Discovery BoxPsalms 84:1-2 
ContextFor the music director; according to the gittith style; 2 written by the Korahites, a psalm.
84:1 How lovely is the place where you live, 3
O Lord who rules over all! 4
84:2 I desperately want to be 5
in the courts of the Lord’s temple. 6
My heart and my entire being 7 shout for joy
to the living God.
Psalms 84:10-12
Context84:10 Certainly 8 spending just one day in your temple courts is better
than spending a thousand elsewhere. 9
I would rather stand at the entrance 10 to the temple of my God
than live 11 in the tents of the wicked.
84:11 For the Lord God is our sovereign protector. 12
The Lord bestows favor 13 and honor;
he withholds no good thing from those who have integrity. 14
84:12 O Lord who rules over all, 15
how blessed are those who trust in you! 16
1 sn Psalm 84. The psalmist expresses his desire to be in God’s presence in the Jerusalem temple, for the Lord is the protector of his people.
2 tn The precise meaning of the Hebrew term הַגִּתִּית (haggittit) is uncertain; it probably refers to a musical style or instrument.
3 tn Or “your dwelling place[s].” The plural form of the noun may indicate degree or quality; this is the
4 tn Traditionally, “
5 tn Heb “my soul longs, it even pines for.”
6 tn Heb “the courts of the
7 tn Heb “my flesh,” which stands for his whole person and being.
8 tn Or “for.”
9 tn Heb “better is a day in your courts than a thousand [spent elsewhere].”
10 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).
11 tn The verb דּוּר (dur, “to live”) occurs only here in the OT.
12 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.
13 tn Or “grace.”
14 tn Heb “he does not withhold good to those walking in integrity.”
15 tn Traditionally “
16 tn Heb “[Oh] the happiness [of] the man [who] trusts in you.” Hebrew literature often assumes and reflects the male-oriented perspective of ancient Israelite society. The principle stated here is certainly applicable to all people, regardless of their gender or age. To facilitate modern application, we translate the gender and age specific “man” with the plural “those.” The individual referred to here is representative of all followers of God, as the use of the plural form in v. 12b indicates.
