“Yea, the sparrow hath found a 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 84:3
F 
OR several years now I have watched a bird, a swallow, build a nest in the vine that clings to the church-house wall. Every year, in the same place, that bird builds her nest on that wall. And every time I see her I think of this scripture: “the sparrow hath found a house …” The saints are like that bird.
By God’s grace, we have “found a house.” We have found a place “which God hath chosen to cause His Name to dwell there” (Deut.12:11). By God’s grace, we have found the house of God, the church of God, the assembly of the saints, the temple of God, where Christ and His people dwell together; where we behold the beauty of the Lord and inquire in His temple. In our Lord’s sovereign providence and mercy we have found “a nest for ourselves.” The church of the living God, where Christ is worshipped, preached, and dwells in the midst of His people, is a nest: a place of comfort and safety, a haven of rest for the weary and heavy laden sinner.
After that bird labors to build that nest, she herself rests in that nest. Are we not ‘laborers together,’ ‘building up one another on this most holy faith’ (which is Christ!)? And do not we, ourselves, rest in that very faith, that very One, Whom we want our young to rest in? Yes, we have found a good place to rest, where Christ, our Altar, our Refuge, our Bread and Water of life is found. And this is a good place to lay our young. –Paul Mahan