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Psalm 81

God’s Appeal to Stubborn Israel

To the leader: according to The Gittith. Of Asaph.

1

Sing aloud to God our strength;

shout for joy to the God of Jacob.

2

Raise a song, sound the tambourine,

the sweet lyre with the harp.

3

Blow the trumpet at the new moon,

at the full moon, on our festal day.

4

For it is a statute for Israel,

an ordinance of the God of Jacob.

5

He made it a decree in Joseph,

when he went out over the land of Egypt.

 

I hear a voice I had not known:

6

“I relieved your shoulder of the burden;

your hands were freed from the basket.

7

In distress you called, and I rescued you;

I answered you in the secret place of thunder;

I tested you at the waters of Meribah. Selah

8

Hear, O my people, while I admonish you;

O Israel, if you would but listen to me!

9

There shall be no strange god among you;

you shall not bow down to a foreign god.

10

I am the L ord 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 did not listen to my voice;

Israel would not submit to me.

12

So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts,

to follow their own counsels.

13

O that my people would listen to me,

that Israel would walk in my ways!

14

Then I would quickly subdue their enemies,

and turn my hand against their foes.

15

Those who hate the L ord would cringe before him,

and their doom would last forever.

16

I would feed you with the finest of the wheat,

and with honey from the rock I would satisfy you.”


14. I would soon have brought their enemies low. Here the Israelites are taught, that all the calamities which had befallen them were to be imputed to their own sins; for their enemies did not fight against them with any other strength than that with which they were supplied from above. God had promised that under his leading the chosen people would prove victorious over all their enemies; and now to take away all ground for charging him with violating his word, he affirms that he would not have failed to enable them to do this had he not been prevented by their sins. He doubtless intends tacitly to remind them that the victories which they had formerly achieved were not owing to their own military valor, but to Him under whose conduct they had been placed. Now, he tells them that he was not only kept back by their sins from putting forth his power to defend them, but that he was also compelled by their perverseness to rush against them with the sword in his hand, while he left their enemies to remain in undisturbed tranquillity.


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