{Disclaimer: these are my rough teaching notes I use in my Mishkan Katan weekly broadcasts. There will be "typos". Proceed at your own risk, lol.You can find all my Mishkan Katan video teachings on my YouTube channel: genahood2818 . Look on the playlist called Messianic LAMB TV Network.}
Boker Tov! Welcome back to Mishkan Katan. This is the 35th installment or lesson in our comprehensive Psalms study. We have completed the first two of the five books of the Psalms, and are about to embark upon the third, with Psalm 73. There is a total of 150 psalms, which indicates we are nearly halfway through the book, if you are measuring just by the number of psalms. However, not all the psalms are equal. Some are much longer than others. I predict it will take us at least six months to finish this study, and I hope you are finding it to be a blessing in your faith walk.
As you know, if you have been studying along, the first two books of the psalms were primarily concerned with events of David’s life and also events in the lives of other individuals. The remaining books are more general in scope, with universal themes of God’s character and goodness.
In Psalm 73, the author is once again, Asaph. You might remember that he also wrote Psalm 50. In total, he is credited with writing 12 psalms, the others being Psalm 73 through 83. So, we will be spending some time in the mind of Asaph over the next month or so. There is no direct quotation from 73 in the New Testament.
One of the key themes of this psalm is this: “Why do good people suffer while the more evil people flourish?” Another theme is the goodness of God to His chosen people under all circumstances and how we should not doubt that.
Asaph leads with this, in the very first verse. Let’s read it.
1) How good God is to Isra’el,
to those who are pure in heart!
What does it mean to be “pure in heart”, though? Elsewhere, the Scriptures teach us that “the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked.” (Jeremiah 17:9) So, which is it? Was Jeremiah just in a bad mood, just mistaken? Let’s see what the whole of Scriptures say, because this is an important precept for those of us who belong to and follow Yeshua HaMashiach.
First, let’s look at the Hebrew here for the phrase translated, “pure in heart”.
מִזְמֹ֗ור לְאָ֫סָ֥ף אַ֤ךְ טֹ֭וב לְיִשְׂרָאֵ֥ל אֱלֹהִ֗ים לְבָרֵ֥י לֵבָֽב׃
The Hebrew word for the phrase “to/for the pure of” is “l’vahRAY”. In this form, it only occurs here in this verse. However, the related word “barah” occurs three other times.
In Song of Songs 6:9, 10 where it refers to a beloved young woman, and in Psalm 19:8, where it refers to the statutes of Yahweh. It is translated variously as clean, clear or pure, with pure being the most often seen translation.
The Hebrew word for “heart” used here is the “two vav” heart, indicating the double-mindedness of mankind. When “heart” is written in Hebrew to refer to God’s heart, the word “layv” containing only one vav is used, indicating God’s singleness of heart and His sinlessness. Interesting, yes?
Let’s back up a bit. We know from Genesis 1 and 2 that man was created in the image of God. Man was created a sinless being, albeit with the ability to choose to sin, as evidenced by Eve and then Adam’s choices at the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. So, the first man and woman were created by the hand of God with a totally pure, that is sinless, heart. After they chose sin, however, this formerly pure heart became defiled with sin, and every human born after them, because we sprang from their descendants are “born in sin”, again, according to the Scriptures. One such verse, this one a testimony of King David, “Behold I was shaped in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me”. Psalm 51:5
So, plainly, having a pure heart does not mean having a totally sinless heart, as that is humanly impossible now … apart from Divine intervention.
In the Old Testament, men and women who sought God earnestly, who drew near to Him and longed for relationship with Him and to walk in His ways - - these were the pure in heart. The term did not apply to someone who simply “went through the motions” of keeping a bunch of rules. The heart attitude was paramount. Purity of heart was something granted to a person by God Himself, not something that could be achieved by monotonous, obligatory rule-keeping. Just because someone kept the commandments did not mean they were pure in heart, because you can do that without your heart being involved toward Hashem at all. However, if someone walks in God’s ways, that is often evidence of the heart relationship with Hashem.
The New Testament was filled with Jewish religious leaders who claimed to be pure in heart, but actually were not. Yeshua called them white-washed tombs in Matthew 23:27. Oh, they kept the Torah, and then added burdensome rules onto it, and they did so for the praise of other people. They appeared beautiful on the outside, but in their hearts they were dead.
