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1 How amiable are thy tabernacles, O Lord of hosts!

2 My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the courts of the Lord: my heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God.

3 Yea, the sparrow hath found an house, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, even thine altars, O Lord of hosts, my King, and my God.

4 Blessed are they that dwell in thy house: they will be still praising thee. Selah.

5 Blessed is the man whose strength is in thee; in whose heart are the ways of them.

6 Who passing through the valley of Baca make it a well; the rain also filleth the pools.

7 They go from strength to strength, every one of them in Zion appeareth before God.

8 O Lord God of hosts, hear my prayer: give ear, O God of Jacob. Selah.

9 Behold, O God our shield, and look upon the face of thine anointed.

10 For a day in thy courts is better than a thousand. I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness.

11 For the Lord God is a sun and shield: the Lord will give grace and glory: no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly.

12 O Lord of hosts, blessed is the man that trusteth in thee.

<b>How beloved are Your dwelling places</b> How beloved and dear are Your dwelling places!

<b>yearns</b> Heb. נכספה Desires. <b>pines</b> Heb. כלתה, desires, as (II Sam. 13:39): “And [the soul of] King David longed (ותכל) to go forth to Absalom.” <b>for the courts of the Lord</b> for they have been destroyed, and he says this regarding the exile. <b>my heart and my flesh pray fervently</b> They pray for this.

<b>Even a bird found a house</b> In its ruins, the birds have nested. According to Midrash Aggadah (Mid. Ps. 84:2), it speaks of [the Temple] when it is built, and the bird is the nation of Israel.

<b>Fortunate</b> is he who will yet merit to dwell in Your house, and they will yet praise you in its midst.

<b>who has strength in You</b> Who has made You the strength of his trust. <b>in whose heart are the highways</b> Who thinks in his heart the paving of his ways, to straighten his way.

<b>Transgressors in the valley of weeping</b> Those who transgress Your law behold, they are in the depth of Gehinnom with weeping and wailing. <b>make it into a fountain</b> with the tears of their eyes. <b>also with blessings they enwrap [their] Teacher</b> They bless and thank His name and say, “He judged us fairly, and His judgment is true.” (Another explanation: Shem Ephraim) And the one who taught us to follow the good way enwraps us with blessings, but we did not obey him.

<b>They go from host to host</b> Those mentioned above, who dwell in Your house, in whose heart are the highways. <b>from host to host</b> From the study-hall to the synagogue, and their host and army will appear to the Hole One, blessed be He, in Zion.

<b>hearken to my prayer</b> to build Your house.

<b>our shield</b> That is the Temple, which protects us. <b>look at the face of</b> David Your anointed, and ponder his acts of kindness and his toil, by which he toiled and wearied himself in its building.

<b>For a day is better</b> [To live] one [day] in Your courts and die the next [is better than] to live a thousand years someplace else. <b>I chose to sit on the threshold</b> Heb. הסתופף, to sit habitually on the threshold and by the doorpost. <b>rather than dwell in tents of wickedness</b> rather than dwell tranquilly in the tents of the wicked Esau, to cleave to them.

<b>For a sun and a shield</b> שמש may be interpreted according to its apparent meaning, but Midrash Psalms interprets it as an expression of the points of the wall.