Psalm 81

1 Auf der Gittith, vorzusingen, Asaphs. Singet fröhlich Gott, der unsre Stärke ist; jauchzt dem Gott Jakobs!

2 Hebet an mit Psalmen und gebet her die Pauken, liebliche Harfen mit Psalter!

3 Blaset im Neumond die Posaune, in unserm Fest der Laubhütten!

4 Denn solches ist die Weise in Israel und ein Recht des Gottes Jakobs.

5 Solche hat er zum Zeugnis gesetzt unter Joseph, da sie aus Ägyptenland zogen und fremde Sprache gehört hatten,

6 da ich ihre Schulter von der Last entledigt hatte und ihre Hände der Körbe los wurden.

7 Da du mich in der Not anriefst, half ich dir aus; ich erhörte dich, da dich das Wetter überfiel, und versuchte dich am Haderwasser. (Sela.)

8 Höre, mein Volk, ich will unter dir zeugen; Israel, du sollst mich hören,

9 daß unter dir kein anderer Gott sei und du keinen fremden Gott anbetest.

10 Ich bin der HERR, dein Gott, der dich aus Ägyptenland geführt hat: Tue deinen Mund weit auf, laß mich ihn füllen!

11 Aber mein Volk gehorcht nicht meiner Stimme, und Israel will mich nicht.

12 So habe ich sie gelassen in ihres Herzens Dünkel, daß sie wandeln nach ihrem Rat.

13 Wollte mein Volk mir gehorsam sein und Israel auf meinem Wege gehen,

14 so wollte ich ihre Feinde bald dämpfen und meine Hand über ihre Widersacher wenden,

15 und denen, die den HERRN hassen, müßte es wider sie fehlen; ihre Zeit aber würde ewiglich währen,

16 und ich würde sie mit dem besten Weizen speisen und mit Honig aus dem Felsen sättigen.

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."