Salmos 81

1 Salmo 81
Para el director del coro: salmo de Asaf; acompáñese con instrumento de cuerda.
Entonen alabanzas a Dios, nuestra fuerza;
canten al Dios de Jacob.

2 ¡Canten! Toquen la pandereta.
Hagan sonar la dulce lira y el arpa.

3 ¡Toquen el cuerno de carnero en la luna nueva
y otra vez en la luna llena, para convocar a un festival!

4 Pues los decretos de Israel así lo exigen;
es una ordenanza del Dios de Jacob.

5 Él lo hizo ley para Israel
cuando atacó a Egipto para ponernos en libertad.
Oí una voz desconocida que decía:

6 «Ahora quitaré la carga de tus hombros;
liberaré tus manos de las tareas pesadas.

7 Clamaste a mí cuando estabas en apuros, y yo te salvé;
respondí desde el nubarrón
y puse a prueba tu fe cuando no había agua en Meriba.
Interludio

8 »Escúchame, pueblo mío, en tanto te doy severas advertencias.
¡Oh Israel, si tan solo me escucharas!

9 Jamás debes tener un dios extranjero;
nunca debes inclinarte frente a un dios falso.

10 Pues fui yo, el Señor
tu Dios,
quien te rescató de la tierra de Egipto.
Abre bien tu boca, y la llenaré de cosas buenas.

11 »Pero no, mi pueblo no quiso escuchar;
Israel no quiso que estuviera cerca.

12 Así que dejé que siguiera sus tercos deseos,
y que viviera según sus propias ideas.

13 ¡Oh, si mi pueblo me escuchara!
¡Oh, si Israel me siguiera y caminara por mis senderos!

14 ¡Qué rápido sometería a sus adversarios!
¡Qué pronto pondría mis manos sobre sus enemigos!

15 Los que odian al Señor
se arrastrarían delante de él;
quedarían condenados para siempre.

16 Pero a ustedes los alimentaría con el mejor trigo;
los saciaría con miel silvestre de la roca».

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."