5 My heart and flesh cry out for thee,
While far from thine abode:
When shall I tread thy courts, and see
My Saviour and my God?
6 The sparrow builds herself a nest,
And suffers no remove;
O make me like the sparrows, blest,
To dwell but where I love.
7 To sit one day beneath thine eye,
And hear thy gracious voice,
Exceeds a whole eternity
Employ'd in carnal joys.
8 Lord, at thy threshold I would wait,
While Jesus is within,
Rather than fill a throne of state,
Or live in tents of sin.
9 Could I command the spacious land,
And the more boundless sea,
For one blest hour at thy right hand
I'd give them both away.
Psalm 84:4. As the 148th Psalm.
Longing for the house of God.
1 Lord of the worlds above,
How pleasant and how fair
The dwellings of thy love,
Thy earthly temples are!
To thine abode
My heart aspires,
With warm desires
To see my God.
2 The sparrow, for her young,
With pleasure seeks her nest;
And wandering swallows long
To find their wonted rest:
My spirit faints
With equal zeal
To rise and dwell
Among thy saints.
3 O happy souls that pray
Where God appoints to hear!
O happy men that pay
Their constant service there!
They praise thee still;
And happy they
That love the way
To Zion's hill.
4 They go from strength to strength,
Thro' this dark vale of tears,
Till each arrives at length,
Till each in heaven appears:
O glorious seat,
When God our king
Shall thither bring
Our willing feet!