Psalms 68:24

68:24 They ¹  see your processions, O God –

the processions of my God, my king, who marches along in holy splendor. ² 

Psalms 73:17-18

73:17 Then I entered the precincts of God’s temple, ³ 

and understood the destiny of the wicked. ⁴ 

73:18 Surely ⁵  you put them in slippery places;

you bring them down ⁶  to ruin.

Psalms 77:13-14

77:13 ⁷ O God, your deeds are extraordinary! ⁸ 

What god can compare to our great God? ⁹ 

77:14 You are the God who does amazing things;

you have revealed your strength among the nations.

Psalms 84:2-11

84:2 I desperately want to be ¹⁰ 

in the courts of the Lord’s temple. ¹¹ 

My heart and my entire being ¹²  shout for joy

to the living God.

84:3 Even the birds find a home there,

and the swallow ¹³  builds a nest,

where she can protect her young ¹⁴ 

near your altars, O Lord who rules over all,

my king and my God.

84:4 How blessed ¹⁵  are those who live in your temple

and praise you continually! (Selah)

84:5 How blessed are those who ¹⁶  find their strength in you,

and long to travel the roads that lead to your temple! ¹⁷ 

84:6 As they pass through the Baca Valley, ¹⁸ 

he provides a spring for them. ¹⁹ 

The rain ²⁰  even covers it with pools of water. ²¹ 

84:7 They are sustained as they travel along; ²² 

each one appears ²³  before God in Zion.

84:8 O Lord, sovereign God, ²⁴ 

hear my prayer!

Listen, O God of Jacob! (Selah)

84:9 O God, take notice of our shield! ²⁵ 

Show concern for your chosen king! ²⁶ 

84:10 Certainly ²⁷  spending just one day in your temple courts is better

than spending a thousand elsewhere. ²⁸ 

I would rather stand at the entrance ²⁹  to the temple of my God

than live ³⁰  in the tents of the wicked.

84:11 For the Lord God is our sovereign protector. ³¹ 

The Lord bestows favor ³²  and honor;

he withholds no good thing from those who have integrity. ³³ 

Psalms 96:6

96:6 Majestic splendor emanates from him; ³⁴ 

his sanctuary is firmly established and beautiful. ³⁵ 

Psalms 134:2

134:2 Lift your hands toward the sanctuary

and praise the Lord!

Isaiah 60:13

60:13 The splendor of Lebanon will come to you,

its evergreens, firs, and cypresses together,

to beautify my palace; ³⁶ 

I will bestow honor on my throne room. ³⁷ 

[68:24]  ¹ tn The subject is probably indefinite, referring to bystanders in general who witness the procession.

[68:24]  ² tn The Hebrew text has simply “in holiness.” The words “who marches along” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[73:17]  ³ tn The plural of the term מִקְדָּשׁ (miqdash) probably refers to the temple precincts (see Ps 68:35; Jer 51:51).

[73:17]  ⁴ tn Heb “I discerned their end.” At the temple the psalmist perhaps received an oracle of deliverance announcing his vindication and the demise of the wicked (see Ps 12) or heard songs of confidence (for example, Ps 11), wisdom psalms (for example, Pss 1, 37), and hymns (for example, Ps 112) that describe the eventual downfall of the proud and wealthy.

[73:18]  ⁵ tn The use of the Hebrew term אַךְ (’akh, “surely”) here literarily counteracts its use in v. 13. The repetition draws attention to the contrast between the two statements, the first of which expresses the psalmist’s earlier despair and the second his newly discovered confidence.

[73:18]  ⁶ tn Heb “cause them to fall.”

[77:13]  ⁷ sn Verses 13-20 are the content of the psalmist’s reflection (see vv. 11-12). As he thought about God’s work in Israel’s past, he reached the place where he could confidently cry out for God’s help (see v. 1).

[77:13]  ⁸ tn Heb “O God, in holiness [is] your way.” God’s “way” here refers to his actions. “Holiness” is used here in the sense of “set apart, unique,” rather than in a moral/ethical sense. As the next line and the next verse emphasize, God’s deeds are incomparable and set him apart as the one true God.

[77:13]  ⁹ tn Heb “Who [is] a great god like God?” The rhetorical question assumes the answer, “No one!”

