Better Is One Day in Your Courts

For the choirmaster. According to Gittith. A Psalm of the sons of Korah.

¹ How lovely is Your dwelling place,

O LORD of Hosts!

² My soul longs, even faints,

for the courts of the LORD;

my heart and my flesh cry out

for the living God.

³ Even the sparrow has found a home,

and the swallow a nest for herself,

where she places her young near Your altars,

O LORD of Hosts, my King and my God.

⁴ How blessed are those who dwell in Your house!

They are ever praising You.

Selah

⁵ Blessed are those whose strength is in You,

whose hearts are set on pilgrimage.^*

⁶ As they pass through the Valley of Baca,

they make it a place of springs;

even the autumn rain covers it with pools.

⁷ They go from strength^* to strength,^*

until each appears before God in Zion.

⁸ O LORD God of Hosts, hear my prayer;

give ear, O God of Jacob.

Selah

⁹ Take notice of our shield, O God,

and look with favor on the face of Your anointed.

¹⁰ For better is one day in Your courts

than a thousand elsewhere.

I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God

than dwell in the tents of the wicked.

¹¹ For the LORD God is a sun and a shield;

the LORD gives grace and glory;

He withholds no good thing

from those who walk with integrity.

¹² O LORD of Hosts,

how blessed is the man who trusts in You!