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81. Psalm 81

¹ Sing for joy to God our strength;
shout aloud to the God of Jacob!
² Begin the music, strike the timbrel,
play the melodious harp and lyre.

    ³ Sound the ram’s horn at the New Moon,
   and when the moon is full, on the day of our festival;
⁴ this is a decree for Israel,
   an ordinance of the God of Jacob.
⁵ When God went out against Egypt,
   he established it as a statute for Joseph.

I heard an unknown voice say:

    ⁶ “I removed the burden from their shoulders;
   their hands were set free from the basket.
⁷ In your distress you called and I rescued you,
   I answered you out of a thundercloud;
   I tested you at the waters of Meribah. The Hebrew has Selah (a word of uncertain meaning) here.
⁸ Hear me, my people, and I will warn you—
   if you would only listen to me, Israel!
⁹ You shall have no foreign god among you;
   you shall not worship any god other than me.
¹⁰ I am the LORD your God,
   who brought you up out of Egypt.
Open wide your mouth and I will fill it.

    ¹¹ “But my people would not listen to me;
   Israel would not submit to me.
¹² So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts
   to follow their own devices.

    ¹³ “If my people would only listen to me,
   if Israel would only follow my ways,
¹⁴ how quickly I would subdue their enemies
   and turn my hand against their foes!
¹⁵ Those who hate the LORD would cringe before him,
   and their punishment would last forever.
¹⁶ But you would be fed with the finest of wheat;
   with honey from the rock I would satisfy you.”

6 I have removed his shoulder from the burden. Here God begins to recount the benefits which he had bestowed upon the Israelites, and the many ways in which he had laid them under obligations to him. The more galling the bondage was from which they had been delivered, the more desirable and precious was their liberty. When, therefore, it is affirmed that their burdens were so heavy that they stooped under them, and that they were doomed to the labor of making bricks, and to other slavish and toilsome occupations, the comparison of this their first state with their condition afterwards is introduced to illustrate the more strikingly the greatness of the blessing of their deliverance. Let us now apply this to ourselves, and elevate our minds to a higher subject, of which it was an image. As God has not only withdrawn our shoulders from a burden of brick, and not only removed our hands from the kilns, but has also redeemed us from the cruel and miserable tyranny of Satan, and drawn us from the depths of hell, the obligations under which we lie to him are of a much more strict and sacred kind than those under which he had brought his ancient people.