It is only the truly pure in heart who will one day see the face of God, according to Yeshua in the Sermon on the Mount. Through His words and ministry, He revealed that the only path to purity of heart was through Him and His intercessory work. Again, purity of heart is a supernatural work of God, not achieved by human effort. It is the gift of God, not of human works, so that no human can boast about having achieved it. A paraphrase of Ephesians 2:8-9.
Still, the fruit, the evidence, of a pure heart is a person who walks as Yeshua walked, loving God (the first commandment) and then loving one’s neighbor as oneself (the second commandment given by Yeshua, which sums up all the other 9 after the first one). All 613 mitzvot can be subsumed and practiced under one of those two “umbrella commandments” Yeshua mentioned.
The Greek word for “pure” in Matthew 5:8 is katharos. It means to be “clean, blameless, unstained from guilt.” This is the word from which we get the English word “cathartic”, which connotes a purification by pushing out, a cleaning through the act of getting rid of something. Interestingly, the word can refer specifically to that which is purified by fire or by pruning. John the Baptist told people that Jesus would baptize with the Holy Spirit and fire (Matthew 3:11). Malachi speaks of the Messiah as being like a “refiner’s fire” (Malachi 3:2). Jesus refers to believers as being the branches and to Himself as being the vine (John 15:1-17). For a vine to produce fruit, it must be pruned. The dead wood must be gotten rid of. Those who are truly “pure,” then, are those who have been declared innocent because of the work of Jesus and who are being sanctified by His refining fire and His pruning.
The Greek word for “heart” in Matthew 5:8 is kardeeah. This can be applied to the physical heart. But it also refers to the spiritual center of life. It is where thoughts, desires, sense of purpose, will, understanding, and character reside. So, to be pure in heart means to be blameless in who we actually ARE.
Verses two and three now.
2 But as for me, I lost my balance,
my feet nearly slipped,
3 when I grew envious of the arrogant
and saw how the wicked prosper.
Asaph is confessing here that envy nearly tripped him up. Envy of what? The earthly success of the arrogant wicked. Earlier this week, I was standing outside in unsteady ground, while helping my husband to stand up. In doing so, I lost my balance and if it had not been for the steadying hand of a friend, I would have fallen. Did I plan to do that? Of course not! No one plans to trip or to slip or to fall, either physically… or spiritually.
Have you had an experience like Asaph, where a spiritual pitfall caught you off guard, and before you knew it you nearly fell? I don’t know about your personal experience with the Ten Commandments, but here’s a sliver of mine.
When I was a young girl, I remember being taught “the 10”, as I’m fond of calling them. And, I distinctly remember thinking, “I’d never do that one, or that one, or that one…..” “Well, I know I’ve done that one (many times)…”
Did you ever think about them in that way?
In my case, the sin of pride was well-established at a very young age. As verse 6 of Psalm 73 puts it, I wore pride like a beautiful necklace. We believe we know ourselves very well, don’t we? Yet, as already mentioned, The Scriptures tell us, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked.” And, we think - - “oh, that’s someone else’s heart”, especially when some sin or other is considered. We think, “oh, we’re ‘above’ that one.”
And, while the Ruach HaKodesh of the living Savior, Yeshua HaMashiach, indwells those who call him Lord, our desperately wicked hearts are not fully squelched, never totally contained, never completely ruled. In an unguarded moment of life, our pride, including a lack of watchfulness, can bring us to our knees.
This is what happened to Asaph. He did not expect to be affected by the sin of envy. Yet, he was very nearly toppled by it. Nearly upended. Nearly knocked on his tookus.
Our adversary is a roaring lion, we are told in 1 Peter 5:8. I saw a funny meme the other day, as the storm was approaching. Here it is. Cute, huh? Who would be dumb enough to invite a wildcat or mountain lion into one’s home? Yet, we do that with our spiritual lives!! Similarly, the roaring lion, who is roaming through the earth seeking whom he may devour may look like a playful kitten. But, he most assuredly is not! Peter knew this firsthand, as he was taken unawares by spiritual pitfalls a time or two himself. We must be sober, vigilant and walking steadfast in our faith to avoid such perils.
Asaph goes on, in verses 5-9, to describe these people, of whom he was envious.
4 For when their death comes, it is painless;
and meanwhile, their bodies are healthy;
5 they don’t have ordinary people’s troubles,
they aren’t plagued like others.
