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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.”


8 Hear, O my people! The more effectually to touch the hearts of the people, God is here invested with the character of a teacher, and introduced as speaking familiarly in the midst of the congregation; and this is done for the purpose of instructing them, that all assemblies are unprofitable and trifling in which the voice of God stirring up men to faith and true godliness is not uttered. But let us proceed to the consideration of the words. This preface was intended to teach in a few words, that festival days were not purely and rightly observed unless the people listened with attention to the voice of God. In order to consecrate their hands, feet, eyes, and their whole persons, to his service, it behoved them, in the first place, to open their ears to his voice. Thus the lesson is taught that he acknowledges as his servants those only who are disposed to become learners. By the word protest he intimates that he covenants after a solemn manner, thereby to give his words the greater authority. The clause which follows, O Israel! if thou wilt hearken to me, is, I presume, an abrupt expression, similar to what is frequently employed in pathetic discourses, the ellipse serving to express the greater earnestness. Some connect it with the following verse in this way, O Israel! if thou wilt hearken to me, there will be no strange god in thee But it is rather to be viewed as the language of regret on the part of God. He indirectly intimates that he distrusts this obstinate and rebellious people, and can hardly indulge the hope that they will prove obedient and teachable.


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