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1 How lovely is the place where you live,

Yahweh of hosts!
2 I long for the courts of Yahweh;
my desire for it has made me exhausted.
My heart and all of my being
shout for joy to the living God.
3 Even the sparrow has found herself 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.
4 Blessed are they who live in your house;
they praise you continually.
Selah


5 Blessed is the man whose strength is in you,
in whose heart are the highways up to Zion.
6 As they go through the Valley of Tears
they make it a place of springs.
The early rains cover it with blessings. 1
7 They go from strength to strength;
every one of them appears before God in Zion.

8 Yahweh God of hosts, hear my prayer;
give ear, God of Jacob!
Selah
9 God, watch over our shield;
show concern for your anointed.

10 For 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.
11 For 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.

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


1Some scholars translate the Hebrew as cover it with pools of water .