Mazmur 84:7-11

84:7 They are sustained as they travel along; ¹ 

each one appears ²  before God in Zion.

84:8 O Lord, sovereign God, ³ 

hear my prayer!

Listen, O God of Jacob! (Selah)

84:9 O God, take notice of our shield! ⁴ 

Show concern for your chosen king! ⁵ 

84:10 Certainly ⁶  spending just one day in your temple courts is better

than spending a thousand elsewhere. ⁷ 

I would rather stand at the entrance ⁸  to the temple of my God

than live ⁹  in the tents of the wicked.

84:11 For the Lord God is our sovereign protector. ¹⁰ 

The Lord bestows favor ¹¹  and honor;

he withholds no good thing from those who have integrity. ¹² 

[84:7]  ¹ tn Heb “they go from strength to strength.” The phrase “from strength to strength” occurs only here in the OT. With a verb of motion, the expression “from [common noun] to [same common noun]” normally suggests movement from one point to another or through successive points (see Num 36:7; 1 Chr 16:20; 17:5; Ps 105:13; Jer 25:32). Ps 84:7 may be emphasizing that the pilgrims move successively from one “place of strength” to another as they travel toward Jerusalem. All along the way they find adequate provisions and renewed energy for the trip.

[84:7]  ² tn The psalmist returns to the singular (see v. 5a), which he uses in either a representative or distributive (“each one” ) sense.

[84:8]  ³ tn Heb “Lord, God, hosts.” One expects the construct form אֱלֹהֵי before צְבָאוֹת (tsÿva’ot, “hosts”; see Ps 89:9) but יְהוָה אֱלֹהִים (yehvah ’elohim) precedes צְבָאוֹת in Pss 59:5 and 80:4, 19 as well.

[84:9]  ⁴ tn The phrase “our shield” refers metaphorically to the Davidic king, who, as God’s vice-regent, was the human protector of the people. Note the parallelism with “your anointed one” here and with “our king” in Ps 89:18.

[84:9]  ⁵ tn Heb “look [on] the face of your anointed one.” The Hebrew phrase מְשִׁיחֶךָ (mÿshikhekha, “your anointed one”) refers here to the Davidic king (see Pss 2:2; 18:50; 20:6; 28:8; 89:38, 51; 132:10, 17).

[84:10]  ⁶ tn Or “for.”

[84:10]  ⁷ tn Heb “better is a day in your courts than a thousand [spent elsewhere].”

[84:10]  ⁸ tn Heb “I choose being at the entrance of the house of my God over living in the tents of the wicked.” The verb סָפַף (safaf) appears only here in the OT; it is derived from the noun סַף (saf, “threshold”). Traditionally some have interpreted this as a reference to being a doorkeeper at the temple, though some understand it to mean “lie as a beggar at the entrance to the temple” (see HALOT 765 s.v. ספף).

[84:10]  ⁹ tn The verb דּוּר (dur, “to live”) occurs only here in the OT.

[84:11]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “[is] a sun and a shield.” The epithet “sun,” though rarely used of Israel’s God in the OT, was a well-attested royal title in the ancient Near East. For several examples from Ugaritic texts, the Amarna letters, and Assyrian royal inscriptions, see R. B. Chisholm, “An Exegetical and Theological Study of Psalm 18/2 Samuel 22” (Th.D. diss., Dallas Theological Seminary, 1983), 131, n. 2.

[84:11]  ¹¹ tn Or “grace.”

[84:11]  ¹² tn Heb “he does not withhold good to those walking in integrity.”