[Intro - plain and warm, hymn-like, a gently strummed acoustic]

[Verse 1 - strangers and pilgrims]
The Book says there were men of faith who never found a country here
Who lived and died as strangers, as pilgrims passing through
And they did not count it loss, they did not grieve it to the end
They had seen a better country
And they were only passing through

[Chorus - the hymn refrain, the gospel quartet]
There is a better country
A city that the Lord has built
And He is not ashamed to be the God of homeless men
Who never found a camp on earth
Because they were holding out for home
There is a better country
And I am almost home

[Verse 2 - the campless man is the pilgrim]
And all this record I have called myself a homeless, campless man
As if it were a wound, as if it were a thing to mourn
But the homeless and the campless were the pilgrims all along
I was never lost out here
I was only on my way

[Verse 3 - the city prepared]
There is a city that was built for strangers, raised before I drew a breath
With a place in it for every man the camps would never keep
And the God who let them turn me out, He is not ashamed of me
He has gone and called Himself my God
And He has gone and built the town

[Bridge - the rest, the quartet fuller]
So lay it down now, lay the long road down
Lay the cold yard and the shut doors and the reproach down
The pilgrim road was always leading somewhere
And the somewhere has a gate that opens
And a country with my name

[Final and Outro - the full warm gospel close]
Outside the camp, I found the road
And the road ran home, the way it always would
There is a better country
And the Lord has built the town
And I am almost home
I am almost home