6 So for them, pride is a necklace;
and violence clothes them like a robe.
7 Their eyes peep out through folds of fat;
evil thoughts overflow from their hearts.
8 They scoff and speak with malice,
they loftily utter threats.
9 They set their mouths against heaven;
their tongues swagger through the earth.
A more literal translation of verse 4 is “because there are no bonds or shackles to their death” as the word “khartsooboat” means bonds or shackles. Think about it like this: the evil doers enjoy good health up until the moment of their death, and then, they easily slip into death. By contrast, the righteous seem to suffer in the dying process, as though invisible fetters seem to bind them to their suffering overly long.
Verse 7 describes these people as fat. Fat is often used in Scripture to indicate a person who are rich and live a life of ease, whereas poverty, hunger and/or disease can cause a person’s eyes to sink deep into their heads. Verse 7 also says that these people received every desire of their heart, anything their hearts could imagine…and beyond.
Verses 8 and 9 speak (if you’ll pardon the pun) of how the evildoers misused their tongues. They not only ate up the less fortunate with their vile words, they also railed haughtily against God in Heaven. Pharaoh was the poster child for such people when he railed in Exodus 5:2 “Who is Hashem that I should obey His voice?!” Such strutting tongues.
Verses 10-14 detail the response of God’s people to this situation, where they witness the success of the wicked and are reviled by these onerous people.
10 Therefore his people return here
and [thoughtlessly] suck up that whole cup of water.
11 Then they ask, “How does God know?
Does the Most High really have knowledge?”
12 Yes, this is what the wicked are like;
those free of misfortune keep increasing their wealth.
13 It’s all for nothing that I’ve kept my heart clean
and washed my hands, staying free of guilt;
14 for all day long I am plagued;
my punishment comes every morning.
What Asaph is saying here is that, when God’s people see the wicked prosper and have it easy, they see no point in following God or walking in His ways. Verse 10 might be paraphrased to say, “they drink the Kool-Aid” of the wicked. And, in verse 11, their rationalization for their actions is that God won’t notice. They challenge the very foundations of the faith, which is the existence and nature of God, choosing agnosticism, the belief that there is a god but that he is uninvolved in the affairs of men. What these formerly righteous do actually is to drink a full cup of bitter disappointment, draining it to the bitter dregs.
Accordingly, their despair deepens, as they proclaim that their former allegiance to Hashem was in vain, all for nothing.
15 If I had said, “I will talk like them,”
I would have betrayed a generation of your children.
16 When I tried to understand all this,
I found it too hard for me —
In verses 15 and 16, Asaph affirms that the situation is so perplexing and disturbing that even the most faithful to Hashem are not untouched by it, even Asaph himself. I believe this argument that is basically, “God is not fair. God is unjust.” has caused many to turn away from the faith they were taught. In fact, I have witnessed it myself, among those Iove. “How can God be good, yet allow this?” When these questions are pondered only in the depths of the human mind and spirit, there IS no answer in which God is guiltless.
However, the fulcrum point comes in the beginning of verse 17, with the word “until”.
17 until I went into the sanctuaries of God
and grasped what their destiny would be.
This verse says that there is a heavenly perspective which we cannot know or fully understand. This is where faith in the goodness of Hashem comes in, faith that He knows ALL, IS just and though it appears otherwise, has it all under His complete control. Perhaps the greatest test from modern history of these beliefs/truths was the Holocaust. The day I am completing this lesson and writing these words is Holocaust Remembrance Day. The rallying cry for generations has been “Never forget!” Well, many have forgotten or have misunderstood the depth of that depravity, as many are currently comparing the Holocaust to the removal of criminals here in America illegally. No comparison.
Hashem has promised that the destiny of the wicked is deceptive. While it APPEARS they are succeeding, the truth is that spiritually they are not and have not. We read this in verses 18-20.
18 Indeed, you place them on a slippery slope
and make them fall to their ruin.
19 How suddenly they are destroyed,
swept away by terrors!
20 They are like a dream when one awakens;
Adonai, when you rouse yourself,
you will despise their phantoms.
