2 My soul longs, and even faints for the courts of Yahweh. My heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.
*Minor differences ignored. Grouped by changes, with first version listed as example.
My soul longeth - The word used here means properly to be pale; then, to be faint or weak; and then, to pine after, to long for, to desire earnestly. It would properly denote such a longing or desire as to make one faint or exhausted; that is, it indicates intense desire. In Psalm 17:12, it is applied to a hungry lion; "Like a lion that is greedy of its prey." In Genesis 31:30, it conveys the idea of intense desire: "Because thou sore longedst after thy father's house." For an illustration of the sentiment here expressed, see the notes at Psalm 42:1-2.
Yea, even fainteth - Is exhausted; fails of its strength. The word means properly to be completed, finished; then to be consumed, to be spent, to waste or pine away. Genesis 21:15; Jeremiah 16:4; Lamentations 2:11; Job 19:27.
For the courts of the Lord - The word used here refers to the different areas around the tabernacle or temple, within which many of the services of public worship were conducted, and which were frequented by different classes of persons. See the notes at Matthew 21:12.
My heart and my flesh - My whole nature; my body and my soul; all my desires and aspirations - all the longings of my heart are there. The body - the flesh - cries out for rest; the heart - the soul - for communion with God. Our whole nature demands the benefits which spring from the worship of God. Body and soul were made for his service, and the necessities of neither can be satisfied without religion.
Crieth out - The word used here - רנן rânan - means properly to give forth a tremulous sound; then, to give forth the voice in vibrations, or in a tremulous manner; and thence it may mean either to utter cries of joy, Leviticus 9:24; Job 38:7; Isaiah 12:6, or to utter a loud wail Lamentations 2:19. Its common application is to joy Psalm 98:4; Psalm 132:16; Psalm 65:8; and it might be rendered here, "Sing unto the Lord," or "Rejoice unto the Lord." The connection, however, seems to demand that it be understood as the cry of earnest longing or desire.
For the living God - God, the true God, considered as living, in contradistinction from idols, always spoken of as dead. Compare Psalm 63:1.
My soul longeth - It is a Levite that speaks, who ardently longs to regain his place in the temple, and his part in the sacred services.
My heart and my flesh - All the desires of my soul and body; every appetite and wish, both animal and spiritual, long for thy service.
My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the (b) courts of the LORD: my heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God.
(b) For only the priests could enter the sanctuary and the rest of the people into the courts.
My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the courts of the Lord,.... The courts of the tabernacle now at Gibeon, though the ark was in Zion, 2-Chronicles 1:3 as the court of the priests, and the court of the Israelites, in which latter the people in common stood: after these David longed; he longed to enter into them, and stand in them, and worship God there; which soul longings and hearty desires were the fruits and evidences of true grace, of being born again; so newly born souls desire the sincere milk of the word, and the breasts of Gospel ordinances, as a newly born babe desires its mother's milk and breast; and he even "fainted", through disappointment, or length of time, being impatient of the returning season and opportunity of treading in them; see Psalm 42:1,
my heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God; he only inwardly desired, and secretly fainted, but audibly cried out in his distress, and verbally expressed, great vehemence, his desire to enjoy the living God: it was not merely the courts, but God in them, that he wanted; even that God which has life in himself, with whom is the fountain of life; who gives life to others, natural, spiritual, and eternal, and in whose favour is life; yea, whose lovingkindness is better than life, and which was the thing longed and thirsted after: and these desires were the desires of the whole man, soul and body; not only he cried with his mouth and lips, signified by his flesh, but with his heart also, sincerely and heartily; his heart went along with his mouth.
longeth--most intensely (Genesis 31:30; Psalm 17:12).
fainteth--exhausted with desire.
courts--as tabernacles (Psalm 84:1) --the whole building.
crieth out--literally, "sings for joy"; but here, and Lamentations 2:19, expresses an act of sorrow as the corresponding noun (Psalm 17:1; Psalm 61:2).
heart and . . . flesh--as in Psalm 63:1.
*More commentary available at chapter level.