O deliver
not the soul of thy turtledove unto the multitude of the wicked:
forget not
the congregation of thy poor forever.
20 Have
respect unto the covenant:
for the dark
places of the earth are full of the habitations of cruelty (Ps.
74:19-20).
According to Levitical law, if a
person who is bringing an offering cannot afford the offering of the lamb or
goat, they are to bring a turtledove (Lev. 5:7; 5:11; 14:22; 14:30). The
turtledove is the offering of the poor. Asaph (the author of this Psalm) gives
us a clue as to how to understand the sacrificial system. When Asaph prays for
the poor, (or rather, when Asaph leads the congregation in a prayer for the
poor) he prays for the turtledove. "O deliver not the soul of thy turtledove unto the
multitude of the wicked: forget not the congregation of thy poor forever" (Psalms 74:19).
The poor became the animal that they
sacrificed. When they sinned, they brought their sacrifices. God accepted their
sacrifices, because he was accepting them. When they wanted to be near God but
could not because of the curse of death, they brought their turtledove. Their
turtledove symbolized them. It was killed, then put on the altar, and brought
near to God.
The people could not go into God’s
presence without dying, but the sacrifice, symbolizing them, went on their
behalf. The sacrifice was an act of love to God, not because they gave
something up for God, but because in it their sacrifice went where they desired
to go but could not - into the direct presence of God. Their sacrifice was an
act of worship showing a desire to cross the boundary that was created by sin
and to bridge the distance between the worshipper and God.
This is the opposite of the
sacrifices of paganism. The sacrifices of the heathen were given so that the
gods would keep their distance and eave the human world alone. Unless it was a
plea for a defense against some other god, the ancient world wanted divinity to
keep to their own sphere.
But not the book of Leviticus. The
book of Leviticus is the book where the congregation of the creator God
stretches and reaches to be near the God they love. It was not just the act of
the worshiping congregation. We love God because He first loved us. The
sacrificial system is given to us by the God who loves us. He is teaching his
people, even though they are still marred and held by the curse and stench of
the tomb, how to draw near to Him because he loves us. When we are as unlovely
as can be, wrapped and warped by death itself, God tells us how to get as near
as we can. Near enough that he begins to spread his holiness over us, and
holiness always overcomes death.
God begins to grow faith in his
people by accepting them. He begins to grow a fear of him in his people by
forgiving them (Ps. 130:4). He begins to
transform his people by drawing them to worship him (Ps.
115). And he begins to create an expectation that he will save them by giving
them covenant promises in his presence (Ps.
74:20).
That is why Asaph turns from a
prayer for God's turtledoves to this request. "Have respect unto the covenant: for the dark places of the earth
are full of the habitations of cruelty" (Ps. 74:20). God's people have
come to expect that, because God has accepted their sacrifices, He will keep
his promises (Ps. 105:42). He will be their refuge (Ps. 9:9). He will keep his
covenant (Ps. 105:7-8). He
will keep them from being overcome by the darkness because they are the people
that are brought near (Lev. 26:44-45). Because they
have been in the light of God's presence, they know they want to be kept out of
the darkness. Because they have experienced the comfort of God's love, they
want the cruelty that slinks and slithers in the shadows to be held at bay.
But notice, it is their experience of worshiping God in his
presence that produces in them a love of the light. It is their experience of
the Grace of God in his courts that grows in them a desire to avoid the
darkness. It is because God, in his love, has accepted them that they hate
cruelty. God's presence transforms our loves, reorients our desires, and
reawakens our taste buds of beauty. Therefore, make the courts of the house of
God, the congregation of God's people gathered for worship, a priority for you
and your family.
