Even the Sparrows

 

How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord of hosts! My soul longs, yes, faints for the courts of the Lord; my heart and flesh sing for joy to the living God. Even the sparrow finds a home, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, at your altars, O Lord of hosts, my King and my God. Blessed are those who dwell in your house, ever singing your praise! (Psalm 84:1-4 ESV).

 

Charles Spurgeon said our reading today, from Psalm 84, was entitled “to be called “The Pearl of Psalms.” He went on to say, “If the twenty-third be the most popular, the one-hundred-and-third the most joyful, the one-hundred-and-nineteenth the most deeply experiential, the fifty-first the most plaintive, this is one of the most sweet of the Psalms of Peace.” I love the third verse. The image is of sparrows and swallows making nests in the temple courts is so encouraging. Perhaps the most easily visualized of the descriptions found in this example.

What I like about the image is how, very plausibly, it places the psalmist in the temple courts at the time of composition. You can imagine the psalmist sitting in the temple with the intent to compose a song. The psalmist begins with expected lines, extolling the temple as home, as the resting place our hearts are yearning for. The psalmist then pauses and begins to think about what should come next in the song. And, then he gives us an unexpected image of birds nesting in the temple.

 

The origin of this image seems obvious enough. As the psalmist's eyes take in the temple courts, heart searching for the next lines, the psalmist looks up at the sky and notices the birds overhead, flying to and fro from their nests high up in the nooks and crannies of the temple. The psalmist watches the birds meditatively. And then the flash of recognition: Look, even the birds long to live here! Of course, the poem could have been written at some other time and place, with the birds nesting in the temple as a memory of a past visit. But I've always felt that the insertion of the nesting birds in the poem was most likely a spontaneous insight prompted by the psalmist actually sitting in the temple court while composing the song. What is so encouraging to me is that even these little common birds find safety in the temple of God. Shouldn’t we practice that same principle? Being in the presence of God is the safest place we can ever be!