1. A SOLEMN FEAST DAY.
Psalm 81:1-7.
This Psalm opens with a summons to resounding praise (Psalm 81:1-3), with reasons to do so attached (Psalm 81:4-7). It continues with an address by God, beginning with a commandment, with a promise attached (Psalm 81:8-10); and going on to upbraid the people for their failure to keep it (Psalm 81:11-14). It ends with a solemn reflection, ruing the day of missed opportunities (Psalm 81:15-16).
Psalm 81:1. There may be a time for quiet contemplative worship, but this is not it. It is a time of loudness, a time of noise. It is a time of fulness of joy. We are not called to be perfect in our singing, but to “Sing aloud” and “make a joyful noise” nevertheless.
And no wonder, for we celebrate here “God our strength” who delivered His people out of Egypt, and sustained them in the wilderness (Psalm 81:5-7, Psalm 81:10). We celebrate “the God of Jacob” who met us where we were, and brought us to where He wants us to be. We celebrate the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who delivered us out of the thraldom of sin and death, and into His heavenly Kingdom. We celebrate the God who has helped us hitherto (cf. 1 Samuel 7:12), and has promised to remain with us forever (cf. Hebrews 13:5).
Psalm 81:2. “Take a psalm.” Choose a ‘psalm, hymn or spiritual song’ (cf. Ephesians 5:19; Colossians 3:16). Take up the tambourine and bring in the stringed instruments (cf. Psalm 149:3; Psalm 150:4).
Psalm 81:3. “Blow up the trumpet.” This seems to refer to the shofar, the ram’s horn. There are two or three time markers in the verse: “the new moon”, “the time appointed”, and “our solemn feast day” (cf. Numbers 10:10). There are three compulsory feasts in ancient Israel’s calendar (cf. Deuteronomy 16:16), but perhaps the most significant blowing of the “trumpet” is that for the year of jubilee (cf. Leviticus 25:9).
Jesus pronounced Himself the fulfilment of the jubilee promise (cf. Luke 4:18-21). In a sense, the whole church age is the year of jubilee. And the end of that age will be punctuated with another trumpet call (cf. 1 Corinthians 15:52).
Psalm 81:4. “For this was a statute for Israel, and a law of the God of Jacob.” Christians may think to disqualify themselves from the worship of God because of the times when we have slipped back into the ways of our former selves: but the people of God as a whole are indicated under both their covenant name, “Israel”, and their pre-covenant name “Jacob”. We need not be presumptuous, but our Lord is ever ready to receive back the backslider.
Psalm 81:5. “This He ordained in Joseph.” The LORD was already working for the tribes of Israel when Joseph was sold into captivity by his brethren (cf. Genesis 50:20). The call to worship was already ordained when the LORD later sent Moses to Pharaoh (cf. Exodus 3:18).
“When He went out through the land of Egypt.” The LORD had seen the afflictions of His people, and had mercy (cf. Exodus 3:7).
“I heard a language that I understood not.” (cf. Psalm 114:1). The language of the world is not the language of Zion. Neither is that true worship which is offered to any but to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Christians, too, need to recognise that we are but ‘strangers and pilgrims in the earth’ (cf. Hebrews 11:13).
Psalm 81:6. “I removed his shoulder from the burden: his hands were delivered from the pots.” This was the promised deliverance of Israel (cf. Exodus 6:6-7), but also prefigures ours. We lay the “burden” of our sin at the foot of the Cross, and are released from our slavish attempts to ‘work’ our way into heaven.
Psalm 81:7. “You called in trouble, and I delivered you.” The LORD heard the cry of His people, and sent a deliverer (cf. Exodus 3:9-10). When we put our trust (faith) in Jesus, God hears our cry for forgiveness (repentance), and delivers us from the bondage of sin and of death. Ever after we find God to be the One who hears and answers our prayers.
“I answered you in the secret place of thunder”. This is Sinai, where the Law was given. But it also thundered at Calvary, where Jesus fulfilled the penalty of the Law on our behalf, and cried, ‘Finished!’
“I proved you at the waters of Meribah.” The people thought they were testing God in this wilderness place (cf. Exodus 17:7; Psalm 95:8-9), but rather He was testing them. How quickly we might forget past mercies!
The God who has blessed us hitherto, will He not still bless us? The God who is ever with us, will He not remain with us forever? The God who is ever-merciful, will He not be merciful yet?
