must have been, however, before the temple was destroyed, for it is clear that the usual place of public worship was still standing, and consequently it was before the captivity. The psalm is not one indicating public calamity; it is one of private love and sorrow. The contents of the psalm are as follows:— I. The psalmist expresses his own sense of the loveliness of the place where God is worshipped, and his earnest longing for the courts of the Lord, vers. 1, 2. II. He illustrates this feeling