Psalm 84:3

Psalm 84:3

All about sparrows

Any visitor to Jerusalem will know that the city is a haven for sparrows. Houses and other buildings in Middle Eastern cities are not built to keep out the cold with double-glazing and UPVC everywhere. There are literally millions of little holes and crevasses and places where birds can hide and build their nests. As a result, the air is filled with the sound of the sparrows at all times, and in the summer months, swallows, swifts and martins swoop across the rooftops. (Along with many other birds that I would love to mention but that would be totally irrelevant). Evidently nothing has changed for centuries, because these sights and sounds greeted visitors to the Temple back in the day when Psalm 84 was composed. And the author is envious. These winged avian residents and visitors can enter where he cannot! They nest and congregate around the Temple Courts, high up and out of the reach of man’s interference and so they occupy a place closer to God than any man is able to go, especially men who are barred by the restrictions brought about by an enemy take-over of the land. It's hard to imagine just how it felt for the priests and Levites to be so cut off knowing that “back home” small birds were keeping up their daily rituals close to the altar of the “Lord Almighty, my King and my God.”

When I hear the song of a blackbird or a skylark in spring, the contented “coo” of a dove in summer, the hymns of the robin in winter, they remind me that creation is singing a never-ending chorus of praise to our God. He is near to them. Who else can they be singing to?

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