Better Is One Day: Psalm 84

How lovely is your dwelling place, Lord Almighty!

The Sons of Korah wrote this—Levites who served in the temple, who knew its courts intimately. Lovely. The Hebrew suggests beloved, dear, desirable. The temple was not just impressive but cherished.

My soul yearns, even faints, for the courts of the Lord; my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.

Yearning that produces fainting. The longing is so intense that strength fails. Heart and flesh—the whole person—crying out. Not for temple architecture but for the living God who dwells there.

Even the sparrow has found a home, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may have her young—a place near your altar, Lord Almighty, my King and my God.

Birds in the temple. Sparrows nesting in the rafters, swallows raising young near the altar. The psalmist envies them. These common birds have what he longs for: constant nearness to God.

Blessed are those who dwell in your house; they are ever praising you.

The blessing of residence. Those who live there—priests, Levites—ever praising. Continuous worship as occupation.

Blessed are those whose strength is in you, whose hearts are set on pilgrimage.

Another blessing. Pilgrims—those traveling to the temple for festivals. Their hearts are set on the journey. They find strength in God for the road.

As they pass through the Valley of Baka, they make it a place of springs; the autumn rains also cover it with pools.

Valley of Baka—the valley of weeping, a dry and difficult stretch on the pilgrimage road. But pilgrims with hearts set on Zion transform it. Weeping becomes springs. The journey's hardship becomes blessing.

They go from strength to strength, till each appears before God in Zion.

Strength to strength. Not depleting but replenishing. Each stage of the journey adds rather than subtracts. Until arrival: appearing before God.

Hear my prayer, Lord God Almighty; listen to me, God of Jacob.

The prayer for present hearing. Lord God Almighty. God of Jacob. Names piled up, each one a claim on attention.

Look on our shield, O God; look with favor on your anointed one.

The king called a shield—the one who protects Israel. Look with favor. The corporate prayer includes the monarch.

Better is one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere; I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of the wicked.

The famous comparison. One day versus a thousand. Doorkeeper versus resident elsewhere. The lowest position in God's house outranks the highest position outside it.

For the Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord bestows favor and honor; no good thing does he withhold from those whose walk is blameless.

Sun—light and warmth. Shield—protection. Favor and honor—relationship and recognition. No good thing withheld from the blameless. Complete provision.

Lord Almighty, blessed is the one who trusts in you.

The closing benediction. Trust produces blessing. The one whose heart is set on pilgrimage, who longs for God's courts, who would be a doorkeeper rather than a king elsewhere—blessed.

Better is one day. The psalm's economy of longing. Quality over quantity. Nearness over comfort. God's house over anywhere else.