Albert Barnes Commentary Psalms 87:2

"Jehovah loveth the gates of Zion More than all the dwellings of Jacob." — Psalms 87:2 (ASV)

The Lord loveth the gates of Zion - . The gates of a city were the places of assembly; where business was transacted; where courts were held. The particular allusion here seems to be to the thronging multitudes pressing into the city for public worship—the numbers that gathered together at the great feasts and festivals of the nation; and the meaning is, that he looked with more pleasure on such multitudes as they thronged the gates, pressing in that they might worship him, than on any other scene in the land.

More than all the dwellings of Jacob - Than any of the places where the descendants of Jacob, or where his people, dwell. Much as he might be pleased with their quiet dwelling places, with their peace, prosperity, and order, and with the fact that his worship was daily celebrated in those happy families, yet he had superior pleasure in the multitudes that crowded the ways to the place where they would publicly acknowledge him as their God.