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The first and last verses of the psalm frame the rest, giving the congregation both a part to sing and a means of expressing the key ideas the psalm develops. Those ideas are God's glory and man's closeness to God. The latter is evident in the first line of the verse: The word "Lord" is from the Hebrew Yahweh, both a more sacred and a more intimate way of addressing God than Elohim (literally, "God"), which appears in other psalms. Though this may reflect the psalm's authorship (some biblical writers consistently chose one name for God over the other), it also expresses the genuine sentiment of the poem. God here is not a distant being, but one with whom man feels an intimate devotion.

When applied to God in the Old Testament, the word "glory" usually refers to God's visible manifestation to humans. The psalmist reflects on...