Pleasant are thy courts above

Pleasant are thy courts above. Henry Francis Lyte* (1793-1847). First published in Lyte’s The Spirit of the Psalms (1834), as a free paraphrase of Psalm 84, the second of two versions. It is usually printed in four 8-line stanzas, as it was written. In these stanzas, especially in the first two, can be seen Lyte’s beautiful use of the couplet form (as in God of mercy, God of grace*): Pleasant are thy courts aboveIn the land of light and love;Pleasant are thy courts belowIn this land of sin and woe:O, my spirit longs and faintsFor the converse of thy saints,For the brightness of thy face,For thy fulness, God of grace. Happy birds that sing and flyRound thy altars, O Most High;Happier souls...