Psalm 84—To the Chief Musician. On an instrument of Gath. A Psalm of the sons of Korah. Only those who know what punishment they were spared could appreciate these words. “TRULY it is sweet to read of the experience of the saints, and to be able to appeal to it in vindication of our own experience. I wonder not that the world should cry out against the people of the Lord as enthusiastic and absurd; for they cannot by any means conceive how a person should lose all relish for carnal delights, and find all his happiness in employments wherein they see nothing but restraint and melancholy. But, indeed, there is a delight in communion with a reconciled God, an ineffable ‘joy, with which the stranger intermeddleth not.’ This is well expressed in the passage before us.” (Charles Simeon) “To the chief Musician upon Gittith, …The Targum renders it here, as there, ‘to praise upon the harp that was brought from Gath;” (John Gill) Both the singer and the instrument were devoted to destruction but saved from the fire. The sons of Korah were rebels against Moses and Aaron; “there were three, Torah, Dathan, and Abiram, who made an insurrection; and the earth opened, and swallowed them and their partisans up, Numbers 16: The children of Dathan and Abiram perished with their fathers; but by a particular dispensation of Providence, the children of… Torah... continued in Israel; and it appears from 1 Chronicles 26:1-19 that they were still employed about the temple, and were porters or keepers of the doors. They were also singers in the temple; see 2 Chronicles 20:19.” (Adam Clarke) They expect to see heaven rather the wrath of God- death by eternal fire. “How lovely”— beloved— “is Your tabernacle,” in heaven—“O Lord of hosts!”— God of the spiritual battle— “My soul longs, yes, even faints for the courts of Yahweh; my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.” The longing was for a bodily resurrection, which is the Judaeo- Christian hope, as Job—> “I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end He will stand on the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God; I myself will see Him with my own eyes—I, and not another. How my heart yearns within me!” (Job 19: 25-27) “‘Even the sparrow has found a home, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young’ for these are part of the consummation at the end-time.— even Your altars,’ The altars of God are symbolic for the actual forgiveness of sins and communion. “For there were the various sacrifices made which brought the soul into communion with God, through the burnt offerings, the meat offering, the peace offering, and the sin and trespass offering; there the man who was fleeing for his life might ever find a place of safety and refuge.” (G. F. Pentecost, D. D.) “‘Blessed are those who dwell in Your house;—… not simply the Levites, who always serve there, but those who in heart abide there, the spiritual dwellers. ‘They will still be praising You.’ [for the reward of the overcomer is eternal life]—Notwithstanding any present affliction or temporary banishment from Zion.” (Whedon Bible Commentary) Selah
“‘The pilgrim band,’ says Perowne, ‘rich in hope, forget the trials and difficulties of the way. Hope changes the rugged and stony waste into living fountains. The vale blossoms as if the sweet rain of heaven had covered it with blessings. Hope sustains them at every step. From station to station they renew their strength as they draw nearer the end of their journey, till at last they appear before God.’ Delight in the end is thus described as rendering the way to it, however toilsome in itself, delightful too. A deep religious sentiments-such is the thought--has power to change the mind’s estimate of things without, and thus to render the painful pleasant and the pleasant doubly blest.” (E. T. Prust.) They are adding to the fold along the way. The caravan is growing as converts come along.
“‘Blessed is the man’:...the Targum is, whose strength is in You, that is in “‘thy Word;' the essential Word, the Messiah, who have spiritual strength in and from Him; see Isaiah 45:24 —They will say of Me, `Only in Yahweh are righteousness and strength.' Men will come to Him, And all who were angry at Him will be put to shame.” (John Gill)— 'whose heart is set on pilgrimage,’ that is, who knows and loves the way to God‘s favor (Proverbs 16:17; Isaiah 40:3, Isaiah 40:4).” (Jamieson, Fausset, Brown)
“‘As they pass through the Valley of Baca— or weeping, they make it a spring; the rain also covers it with pools.’ Through such, by reason of their dry and barren condition, the worshippers often had to pass to Jerusalem. As they might become wells, or fountains, or pools, supplied by refreshing rain, so the grace of God, by the exercises of His worship, refreshes and revives the hearts of His people, so that for sorrows they have ‘rivers of delight’ (Psalm 36:8; Psalm 46:4).” (Jamieson, Fausset, Brown)
“David again informs us, that the purpose for which he desired liberty of access to the sanctuary was, not merely to gratify his eyes with what was to be seen there, but to make progress in faith. To lean with the whole heart upon God, is to attain to no ordinary degree of advancement: and this cannot be attained by any man, unless all his pride is laid prostrate in the dust, and his heart truly humbled. In proposing to himself this way of seeking God, David’s object is to borrow from him by prayer the strength of which he feels himself to be destitute.” (John Calvin)
“‘They go from strength to strength;’ As such daily refit their bodily strength till they reach Jerusalem, so the spiritual worshipper is daily supplied with spiritual strength by God‘s grace till
each one appears before God in Zion, that is heaven.” (Jamieson, Fausset, Brown) In fact: “The nearer the pilgrim advanced towards the [substance of] the Temple[—God’s very presence] , the more strength he got, by companionship, exercise, and resolution.” (Homilist)— “‘O Lord God of hosts,’who canst easily remove and subdue those enemies [or sins] of mine who banish and keep me from the [spiritual] place of thy worship, ‘hear my prayer,’ in restoring me to thy abode and service; which is my chief desire, Psalms 84:2,3.” (Matthew Poole) Selah
“‘O God, behold our shield, and look upon the face of Your anointed.’ (verse 9) that is Jesus who is “the Way, the Truth and the Life,” providing all that is needful for the journey. "10 For a day in Your courts is better than a thousand. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness. 11 For the Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord will give grace and glory; no good thing will He withhold from those who walk uprightly. 12 O Lord of hosts, blessed is the man who trusts in You!"