I love Psalm 84. Here’s the opening:

How lovely is Your tabernacle, O LORD of hosts! My soul longs, yes, even faints For the courts of the LORD; My heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.

Even the sparrow has found a home, And the swallow a nest for herself, Where she may lay her young— Even Your altars, O LORD of hosts, My King and my God. Blessed are those who dwell in Your house; They will still be praising You. Selah (Psalm 84.1 – 4, NKJV)

The psalmist must have observed a sparrow’s nest and a swallow’s nest in the temple area. I looked it up hoping to find a photo, but there are reams of paper written on this subject, most very technical and negative: “How could there be birds in the temple? They would make it unclean.”

Nothing like a theologian to throw a wet blanket on a beautiful text. Besides, to say there couldn’t be birds in the vast area of the Temple Court is to deny what the text says.

I finally found something that confirmed what I was thinking/feeling:

The image is from verse 3, the image of sparrows and swallows making nests in the temple courts. 

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

And then an unexpected image. Birds nesting in the temple. Where did this image come from?

The origin seems obvious enough. As the poet’s eyes take in the temple courts, heart searching for the next lines, the poet 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 poet watches the birds meditatively. And then the flash of recognition–Look, even the birds long to live here! – Dr. Richard Beck

The psalm goes on:

Blessed is the man whose strength is in You, Whose heart is set on pilgrimage. As they pass through the Valley of Baca, They make it a spring; The rain also covers it with pools. They go from strength to strength; Each one appears before God in Zion. (Psalm 84.5 – 7, NKJV)

And it concludes with…

For a day in Your courts is better than a thousand. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God Than dwell in the tents of wickedness. For the LORD God is a sun and shield; The LORD will give grace and glory; No good thing will He withhold From those who walk uprightly. O LORD of hosts, Blessed is the man who trusts in You! (Psalm 84.10 – 12, NKJV)

I like it: “No good thing will He withhold from those who walk uprightly.”

Amen.

PS If you’re following the reading plan of going through the Poetry section of the Old Testament, you may have discovered (or will shortly discover) an error. I had divided Psalm 88 into two parts. Oops. It’s Psalm 89 that needed to be divided into two parts. This is the corrected version.