The Beauty and Glory of Zion.

A Song; a Psalm of the sons of Korah.

1Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised,

In the city of our God, His holy mountain.

2Fair and beautiful in elevation, the joy of all the earth,

Is Mount Zion [the City of David] in the far north,

The city of the great King.

3God, in her palaces,

Has made Himself known as a stronghold.

4For, lo, the kings assembled themselves,

They [came and] passed by together.

5They saw it, then they were amazed;

They were stricken with terror, they fled in alarm.

6Panic seized them there,

And pain, as that of a woman in childbirth.

7With the east wind

You shattered the ships of Tarshish.

8As we have heard, so have we seen

In the city of the LORD of hosts, in the city of our God:

God will establish her forever. Selah.

9We have thought of Your lovingkindness, O God,

In the midst of Your temple.

10As is Your name, O God,

So is Your praise to the ends of the earth;

Your right hand is full of righteousness (rightness, justice).

11Let Mount Zion be glad,

Let the daughters of Judah rejoice

Because of Your [righteous] judgments.

12Walk about Zion, go all around her;

Count her towers,

13Consider her ramparts,

Go through her palaces,

That you may tell the next generation [about her glory].

14For this is God,

Our God forever and ever;

He will be our guide even until death.