How Lovely Is Thy Dwelling Place
Description
The Historic Faith · Hymn Companion
How Lovely Is Thy Dwelling Place
Words by Psalm 84:1-2, 4; biblical text selected from the Luther Bible by Johannes BrahmsMusic by Johannes BrahmsWritten 1865–1868
How lovely is thy dwelling place, O Lord of hosts!
For my soul, it longeth, yea fainteth, for the courts of the Lord;
my soul and body crieth out, yea, for the living God.
Blest are they that dwell within thy house;
they praise thy name evermore.
Story Behind the Song
This text is best known in English as the fourth movement of Johannes Brahms's Ein deutsches Requiem. Brahms compiled the Requiem text himself from the German Luther Bible, making it a work of consolation for the living rather than a traditional Latin requiem mass for the dead. The movement sets Psalm 84's longing for the courts and dwelling place of the Lord and forms the serene center of the larger work.
Scripture
Found In
Ein deutsches Requiem, Op. 45