84:1-4 — How amiable are thy tabernacles, O Lord of hosts! My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the courts of the Lord: my heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God. Yea, the sparrow hath found an house, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, even thine altars, O Lord of hosts, my King, and my God. Blessed are they that dwell in thy house: they will be still praising thee.
Selah.

These verses of Psalm 84 are wonderful to me. It is a psalm of the Sons of Korah – that is, the Temple gatekeepers. Not just the gatekeepers, but those charged with making the showbread, looking after the temple vessels and leading worship. Yet for all this the psalmist sighs and longs for the courts of the Lord, comparing his lot unfavorably with the sparrows and swallows that fluttered around the altars. How can this be?
It seems that the writer of this psalm might have been one of those who fled, with David, into exile. If that were the case, it seems that he might have felt his exile and absence very acutely. He could not take his part in the service and worship while he was away and for the Priests and Levites worship and temple ritual were surely inseparable.
The passage, it seems to me, is inescapably echoed in Jesus’ reply to the over-eager scribe in Matthew 8:
And a certain scribe came, and said unto him, Master, I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest. And Jesus saith unto him, The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head. (Matthew 8:19-20)
One point about Jesus’ response is, of course, that He never provides soft false encouragement. He always sets expectations fairly. But let’s lay that aside for today.
The other point is that Jesus has set aside all the comforts of home to carry out His Father’s will – and what a setting aside it is. “In My Father’s house are many mansions”! He had set aside His powers and glory, and had nowhere to lay His head. He too, like the exiled son of Korah, was away from home.
There’s another more remote echo in 1 Peter which is, of course, addressed to the believers scattered abroad in Peter’s time. He calls them “strangers and aliens” (1 Peter 2:11). We too, are strangers and aliens, though we are perhaps fortunate to be somewhere between the state of the sons of Korah exiled from the temple, and our Lord, exiled from Heaven. We, at least, can gather together for worship. We are not entirely without a nest, or anywhere to lay our spiritual heads! We can worship together. We are blessed.