Ps. 84.12 (made glorious)

For Sun and Shield / is Yhwh-God
grace and glory / Yhwh bestows
he withholds no good thing /from those who walk / in integrity. 

There is a tendency to see only one aspect of this verse: the presence of God. It is, of course, central. The word “For” indicates to us it is the reason why “one day” in his courts is better than a thousand others or the mere “waiting at his threshold” better than tent-dwelling with the wicked. The presence is described in marvelous terms: Sun and Shield. That is what Yhwh “is”. He is both the radiating power of life and all virility and the protector of his people. However, what seems to go unnoticed is that it is also just as important what he gives to his ‘guests’: grace, glory and all good things. The thing to notice here is that, for this psalmist, there is no sense of ‘presence alone’ in his ardent love of God—rather, it is involves the dynamic of relationship with God. He loves both his presence and his gifts and does not give pride-of-place to one. Indeed, in simply literary space it is the gifts that are the focus. There are a host of reasons why this tends to be sublimated (any love of the ‘gift’ being not spiritual enough, or ‘kantian’ enough even). Regardless of the reasons, there is a clear delight by the psalmist toward these gifts. His liturgical joy is not simply God’s presence but the graces and gifts that flow from that encounter. As to ‘grace and glory’, the psalmist envisions God providing both a form of beauty and authority to his people. He infuses within them that ‘glow of authority’ that people in power have (their ‘glory’). It is what commands respect (and, provides safety). As to grace, it is similar to the ‘favor’ that is to be bestowed on the king (as, perhaps, he leads the people into the Temple for the liturgy). It is a type of acceptance and mercy. One would probably not be far off to see in these the reflection of Adam’s beauty—his being bathed in these qualities as he ‘walked with God’ in a type of perpetual liturgy. In all of this what we find is Yhwh making his people into objects of beauty—they are beginning to radiate with the beauty of the Temple that was the engine of their pilgrimage.