Verse 18 hearkens back to verse 2, where Asaph said that his feet nearly slipped out from under him. Here, in verse 18, he affirms that the wicked are on a “slippery slope” and that they will be made to fall into spiritual ruin. Whether they receive such in this earthly life or not, they will most assuredly receive it in the next life. They will receive judgment for their rejection of God and for their maltreatment of the people of God, among other sins. My pastor has said on more than one occasion that people’s souls do not change after their bodies die. They just become more like they were before death. For the wicked, who purposely estranged themselves from God, thrusting away from themselves anything that is OF God, their wish will be eternally fulfilled when they find themselves utterly and forever banished from God’s presence in the hereafter. Verse 27 speaks of this.
As the psalmist stated in verse 16, he re-affirms in verses 21 and 22 that he is incapable of understanding the ways of the Almighty. He has no more understanding than a beast.
21 When I had a sour attitude
and felt stung by pained emotions,
22 I was too stupid to understand;
I was like a brute beast with you.
As Asaph said, often our emotions and wrong attitudes can cloud our judgment. These can cause us to forget the truths of God. Verse 21, in other versions, speaks of a heart in a state of ferment. Fermentation causes things to rise and to swell, here likened to a heart about to swell and burst with pain. Not a healthy fermentation process. Instead this one resembled wine that had not been fermented properly and had turned to sour vinegar. We can reach a point in our wrong imaginations and judgments where nothing in life tastes sweet anymore. This is the kind of situation Asaph is describing, and it is not spiritually healthy.
Let’s finish the psalm now. Verses 23 through 28.
23 Nevertheless, I am always with you;
you hold my right hand.
24 You will guide me with your advice;
and afterwards, you will receive me with honor.
25 Whom do I have in heaven but you?
And with you, I lack nothing on earth.
26 My mind and body may fail; but God
is the rock for my mind and my portion forever.
27 Those who are far from you will perish;
you destroy all who adulterously leave you.
28 But for me, the nearness of God is my good;
I have made Adonai Elohim my refuge,
so that I can tell of all your works.
Verses 23 and 24 affirm the steadfastness of Hashem to hold on to His beloveds. We are always with Him, because He holds our right hand. He will be so until we are with Him in the Olam Haba, the World to Come. The pagans worship inanimate objects and celestial bodies; or they worship terrestrial forces like wind, fire, water. But for Asaph, and for us, we have no one in Heaven who can even begin to compare to our amazing God.
Verses 25 and 26 are some of the most often-quoted in the Psalms, because they express the only-ness of Hashem, His exclusive reign over all, as well as the undivided devotion of His children, who worship Him. Asaph reminds himself, and us, that in our God, we truly lack nothing while on this earth (and certainly not in the next). No matter what happens to us in this life, He is our portion (our more-than-enough) forever. This, you see, is the antidote to envy, which is the sin that provoked this psalm to begin with. When we realize that God is our portion, our all-sufficiency, forever, we no longer have to be concerned about His dealings with the wicked or with anyone else for that matter. Our restless hearts can find their true rest in Him.
As stated in verse 28, His closeness is our goodness. Unlike the wicked, who find pleasure in their alienation from Hashem, those who love Him find the highest joy to be in the proximity of God, both in this world and in the next. Amen.
Let’s move on now to Psalm 74, another lengthy psalm, which provides and studies the most painful example of God’s inscrutable dealings with His people, the dispersion, the Jew in exile.
Of course, today, most Jews who reside outside Jerusalem do so willingly. While persecution of Jews worldwide IS ramping up somewhat, many Jews still in the Diaspora believe these are isolated incidents which won’t directly affect them. Jewish influencers, such as Hillel Fuld, on social media, are constantly begging Jews to come home to Israel. Hillel argues for this very persuasively. Yet, while many ARE moving to Israel, the majority are staying put, in spite of the Torah being very clear that it is a mitzvah to live in the land of Israel.
So, in a way, for us modern readers, Psalm 74 is … how can I say this … a little passé? I mean, Hashem has provided once more a homeland for the Jewish people! And, great things are happening over there. I have been there 3 times and witnessed it myself!
Additionally, the sages in their commentaries on Psalm 74 deem it to be highly prophetic. Even though it was written contemporaneously with the reign of King David, the sages draw prophetic references to the Exodus and to both the Babylonian invasion as well as the Roman conquering of Israel. I’ll point some of those out in the text although we are not going to go verse by verse with this psalm.
Let’s first read Psalm 74 together, the CJB translation. By the way, it is not directly quoted in the New Testament.
