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Psalm 84:2
My soul longs, and even faints for the courts of the LORD. My heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.
1For the Chief Musician. On an instrument of Gath. A Psalm by the sons of Korah. How lovely are your dwellings, LORD of Armies!
2My soul longs, and even faints for the courts of the LORD. My heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.
3Yes, the sparrow has found a home, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may have her young, near your altars, LORD of Armies, my King, and my God.
4Blessed are those who dwell in your house. They are always praising you. Selah.
Notice
The longing for God’s courts reaches through soul, heart, and flesh, making desire for worship something that involves the whole person.
Questions to write on. Each one opens a new entry with this verse already attached.
What do you make of the movement from longing for God’s courts to crying out for God himself?
Write on thisWhich words here come closest to your desire for God, and which feel hardest to claim?
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Where else Scripture says this
12 passages readers most often link with this verse, and the thread each one shares with it.
This verse's connections, by chapterThe Bible's strongest chapter linksHover or tap a book to trace it
Psalm 63:1A Psalm by David, when he was in the desert of Judah. God, you are my God. I will earnestly seek you. My soul thirsts for you. My flesh longs for you, in a dry …Both describe longing for God through soul and flesh, using bodily need to express the depth of that desire.
Matthew 5:6Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled.Both use the language of bodily need for spiritual desire; Matthew names righteousness and adds a promise of being filled.
Psalm 73:26My flesh and my heart fails, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.Both name flesh and heart in relation to God; one cries out for him, while the other names him as enduring strength.
Isaiah 26:9With my soul I have desired you in the night. Yes, with my spirit within me I will seek you earnestly; for when your judgments are on the earth, the …Both speak of the soul’s desire for God, with Isaiah locating that desire in the night and joining it to seeking.
Isaiah 58:13“If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on my holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight, and the holy of the LORD honorable, and …Both concern devotion to the LORD, expressed through longing for his courts in the psalm and honoring his Sabbath in Isaiah.
Psalm 42:1–2For the Chief Musician. A contemplation by the sons of Korah. As the deer pants for the water brooks, so my soul pants after you, God.Both describe the soul’s longing for God, with Psalm 42 comparing that longing to a deer’s need for water.
Psalm 42:2My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God?Both name the “living God” as the object of longing and express desire to come into his presence.
Philippians 3:12Not that I have already obtained, or am already made perfect; but I press on, that I may take hold of that for which also I was taken hold of by Christ Jesus.Both express reaching toward a desired goal, though Paul’s words concern Christ’s purpose and the psalm names God’s courts.
Song of Songs 8:6Set me as a seal on your heart, as a seal on your arm; for love is strong as death. Jealousy is as cruel as Sheol. Its flashes are flashes of fire, a very …Both name the heart in language of intense attachment, though the psalm longs for God and the Song speaks of love between people.
Song of Songs 5:8I adjure you, daughters of Jerusalem, If you find my beloved, that you tell him that I am faint with love.Both describe longing that reaches the point of faintness, directed toward God in the psalm and toward the beloved in the Song.
2 Corinthians 3:3being revealed that you are a letter of Christ, served by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tablets of stone, but in …Both name the “living God” and speak of heart and flesh, though Paul describes believers as a letter written by God’s Spirit.
Song of Songs 2:4–5He brought me to the banquet hall. His banner over me is love.Both mention a place, God’s courts and a banquet hall, though the Song’s supplied line describes arrival rather than longing.
Where this verse fits
Feeling distant from God. praise and worship. wanting a steady prayer habit.
One step
Something small to carry out of this verse
Encouragement
Your prayer need not sound composed. Psalm 84:2 includes faintness and a cry from heart and flesh, all directed toward the living God.
Now put it in your words.
Start an entry on Psalm 84:2. Write what it stirs. Psalmlog sets your words beside Scripture and gives you one next step. Your first entry is free, no account needed.
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Cross-reference data from OpenBible.info (CC BY). Scripture from the World English Bible (public domain). Arc diagram after Chris Harrison and Christoph Römhild (2007).