English Standard Version ESV
The Message Bible MSG
1 How lovely is your dwelling place, O LORD of hosts!
1
What a beautiful home, God of the Angel Armies! I've always longed to live in a place like this,
2 My soul longs, yes, faints for the courts of the LORD; my heart and flesh sing for joy to the living God.
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Always dreamed of a room in your house, where I could sing for joy to God-alive!
3 Even the sparrow finds a home, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, at your altars, O LORD of hosts, my King and my God.
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Birds find nooks and crannies in your house, sparrows and swallows make nests there. They lay their eggs and raise their young, singing their songs in the place where we worship. God of the Angel Armies! King! God!
4 Blessed are those who dwell in your house, ever singing your praise! Selah
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How blessed they are to live and sing there!
5 Blessed are those whose strength is in you, in whose heart are the highways to Zion.
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And how blessed all those in whom you live, whose lives become roads you travel;
6 As they go through the Valley of Baca they make it a place of springs; the early rain also covers it with pools.
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They wind through lonesome valleys, come upon brooks, discover cool springs and pools brimming with rain!
7 They go from strength to strength; each one appears before God in Zion.
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God-traveled, these roads curve up the mountain, and at the last turn - Zion! God in full view!
8 O LORD God of hosts, hear my prayer; give ear, O God of Jacob! Selah
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God of the Angel Armies, listen: O God of Jacob, open your ears - I'm praying!
9 Behold our shield, O God; look on the face of your anointed!
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Look at our shields, glistening in the sun, our faces, shining with your gracious anointing.
10 For a day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness.
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One day spent in your house, this beautiful place of worship, beats thousands spent on Greek island beaches. I'd rather scrub floors in the house of my God than be honored as a guest in the palace of sin.
11 For the LORD God is a sun and shield; the LORD bestows favor and honor. No good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly.
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All sunshine and sovereign is God, generous in gifts and glory. He doesn't scrimp with his traveling companions.
12 O LORD of hosts, blessed is the one who trusts in you!
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It's smooth sailing all the way with God of the Angel Armies.
The English Standard Version is published with the permission of Good News Publishers.
Published by permission. Originally published by NavPress in English as THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright 2002 by Eugene Peterson. All rights reserved.