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Psalm 74:19

Don’t deliver the soul of your dove to wild beasts. Don’t forget the life of your poor forever.

17You have set all the boundaries of the earth. You have made summer and winter.
18Remember this, that the enemy has mocked you, LORD. Foolish people have blasphemed your name.
19Don’t deliver the soul of your dove to wild beasts. Don’t forget the life of your poor forever.
20Honor your covenant, for haunts of violence fill the dark places of the earth.
21Don’t let the oppressed return ashamed. Let the poor and needy praise your name.
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← Psalm 74:18Psalm 74:20 →
Notice

A dove among wild beasts makes the danger stark, while the plea against being forgotten names the fear that suffering could continue without an end.

Questions to write on. Each one opens a new entry with this verse already attached.

What do you notice about calling the threatened dove “your dove” when speaking to God?

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Whose life comes to mind as you read the plea for God’s poor?

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What would you want to say to God after the words “Don’t forget”?

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Connect

Where else Scripture says this

11 passages readers most often link with this verse, and the thread each one shares with it.

This verse's connections, by chapterThe Bible's strongest chapter linksHover or tap a book to trace it
Song of Songs 2:14My dove in the clefts of the rock, in the hiding places of the mountainside, let me see your face. Let me hear your voice; for your voice is sweet and your …Both use a dove as a tender address, though Song of Songs seeks the beloved’s presence and the psalm seeks God’s protection.
James 2:5–6Listen, my beloved brothers. Didn’t God choose those who are poor in this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the Kingdom which he promised to those who …Both speak of poor people in relation to God: the psalm pleads for their lives, and James names their promised inheritance.
Psalm 68:10Your congregation lived therein. You, God, prepared your goodness for the poor.The plea for God to remember the poor shares Psalm 68’s concern for the poor whom God provides for.
Matthew 10:16“Behold, I send you out as sheep among wolves. Therefore be wise as serpents and harmless as doves.Both picture vulnerability among predators; Matthew also uses doves to describe the harmlessness Jesus requires of those he sends.
Psalm 9:18For the needy shall not always be forgotten, nor the hope of the poor perish forever.Both join the poor with the fear of being forgotten forever; Psalm 74 pleads, while Psalm 9 declares that forgetting will end.
Psalm 68:13while you sleep among the camp fires, the wings of a dove sheathed with silver, her feathers with shining gold.Both picture a dove, though Psalm 74 describes danger and Psalm 68 describes wings and feathers gleaming with silver and gold.
Song of Songs 4:1Behold, you are beautiful, my love. Behold, you are beautiful. Your eyes are like doves behind your veil. Your hair is as a flock of goats, that descend from …The shared image is a dove: Psalm 74 uses it for threatened life, while Song of Songs compares the beloved’s eyes to doves.
Psalm 72:2He will judge your people with righteousness, and your poor with justice.Both call the poor God’s own, with Psalm 74 seeking their preservation and Psalm 72 seeking justice for them.
Isaiah 60:8“Who are these who fly as a cloud, and as the doves to their windows?Both use dove imagery, though Isaiah pictures flight toward windows and Psalm 74 pictures a dove exposed to wild beasts.
Zephaniah 3:12But I will leave among you an afflicted and poor people, and they will take refuge in the LORD’s name.Both describe poor people looking to God for safety, through a plea for protection in the psalm and refuge in Zephaniah.
Song of Songs 6:9My dove, my perfect one, is unique. She is her mother’s only daughter. She is the favorite one of her who bore her. The daughters saw her, and called her …Both describe someone as a dove belonging to another, though the psalm emphasizes peril and Song of Songs emphasizes the beloved’s uniqueness.
Where this verse fits

Injustice and anger. fear for the future. feeling distant from God.

What the Bible says about anger →What the Bible says about fear →What the Bible says about doubt →
One step

Something small to carry out of this verse

Pray Psalm 74:19 aloud for one threatened person tonight

prayeroncelight
Encouragement

The plea remains unresolved here. Yet the threatened dove is addressed to God as “your dove”: danger has not erased the bond on which this prayer depends.

Now put it in your words.

Start an entry on Psalm 74:19. Write what it stirs. Psalmlog sets your words beside Scripture and gives you one next step. Your first entry is free, no account needed.

Keep goingPsalm 74 · the whole chapter with its connection mapPsalms · every chapterBuild a reading plan through Psalms

Cross-reference data from OpenBible.info (CC BY). Scripture from the World English Bible (public domain). Arc diagram after Chris Harrison and Christoph Römhild (2007).