74 (0) A maskil of Asaf:
(1) Why have you rejected us forever, God,
with your anger smoking against the sheep you once pastured?
2 Remember your community, which you acquired long ago,
the tribe you redeemed to be your very own.
Remember Mount Tziyon, where you came to live.
3 Hurry your steps to these endless ruins,
to the sanctuary devastated by the enemy.
4 The roar of your foes filled your meeting-place;
they raised their own banners as a sign of their conquest.
5 The place seemed like a thicket of trees
when lumbermen hack away with their axes.
6 With hatchet and hammer they banged away,
smashing all the carved woodwork.
7 They set your sanctuary on fire,
tore down and profaned the abode of your name.
8 They said to themselves, “We will oppress them completely.”
They have burned down all God’s meeting-places in the land.
9 We see no signs, there is no prophet any more;
none of us knows how long it will last.
10 How much longer, God, will the foe jeer at us?
Will the enemy insult your name forever?
11 Why do you hold back your hand?
Draw your right hand from your coat, and finish them off!
12 God has been my king from earliest times,
acting to save throughout all the earth.
13 By your strength you split the sea in two,
in the water you smashed sea monsters’ heads,
14 you crushed the heads of Livyatan
and gave it as food to the creatures of the desert.
15 You cut channels for springs and streams,
you dried up rivers that had never failed.
16 The day is yours, and the night is yours;
it was you who established light and sun.
17 It was you who fixed all the limits of the earth,
you made summer and winter.
18 Remember how the enemy scoffs at Adonai,
how a brutish people insults your name.
19 Don’t hand over the soul of your dove to wild beasts,
don’t forget forever the life of your poor.
20 Look to the covenant, for the land’s dark places
are full of the haunts of violence.
21 Don’t let the oppressed retreat in confusion;
let the poor and needy praise your name.
22 Arise, God, and defend your cause;
remember how brutish men insult you all day.
23 Don’t forget what your foes are saying,
the ever-rising uproar of your adversaries.
In verse 1, the Hebrew language uses the word “nose” to denote “wrath” or “smoking anger”, because an angry person grows hot and often smoke seems to issue from his nostrils. Although the Babylonian exile lasted only for 70 years, the Roman-executed diaspora lasted (we know now) for almost 1900 years, seemingly forever.
In verse 2 Hashem redeemed the tribe of His heritage on many occasions, but most notably in the Exodus from Egypt, at the Sea of Reeds (we are in the Beshalach parsha this week, which details that story), from the Assyrians under Hezekiah, from the Babylonians after 70 years and most notably by providing redemption eternally, once and for all, through Yeshua HaMashiach. This took place in the area of Mt. Zion and Mt. Moriah, in Jerusalem.
Verses 3 and 4 allude to the desecration of the Temple by Nebuchadnezzar’s forces, by Belshazzar who defiled the Temple’s sacred vessels and implements, by Antiochus Antiphones IV who slaughtered a pig on the divine altar, by Titus, who it is said coupled with a prostitute in the Holy of Holies, and also by Titus when he stabbed repeatedly the curtain, the parokhet, that separated the Holy Place from the Most Holy Place.
Verses 5 and 6 allude to the centrality of wood and trees in the holy Temple of old, and also are a prophecy, according to the sages. In the building of Solomon’s temple, many devout men chopped down trees to supply wood for its construction. This mitzvah was performed with such joy and devotion! In like manner, the destroyers sought to destroy in similar manner, unbeknownst to themselves. There is a Jewish parable that says King Nebuchadnezzar sent 300 donkey loads of hatchets to Jerusalem for the conquest of the city. These were made of the strongest steel, able to cut through steel. The commander-in-chief instructed his men to hurl these hatchets at the gates of Jerusalem, but they were unable to have any effect on the city gates. There were so many smashed hatchet handles lying around about, the area resembled a thicket of trees.
The Talmud’s Sanhedrin 96b records the story that the demoralized commander-in-chief, Nevuzaradon, was so demoralized that he exclaimed he was giving up. Supposedly, the voice of Hashem from Heaven encouraged him, saying that the divinely appointed time had come for the Temple to be razed and the Sanctuary burned. So, Nevuzaradon threw one last hatchet at the gates, and it smashed them. Therefore, Hashem used a carpenter’s tool to defeat Jerusalem. The Babylonian forces then slew everyone they encountered, on their way to the sanctuary, which they then set on fire and burned up. The Talmud goes on to say that as the flames first licked at the base of the Temple, the holy edifice tried to rise heavenward to return to the source of its sanctity, the heavenly Temple of which it was a copy on earth. But, Hashem was determined to demonstrate His extreme displeasure with the Jewish people, because of their flagrant disobedience. Therefore, He pushed the structure back down by heavenly force so that it could be desecrated by the Jews’ enemies.
