My soul has yearned and also pined away for the courtyards of Jehovah. My own heart and my very flesh cry out joyfully to the living God.

The intensity with which this Levite expressed himself about longing to be in the courtyards of Jehovah’s tabernacle reminds us that the tens of thousands of Levites during the time of the kingdom lived in the 48 cities that were assigned to the Levites throughout the land of Israel. Only once every half year one of the courses or divisions of the nonpriestly Levites served an entire week at the temple. Consequently, the major portion of the year they would spend at their personal homes with their families in the Levite cities.