1. For the conductor, on the gittith, of the sons of Korah, a song.
2. How beloved are Your dwelling places, O Lord of Hosts!
How beloved are Your dwelling places How beloved and dear are Your dwelling places!
3. My soul yearns, yea, it pines for the courts of the Lord; my heart and my flesh pray fervently to the living God.
yearns Heb. נכספה Desires.
pines Heb. כלתה, desires, as (II Sam. 13:39): “And [the soul of] King David longed (ותכל
to go forth to Absalom.”
for the courts of the Lord for they have been destroyed, and he says this regarding the exile.
my heart and my flesh pray fervently They pray for this.
4. Even a bird found a house and a swallow her nest, where she placed her chicks upon Your altars, O Lord of Hosts, my King and my God.
Even a bird found a house In its ruins, the birds have nested. According to Midrash Aggadah (Mid. Ps. 84:2), it speaks of [the Temple] when it is built, and the bird is the nation of Israel.
5. Fortunate are those who stay in Your house; they will continually praise You forever.
Fortunate is he who will yet merit to dwell in Your house, and they will yet praise you in its midst.
6. Fortunate is the man who has strength in You, in whose heart are the highways.
who has strength in You Who has made You the strength of his trust.
in whose heart are the highways Who thinks in his heart the paving of his ways, to straighten his way.
7. Transgressors in the valley of weeping make it into a fountain; also with blessings they enwrap [their] Teacher.
Transgressors in the valley of weeping Those who transgress Your law behold, they are in the depth of Gehinnom with weeping and wailing.
make it into a fountain with the tears of their eyes.
also with blessings they enwrap [their] Teacher They bless and thank His name and say, “He judged us fairly, and His judgment is true.” (Another explanation: Shem Ephraim) And the one who taught us to follow the good way enwraps us with blessings, but we did not obey him.
8. They go from host to host; he will appear to God in Zion.
They go from host to host Those mentioned above, who dwell in Your house, in whose heart are the highways.
from host to host From the study-hall to the synagogue, and their host and army will appear to the Hole One, blessed be He, in Zion.
9. O Lord, God of Hosts, hearken to my prayer; bend Your ear, O God of Jacob, forever.
hearken to my prayer to build Your house.
10. See our shield, O God, and look at the face of Your anointed.
our shield That is the Temple, which protects us.
look at the face of David Your anointed, and ponder his acts of kindness and his toil, by which he toiled and wearied himself in its building.
11. For a day in Your courts is better than a thousand; I chose to sit on the threshold of the house of My God rather than dwell in tents of wickedness.
For a day is better [To live] one [day] in Your courts and die the next [is better than] to live a thousand years someplace else.
I chose to sit on the threshold Heb. הסתופף, to sit habitually on the threshold and by the doorpost.
rather than dwell in tents of wickedness rather than dwell tranquilly in the tents of the wicked Esau, to cleave to them.
12. For a sun and a shield is the Lord God; the Lord will give grace and glory; He will not withhold good from those who go with sincerity.
For a sun and a shield שמש may be interpreted according to its apparent meaning, but Midrash Psalms interprets it as an expression of the points of the wall.
13. O Lord of Hosts, fortunate is the man who trusts in You.
n] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation –noun 1.a hill in Jerusalem, on which the Temple was built (used to symbolize the city itself, esp. as a religious or spiritual center). 2.the Jewish people. 3.Palestine as the Jewish homeland and symbol of Judaism.
