Psalm 84:3
Even the sparrow has found a home, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she places her young near Your altars, O LORD of Hosts, my King and my God.
Even the sparrow
The mention of the sparrow in Psalm 84:3 is significant. In Hebrew, the word for sparrow is "tsippor," which is a generic term for small birds. Sparrows are often seen as insignificant creatures, yet they are known for their resilience and adaptability. In the context of the ancient Near East, sparrows were common and could be found in both rural and urban settings. Their presence in the temple courts symbolizes God's care for all His creation, even the smallest and seemingly insignificant. This reflects the biblical theme that God values all life and provides for all His creatures, as seen in Matthew 10:29-31, where Jesus speaks of God's care for sparrows.

has found a home
The Hebrew word for "home" is "bayit," which denotes a dwelling place or house. In the ancient world, a home was not just a physical structure but a place of safety, belonging, and rest. The sparrow finding a home in the temple courts suggests a place of refuge and peace. This imagery conveys the idea that God's presence offers a sanctuary for all who seek Him. It emphasizes the inclusivity of God's love and the welcoming nature of His dwelling place, where even the smallest creatures can find rest and security.

and the swallow a nest for herself
The swallow, or "deror" in Hebrew, is another small bird known for its swift flight and migratory patterns. The swallow's ability to find a nest in the temple signifies a place of stability amidst constant movement. Historically, swallows were seen as symbols of freedom and hope. The mention of a nest indicates a place of nurturing and growth, where life can be sustained and flourish. This reflects the nurturing aspect of God's presence, where believers can find spiritual nourishment and growth.

where she places her young
The phrase "where she places her young" highlights the protective and nurturing environment of the temple. In the ancient context, the temple was not only a place of worship but also a community center where people gathered for various activities. The imagery of a bird placing her young in the temple courts suggests a safe haven where future generations can be raised in the knowledge and fear of the Lord. It underscores the importance of the temple as a place of spiritual heritage and continuity.

near Your altars
The altars in the temple were central to the worship practices of ancient Israel. They were places of sacrifice, symbolizing atonement and communion with God. The Hebrew word for altar is "mizbeach," which comes from a root meaning "to sacrifice." The proximity of the birds to the altars signifies closeness to God's presence and the sacrificial system that facilitated reconciliation with Him. This highlights the accessibility of God's grace and the invitation for all creation to draw near to Him.

O LORD of Hosts
The title "LORD of Hosts" is "Yahweh Sabaoth" in Hebrew, emphasizing God's sovereignty and command over the heavenly armies. This title reflects God's power and authority over all creation, including the spiritual realm. It reassures believers of God's ability to protect and provide for them, as He commands the hosts of heaven. In the context of the psalm, it underscores the majesty and might of the One who dwells in the temple, offering assurance to those who seek refuge in Him.

my King and my God
The psalmist's declaration of "my King and my God" is a personal affirmation of faith and allegiance. The use of "my" indicates a personal relationship with God, acknowledging His rule and divine authority in the psalmist's life. In the ancient Near Eastern context, a king was a figure of ultimate authority and protection. By calling God "my King," the psalmist expresses trust in God's sovereign rule. The phrase "my God" further emphasizes the personal and covenantal relationship between the believer and the divine, highlighting the intimacy and devotion inherent in true worship.

Persons / Places / Events
1. Sparrow and Swallow
These birds are often seen as symbols of insignificance and vulnerability. Their mention highlights God's care for all His creation, even the smallest and seemingly insignificant creatures.

2. Altars
In the context of the temple, the altars were places of sacrifice and worship. They symbolize the presence of God and the place where people come to meet with Him.

3. LORD of Hosts
This title emphasizes God's sovereignty and His command over the heavenly armies, underscoring His power and majesty.

4. My King and My God
This personal declaration of faith shows the psalmist's intimate relationship with God, recognizing Him as both sovereign ruler and personal deity.
Teaching Points
God's Care for the Smallest
Just as God provides a home for the sparrow and swallow, He cares for every detail of our lives. We can trust Him with our needs and concerns.

Desire for God's Presence
The psalmist's longing to be near God's altars reflects a deep desire for communion with God. We should cultivate a similar yearning for His presence in our daily lives.

Personal Relationship with God
The psalmist's use of "my King and my God" highlights the importance of a personal relationship with God. We are invited to know Him intimately and personally.

Worship as a Place of Refuge
The imagery of birds finding a nest near the altars suggests that worship is a place of safety and refuge. We can find peace and security in God's presence.
Bible Study Questions
1. How does the imagery of the sparrow and swallow finding a home near God's altars challenge or encourage your view of God's care for you?

2. In what ways can you cultivate a deeper desire for God's presence in your daily life, similar to the psalmist's longing?

