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 (Ps 84:3 ESV).

It was about couple of weeks into the COVID-19 pandemic and I was juggling between work and a Hebrew language course assignment. Tough call, right! My wife was somewhere in the house engrossed in her passion—drawing and painting to the background of uninterrupted worship songs from the album Day of Salvation by the Indiana Bible College Choir on YouTube. I could not resist the chuckle when I remember those days of vinyl records (or LP “long playing”) which you must keep flipping over?

Anyway, my attention was, suddenly, drawn to a soft worship song wafting up to my den from somewhere in the house so, I asked my wife what the title of the song was. “At a Loss for Words” by the IBC choir, she replied. The lyric “my soul cries out in worship…” was pulling, relentlessly, at some chords deep within my soul. It was followed up by another potent lyric, “deep calls to deep, draw near to me.” At this juncture, I could no longer contain the overwhelming presence of God’s spirit and the desire to pray, and during prayer, the above scripture verse came to my mind, but it was in Yoruba, my native tongue.

Nitooto, ologose ri ile, ati alapandede te ite fun ara re, nibi ti yoo gbe maa pa awon omo re si, ani nibi awon pepe re, Oluwa awon omo-ogun, Oba ati Olorun mi (Ps 84: 3).

While ruminating over these words I kept reciting the phrase, “Even the sparrow finds a home, and the swallow a nest for herself” and her young ones. The notion of the sparrows and swallows deserve some details:

• These are small birds, but swallows are bigger than the sparrows.
• They are not from the same birdie family, although people often confuse them together.
• Aesthetically, both lack the beauty of, say, a toucan or a parrot, or the elegance of a Peacock.
• They build nests in crevices and spaces in buildings, but humans prefer the sparrows because they do not use mud in their construction projects unlike the swallows.
• House sparrows, for instance, have a lifespan of three years; they believe in God’s original plan for marriage–a sparrow and its mate–and till death do they part.

So, what lessons can we learn from the attitudinal postures of these birds from the psalmist’s perspectives?

First, what convicted me and brought tears to my eyes was the realization that small, seemingly, insignificant avian birds—a sparrow and a swallow in search of where to build a home and raise a family, and of all the myriads of houses shown them by “real-estate” agents (just letting my imagination wander a bit), would only chose to build their nests on God’s property! They were so daring that they made sure that their buildings were directly adjacent to God’s altar.

Just imagine the fact that birds would decide to abide near God’s dwelling—His altar—rather than in gated-communities is mind-boggling and it ought to convict some of us. Even those of us who have suddenly become enamored with digital church service whose totality of spiritual experience are tethered to virtual worship on electronic gadgets devoid of “the assembling of ourselves together” as we are enjoined in Hebrews 10:25.

The sparrow wanted a place for herself and the swallow wanted enough room for herself and her young ones. She wanted to bring them up, not only where God is, but “in the nurture and admonition of the Lord” where God’s servants and believers are present (Eph 6:4). This swallow would not brook a dead and stagnant church; she wanted a place of living sacrifice and praise where they could sing, “My soul cries out to worship! “What a duo of wise little birds! What mighty sparrow and motherly swallow we have.

However, before I get too carried away, lest we think that the psalmist’s primary concern was for birds, we need to step back a bit and read the preceding verses, Ps 84:1-2 NIV:

How lovely is your dwelling place, Lord Almighty! My soul yearns, even faints, for the courts of the Lord; my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.

Here, the sons of Korah were so grateful to God that He commanded Moses to make sure that they were not extinct from the Levitical family, nor banished from the worship team, the sanctuary, and from God’s presence (Num 4:18; cf. 26:11). One major accusation that David leveled against king Saul, his assailant, was the latter’s causing him to wander away from the sanctuary—God’s presence.

The above figurative use of the sparrow and the swallow is the key to understanding the legacy these Korahites wanted to leave behind for present and future believers: love God and love people and fellowship together to create the atmosphere for raising a godly family. Notice the preposition “Even,” it is not that these birds are despised, no, to the contrary, it is to provoke us to seek God’s presence. It is something akin to saying, “brother or sister, imagine these birds, a sparrow and a swallow that were able to establish permanent residences near God’s altar! What about you and I created in the image of the Almighty God? To whom Jesus Christ—God the Father embodied in authentic human flesh says, “you are worth more than many sparrows” (Matt 10:31).

It is like the prodigal son coming to himself and asking, “what am I doing here dying of hunger when servants in my father’s House are feasting sumptuously. So, he told himself what he would do, and he did it. He went and returned to the father’s house. Guess what? The father who had allowed him to leave was also waiting with open arms to welcome him back home. So, I challenge you, come home Our Father in the flesh, Jesus Christ is waiting with open arms to receive you. Come, O sinners come home.

I do not know about you, but I am tired of the deception and the lies in this world. The make-believes and the emptiness. The unending rivalry among humans, the callousness and wickedness of people against one another. “My soul cries out to worship God, the living God.” I am thirsty for God, if a sparrow can do it so can you and I. Come, the Lord is waiting for you, even if you see yourself as a sparrow—insignificant, unloved, unwelcome, downtrodden, a prostitute, a liar, thief, name it yet “There is room at the cross for you.” But, first, you must come to Him that “bid you come” because “Blessed are those who dwell in your house; they are ever praising you” (v. 4). What is more is that “a day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere. And a lowly job that keeps us in God’s house is better than a “dream” job that draws us into the camp of wicked people for whom sin is not repulsive (v. 10 ESV).

Do you look and feel “sparrowed” and “swallowed” (I coined these verbs), then you are the right candidate to build a nest near God’s altar, and in whom God can erect His palatial mansion in your hearts though His Holy Spirit?