Salmos 81

1 Cantad con gozo a Dios, fortaleza nuestra; aclamad con júbilo al Dios de Jacob.

2 Entonad canto de alabanza, y tocad el pandero, la melodiosa lira con el arpa.

3 Tocad la trompeta en la luna nueva, en la luna llena, en el día de nuestra fiesta.

4 Porque es estatuto para Israel, ordenanza del Dios de Jacob.

5 El lo estableció por testimonio en José, cuando salió sobre la tierra de Egipto. Un lenguaje que yo no conocía, oí:

6 Yo libré su hombro de la carga, sus manos se libraron de las canastas.

7 En la angustia llamaste, y yo te rescaté; te respondí en el escondite del trueno; en las aguas de Meriba te probé. (Selah)

8 Oye, pueblo mío, y te amonestaré. ¡Oh Israel, si tú me oyeras!

9 No haya en ti dios ajeno, ni adores a dios extranjero.

10 Yo, el SEÑOR, soy tu Dios, que te saqué de la tierra de Egipto; abre bien tu boca y la llenaré.

11 Pero mi pueblo no escuchó mi voz; Israel no me obedeció.

12 Por eso los entregué a la dureza de su corazón, para que anduvieran en sus propias intrigas.

13 ¡Oh, si mi pueblo me oyera, si Israel anduviera en mis caminos!

14 En un momento yo subyugaría a sus enemigos y volvería mi mano contra sus adversarios.

15 Los que aborrecen al SEÑOR le fingirían obediencia, y el tiempo de su castigo sería para siempre.

16 Pero yo te alimentaría con lo mejor del trigo, y con miel de la peña te saciaría.

Salmos 81 Commentary

Chapter 81

God is praised for what he has done for his people. (1-7) Their obligations to him. (8-16)

Verses 1-7 All the worship we can render to the Lord is beneath his excellences, and our obligations to him, especially in our redemption from sin and wrath. What God had done on Israel's behalf, was kept in remembrance by public solemnities. To make a deliverance appear more gracious, more glorious, it is good to observe all that makes the trouble we are delivered from appear more grievous. We ought never to forget the base and ruinous drudgery to which Satan, our oppressor, brought us. But when, in distress of conscience, we are led to cry for deliverance, the Lord answers our prayers, and sets us at liberty. Convictions of sin, and trials by affliction, prove his regard to his people. If the Jews, on their solemn feast-days, were thus to call to mind their redemption out of Egypt, much more ought we, on the Christian sabbath, to call to mind a more glorious redemption, wrought out for us by our Lord Jesus Christ, from worse bondage.

Verses 8-16 We cannot look for too little from the creature, nor too much from the Creator. We may have enough from God, if we pray for it in faith. All the wickedness of the world is owing to man's wilfulness. People are not religious, because they will not be so. God is not the Author of their sin, he leaves them to the lusts of their own hearts, and the counsels of their own heads; if they do not well, the blame must be upon themselves. The Lord is unwilling that any should perish. What enemies sinners are to themselves! It is sin that makes our troubles long, and our salvation slow. Upon the same conditions of faith and obedience, do Christians hold those spiritual and eternal good things, which the pleasant fields and fertile hills of Canaan showed forth. Christ is the Bread of life; he is the Rock of salvation, and his promises are as honey to pious minds. But those who reject him as their Lord and Master, must also lose him as their Saviour and their reward.

Chapter Summary

To the chief Musician upon Gittith, A [Psalm] of Asaph. Of "gittith," See Gill on "Ps 8:1." The Targum renders it, "upon the harp which came from Gath;" and so Jarchi says it was a musical instrument that came from Gath. The Septuagint, and the versions which follow that, render it, "for the winepresses." This psalm, according to Kimchi, is said concerning the going out of the children of Israel from Egypt; and was composed in order to be sung at their new moons and solemn feasts, which were typical of Gospel things in Gospel times; see Colossians 2:16 and so the Syriac version, "a psalm of Asaph, when David by him prepared himself for the solemnities."