In the final section (verses 10-12) the psalmist praises the Temple and the God who dwells there, as the source of happiness and security. To live in the Temple was the greatest blessing a pious Israelite could imagine.
In verse 10a-b there is some obscurity, inasmuch as the Hebrew text is simply “For better is a day in your courts than a thousand”–without indicating where those thousand days would be spent. Most translations, like Good News Translation and Revised Standard Version, just assume a normal ellipsis, with “anywhere else” or elsewhere implied. Simply to translate “a day in your courts is better than a thousand” (King James Version, Traduction œcuménique de la Bible) is quite inadequate; taken literally, it seems to say that the fewer days spent in the Temple, the better.
The word that follows in the Masoretic text is read as the form of the verb “to prefer” (I would rather) and goes with the following words. But some emend the word represented in Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation by I would rather so as to get “on my own” (Bible de Jérusalem), “at home” (New English Bible), and put it on the previous line, after than a thousand. Dahood proposes “How much better is one day in your court than a thousand in the Cemetery” (that is, Sheol), which, to say the least, is not very complimentary of the Temple.
In the second half of verse 10, the same idea is expressed in terms of standing at the Temple gate. Anderson considers Revised Standard Version doorkeeper to be misleading, since that was the title of a high official among the priests or Levites (see 2 Kgs 12.9; 23.4). It seems to imply a Levite guard stationed at the Temple; the figure would then be that of service in the Temple. But it seems better to take the expression in a more general way, parallel with line a; that is, the psalmist is speaking of standing at the entrance to the Temple, ready to go in and worship God. What is here portrayed is a pilgrim asking permission to enter the Temple and worship there. Good News Translation‘s “gate of the house…,” if translated literally, may be misleading. In some language areas, gates are primarily for keeping animals out. A better translation may be “entrance” or “door.”
The comparison “than live in the homes of the wicked” (literally than dwell in the tents of wickedness) does not seem very fitting, and so some propose to emend to “homes of the wealthy.” Again Dahood’s translation is somewhat of an insult to the Temple: “To stand on the threshold of your house, my God, than to abide in the Tent of the Wicked One” (another name for the world of the dead). Good News Translation‘s “stand at the gate” does not carry a very clear contrast with “live in the homes of the wicked.” In some languages a contrast is made by saying, for example, “I would rather stand outside the Temple than sit in the homes of wicked people,” where “sit” carries the meaning of live or dwell.
Quoted with permission from Bratcher, Robert G. and Reyburn, William D. A Handbook on the Book of Psalms. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1991. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .