Psalms Chapter 81 For the Chief Musician. On an instrument of Gath. By Asaph.
1 Sing aloud to God, our strength! Make a joyful shout to the God of Jacob!
2 Raise a song, and bring here the tambourine, the pleasant lyre with the harp.
3 Blow the trumpet at the New Moon, at the full moon, on our feast day.
4 For it is a statute for Israel, an ordinance of the God of Jacob.
5 He appointed it in Joseph for a covenant, when he went out over the land of Egypt, I heard a language that I didn't know.
6 "I removed his shoulder from the burden. His hands were freed from the basket.
7 You called in trouble, and I delivered you. I answered you in the secret place of thunder. I tested you at the waters of Meribah." Selah.
8 "Hear, my people, and I will testify to you, Israel, if you would listen to me!
9 There shall be no strange god in you, neither shall you worship any foreign god.
10 I am the LORD, your God, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt. Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it.
11 But my people didn't listen to my voice. Israel desired none of me.
12 So I let them go after the stubbornness of their hearts, that they might walk in their own counsels.
13 Oh that my people would listen to me, that Israel would walk in my ways!
14 I would soon subdue their enemies, and turn my hand against their adversaries.
15 The haters of the LORD would cringe before him, and their punishment would last forever.
16 But he would have also fed them with the finest of the wheat. I will satisfy you with honey out of the rock."
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Psalms Chapter 81 For the Chief Musician. On an instrument of Gath. By Asaph. Guide
This is a psalm for the Feast of Trumpets. In the calendar of the Hebrews this feast prepared the way for the Day of Atonement and the Feast of Tabernacles. The first day of the seventh month was the feast of Trumpets. The tenth day of the seventh month was Atonement. The fifteenth day of the seventh month was Tabernacles (Leviticus 23:1-44).
The psalm opens with a call to the Feast of Trumpets, and a declaration of its Divine appointment (vv. Psalms 81:1-5). Then the singer expresses the attitude of God to His people, and the song proceeds as in the words of Jehovah (vv. Psalms 81:6-10). First He tells of His deliverance of them from bondage, and His answer to them at Sinai (vv. Psalms 81:6-7). Then He reminds them of the terms of the covenant with them. He would speak and they should harken. They were to have no God but Himself, and He would be to them Jehovah God. They were to open the mouth and He would fill it (vv. Psalms 81:8-10). They failed in refusing to hearken and obey, and therefore He abandoned them to their choice (vv. Psalms 81:11-12). Finally He expresses His desire that they should return, and declares His ability still to deliver them (vv. Psalms 81:13-16). It is still the same burden of the faithfulness of God, and the unfaithfulness of His people. Panic and defeat on the part of the people of God are always due to their departure from Him. The enemies who overcome us are without strength in the conflict against Him. When they overcome us it is because we have departed from Him.
From "An Exposition of the Whole Bible" by G. Campbell Morgan.
Psalms Chapter 81 Commentary
Chapter Outline
- God is praised for what he has done for his people. -- (1-7)
- Their obligations to him. -- (8-16)
Verses 1-7
All the worship we can render to the Lord is beneath his excellences, and our obligations to him, especially in our redemption from sin and wrath. What God had done on Israel's behalf, was kept in remembrance by public solemnities. To make a deliverance appear more gracious, more glorious, it is good to observe all that makes the trouble we are delivered from appear more grievous. We ought never to forget the base and ruinous drudgery to which Satan, our oppressor, brought us. But when, in distress of conscience, we are led to cry for deliverance, the Lord answers our prayers, and sets us at liberty. Convictions of sin, and trials by affliction, prove his regard to his people. If the Jews, on their solemn feast-days, were thus to call to mind their redemption out of Egypt, much more ought we, on the Christian sabbath, to call to mind a more glorious redemption, wrought out for us by our Lord Jesus Christ, from worse bondage.
Verses 8-16
We cannot look for too little from the creature, nor too much from the Creator. We may have enough from God, if we pray for it in faith. All the wickedness of the world is owing to man's wilfulness. People are not religious, because they will not be so. God is not the Author of their sin, he leaves them to the lusts of their own hearts, and the counsels of their own heads; if they do not well, the blame must be upon themselves. The Lord is unwilling that any should perish. What enemies sinners are to themselves! It is sin that makes our troubles long, and our salvation slow. Upon the same conditions of faith and obedience, do Christians hold those spiritual and eternal good things, which the pleasant fields and fertile hills of Canaan showed forth. Christ is the Bread of life; he is the Rock of salvation, and his promises are as honey to pious minds. But those who reject him as their Lord and Master, must also lose him as their Saviour and their reward.
From the "Concise Commentary on the Bible" by Matthew Henry.