{▼▼Nic. Nonnen takes a different view in his Dissertatio de Tzippor et Deror, etc., 1741. He considers one of the Ephraimites who were brought back to the fellowship of the true worship of God in the reign of Jehoshaphat (2Ch 19:4) to be the subject of the Psalm.}

He does not pray, as it were, out of his soul (Hengstenberg, Tholuck, von Gerlach), but for him; for loving Jahve of Hosts, the heavenly King, he also loves His inviolably chosen one. And wherefore should he not do so, since with him a new era for the neglected sanctuary had dawned, and the delightful services of the Lord had taken a new start, and one so rich in song? With him he shares both joy and brief. With his future he indissolubly unites his own.To the Precentor upon the Gittith, the inscription runs, by Benê-Korah, a Psalm. Concerning על־הגּתּית, vid., on Psa 8:1. The structure of the Psalm is artistic. It consists of two halves with a distichic ashrê-conclusion. The schema is 3. 5. 2 5. 5. 5. 3. 2. Psa 84:1-4

How loved and lovely (ידידות) 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 (נכסף from כּסף, to grow pale, Psa 17:12) and consumes him (כּלה 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 חצר; the arrangement of the Davidic tent-temple, however, is indeed unknown to us, and, according to reliable traces, ^{▼▼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 את־מזבּחותיך dependent upon מצאה, without being obliged to supply an intermediate thought like בּית (with hardening Dagesh like בּן, Gen 19:38, vid., the rule at Psa 52:5) and קן 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 את 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. צפּור (from צפר) is a general name for whistling, twittering birds, like the finch ^{▼▼Vid., Tobler, Denkblätter aus Jerusalem, 1853, S. 117.} and the sparrow, just as the lxx here renders it. דּרור is not the turtle-dove (lxx, Targum, and Syriac), but the swallow, which is frequently called even in the Talmud צפור דרור (= סנוּנית), 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 dûrı̂je, 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 (גּם 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 (אשׁר 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 פּרחי כהנּה, 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! עוד here signifies, not “constantly” (Gen 46:29), for which תּמיד 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 (οἰκεῖοι τοῦ Θεοῦ, Eph 2:10) will praise Him as their Helper. The music here strikes in, anticipating this praise.