“Selah.” Now is the time for quiet contemplation. To His Name be praise forever. Amen.
2. HONEY OUT OF THE ROCK.
Psalm 81:8-16.
If we allow that the summons to praise (Psalm 81:1) is a call to celebrate the kingship of the LORD, it is because He, and He alone, is God (Psalm 81:9-10; cf. Deuteronomy 6:4-5).
Psalm 81:8. “Hear, O my people, and I will testify unto you: O Israel, if you will hearken unto me.” This sounds quite like another court case (cf. Psalm 50:7). We could almost forget that this is a psalm, and not a chapter out of Deuteronomy. There are echoes here of: ‘Today, if you will hear His voice, harden not your heart’ (cf. Psalm 95:7-8). Of Jesus, too: ‘If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear’ (cf. Mark 4:23).
Psalm 81:9. The LORD reminds His people of the first COMMANDMENT: ‘no other gods’ (cf. Exodus 20:3). As Christians, we owe our all to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. There is no other who has a claim upon us, and we must banish anything which seeks to usurp His place in our lives.
Psalm 81:10. “I am the LORD your God, who brought you up out of Egypt.” We sometimes need to be reminded of what God has done for us in leading us ‘out of the house of bondage’ (cf. Exodus 20:2) - out of the bondage of sin and death and into His glorious kingdom!
Past mercies are the foundation of present prayers, and present prayers are the channel towards future blessings.
“Open your mouth wide and I will fill it.” What a PROMISE! The picture is of chicks in the nest, anticipating the return of a parent with a morsel. ‘Ask, and you shall receive; seek, and you shall find’ (cf. Matthew 7:7).
Yet it would be sad to limit this just to food. The more we open our mouths in prayer, the more the Holy Spirit assists us in prayer (cf. Romans 8:26-27). The more we pray, the more the Lord shall fill us with the blessings we crave (cf. Philippians 4:19). The more God answers prayer, the more we should open our mouths in praise (cf. Ephesians 3:20-21).
Psalm 81:11. “But my people would not hearken to my voice; and Israel would none of me.” The DISOBEDIENCE began even while Moses was still in the mountain (Exodus 32:1). It continued throughout the days of the prophets (Jeremiah 2:11-13). The same lament is found on the mouth of our Saviour (cf. Matthew 23:37).
Psalm 81:12. “So I gave them up to their own hearts’ lust: and they walked in their own counsels.” It is a terrible thing for stubborn hearts to be given up to their own desires (cf. Romans 1:24-25). Left to his own devices, man will only wax worse and worse. And sin is aggravated where God’s voice was heard, but not heeded.
Psalm 81:13. The LORD upbraids His people: “Oh that my people had hearkened unto me, and Israel had walked in my ways.” We can almost feel the ANGUISH of the parent. The Father’s love is still reaching out to His wayward children. ‘He has no pleasure in the death of the wicked’ (cf. Ezekiel 33:11); ‘not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance’ (cf. 2 Peter 3:9).
If only they had hearkened, then God would have been their ‘strength’ (Psalm 81:1), and they would not have suffered the setbacks hinted at in the following verses.
Psalm 81:14. “I should have soon subdued their enemies, and turned my hand against their adversaries.”
‘We wrestle not against flesh and blood’ (cf. Ephesians 6:12), so ‘the weapons of our warfare are not carnal’ (cf. 2 Corinthians 10:4-5). Spiritual enemies are best combatted by an obedient spiritual life.
Psalm 81:15. If the LORD’s people hearkened, then “the haters of the LORD should have submitted themselves unto Him.” I wonder how often believers’ lack of faithfulness proves to be a stumbling block to others.
“But” if the LORD’s people had hearkened, then, “their time should have endured for ever.” ‘Righteousness exalts a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people (cf. Proverbs 14:34).
However, despite the disobedience, despite the reproach, despite the regret, our God still furnishes another PROMISE for those who will hearken:
Psalm 81:16. “He should have fed them also with the finest of the wheat.” He “fills” (Psalm 81:10) us with ‘the finest of wheat’ (cf. Psalm 147:14). ‘He that spared not His own Son, but gave Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things’ (Romans 8:32).
“And with honey out of the Rock should I have satisfied thee,” says the LORD. ‘And that Rock is Christ’ (cf. 1 Corinthians 10:4). There is no greater satisfaction than to abide in Him, and He in us (cf. John 15:7).
