Asaph's Plea for the Poor

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.