Psalm 81

Psalms 81:1

“To the end, for the winepresses, of Asaph. In the Law it is written that there are three solemn feasts: Passover, Pentecost, and the Feast of Tabernacles. Before the Feast of Tabernacles, ten days before, there was a fast, and the fast lasted until evening. At that time they sounded the trumpets — that is, they fasted, and during the fast they sounded the trumpets — and after ten days came the Feast of Tabernacles. Attend carefully. There are three solemn feasts described in the Law: first Passover, then Pentecost, then the Feast of Tabernacles.”

Psalms 81:1

“We must do this by all the expressions of holy joy and triumph. It was then to be done by musical instruments, the timbrel, harp, and psaltery; and by blowing the trumpet, some think in remembrance of the sound of the trumpet on Mount Sinai, which waxed louder and louder. It was then and is now to be done by singing psalms, singing aloud, and making a joyful noise.”

Psalms 81:1

“This, though spoken primarily of Israel of old, is written for our learning, and is therefore to be sung with application. To the chief musician upon Gittith. 1 Sing aloud unto God our strength: make a joyful noise unto the God of Jacob.”

Psalms 81:2

“Take a psalm. Select a sacred song, and then raise it with your hearty voices. And bring hither the timbrel. Beat on your tambourines, ye damsels, let the sound be loud and inspiriting. "Sound the trumpets, beat the drums." God is not to be served with misery but with mirthful music, sound ye then the loud timbrel, as of old ye smote it by "Egypt's dark sea." The pleasant harp with the psaltery. The timbrel for sound, must be joined by the harp for sweetness, and this by other stringed instruments for variety.”

Psalms 81:3

“Blow up the trumpet in the new moon. Announce the sacred month, the beginning of months, when the Lord brought his people out of the house of bondage. Clear and shrill let the summons be which calls all Israel to adore the Redeeming Lord. In the time appointed, on our solemn feast day. Obedience is to direct our worship, not whim and sentiment: God's appointment gives a solemnity to rites and times which no ceremonial pomp or hierarchical ordinance could confer.”

Psalms 81:4

“For it is a commandment for Israel, and a judgment of the God of Jacob. What is the commandment of God? To sing to God in victory: not to think it one's own, but the Lord's.”

Psalms 81:4

“For this was a statute for Israel, and a law of the God of Jacob. It was a precept binding upon all the tribes that a sacred season should be set apart to commemorate the Lord's mercy; and truly it was but the Lord's due, he had a right and a claim to such special homage. When it can be proved that the observance of Christmas, Whitsuntide, and other Popish festivals was ever instituted by a divine statute, we also will attend to them, but not till then.”

Psalms 81:5

“When he came out of the land of Egypt, he heard a tongue which he did not know. We too, when we came out of Egypt, heard a tongue which we did not know. Which of us knew the Gospel? which the Apostle? which the prophets? We came out of Egypt, and we heard a tongue which we did not know; we learned a tongue which we did not know.”

Psalms 81:5

“This he ordained in Joseph for a testimony. The nation is called Joseph, because in Egypt it would probably be known and spoken of as Joseph's family, and indeed Joseph was the foster father of the people. The passover, which is probably here alluded to, was to be a standing memorial of the redemption from Egypt; and everything about it was intended to testify to all ages, and all peoples, the glory of the Lord in the deliverance of his chosen nation. When he went out through the land of Egypt.”

Psalms 81:6

“I removed his shoulder from the burden. Israel was the drudge and slave of Egypt, but God gave him liberty. It was by God alone that the nation was set free. Other peoples owe their liberties to their own efforts and courage, but Israel received its Magna Charta as a free gift of divine power. Truly may the Lord say of everyone of his freed men, I removed his shoulder from the burden. His hands were delivered from the pots.”

Psalms 81:7

“In tribulation you called upon me, and I delivered you. The prophets and the psalms are for this reason obscure, because suddenly, when you are not expecting it, the speaker is changed. Up to this point the prophet has been speaking: now suddenly the person of God is brought in, speaking to the people. In tribulation you called upon me, and I delivered you. Whoever you are that are in tribulation, be secure: call upon me, and you will be heard. I heard you in the hiding-place of the tempest.”

Psalms 81:7

“Thou calledst in trouble, and I delivered thee,.... That is, when Israel were in trouble in Egypt, as the Targum adds, and they cried unto the Lord in their distress, he heard them, and answered them, and sent them a deliverer, and brought them out of all their troubles, Exo 3:”

Psalms 81:7

“Or it may be meant of the giving of the law at Mount Sinai, which was the secret place, for it was death to gaze ( Exod. xix. 21 ), and it was in thunder that God then spoke. Even the terrors of Sinai were favours to Israel, Deut. iv.”

Psalms 81:8

“Hear, my people, and I will testify to you. God is speaking to us. Whatever he said to the people, he speaks also to us. Israel, if you will hear me. Why do you ask that I hear you? Let us see what he commands.”

Psalms 81:8

“The reproof follows to Ps 81:12. if thou wilt hearken--He then propounds the terms of His covenant: they should worship Him alone, who (Ps 81:10) had delivered them, and would still confer all needed blessings.”

