Psalm 84:9-11

New English Translation

Footnotes

1. Psalm 84:9 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.
2. Psalm 84:9 tn Heb “look [on] the face of your anointed one.” The Hebrew phrase מְשִׁיחֶךָ (m^eshikhekha, “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).
3. Psalm 84:10 tn Or “for.”
4. Psalm 84:10 tn Heb “better is a day in your courts than a thousand [spent elsewhere].”
5. Psalm 84:10 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).
6. Psalm 84:10 tn The verb דּוּר (dur, “to live”) occurs only here in the OT.
7. Psalm 84:11 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.
8. Psalm 84:11 tn Or “grace.”
9. Psalm 84:11 tn Heb “he does not withhold good to those walking in integrity.”