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O God, take notice of our shield.[a]
Show concern for your chosen king.[b]
10 Certainly[c] spending just one day in your temple courts is better
than spending a thousand elsewhere.[d]
I would rather stand at the entrance[e] to the temple of my God
than live[f] in the tents of the wicked.
11 For the Lord God is our sovereign protector.[g]
The Lord bestows favor[h] and honor;
he withholds no good thing from those who have integrity.[i]

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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 (meshikhekha, “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.”

Look on our shield,[a](A) O God;
    look with favor on your anointed one.(B)

10 Better is one day in your courts
    than a thousand elsewhere;
I would rather be a doorkeeper(C) in the house of my God
    than dwell in the tents of the wicked.
11 For the Lord God is a sun(D) and shield;(E)
    the Lord bestows favor and honor;
no good thing does he withhold(F)
    from those whose walk is blameless.

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Footnotes

  1. Psalm 84:9 Or sovereign