3. Reflect on a time when you experienced God's care in a seemingly insignificant area of your life. How did that impact your faith?

4. How can the concept of God as "my King and my God" influence your personal relationship with Him?

5. What practical steps can you take to make worship a place of refuge and security in your life, as suggested by the imagery in this verse?
Connections to Other Scriptures
Matthew 10:29-31
Jesus speaks of the sparrows, emphasizing God's care for them and, by extension, His greater care for us.

1 Kings 8:27-30
Solomon's prayer at the dedication of the temple highlights the significance of God's presence in the temple, similar to the psalmist's longing for God's dwelling place.

Hebrews 4:16
Encourages believers to approach God's throne of grace with confidence, akin to the psalmist's desire to be near God's altars.
Envy At the BirdsR. Tuck Psalm 84:3
More Value than Many SparrowsA. Maclaren, D. D.Psalm 84:3
Sanctuary BirdsS. Conway Psalm 84:3
Sparrows and AltarsAlexander MaclarenPsalm 84:3
Sparrows and SwallowsPsalm 84:3
Thy Swallow's NestH. Macmillan, D. D.Psalm 84:3
The Glory of WorshipC. Short Psalm 84:1-7
A Good Man in Relation to the Scenes of Public WorshipHomilistPsalm 84:1-12
A Psalm of ExileE. Johnson, M. A.Psalm 84:1-12
Delight in God's HouseG. F. Pentecost, D. D.Psalm 84:1-12
Delight in God's HouseMonday Club SermonsPsalm 84:1-12
Mingled MusicT. Spurgeon.Psalm 84:1-12
The Beauty of the House of GodA. G. Brown.Psalm 84:1-12
The Believer's Love for the SanctuaryS. Bridge, M. A.Psalm 84:1-12
The Soul's Sweet HomeS. Conway Psalm 84:1-12
People
Jacob, Korah, Psalmist
Places
Jerusalem
Topics
Almighty, Altar, Altars, Armies, Bird, Birds, Brood, Finds, Herself, Home, Hosts, Lay, Layeth, Nest, O, Placed, Places, Sparrow, Swallow, Themselves, Yea, Yes
Dictionary of Bible Themes
Psalm 84:3

     4612   birds
     4675   nest
     5339   home
     8136   knowing God, effects

Psalm 84:1-4

     5340   house

Library
All Sufficiency
"The LORD GOD is a Sun and Shield: the LORD will give grace and glory: "No good thing will He withhold from them that walk uprightly." --PSALM LXXXIV. 11. How pleasant to the heart of a true child to hear his father well spoken of, and to rejoice that he is the child of such a father. We feel that we can never thank GOD sufficiently for our privileged lot, who have been blessed with true and loving Christian parents. But if this be the case with regard to the dim and at best imperfect earthly reflections,
J. Hudson Taylor—A Ribband of Blue

March 16. "The Lord Will Give Grace and Glory" (Ps. Lxxxiv. 11).
"The Lord will give grace and glory" (Ps. lxxxiv. 11). The Lord will give grace and glory. This word glory is very difficult to translate, define and explain; but there is something in the spiritual consciousness of the quickened Christian that interprets it. It is the overflow of grace; it is the wine of life; it is the foretaste of heaven; it is a flash from the Throne and an inspiration from the heart of God which we may have and in which we may live. "The glory which Thou hast given Me I have
Rev. A. B. Simpson—Days of Heaven Upon Earth

Blessed Trust
'O Lord of Hosts, blessed is the man that trusteth in Thee.' --PSALM lxxxiv. 12. In my last sermon from the central portion of this psalm I pointed out that the Psalmist thrice celebrates the blessedness of certain types of character, and that these threefold benedictions constitute, as it were, the keynotes of the portions of the psalm in which they respectively occur. They are these: 'Blessed are they that dwell in Thy house'; 'Blessed is the man in whose heart are the ways'; and this final one,
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

Sparrows and Altars
'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.'--PSALM lxxxiv. 3. The well-known saying of the saintly Rutherford, when he was silenced and exiled from his parish, echoes and expounds these words. 'When I think,' said he, 'upon the sparrows and swallows that build their nests in the kirk of Anwoth, and of my dumb Sabbaths, my sorrowful, bleared eyes look asquint upon Christ, and present
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

Happy Pilgrims
'Blessed is the man whose strength is in Thee; in whose heart are the highways to Zion. 6. Passing through the valley of Weeping they make it a place of springs; yea, the early rain covereth it with blessings. 7. They go from strength to strength, every one of them appeareth before God in Zion.'--PSALM lxxxiv. 5-7. Rightly rendered, the first words of these verses are not a calm, prosaic statement, but an emotional exclamation. The Psalmist's tone would be more truly represented if we read, 'How
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

