Psalms 84:3 — 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.

The memory of places where we have been happy can be cruelly painful or a sweet comfort in exile. Psalm 84 has all the feeling of the song of the exile, or at least of a wanderer far from home.

We might imagine — though we do not know — that the Psalm is one of David’s. So often, it seems, he was away from the Tent of Meeting … keeping out of Saul’s way or fleeing from his own rebellious son. It’s easy to see him, perhaps in the Cave of Adullam, writing this sweet wistful song.

This verse, in particular, tugs at my heart. I’ve always loved the sparrow. A permanently optimistic cheeky little street urchin of a bird. The sparrow is always, it seems, a domestic bird and it speaks of home.

The swallow is another kind of bird, one that always seems to be traveling … There’s a song by Rafael Farina that catches the spirit perfectly:
Come wander quietly and listen to the wind

Come here and listen to the sky

Come walking high above the rolling of the sea

And watch the swallows as they fly

There is no sorrow like the murmur of their wings

There is no choir like their song

There is no power like the freedom of their flight

While the swallows roam alone
There was nowhere, I think, that David felt more comfortable than in the Lord’s house. He knew all its corners and knew where the street urchin sparrow had moved into a permanent residence and the wandering swallow a settled home. He missed them. He missed seeing the sparrows picking up crumbs of the sacrificial bread and the swallows swooping from one corner to another.

Do you love the building in which you worship? Do you share Spurgeon’s sentiment:

“We rejoice not only in our personal religious opportunities, but in the great blessing of taking our children with us to the sanctuary. The church of God is a house for us and a nest for our little ones”
I love the two main worship spaces in our church — the Worship Center and the Chapel. They are plain spaces, but have been filled with the love of God and the presence of the Holy Spirit. They are not often as far as I know visited by sparrows or swallows but I always feel at home in them.