Psalm 81

1 Dem Vorsänger, auf der Gittith. Von Asaph. Jubelt Gott, unserer Stärke! Jauchzet dem Gott Jakobs!

2 Erhebet Gesang und lasset das Tamburin ertönen, die liebliche Laute samt der Harfe!

3 Stoßet am Neumonde in die Posaune, am Vollmonde zum Tage unseres Festes!

4 Denn eine Satzung für Israel ist es, eine Verordnung des Gottes Jakobs.

5 Er setzte es ein als ein Zeugnis in Joseph, als er auszog gegen das Land Ägypten, wo ich eine Sprache hörte, die ich nicht kannte.

6 Ich entzog der Last seine Schulter, seine Hände entgingen dem Tragkorbe.

7 In der Bedrängnis riefest du, und ich befreite dich; ich antwortete dir in des Donners Hülle; ich prüfte dich an den Wassern von Meriba. (Sela.)

8 Höre, mein Volk, und ich will wider dich zeugen. O Israel, wenn du mir gehorchtest!

9 Es soll kein fremder Gott unter dir sein, und du sollst dich nicht bücken vor einem Gott des Auslandes.

10 Ich bin Jehova, dein Gott, der dich aus dem Lande Ägypten heraufgeführt hat; tue deinen Mund weit auf, und ich will ihn füllen.

11 Aber mein Volk hat nicht auf meine Stimme gehört, und Israel ist nicht willig gegen mich gewesen.

12 Und ich gab sie dahin der Verstocktheit ihres Herzens; sie wandelten nach ihren Ratschlägen.

13 O daß mein Volk auf mich gehört, daß Israel in meinen Wegen gewandelt hätte!

14 Bald würde ich ihre Feinde gebeugt und meine Hand gewendet haben gegen ihre Bedränger.

15 Die Hasser Jehovas würden sich ihm mit Schmeichelei unterworfen haben, und ihre Zeit würde ewig gewesen sein;

16 und mit dem Fette des Weizens würde er es gespeist, und mit Honig aus dem Felsen würde ich dich gesättigt haben.

Psalm 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."