Psalms 84:8

O LORD God of hosts, hear my prayer: give ear, O God of Jacob. Selah. GIVE EAR, O GOD OF JACOB. This title implies a plea for being heard, on the ground of God's covenanted grace to the people of Jacob....

8_O Jehovah, God of Hosts! hear my prayer. _David, instead of acting like worldly men, who foolishly and unprofitably distress and torment themselves by inwardly cherishing their desires, very wisely directs his wishes and prayers to God. From this it is also evident, that he was not accustomed to indulge in ostentatious boasting, as is the case with many hypocrites, who present to outward appearance a wonderful ardor of zeal, while yet the omniscient eye of God sees nothing but coldness in their hearts. In the first place, he supplicates in general, that God would vouchsafe to hear him. He next anticipates a temptation which might very readily arise from his being at present apparently cut off from the Church, and wards it off, by associating and ranking himself with all true believers, under the protection of God. Had he not been a member of the Church, he could not have said generally...

8-12 In all our addresses to God, we must desire that he would look on Christ, his Anointed One, and accept us for his sake: we must look to Him with faith, and then God will with favour look upon the face of the Anointed: we, without him, dare not show our faces. The psalmist pleads love to God's ordinances. Let us account one day in God's courts better than a thousand spent elsewhere; and deem the meanest place in his service preferable to the highest earthly preferment. We are here in darkness, but if God be our God, he will be to us a Sun, to enlighten and enliven us, to guide and direct us. We are here in danger, but he will be to us a Shield, to secure us from the fiery darts that fly thick about us. Through he has not promised to give riches and dignities, he has promised to give grace and glory to all that seek them in his appointed way. And what is grace, but heaven begun below...

Verse Psalms 84:8. _HEAR MY PRAYER_] Let us be restored to thy sanctuary, and to thy worship....

O LORD GOD OF HOSTS - See the notes at Psalms 84:1. God is appealed to here as a God of power; as a God who is able to accomplish all his purposes, and to impart every needed blessing. HEAR MY PRAYER - A prayer of the psalmist that he might also have a place among the servants of God in their worship, Psalms 84:2. To this earnestness of prayer he is excited by the view which he had of the blessedness of those who went with songs up to Zion. His soul longs to be among them; from the sight of them his prayer is the more fervent that he may partake of their blessedness and joy. GIVE EAR, O GOD OF JACOB - With whom Jacob wrestled in prayer, and prevailed....

EXPOSITION This psalm, attributed (see title) to the "sons of Korah," or the Korahite Levites (see 1 Chronicles 26:1; 2 Chronicles 20:19), describes the blessedness of their position as dwellers in the house of God, and keepers of its thresholds. Its date is uncertain, but must fall earlier than the Captivity, since the temple is standing (Psalms 84:1, Psalms 84:10), and there is an anointed king upon the throne (Psalms 84:9). The psalm falls into three equal stanzas or strophes, each of four verses, the ends of th

O LORD GOD OF HOSTS, HEAR MY PRAYER,.... the redemption of the captives, says Kimchi; for the building of the house, the temple, according to Jarchi; but rather for the courts of God, an opportunity of attending them, and for the presence of God in them; see Psalms 84:2 in which he might hope to succeed, from the consideration of the Lord's being the God of hosts, or armies, in heaven and in earth; and so was able to do everything for him, and more for him than he could ask or think; his arm was not shortened, nor his ear heavy, Isaiah 59:1, and as this character is expressive of his power, the following is of his grace: GIVE EAR, O GOD OF JACOB; he being the covenant God of the people of Israel in general, and of David in particular; from whence he might comfortably conclude he would give ear

A Psalm for the sons of Korah. You remember how Korah, Dathan, and Abiram were destroyed because of their rebellion against the Lord, and their revolt against his chosen servant, Moses and Aaron, and you, no doubt, recollect how it is recorded that «the children of Korah died not.» Why they were spared, we cannot tell, except that it was an act of sovereign grace; and if so, I can understand why they were afterwards selected to be among the chief singers in the house of the Lord, for who can sing so sweetly to the God of grace as the men who have been saved by his sovereign, distinguishing grace This Psalm is «for (or, of) the sons of Korah.» «Who can praise the blessed God, Like a sinner saved by grace? Angels cannot sing so loud, Though they see him face to face; Sinless angels ne'er can know What a debt saved sinners owe.»...

PSALM 84-89 Psalms 84 In View of the Sanctuary _ 1. Heart longings (Psalms 84:1)_ 2. In the sanctuary (Psalms 84:8) The two next Psalms are of the sons of Korah, who themselves are monuments of saving grace. (They were saved from the fate of Korah; see Numbers 26:10 .) In these precious outpourings of the heart for the sanctuary of the Lord, we read prophetically the heart longings of the remnant of Israel. They are not yet in possession of the fullest blessings but look forward now to an early realization of all their hopes of being at His altars again. And all they long for will be their happy and l

LXXXIV. A PILGRIM PSALM. Psalms 84:3. sparrow (rather little bird generally) and SWALLOW are metaphorical for pious Jewish pilgrims. As the birds find their nests and homes, so the Jew, worthy of the name, finds his rest and joy in proximity to the altars of his God. Altars may be a poetical plural, like holy places in Psalms 68:35 (_cf._ especially Psalms 132:5; Psalms 132:7). To take the words as if they meant that the birds in the literal sense found a home at the altar would involve manifest absurdity. The swallow still haunts the temple-mosque at Jerusalem, but an altar with its crowd of worshippers and its sacrifices