Verse 9 alludes to how the exiles the Jews experienced have gotten longer and longer. For example, the wandering in the desert before entering the promised land was for 40 years. Then, the Babylonian exile lasted only 70 years. The Roman exile/diaspora lasted nearly 1900 years, and many Jews really felt the pain expressed in verse 9 here during that period.
The last prophets were Haggai, Zachariah and Malachi. After their deaths, there was not a prophet in Israel for 400 years. There was no one to give signs of the Messiah’s return, until John the Baptist, also called Yochanon the Immerser, who Yeshua Hamashiach said was the long-awaited prophet of Redemption, Elijah. Not the actual Elijah of the book of the Kings, of course, but a man possessing a similar prophetic spirit. The Jews still await the advent of this Elijah, not recognizing that he came on the scene almost 2000 years ago, crying, “Prepare the way of the Lord!”
Rejecting both the first century “Elijah” (Yochanon the Immerser) and Yeshua, the Jewish commentators say that during the 400 years of silence and beyond, for a while the Heavenly Voice continued to communicate with Jewry, but that that eventually ceased to be heard. In Sanhedrin 97a numerous signs heralding the coming of Mashiach, who will bring the exile to an end, and Rav teaches that only a mass movement of repentance among the Jewish people can hasten the advent of Mashiach. As followers of Yeshua, we know that it is prophesied in the book of Revelation that this nation-wide repentance will indeed coincide with Yeshua’s, Israel’s Messiah’s return to Earth, that they will “look on Him who they pierced” and their eyes will become open to recognize Him as Mashiach, King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
Verse 13 is believed to hearken back to the Exodus, whereupon the Pharaoh of the Exodus was a self-proclaimed deity. He was described in Ezekiel 29:3 as “the great sea serpent who crouches in his rivers. Because the Nile was so central in importance to both Pharaoh and, by extension, the land of Egypt, Pharaoh met his downfall via water, the waters of the Sea of Reeds.
The Leviathan of verse 14 is another reference to this same Egyptian Pharaoh, as the prophet Isaiah drew the connection in Isaiah 27:1. However, it is also a prophetic reference to the future end-times events, the events which will bring about the end of this earth age, in the time period when Messiah establishes His Millennial kingdom.
Verses 16 and 17 re-affirm that Elohim is the sole creator of the universe and master over all its forces. The ancient heathen beliefs were that the power who created good could not possibly have allowed or could control evil. Similarly, they believed that the force that created day could not possibly have created night. Therefore, they fabricated myths to try to explain these dichotomies. By contrast, in the Jewish prayers, the Holy Word of God is reflected, because God is mentioned as Creator of day in the night prayers and as Creator of night in the daytime prayers, to accurately reflect that He created both and is master over both.
Ibn Ezra, one of the sages, affirms that God created the earth with seven different climate zones, and Radak agreed, claiming that each one contributed a unique meteorological benefit to the earth. Similarly, it is put forward that He established geographical divisions, both before and after the Great Flood, and fostered the development of the 70 nations, after the Tower of Babel incident. Deuteronomy 32:8 says this was done according to the number of the Children of Israel.
The closing verses, 18-23 are a plea for God to remember His chosen people, and to arise to deliver them from the clutches of enemy nations.
Verse 19 is good advice in many areas of life, but the sages say this verse specifically begs the Lord God to not allow the heathen nations (the wild beasts) to overtake the soul of His Nation, Israel (the turtle dove). Several times in Scripture, and especially in Song of Songs, Israel is represented by the dove. Rashi points out that the dove is a symbol of loyalty and fidelity, since once two doves mate, they never mate with another. Over 90% of bird species mate for life, but this phenomenon is rare in mammals (only 3-5%). Notable examples include bald eagles, swans, wolves, beavers, possums, albatrosses, French angelfish, seahorses, termites, sandhill cranes, and gibbons.
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