Near the Altar

According to Spurgeon, this Psalm is the sweetest Psalm of peace. And it is true. The Psalm breathes out the peace and rest found in the Lord's house.

I always found it weird to read verse 3 about the swallows and sparrows. It seemed that the writer got distracted during the writing of the Psalm with birds flying by. But the Lord wants to show us something different through this picture. For this, we need to look a little bit into the behavior of the birds. The sparrow builds a nest in a hole or crevice in a building. They use this nest all year round for the rest of their lives. Swallows build their nest under ledges where they are protected from sunshine, rain, and wind.

After reading the above, this verse is an invitation for you and me to use the house of the Lord in the same way. The Lord's invitation is for us to daily find shelter and rest in the home of the Lord. Isn't it amazing to read that the swallow raises her young near the altar of the Lord? The altar is where sacrifices were made, where people laid down their lives for the Lord. They dedicated everything they had to Him. In this way, the Lord invites us to build our home near the altar. For us, the altar is the cross, building our home and raising our children in the shelter of the cross where we find forgiveness, freedom, restoration, and identity.

Prayer:

Near to the altar, I want to live Father. Near to the cross, where I am sheltered in your presence.