For a day in thy 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.
For a day in thy courts is better than a thousand - i:e., better than a thousand elsewhere spent; namely, in the pleasures of sin and of the world (cf. Hebrews 11:24-26).
I had rather be a doorkeeper (or 'stop at the threshold') in the house of my God - i:e., If I cannot have a higher place, I feel the humblest place in the kingdom of God higher than the highest in the world.
Than to dwell in the tents of wickedness. The habitations of the wicked, however stable and princely they look, are but shifting "tents;" whereas 'the tabernacle' of God, though externally made but of curtains as a tent, is nevertheless abiding as "the house of God" (cf. 2 Corinthians 5:1). "The tents of wickedness," as represented by the dwellings of Absalom and the seemingly successful rebels, were furnished with every outward attraction, yet David feels the lowest place of poverty and exile, with God's favour, infinitely preferable (cf. Psalms 4:7).