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1 To the chiefe musician vpon Gittith, a Psalme for the sonnes of Korah. How amiable are thy tabernacles, O Lord of hostes!

2 My soule longeth, yea euen fainteth for the courts of the Lord: my heart and my flesh cryeth out for the liuing God.

3 Yea the sparrowe hath found an house, and the swallow a nest for her selfe, where she may lay her young, euen thine altars, O Lord of hostes, my king and my God.

4 Blessed are they that dwell in thy house: they wilbe still praysing thee. Selah.

5 Blessed is the man whose strength is in thee: in whose heart are the wayes of them:

6 Who passing through the valley of Baca, make it a well: the raine also filleth the pooles.

7 They goe from strength to strength: euery one of them in Zion appeareth before God.

8 O Lord God of hostes, heare my prayer: giue eare, O God of Iacob. Selah.

9 Behold, O God our shield: and looke vpon the face of thine anointed.

10 For a day in thy courts, is better then a thousand: I had rather be a doore keeper in the house of my God, then to dwell in the tents of wickednesse.

11 For the Lord God is a sunne and shield: the Lord will giue grace and glory: no good thing will he withhold from them that walke vprightly.

12 O Lord of hostes: blessed is the man that trusteth in thee.

Viewing the original 1611 KJV with archaic English spelling
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Commentary for Psalms 84

The psalmist expresses his affection to the ordinances of God. (1-7) His desire towards the God of the ordinances. (8-12)

1-7 The ordinances of God are the believer's solace in this evil world; in them he enjoys the presence of the living God: this causes him to regret his absence from them. They are to his soul as the nest to the bird. Yet they are only an earnest of the happiness of heaven; but how can men desire to enter that holy habitation, who complain of Divine ordinances as wearisome? Those are truly happy, who go forth, and go on in the exercise of religion, in the strength of the grace of Jesus Christ, from whom all our sufficiency is. The pilgrims to the heavenly city may have to pass through many a valley of weeping, and many a thirsty desert; but wells of salvation shall be opened for them, and consolations sent for their support. Those that press forward in their Christian course, shall find God add grace to their graces. And those who grow in grace, shall be perfect in glory.

8-12 In all our addresses to God, we must desire that he would look on Christ, his Anointed One, and accept us for his sake: we must look to Him with faith, and then God will with favour look upon the face of the Anointed: we, without him, dare not show our faces. The psalmist pleads love to God's ordinances. Let us account one day in God's courts better than a thousand spent elsewhere; and deem the meanest place in his service preferable to the highest earthly preferment. We are here in darkness, but if God be our God, he will be to us a Sun, to enlighten and enliven us, to guide and direct us. We are here in danger, but he will be to us a Shield, to secure us from the fiery darts that fly thick about us. Through he has not promised to give riches and dignities, he has promised to give grace and glory to all that seek them in his appointed way. And what is grace, but heaven begun below, in the knowledge, love, and service of God? What is glory, but the completion of this happiness, in being made like to him, and in fully enjoying him for ever? Let it be our care to walk uprightly, and then let us trust God to give us every thing that is good for us. If we cannot go to the house of the Lord, we may go by faith to the Lord of the house; in him we shall be happy, and may be easy. That man is really happy, whatever his outward circumstances may be, who trusts in the Lord of hosts, the God of Jacob.

Commentary by Matthew Henry, 1710.

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