Psalms 81:1-16
1 Sing aloud unto God our strength: make a joyful noise unto the God of Jacob.
2 Take a psalm, and bring hither the timbrel, the pleasant harp with the psaltery.
3 Blow up the trumpet in the new moon, in the time appointed, on our solemn feast day.
4 For this was a statute for Israel, and a law of the God of Jacob.
5 This he ordained in Joseph for a testimony, when he went out through the land of Egypt: where I heard a language that I understood not.
6 I removed his shoulder from the burden: his hands were delivered from the pots.
7 Thou calledst in trouble, and I delivered thee; I answered thee in the secret place of thunder: I proved thee at the waters of Meribah.a Selah.
8 Hear, O my people, and I will testify unto thee: O Israel, if thou wilt hearken unto me;
9 There shall no strange god be in thee; neither shalt thou worship any strange god.
10 I am the LORD thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt: open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it.
11 But my people would not hearken to my voice; and Israel would none of me.
12 So I gave them up unto their own hearts' lust: and they walked in their own counsels.
13 Oh that my people had hearkened unto me, and Israel had walked in my ways!
14 I should soon have subdued their enemies, and turned my hand against their adversaries.
15 The haters of the LORD should have submittedb themselves unto him: but their time should have endured for ever.
16 He should have fed them also with the finestc of the wheat: and with honey out of the rock should I have satisfied thee.
This is a psalm for the Feast of Trumpets. In the calendar of the Hebrews this feast prepared the way for the Day of Atonement and the Feast of Tabernacles. The first day of the seventh month was the feast of Trumpets. The tenth day of the seventh month was Atonement. The fifteenth day of the seventh month was Tabernacles Leviticus 23:1).
The psalm opens with a call to the Feast of Trumpets, and a declaration of its Divine appointment (vv. Psa 81:1-5). Then the singer expresses the attitude of God to His people, and the song proceeds as in the words of Jehovah (vv. Psa 81:6-10). First He tells of His deliverance of them from bondage, and His answer to them at Sinai (vv. Psa 81:6-7). Then He reminds them of the terms of the covenant with them. He would speak and they should harken. They were to have no God but Himself, and He would be to them Jehovah God. They were to open the mouth and He would fill it (vv. Psa 81:8-10). They failed in refusing to hearken and obey, and therefore He abandoned them to their choice (vv. Psa 81:11-12). Finally He expresses His desire that they should return, and declares His ability still to deliver them (vv. Psa 81:13-16). It is still the same burned of the faithfulness of God, and the unfaithfulness of His people. Panic and defeat on the part of the people of God are always due to their departure from Him. The enemies who overcome us are without strength in the conflict against Him. When they overcome us it is because we have departed from Him.