1How lovely is the place where you live,
Yahweh of hosts!

2I long for the courts of Yahweh, my desire for it has made me exhausted.
My heart and all of my being call out to the living God.

3Even the sparrow has found her a house
and the swallow a nest for herself where she may lay her young
near your altars, Yahweh of hosts,
my King, and my God.

4Blessed are they who live in your house;
they praise you continually. Selah

5Blessed is the man whose strength is in you,
in whose heart are the highways up to Zion.

6Passing through the Valley of Tears, they find springs of water to drink.
The early rains cover it with blessings. ³

7They go from strength to strength;
every one of them appears before God in Zion.

8Yahweh God of hosts, hear my prayer;
God of Jacob, listen to what I am saying! Selah

9God, watch over our shield;
show concern for your anointed.

10For one day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere.
I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God,
than to live within the tents of the wicked.

11For Yahweh God is our sun and shield;
Yahweh will give grace and glory;
he does not withhold any good thing from those who walk in integrity.

12Yahweh of hosts,
blessed is the man who trusts in you.