Psalms 81:13-16

Oh that my people had hearkened unto me, and Israel had walked in my ways!

-God still yearns over them, in spite of their perversity and its penal consequence, waiting to be gracious.

Verse 13. Oh that my people had hearkened unto me, and Israel had walked in my ways! - or rather, 'Oh that my people would hearken unto me, and Israel would walk in my ways as they do not!' [So luw (H3863) means; akin to the negative, lo' (H3808)] (Isaiah 48:18). "My ways" in contrast to "their own counsels," fatal to themselves (Psalms 81:12).

Verse 14. I should soon have subdued their enemies, and turned my hand against their adversaries - in punishment just as I "turned" it against Egypt in behalf of Israel (Psalms 81:6).

Verse 15. The haters of the Lord should have submitted themselves unto him - Hebrew ( yªkachashuw (H3584)), 'should have yielded (or rather, should yield) obedience (though) feigned unto him' (Israel). The original passage referred to here is Deuteronomy 33:29, "Thine enemies shall be found liars unto thee;" margin, shall be subdued unto thee, (Psalms 18:44, margin, and, 66:3, margin) "The haters of the Lord," God implies, 'are no friends of mine, though I allow them now to triumph over thee. It is because thou hast forsaken me I let them oppress thee. If thou wouldst return to me, thine enemies, who are also mine, would in spite of themselves, be forced to submit to thee.' In order to give prominence to the thought so calculated to win back Israel to God, that her enemies are God's enemies. He uses the full form - "the haters of the Lord." instead of 'my haters.'

But their time should have endured for ever - the time of the Israelites (2 Samuel 7:24).

Verse 16. He should have fed them also with the finest of the wheat - Hebrew, with the fat of wheat, from Deuteronomy 32:14, "the fat of kidneys of wheat;" i:e., the finest and best wheat.

And with honey out of the rock should I have satisfied thee - (from Deuteronomy 32:13). Not honey prepared by bees in crevices of the rocks, but a poetical figure (Job 29:6) for the sweetest dainties supplied by God's special interposition out of the most unlikely places; like the common figure, "a land flowing with milk and honey."