1 How lovely are Your dwelling places,

O Lord of hosts!

2 My soul (my life, my inner self) longs for and greatly desires the courts of the Lord;

My heart and my flesh sing for joy to the living God.

3 The bird has found a house,

And the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young—

Even Your altars, O Lord of hosts,

My King and my God.

4 Blessed and greatly favored are those who dwell in Your house and Your presence;

They will be singing Your praises all the day long. Selah.

5 Blessed and greatly favored is the man whose strength is in You,

In *whose heart are the highways to Zion.

6 Passing through the Valley of Weeping (*Baca), they make it a place of springs;

The early rain also covers it with blessings.

7 They go from strength to strength [increasing in victorious power];

Each of them appears before God in Zion.

8 O Lord God of hosts, hear my prayer;

Listen, O God of Jacob! Selah.

9 See our shield, O God,

And look at the face of Your anointed [the king as Your representative].

10 For a day in Your courts is better than a thousand [anywhere else];

I would rather stand [as a doorkeeper] at the threshold of the house of my God

Than to live [at ease] in the tents of wickedness.

11 For the Lord God is a sun and shield;

The Lord bestows grace and favor and honor;

No good thing will He withhold from those who walk uprightly.

12 O Lord of hosts,

How blessed and greatly favored is the man who trusts in You [believing in You, relying on You, and committing himself to You with confident hope and expectation].