The theme of Psalm 81 could be: don’t pretend to love God—really love Him! It was written by Asaph or one of his descendants and starts out with a joyous occasion of celebrating a harvest festival to the Lord.
1 – 5a
So Israel is admonished to sing to God using percussion, brass, and strings—especially during the autumn harvest feasts. He uses this as an introduction to his real point: stay faithful in truth to God.
5a – 7
This refers to God speaking to the nation at Sinai after God took them (“Joseph”) out of Egypt, and away from having to carry bricks and straw in baskets. God spoke to them in the clouds and also showed them His provision (Meribah: Exodus 17:1-7). Jesus, our Messiah, has come to lift the burden of sin and righteous obedience from our shoulders as well. He said: Matthew 11:28 “Come to Me, all of you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.29All of you, take up My yoke and learn from Me, because I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for yourselves.30For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”
The interpretive template for this psalm is Deuteronomy 32, where Moses recounted the history of Israel and God’s provision for them. One of the strong admonishments was that Israel be faithful to Yahweh.
8 – 10
It’s not enough to just hear God’s Word, you need to listen, which suggests obedience. For Israel, they were to trust only in Yahweh to “fill” their mouths. But there were many “gods” in that land who wanted to fill them with things that would end up being destructive.
11 – 16
As we know, Israel did not listen, and so God allowed them to have what they wanted—a relationship with these other gods. With that, though, came many enemies that God allowed to overthrow them.
I like verse 15—it is quite possible to hate God yet “pretend submission to Him”. Sadly, we see this even today. I call them “make believers.” What God wants is to own you and to be your rescuer, and your provider. But many people want it both ways. They want to be seen as spiritual but don’t want to repent and be cleansed from sin and be governed by God.
Verse 16 harkens back again to Deut 32 where Moses talked about honey coming from the rock, I suppose like a crag where bees have built a nest. The idea there though is that God will satisfy.
Do you ever really let go and actually shout out to God? How freeing that would be
Israel was commanded to attend feasts, which were really calls to worship. Should we not feel the obligation to worship with all of our hearts?
I think we can infer from this psalm two qualities of worship: 1. It focuses us on God and not on other distractions and 2. It feeds us like nothing else.
Psalm 82
This psalm is really about acting in the character of God. Yahweh Himself stands as an example of what a ruler should be like—not a power hungry despot, but a loving gentle caregiver.
1 – 8
God is taking His seat among those that are charged with leading the people. And God’s judgment is that they “show partiality to the wicked.”
Instead, God says, they need to help the weak and those that cannot help themselves.
Verse 5 suggests that this sort of bent towards wickedness among earthly rulers is not the way God intended it. It shows too that they have not listened to God’s words in the prior verses. And so the result:
Verse 6 God says those kings deserve to die, even though they are seen like gods to the people they rule over.
Verse 8 says “you own all the nations” Do you believe that? Especially in light of politics, what should our attitude be towards our country?
Titus 3:1 Remind them to be submissive to rulers and authorities, to obey, to be ready for every good work, 2 to slander no one, to avoid fighting, and to be kind, always showing gentleness to all people. 3 For we too were once foolish, disobedient, deceived, enslaved by various passions and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, detesting one another.
Psalm 83
1 – 8
All through history, the nations surrounding Israel have sought to destroy her. But notice one thing—of all the nations listed here in this psalm, the only one that remains to this day is Israel.
God has a special place for this nation—to reflect a relationship with the one true living God, to give birth to His Word, and birth to His Messiah. But God is not done with Israel and one day they will turn back to God and the Lord’s Messiah Jesus.
9 – 12
Here the psalmist details two times when the Lord came through and routed Israel’s enemies. Midian was enemy of Israel that Gideon defeated (Judges 6-8), and Sisera and Jabin were defeated by Deborah and Barak (Judges 4-5).
So next the psalmist uses poetic language to describe what he wants God to do to Israel’s current enemies:
13 – 18
13 through 15 speak of the speed of God’s judgment. 16 and 17 depict the result of the judgment—shame. God’s judgment is pictured as a forest fire. Recently in the fire near Colorado Springs we saw the destruction and speed of fire that can spread faster than you can run. You cannot outrun God’s judgment. Verse 18 is the ultimate goal: so that everyone will know that Yahweh rules over all the earth!
Today our enemies are those surrounding us that would raise themselves up against the gospel.
2 Cor 10:3 For though we live in the body, we do not wage war in an unspiritual way, 4 since the weapons of our warfare are not worldly, but are powerful through God for the demolition of strongholds. We demolish arguments 5 and every high-minded thing that is raised up against the knowledge of God, taking every thought captive to obey Christ.
Psalm 84
Psalm 84 is one of the happiest of all of the psalms. It’s probably about time after many psalms about enemies and unfaithfulness. The psalm describes how wonderful it is to come to the Lord’s temple in Jerusalem and once there, to pray and worship the Lord.
1 – 2
In Old Testament times, God’s presence dwelt above the mercy seat in Solomon’s Temple. The psalmist talks about how lovely that place is. Wherever God’s presence is, it is lovely. As we go through this psalm, every time the psalmist talks about the Temple and God’s presence I want you to picture the ultimate example of God’s presence—“God with us” Emmanuel, Jesus Christ.
Jesus said in John 2:19 “Destroy this sanctuary and I will raise it up in three days.” He meant His body, but it was taken to mean the actual temple. But even the temple speaks of Jesus.
Here, the psalmist “longs and yearns” for the courts of the Lord, which were the outer courts where anyone could come to worship Yahweh, even those who were not Jews by birth. His entire being: his heart and flesh cry out.
Do we feel the same way about coming to the Lord Jesus?
3 – 6
Here he notices the birds that have made nests in the temple area and says that they are doing what he longs to do—be close to where God’s presence dwells.
This reminds me of Anna in Luke 2:36. Just after the birth of Jesus, his parents brought Him to the Temple to be circumcised. They were met by Simeon, and also by Anna who: “did not leave the temple complex, serving God night and day with fasting and prayers.”
5 – 7
It is so true that real strength comes only from God. This reminds me of: Heb. 11:6 “But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.” NKJV
Here the psalmist is talking about taking a trip to see the Temple—a pilgrimage. The Valley of Baca is not likely a real place but, like the Valley of the Shadow of Death, is a state—a place of sorrow and weeping (Baca means weeping). When they come to the Lord that place of weeping and dryness has become a spring of spiritual water like the blessings of the autumn rains that fill their soul.
Like water strengthens us physically when we are thirsty, God’s presence strengthens us spiritually.
John 4:13 Jesus answered and said to her, “Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again,14but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.”
8 – 9
Here the psalmist has arrived and prays for God’s protection and blessing on the “anointed one”. We get the word Christ from the Hebrew word here: Mashiach, or Messiah. This can represent the king, but also has the deeper meaning of our Messiah Jesus.
10 – 12 (Better is One Day, Love you So Much)
He would rather spend one day at the Temple than a thousand anywhere else. Can we say the same thing? He would rather take a lowly, humble position in God’s house than be a ruler in places that reject Yahweh. Is that our opinion too?
“He gives grace and glory.” Grace is like gaining favor in someone’s eyes. God favors those who love Him and trusts Him. “Glory” is the Hebrew word “kabod” and means “splendor and high status.” Those that trust and walk with God will experience goodness and happiness.
So when you meditate on this psalm, substitute Jesus for all the words for the Temple. It makes a wonderful and powerful time of worship and adoration!
Feel called into His presence. Feel the comfort, feel the love, feel the embrace. Make it your solemn duty to shout to God with a voice of triumph!