[84:2]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “my soul longs, it even pines for.”

[84:2]  ¹¹ tn Heb “the courts of the Lord” (see Ps 65:4).

[84:2]  ¹² tn Heb “my flesh,” which stands for his whole person and being.

[84:3]  ¹³ tn The word translated “swallow” occurs only here and in Prov 26:2.

[84:3]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “even a bird finds a home, and a swallow a nest for herself, [in] which she places her young.”

[84:4]  ¹⁵ 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).

[84:5]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “[Oh] the happiness [of] the man.” Hebrew literature often assumes and reflects the male-oriented perspective of ancient Israelite society. The principle stated here was certainly applicable to all people, regardless of their gender or age. To facilitate modern application, we translate the gender and age specific “man” with the plural “those.” The individual referred to in v. 5a is representative of followers of God, as the use of plural forms in vv. 5b-7 indicates.

[84:5]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “roads [are] in their heart[s].” The roads are here those that lead to Zion (see v. 7).

[84:6]  ¹⁸ tn The translation assumes that the Hebrew phrase עֵמֶק הַבָּכָא (’emeq habbakha’) is the name of an otherwise unknown arid valley through which pilgrims to Jerusalem passed. The term בָּכָא (bakha’) may be the name of a particular type of plant or shrub that grew in this valley. O. Borowski (Agriculture in Iron Age Israel, 130) suggests it is the black mulberry. Some take the phrase as purely metaphorical and relate בָּכָא to the root בָּכָה (bakhah, “to weep”). In this case one might translate, “the valley of weeping” or “the valley of affliction.”

[84:6]  ¹⁹ tc The MT reads “a spring they make it,” but this makes little sense. Many medieval Hebrew mss, as well as the LXX, understand God to be the subject and the valley to be the object, “he [God] makes it [the valley] [into] a spring.”

[84:6]  ²⁰ tn This rare word may refer to the early (or autumn) rains (see Joel 2:23).

[84:6]  ²¹ tc The MT reads בְּרָכוֹת (bÿrakhot, “blessings”) but the preceding reference to a “spring” favors an emendation to בְּרֵכוֹת (bÿrekhot, “pools”).

[84:7]  ²² tn Heb “they go from strength to strength.” The phrase “from strength to strength” occurs only here in the OT. With a verb of motion, the expression “from [common noun] to [same common noun]” normally suggests movement from one point to another or through successive points (see Num 36:7; 1 Chr 16:20; 17:5; Ps 105:13; Jer 25:32). Ps 84:7 may be emphasizing that the pilgrims move successively from one “place of strength” to another as they travel toward Jerusalem. All along the way they find adequate provisions and renewed energy for the trip.

[84:7]  ²³ tn The psalmist returns to the singular (see v. 5a), which he uses in either a representative or distributive (“each one” ) sense.

[84:8]  ²⁴ tn Heb “Lord, God, hosts.” One expects the construct form אֱלֹהֵי before צְבָאוֹת (tsÿva’ot, “hosts”; see Ps 89:9) but יְהוָה אֱלֹהִים (yehvah ’elohim) precedes צְבָאוֹת in Pss 59:5 and 80:4, 19 as well.

[84:9]  ²⁵ 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.

[84:9]  ²⁶ tn Heb “look [on] the face of your anointed one.” The Hebrew phrase מְשִׁיחֶךָ (mÿshikhekha, “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).

[84:10]  ²⁷ tn Or “for.”

[84:10]  ²⁸ tn Heb “better is a day in your courts than a thousand [spent elsewhere].”

[84:10]  ²⁹ 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).

[84:10]  ³⁰ tn The verb דּוּר (dur, “to live”) occurs only here in the OT.

[84:11]  ³¹ 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.

[84:11]  ³² tn Or “grace.”

[84:11]  ³³ tn Heb “he does not withhold good to those walking in integrity.”

[96:6]  ³⁴ tn Heb “majesty and splendor [are] before him.”

[96:6]  ³⁵ tn Heb “strength and beauty [are] in his sanctuary.”

[60:13]  ³⁶ tn Or “holy place, sanctuary.”

[60:13]  ³⁷ tn Heb “the place of my feet.” See Ezek 43:7, where the Lord’s throne is called the “place of the soles of my feet.”