Psalms — Chapter 83

QUAM DILECTA TABERNACULA TUA DOMINE. Lapide: Psalm 83 — the great pilgrim psalm. "How lovely are Thy tabernacles, O Lord of hosts!" Lapide: one of his most lyrical commentaries. The "tabernacles" = the Temple courts, and allegorically the Church with her liturgy and sacraments, and ultimately heaven itself. The longing of the soul (v.3: "my soul longeth and fainteth for the courts of the Lord") is the fundamental spiritual posture of the pilgrim Church: present in the world, longing for the heavenly Temple.