Psalms 27:4

27:4 I have asked the Lord for one thing –

this is what I desire!

I want to live ¹  in the Lord’s house ²  all the days of my life,

so I can gaze at the splendor ³  of the Lord

and contemplate in his temple.

Psalms 84:4

84:4 How blessed ⁴  are those who live in your temple

and praise you continually! (Selah)

Psalms 84:10

84:10 Certainly ⁵  spending just one day in your temple courts is better

than spending a thousand elsewhere. ⁶ 

I would rather stand at the entrance ⁷  to the temple of my God

than live ⁸  in the tents of the wicked.

¹ tn Heb “my living.”

² sn The Lord’s house. This probably refers to the tabernacle (if one accepts Davidic authorship) or the temple (see Judg 19:18; 1 Sam 1:7, 24; 2 Sam 12:20; 1 Kgs 7:12, 40, 45, 51).

³ tn Or “beauty.”

⁴ tn The Hebrew noun is an abstract plural. The word often refers metonymically to the happiness that God-given security and prosperity produce (see v. 12 and Pss 1:1; 2:12; 34:9; 41:1; 65:4; 89:15; 106:3; 112:1; 127:5; 128:1; 144:15).

⁵ tn Or “for.”

⁶ tn Heb “better is a day in your courts than a thousand [spent elsewhere].”

⁷ 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).

⁸ tn The verb דּוּר (dur, “to live”) occurs only here in the OT.