11TH DAY. After Grace, Glory.
"He is Faithful that Promised." "The Lord will give grace and glory."--PSALM lxxxiv. 11. After Grace, Glory. Oh! happy day, when this toilsome warfare will all be ended, Jordan crossed, Canaan entered, the legion-enemies of the wilderness no longer dreaded; sorrow, sighing, death, and, worst of all, sin, no more either to be felt or feared! Here is the terminating link in the golden chain of the everlasting covenant. It began with predestination; it ends with glorification. It began with sovereign
John Ross Macduff—The Faithful Promiser

At Last!
Gerhard Ter Steegen Ps. lxxxiv. 4 Draw me to Thee, till far within Thy rest, In stillness of Thy peace, Thy voice I hear-- For ever quieted upon Thy breast, So loved, so near. By mystery of Thy touch my spirit thrilled, O Magnet all Divine; The hunger of my soul for ever stilled, For Thou art mine. For me, O Lord, the world is all too small, For I have seen Thy face, Where Thine eternal love irradiates all Within Thy secret place. And therefore from all others, from all else, Draw Thou my soul to
Frances Bevan—Hymns of Ter Steegen, Suso, and Others

The Church Militant 467. Pleasant are Thy Courts Above
[1792]Maidstone: Walter Bond Gilbert, 1862 Psalm 84 Henry F. Lyte, 1834 Pleasant are thy courts above, In the land of light and love; Pleasant are thy courts below, In this land of sin and woe. O my spirit longs and faints For the converse of thy saints, For the brightness of thy face, For thy fullness, God of grace! Happy birds that sing and fly Round thy altars, O Most High! Happier souls that find a rest In a heavenly Father's breast! Like the wandering dove, that found No repose on earth around,
Various—The Hymnal of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the USA

Reverence in Worship.
"Samuel ministered before the Lord, being a child, girded with a linen ephod."--1 Samuel ii. 18. Samuel, viewed in his place in sacred history, that is, in the course of events which connect Moses with Christ, appears as a great ruler and teacher of his people; this is his prominent character. He was the first of the prophets; yet, when we read the sacred narrative itself, in which his life is set before us, I suppose those passages are the more striking and impressive which represent him, in
John Henry Newman—Parochial and Plain Sermons, Vol. VIII

The Minstrel
ELISHA needed that the Holy Spirit should come upon him to inspire him with prophetic utterances. "Holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." We need that the hand of the Lord should be laid upon us, for we can never open our mouths in wisdom except we are under the divine touch. Now, the Spirit of God works according to his own will. "The wind bloweth where it listeth," and the Spirit of God operates as he chooseth. Elisha could not prophesy just when he liked; he must wait until
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 27: 1881

The Old Man and the New.
"That we being dead unto sin should live unto righteousness."--1 Peter iv. 24. The Psalmist sings: "They go from strength to strength, every one of them in Zion appeareth before God." (Psalm lxxxiv. 7) We must maintain this glorious testimony, altho our own experience often seems to contradict it. Not experience, but the Scripture, teaches us divine truth; nor is it as tho the procedure of the divine operation in our own heart could differ from the testimony of the Sacred Scripture, but that our
Abraham Kuyper—The Work of the Holy Spirit

It Remains Then that we Understand as Concerning those Women...
33. It remains then that we understand as concerning those women, whether in Egypt or in Jericho, that for their humanity and mercy they received a reward, in any wise temporal, which indeed itself, while they wist not of it, should by prophetical signification prefigure somewhat eternal. But whether it be ever right, even for the saving of a man's life, to tell a lie, as it is a question in resolving which even the most learned do weary themselves, it did vastly surpass the capacity of those poor
St. Augustine—Against Lying

A Book for Boys and Girls Or, Temporal Things Spritualized.
by John Bunyan, Licensed and entered according to order. London: Printed for, and sold by, R. Tookey, at his Printing House in St. Christopher's Court, in Threadneedle Street, behind the Royal Exchange, 1701. Advertisement by the Editor. Some degree of mystery hangs over these Divine Emblems for children, and many years' diligent researches have not enabled me completely to solve it. That they were written by Bunyan, there cannot be the slightest doubt. 'Manner and matter, too, are all his own.'[1]
John Bunyan—The Works of John Bunyan Volumes 1-3

Various Experiences in Gospel Work
Soon after I discerned the one body, my brother and I visited St. James, Mo. We had labored there but a short time when Brother Warner and his company came to the town to hold a camp-meeting. When I was first introduced to Brother Warner, he made the remark, "And so you are the sister that wanted to stay in Babylon in order to get wolves to take care of Iambs?" and then broke into a hearty laugh. He referred to my remark that I was going to continue to work with the sects, so that whenever a congregation
Mary Cole—Trials and Triumphs of Faith

