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Psalm 84

Better Is One Day in Your Courts

(John 1:14–18)

For the choirmaster. According to Gittith.1 A Psalm of the sons of Korah.

¹ How lovely is Your dwelling place, O LORD of Hosts!

² My soul longs, even faints, for the courts of the LORD; my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.

³ Even the sparrow has found a home, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she places her young near Your altars, O LORD of Hosts, my King and my God.

⁴ How blessed are those who dwell in Your house! They are ever praising You. Selah

⁵ Blessed are those whose strength is in You, whose hearts are set on pilgrimage.

⁶ As they pass through the Valley of Baca,2 they make it a place of springs; even the autumn rain covers it with pools.3

⁷ They go from strength to strength, until each appears before God in Zion.

⁸ O LORD God of Hosts, hear my prayer; give ear, O God of Jacob. Selah

⁹ Take notice of our shield, O God, and look with favor on the face of Your anointed.

¹⁰ For better is one day in Your courts than a thousand elsewhere. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of the wicked.

¹¹ For the LORD God is a sun and a shield; the LORD gives grace and glory; He withholds no good thing from those who walk with integrity.

¹² O LORD of Hosts, how blessed is the man who trusts in You!


  1. 84:0 Gittith is probably a musical or liturgical term; here and in Psalms 8 and 81. ↩︎

  2. 84:6 Or Valley of Poplars ↩︎

  3. 84:6 Or with blessings ↩︎