Psalms 81:1-15

We have here an exhortation to praise God; and this is always in season. Perhaps we need more stirring up to praise than to prayer, yet it ought to be as natural for us to praise God as it is for the birds to sing. Thus the Psalm begins,

Psalms 81:1. Sing aloud unto God our strength:

Yes, the strength which the Lord gives you should be spent in praising him. «Sing aloud.» Throw your whole soul into it. If the Lord makes you strong, then give your strength back to him in sacred song: «Sing aloud unto God our strength.»

Psalms 81:1. Make a joyful noise unto the God of Jacob.

Other gods, such as Moloch, and Ashtaroth, are worshipped with mournful cries and sorrowful lamentations, but the God of Jacob, the God that heareth prayer, the God of salvation, the God of the covenant, is to be worshipped with joy. He is the happy God, and he loves happy worshippers: «Make a joyful noise unto the God of Jacob.» You do not need to be forced to praise him, but you will do it with alacrity and delight; the very sweetness of your song will consist in the cheerfulness of it:

«Make a joyful noise unto the God of Jacob.»

Psalms 81:2. Take a psalm, and bring hither the timbrel, the pleasant harp with the psaltery. Blow up the trumpet in the new moon, in the time appointed, on our solemn feast day. For this was a statute for Israel, and a law of the God of Jacob.

It is «a statute» that we should praise God; it is «a law» that we should make a joyful noise before him. Happy law, and happy men who are under such a law! Let us be quick to obey it, and let not the King's statute be disregarded by any one of us.

Psalms 81:5. 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.

God understands his people's language, and in very truth he understands everything; but here he uses a Hebraic to show that he did not care for the speech of the Egyptians: «I heard a language that I understood not.» This sentence is like that other expression, «I never knew you.» Of course, the Lord knows everyone as a matter of acquaintance, but not as a matter of affection. He cared not for the Egyptians; they were aliens to him; he went out against the land of Egypt. It was for Joseph, and for his own people who were under the leadership of Joseph in that heathen land, that he ordained this statute that they should praise the name of Jehovah.

Psalms 81:6. I removed his shoulder from the burden:

Is not that true of many of you in a spiritual sense? Oh, what a burden of sin we used to carry! How have we got rid of it? Does not the Lord here remind us of how we lost that grievous load? «I removed his shoulder from the burden.»

Psalms 81:6. His hands were delivered from the pots.

We used to be busy enough with the slave's occupation of making bricks without straw. Hard was the task when we were under legal bondage, harder still the toil when under the bondage of our own sin, slaves of our own selves: who could ever have a more tyrant master than himself? But that is all over now, and the Lord can say, «I removed his shoulder from the burden: his hands were delivered from the pots.»

Psalms 81:7. Thou calledst in trouble, and I delivered thee;

What a gracious word is this! How it reminds us, in the most loving tones, of our obligations to the Lord!» Thou calledst in trouble, and I delivered thee.»

Psalms 81:7. I answered thee in the secret place of thunder: I proved thee at the waters of Meribah. Selah.

A very humbling sentence this! God has often proved us, and he has often disproved us. When he has tried us, we have not endured the test as we ought to have done. We have murmured and complained, and the waters, which ought to have been waters of joy and of happy patience, have been waters of strife. «Selah «That is, «Pause,» screw up the harp-strings, lift up the heart. Such a Psalm as this is to be read by installments, with little halts on the road, for us to meditate and think upon the truth brought before us. We may well pause here when we hear the Lord reminding us of our faults and of his great mercy to us: «I delivered thee; I answered thee; I proved thee at the waters of Meribah. Selah.»

Psalms 81:8. Hear, O my people, and I will testify unto thee: O Israel, if thou wilt hearken unto me;

What! Is there any question as to whether God's people will hearken to him or not? Alas! sometimes our ears grow very heavy, we are so occupied with the cares of the world, so sleepy while passing over the Enchanted Ground, that we do not hear that dear voice to which we ought to give heed whenever it speaks: «Hear, O my people, O Israel, if thou wilt hearken unto me.»

Psalms 81:9. There shall no strange god be in thee; neither shalt thou worship any strange god.

It is strange that we should ever wish to do so. Oh, that we might be wholly delivered from everything that looks like idolatry, and be enabled to cleave to the worship of the one living and true God with the serenity and certainty of faith!

Psalms 81:10. I am the LORD thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt: open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it. But my people would not hearken to my voice; and Israel would none of me.

Oh, how plaintive is this lament! Is it not full of sorrow? «Israel would none of me.» Her own God, her own Friend, her own Benefactor, her own Husband has to cry, «Israel would none of me, would not have my law, my promise, my guidance, myself, Israel would none of me.»

Psalms 81:12. So I gave them up

Dreadful word! If God gives us up, even for a moment, there is no telling into what sin we may plunge; and if he were to give us up altogether, ah, me! this were the most direful of sentences: «So I gave them up»

Psalms 81:12. Unto their own hearts' lust: and they walked in their own counsels.

O God, save us from this awful state! This indeed is hell to be given up of God. Pray, dear brothers and sisters, that such a terrible curse may never come upon you. Yet it is a most righteous punishment; if a man will not have God, and will give God up, what can be a more righteous retribution than that God should give him up? He does so at last with ungodly men, yet he does it very reluctantly, and he says, «How shall I give thee up?» May he never give up one of you!

Psalms 81:13. Oh that my people had hearkened unto me, and Israel had walked in my ways:

And can we not echo that lament, and say, «Oh, that we had hearkened unto God, and that we had walked in his ways»? What a happy life would the believer enjoy if he always had an ear for God's commandments and a foot for his ways!» Oh that my people had hearkened unto me, and Israel had walked in my ways!»

Psalms 81:14. I should soon have subdued their enemies, and turned my hand against their adversaries. The haters of the LORD should have submitted themselves unto him; but their time should have endured for ever.

«Their time» the time of his own people «should have endured for ever.» They might have been always conquerors, always kings, always favored of God, always walking in the light, as God is in the light. So might it be with us if we would first hearken to God, and next, walk in his ways. The mark on the ear and the mark on the foot are two of the tokens of Christ's sheep: «My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.» May we all have both the ear-mark and the foot-mark!

Psalms 81:16. He should have fed them also with the finest of the wheat:

How sweet would gospel doctrine be if gospel precepts were observed!

When you do not enjoy the preaching of the Word, is it not because you are out of health, and your spiritual appetite is impaired: «He should have fed them also with the finest of the wheat.» When the soul lives near to God, then the Word of the Lord is sweeter than honey and the honey-comb.

Psalms 81:16. And with honey out of the rock should I have satisfied thee.

You know what this «honey out of the rock» is. You have tasted it, and in days gone by you have feasted on it; perhaps you have not had much of it of late. If so, remember why this is. God will give his children bread, but he will not give them honey unless they live very near to him; you shall have the necessaries of life, but not luxuries. The high and heavenly joys of the divine life shall be denied to you if you work at a distance from your God; but if you keep close to him, you shall have the finest of the wheat, and you shall be satisfied with honey out of the rock. May the Lord bless the reading of his Word to us, and may he draw nearer to himself! Amen.