Maggie's Farm

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Sunday, August 26. 2012

From today's Lectionary

Psalm 84



84:1 How lovely is your dwelling place, O LORD of hosts!

84:2 My soul longs, indeed it faints for the courts of the LORD; my heart and my flesh sing for joy to the living God.

84:3 Even the sparrow finds a home, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, at your altars, O LORD of hosts, my King and my God.

84:4 Happy are those who live in your house, ever singing your praise. Selah

84:5 Happy are those whose strength is in you, in whose heart are the highways to Zion.

84:6 As they go through the valley of Baca they make it a place of springs; the early rain also covers it with pools.

84:7 They go from strength to strength; the God of gods will be seen in Zion.

84:8 O LORD God of hosts, hear my prayer; give ear, O God of Jacob! Selah

84:9 Behold our shield, O God; look on the face of your anointed.

84:10 For a day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than live in the tents of wickedness.

84:11 For the LORD God is a sun and shield; he bestows favor and honor. No good thing does the LORD withhold from those who walk uprightly.

84:12 O LORD of hosts, happy is everyone who trusts in you.

Posted by Bird Dog at 05:25 | Comments (2) | Trackbacks (0)

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Omitted first verse: For the choirmaster, on the gitit a song by the sons of Korach.

The gitit is either a kettle drum or another instrument with a large resonant chamber. A gat is a wine vat.

1. "Lovely" is "beloved" or "dear" - from the same root as the name David.

2. "my soul Longs" uses a root related to silver, which tarnishes, and has a meaning in this context of "pining away".
Similarly, "faints" is literally "used up".

The second half of the verse was reused by several medieval poets in liturgical poems, most famously as the chorus of a popular Sabbath hymn.

3. Good translation that captures the short strophes of this and previous verses - and yes, the phrase about the altar breaks rhythm and hangs there obscurely in the original, too.

Swallow is literally "free, wanderer" - a word used generally for undomesticated or migratory birds.

4. ... they will yet sing Your praise.
Since one interpretation of "Selah" is a musical instruction like "etc." - this is best understood as "they continue to sing your praise."

5. No Zion in the original - it's kinda enigmatic:

Happy (the) man power to him in You, pathways in their hearts.

Go figure it out - it's poetry. The whole psalm so far is short phrases made choppy by inverted word placements and reversed stresses (the swallow a nest for her)

6. Literally:
Passers through the valley of weeping, a spring they'll make it, also blessings shall the early rain (be) clothed.

7. Second half is simply: they will appear before the G-d of Zion.

8. OK

9. "Our shield" is referring to G-d.... it's continuing the direct appeal of the previous verse:
Our shield! See, o Lord - and look in your annointed one's face.

10. "elsewhere" is not in the original. Better one day than 1,000 of normal life...
"Doorkeeper" is a mistranslation of "to crowd in" to the house of G-d.

11. More short phrases, smoothed over in translation:

For sun and shield
The Lord G-d
Grace and Honor
Shall G-d give
He won't keep good
From (those who) walk (in) innocence.

12. Aint' it the truth!
#1 Ben David on 2012-08-26 13:03 (Reply)
Thanks!
#1.1 Bird Dog on 2012-08-26 14:17 (Reply)

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