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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Psalms 84:1 - 84:1
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How loved and lovely (יְדִידֹות) 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 (נִכְסַף from כָּסַף, to grow pale, Psa 17:12) and consumes him (כָּלָה 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 חָצֵר; 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 אֶת־מִזְבְּחֹותֶיךָ dependent upon מָצְאָה, without being obliged to supply an intermediate thought like בַּיִת (with hardening Dagesh like בֵּן, Gen 19:38, vid., the rule at Psa 52:5) and קֵן 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 אֶת 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. צִפֹּור (from צָפַר) is a general name for whistling, twittering birds, like the finch
(Note: Vid., Tobler, Denkblätter aus Jerusalem, 1853, S. 117.)
and the sparrow, just as the lxx here renders it. דְּרֹור is not the turtle-dove (lxx, Targum, and Syriac), but the swallow, which is frequently called even in the Talmud צפור דרור (= סְנוּנִית), 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 (גַּם 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 (אֲשֶׁר 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 פִּרְחֵי כְהֻנָּה, 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! עֹוד here signifies, not “constantly” (Gen 46:29), for which תָּמִיד 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.