Psalms 81:9

“There shall be no new god in you. He whose god is his belly, a new god is his. As many vices as we have, as many sins, so many new gods do we have. I have been angered: anger is a god to me. I have seen a woman, and I have lusted: lust is a god to me. For each one, whatever he desires and reveres, this is his god as well. The greedy man has gold for his god. Nor shall you adore a strange god. Our God is virtue; the god of others, vices and sins.”

Psalms 81:9

“There shall no strange god be in thee. No alien god is to be tolerated in Israel's tents. Neither shalt thou worship any strange god. Where false gods are, their worship is sure to follow. Man is so desperate an idolater that the image is always a strong temptation: while the nests are there the birds will be eager to return. No other god had done anything for the Jews, and therefore they had no reason for paying homage to any other. To us the same argument will apply.”

Psalms 81:10

“SOME have considered that our text contains an allusion to a singular custom of showing favor which has been occasionally adopted by Eastern monarchs. It is not a very long time ago that a former Shah of Persia bade an ambassador, who was in great favor with him, open his mouth, and when he had done so the monarch filled it with pearls and gems of great value which, of course, were a present to him. This certainly affords an illustration of the text, even if the passage contains no allusion to it.”

Psalms 81:10

“I am the Lord thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt. Thus did Jehovah usually introduce himself to his people. The great deliverance out of Egypt was that claim upon his people's allegiance which he most usually pleaded. If ever people were morally bound to their God, certainly Israel was a thousand times pledged unto Jehovah, by his marvellous deeds on their behalf in connection with the Exodus. Open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it. Because he had brought them out of Egypt he could do great things for them.”

Psalms 81:11

“But my people would not hearken to my voice. His warnings were rejected, his promises forgotten, his precepts disregarded. Though the divine voice proposed nothing but good to them, and that upon an unparalleled scale of liberality, yet they turned aside. And Israel would none of me. They would not consent to his proposals, they walked in direct opposition to his commands, they hankered after the ox god of Egypt, and their hearts were bewitched by the idols of the nations round about.”

Psalms 81:11

"I would have gathered them, but they would not." They had none of him; and why had they not? It was not because they might not; they were fairly invited into covenant with God. It was not because they could not; for the word was nigh them, even in their mouth and in their heart.

Psalms 81:12

“And I let them go according to the desires of their heart: they shall go on in their own devices. Unhappy is he who is not corrected by God. If anyone sinning is not struck, he is wretched. Therefore he says: I let them go according to the desires of their heart. For this reason I let them go, because I often struck them and they did not accept discipline. I entreated, they did not hear; I struck, they did not feel the pain.”

Psalms 81:12

“So I gave them up unto their own hearts' lust. No punishment is more just or more severe than this. If men will not be checked, but madly take the bit between their teeth and refuse obedience, who shall wonder if the reins are thrown upon their necks, and they are let alone to work out their own destruction. It were better to be given up to lions than to our hearts' lusts. And they walked in their own counsels.”

Psalms 81:13

“O that my people had hearkened unto me, and Israel had walked in my ways! The condescending love of God expresses itself in painful regrets for Israel's sin and punishment. Such were the laments of Jesus over Jerusalem. Certain doctrinalists find a stumbling stone in such passages, and set themselves to explain them away, but to men in sympathy with the divine nature the words and the emotions are plain enough. A God of mercy cannot see men heaping up sorrow for themselves through their sins without feeling his compassion excited toward them.”

Psalms 81:13-16

“Obedience would have secured all promised blessings and the subjection of foes. In this passage, "should have," "would have," &c., are better, "should" and "would" expressing God's intention at the time, that is, when they left Egypt.”

Psalms 81:14

“I should soon have subdued their enemies. As he did in Egypt overthrow Pharaoh, so would he have baffled every enemy. And turned my hand against their adversaries. He would have smitten them once, and then have dealt them a return blow with the back of his hand. See what we lose by sin. Our enemies find the sharpest weapons against us in the armoury of our transgressions. They could never overthrow us if we did not first overthrow ourselves. Sin strips a man of his armour, and leaves him naked to his enemies.”

Psalms 81:15

“The haters of the Lord should have submitted themselves unto him. Though the submission would have been false and flattering, yet the enemies of Israel would have been so humiliated that they would have hastened to make terms with the favoured tribes. Our enemies become abashed and cowardly when we, with resolution, walk carefully with the Lord. It is in God's power to keep the fiercest in check, and he will do so if we have a filial fear, a pious awe of him. But their time should have endured for ever.”

Psalms 81:16

“And he fed them from the fat of the wheat. He led them into the land of promise: he fed them not with manna, as in the desert, but with the wheat that fell, that rose again. And he fed them from the fat of the wheat. See the mystery of the Scriptures. From the fat of the wheat. Does wheat have fat? does it perhaps even have entrails? But he wished to show the bounty and richness of spiritual grace, and therefore he named it 'fat.' And with honey from the rock he satisfied them.”

Psalms 81:16

“He should have fed them also with the finest of the wheat. Famine would have been an unknown word, they would have been fed on the best of the best food, and have had abundance of it as their every day diet. And with honey out of the rock should I have satisfied thee. Luxuries as well as necessaries would be forthcoming, the very rocks of the land would yield abundant and sweet supplies; the bees would store the clefts of the rocks with luscious honey, and so turn the most sterile part of the land to good account.”