For a day in your courts is better than a thousand. I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness.
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Augustine of Hippo
AD 430
14. "For one day in Thy courts is better than a thousand" (ver. 10). Those courts they were for which he sighed, for which he fainted. "My soul longeth and faileth for the courts of the Lord:" one day there is better than a thousand days. Men long for thousands of days, and wish to live here long: let them despise these thousands of days, let them long for one day, which has neither rising nor setting: one day, an everlasting day, to which no yesterday yields, which no to-morrow presses. Let this one day be longed for by us. What have we to do with a thousand days? We go from the thousand days to one day; let us hasten to that one day, as we go from strength to strength.
Thousands elsewhere, (Calmet) among sinners. He is so much affected, as to leave the sentence imperfect, ver. 4. But the meaning is clear. Temporal must yield to eternal happiness. Eternity is all as one point: it has no division of time, which has a thousand parts. (Haydock)
Heaven is represented as a palace, (Berthier) in which the blessed enjoy perpetual felicity. (Haydock)
With respect to future rewards, one day in the Church is better than thousands out of it. (Worthington), ver. 4.
Abject. Protestants, "door-keeper. "Marginal note, "on the threshold. "(Haydock)
This was the office of the Corites, (Calmet) and they prefer it before the finest occupations among sinners. Hebrew, "the tents of wickedness. "(Haydock)
The poorest condition in the Catholic Church, is better than the highest dignities which the wicked can bestow. (Worthington)
Indeed poverty, and attention to God's service, is the most secure road to heaven, and gives even present content to those who are actuated ...
