Fathers

Psalms 84

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How lovely are your dwellings, Yahweh of Armies! My soul longs, and even faints for the courts of Yahweh. My heart and my flesh cry out for the living God. Yes, the sparrow has found a home, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may have her young, near your altars, Yahweh of Armies, my King, and my God. Blessed are those who dwell in your house. They are always praising you. Blessed are those whose strength is in you, who have set their hearts on a pilgrimage. Passing through the valley of Weeping, they make it a place of springs. Yes, the autumn rain covers it with blessings. They go from strength to strength. Every one of them appears before God in Zion. Yahweh, God of Armies, hear my prayer. Listen, God of Jacob. Behold, God our shield, look at the face of your anointed. For a day in your courts is better than a thousand. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness. For Yahweh God is a sun and a shield. Yahweh will give grace and glory. He withholds no good thing from those who walk blamelessly. Yahweh of Armies, blessed is the man who trusts in you.

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What the Fathers say

Psalms 84:1

Western Saints

Augustine of Hippo

If therefore you feel the passions of this world, even when you are happy, you understand now that you are in the winepress....If therefore the world smile upon you with happiness, imagine yourself in the winepress, and say, "I found trouble and heaviness, and I did call upon the name of the Lord." He said not, I found trouble, without meaning, of such a kind as was hidden: for some troubles are hidden from some in this world, who think they are happy while they are absent from God. …

Exposition on Psalm 84 ↗

Jerome

How beloved are your tabernacles, O Lord of hosts. These, then, are the winepresses in which the spiritual grain is to be stored. "Make for yourselves friends out of the mammon of iniquity, that they may receive you into the eternal tabernacles." How beloved are your tabernacles, O Lord of hosts. How beloved are the tabernacles through which a man is carried over from earth to heaven. My soul longs and faints for the courts of the Lord. Happy is that thought which by day and by night desires the tabernacles of the Lord. …

Homily 63, on Psalm 83 (Alternate Series) ↗