For the leader. On the gittith. Of the Korahites, a psalm.
1 How dearly loved is the place where you live,
Lord of hosts!
2 How I long and yearn
for the courts of the Lord .
Now heart and flesh cry for joy
to the living God.
3 Even the sparrow has found her a home
and the swallow a nest,
to lay her young,
near your altar,
Lord of hosts,
my king and my God.
4 Happy those who live in your house,
praising you evermore. (Selah)
5 Happy those whose strength is in you,
people with pilgrim hearts.
6 As they pass through the valley of tears,
they make it a place of fountains,
clothed with the blessings of early rain.
7 From rampart to rampart on they march,
till at last God reveals himself in Zion.
8 Lord , God of hosts, hear my prayer,
give ear, O God of Jacob. (Selah)
9 Behold, O God, our defender,
and look upon your anointed,
for better a single day in your courts
than a thousand in my own chambers:
better stand at the door of the house of my God
than live in the tents of ungodliness,
for the Lord is sun and shield,
the Lord gives grace and glory.
He withholds no good thing from the life that is blameless.
12 Lord of hosts,
happy those whose trust is in you.