The Message Bible MSG
King James Version KJV
1 What a beautiful home, God of the Angel Armies! I've always longed to live in a place like this,
1
How amiable are thy tabernacles, O LORD of hosts!
2 Always dreamed of a room in your house, where I could sing for joy to God-alive!
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My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the courts of the LORD: my heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God.
3 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!
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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 How blessed they are to live and sing there!
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Blessed are they that dwell in thy house: they will be still praising thee. Selah.
5 And how blessed all those in whom you live, whose lives become roads you travel;
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Blessed is the man whose strength is in thee; in whose heart are the ways of them.
6 They wind through lonesome valleys, come upon brooks, discover cool springs and pools brimming with rain!
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Who passing through the valley of Baca make it a well; the rain also filleth the pools.
7 God-traveled, these roads curve up the mountain, and at the last turn - Zion! God in full view!
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They go from strength to strength, every one of them in Zion appeareth before God.
8 God of the Angel Armies, listen: O God of Jacob, open your ears - I'm praying!
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O LORD God of hosts, hear my prayer: give ear, O God of Jacob. Selah.
9 Look at our shields, glistening in the sun, our faces, shining with your gracious anointing.
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Behold, O God our shield, and look upon the face of thine anointed.
10 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.
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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 All sunshine and sovereign is God, generous in gifts and glory. He doesn't scrimp with his traveling companions.
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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 It's smooth sailing all the way with God of the Angel Armies.
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O LORD of hosts, blessed is the man that trusteth in thee.
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.
The King James Version is in the public domain.