Psalm 84: How Lovely Is Your Dwelling Place

"How amiable are thy tabernacles, O LORD of hosts! My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the courts of the LORD: my heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God. Yea, the sparrow hath found an house, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, even thine altars, O LORD of hosts, my King, and my God. Blessed are they that dwell in thy house: they will be still praising thee. Selah."

"Blessed is the man whose strength is in thee; in whose heart are the ways of them. Who passing through the valley of Baca make it a well; the rain also filleth the pools. They go from strength to strength, every one of them in Zion appeareth before God."

"O God our shield, look upon the face of thine anointed. For a day in thy courts is better than a thousand. I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness. For the LORD God is a sun and shield… no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly. O LORD of hosts, blessed is the man that trusteth in thee."

Highways in the heart

"In whose heart are the highways" (mesillot): the pilgrim roads to Jerusalem are already in the heart before the feet walk them. The journey itself changes the land: the dry valley becomes a place of springs and autumn rain, and the travellers grow stronger as they go.

Three blessings

The psalm has three "blessed" ('ashre) sayings: those who dwell in God's house (v. 4), those whose strength is in God (v. 5), the one who trusts in God (v. 12). They mark the poem's three parts: longing, journey, arrival.

The valley of Baca

Emek ha-bakha may be "the valley of balsam trees" (bakha, a shrub of dry places; 2 Samuel 5:23) or, by a pun on bakhah, "weeping," "the valley of weeping." The Greek and Latin took it as weeping (Vulgate "in valle lacrimarum"; Giguet "la vallée des pleurs"), the source of the Christian phrase "vale of tears." No location is known; the site does not place it on the map.

Heading and music

"To the chief Musician upon Gittith, A Psalm for the sons of Korah" (on gittith see Psalm 81). Psalms 84–85 and 87–88 form a second Korah group after 42–49. Brahms set 84:1 as the fourth movement of A German Requiem ("Wie lieblich sind deine Wohnungen").