I’ll seek thy good alway

O city of our God

The Most High himself shall sustain her

Psalm 87

On the holy mountain stands the city he has founded;
the Lord loves the gates of Zion
more than all the dwellings of Jacob.
Glorious things are spoken of you,
O city of our God.
I count Egypt and Babylon among those who know me;
behold Philistia, Tyre and Ethiopia:
in Zion were they born.
Of Zion it shall be said, ‘Everyone was born in her,
and the Most High himself shall sustain her.’
The Lord will record as he enrols the peoples,
‘These also were born there.’
The singers and the dancers will say,
‘All my fresh springs are in you.’

I joy’d when to the house of God

Words: Scottish Psalter (1650)
Tune: Abridge

I joy'd when to the house of God,
Go up, they said to me.
Jerusalem, within thy gates
our feet shall standing be.
Jerus'lem, as a city, is
compactly built together:
Unto that place the tribes go up,
the tribes of God go thither:

To Isr'el's testimony, there
to God's name thanks to pay.
For thrones of judgment, ev'n the thrones
of David's house, there stay.
Pray that Jerusalem may have
peace and felicity:
Let them that love thee and thy peace
have still prosperity.

Therefore I wish that peace may still
within thy walls remain,
And ever may thy palaces
prosperity retain.
Now, for my friends' and brethren's sakes,
Peace be in thee, I'll say.
And for the house of God our Lord,
I'll seek thy good alway.

Selah.