The Tests of Love to God
LET us test ourselves impartially whether we are in the number of those that love God. For the deciding of this, as our love will be best seen by the fruits of it, I shall lay down fourteen signs, or fruits, of love to God, and it concerns us to search carefully whether any of these fruits grow in our garden. 1. The first fruit of love is the musing of the mind upon God. He who is in love, his thoughts are ever upon the object. He who loves God is ravished and transported with the contemplation of
Thomas Watson—A Divine Cordial

Letter Xlvi (Circa A. D. 1125) to Guigues, the Prior, and to the Other Monks of the Grand Chartreuse
To Guigues, the Prior, And to the Other Monks of the Grand Chartreuse He discourses much and piously of the law of true and sincere charity, of its signs, its degrees, its effects, and of its perfection which is reserved for Heaven (Patria). Brother Bernard, of Clairvaux, wishes health eternal to the most reverend among fathers, and to the dearest among friends, Guigues, Prior of the Grande Chartreuse, and to the holy Monks who are with him. 1. I have received the letter of your Holiness as joyfully
Saint Bernard of Clairvaux—Some Letters of Saint Bernard, Abbot of Clairvaux

In Judaea
If Galilee could boast of the beauty of its scenery and the fruitfulness of its soil; of being the mart of a busy life, and the highway of intercourse with the great world outside Palestine, Judaea would neither covet nor envy such advantages. Hers was quite another and a peculiar claim. Galilee might be the outer court, but Judaea was like the inner sanctuary of Israel. True, its landscapes were comparatively barren, its hills bare and rocky, its wilderness lonely; but around those grey limestone
Alfred Edersheim—Sketches of Jewish Social Life

Growth in Grace
'But grow in grace.' 2 Pet 3:38. True grace is progressive, of a spreading and growing nature. It is with grace as with light; first, there is the crepusculum, or daybreak; then it shines brighter to the full meridian. A good Christian is like the crocodile. Quamdiu vivet crescit; he has never done growing. The saints are not only compared to stars for their light, but to trees for their growth. Isa 61:1, and Hos 14:4. A good Christian is not like Hezekiah's sun that went backwards, nor Joshua's
Thomas Watson—A Body of Divinity

First Attempts on Jerusalem.
Jesus, almost every year, went to Jerusalem for the feast of the passover. The details of these journeys are little known, for the synoptics do not speak of them,[1] and the notes of the fourth Gospel are very confused on this point.[2] It was, it appears, in the year 31, and certainly after the death of John, that the most important of the visits of Jesus to Jerusalem took place. Many of the disciples followed him. Although Jesus attached from that time little value to the pilgrimage, he conformed
Ernest Renan—The Life of Jesus

The Universal Chorus
And every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying, Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, be unto Him that stteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever. M en have generally agreed to dignify their presumptuous and arrogant ^* disquisitions on the works and ways of God, with the name of wisdom ; though the principles upon which they proceed, and the conclusions which they draw from
John Newton—Messiah Vol. 2

Under the Shepherd's Care.
A NEW YEAR'S ADDRESS. "For ye were as sheep going astray; but are now returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls."--1 Peter ii. 25. "Ye were as sheep going astray." This is evidently addressed to believers. We were like sheep, blindly, willfully following an unwise leader. Not only were we following ourselves, but we in our turn have led others astray. This is true of all of us: "All we like sheep have gone astray;" all equally foolish, "we have turned every one to his own way." Our first
J. Hudson Taylor—A Ribband of Blue

I Fear, I Say, Greatly for Thee, Lest...
39. I fear, I say, greatly for thee, lest, when thou boastest that thou wilt follow the Lamb wheresoever He shall have gone, thou be unable by reason of swelling pride to follow Him through strait ways. It is good for thee, O virgin soul, that thus, as thou art a virgin, thus altogether keeping in thy heart that thou hast been born again, keeping in thy flesh that thou hast been born, thou yet conceive of the fear of the Lord, and give birth to the spirit of salvation. [2142] "Fear," indeed, "there
St. Augustine—Of Holy Virginity.

The History of the Psalter
[Sidenote: Nature of the Psalter] Corresponding to the book of Proverbs, itself a select library containing Israel's best gnomic literature, is the Psalter, the compendium of the nation's lyrical songs and hymns and prayers. It is the record of the soul experiences of the race. Its language is that of the heart, and its thoughts of common interest to worshipful humanity. It reflects almost every phase of religious feeling: penitence, doubt, remorse, confession, fear, faith, hope, adoration, and
Charles Foster Kent—The Origin & Permanent Value of the Old Testament

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