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Gustave Doré’s engraving of David standing crowned and bowed as he mourns Absalom

Psalm 84

What St Athanasius said to pray when you long for God’s house and your home with Him, in a letter from the 300s.

  • 12Verses
  • 1Situation

St Athanasius, Letter to Marcellinus

When to pray it

In the 300s, St Athanasius of Alexandria wrote a letter to his friend Marcellinus about praying the Psalms. In it he matched psalms to what people go through. This is what he gave this one for.

You long for God's house, and for the home with Him that lasts forever.

When you look at God's house and His eternal dwelling places and long for them, as Paul did, say Psalm 84.

Letter to Marcellinus

12 verses, Berean Standard Bible

The whole psalm

Psalm 84

Its own heading For the choirmaster. According to Gittith. A Psalm of the sons of Korah.

  1. 1How lovely is Your dwelling place, O LORD of Hosts!
  2. 2My soul longs, even faints, for the courts of the LORD; my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.
  3. 3Even the sparrow has found a home, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she places her young near Your altars, O LORD of Hosts, my King and my God.
  4. 4How blessed are those who dwell in Your house! They are ever praising You. Selah
  5. 5Blessed are those whose strength is in You, whose hearts are set on pilgrimage.
  6. 6As they pass through the Valley of Baca, they make it a place of springs; even the autumn rain covers it with pools.
  7. 7They go from strength to strength, until each appears before God in Zion.
  8. 8O LORD God of Hosts, hear my prayer; give ear, O God of Jacob. Selah
  9. 9Take notice of our shield, O God, and look with favor on the face of Your anointed.
  10. 10For 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.
  11. 11For the LORD God is a sun and a shield; the LORD gives grace and glory; He withholds no good thing from those who walk with integrity.
  12. 12O LORD of Hosts, how blessed is the man who trusts in You!

Psalm 84 is 83 in the Greek numbering Athanasius used, which Orthodox Bibles and some older Catholic ones still follow.

When you're afraid, worn down, or longing for God

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All 53 situations, in one guide.

Your turn

Which Psalm are you living right now?

A few honest taps about your life right now, and the psalm an early Church Father gave for exactly that.

  • 3 min
  • 7 questions
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Bible text: Berean Standard Bible, public domain. Athanasius’s advice is paraphrased from his Greek.