Psalms 81:2-12

2 Sing! Beat the tambourine. Play the sweet lyre and the harp.

3 Blow the ram’s horn at new moon, and again at full moon to call a festival!

4 For this is required by the decrees of Israel; it is a regulation of the God of Jacob.

5 He made it a law for Israel when he attacked Egypt to set us free. I heard an unknown voice say,

6 “Now I will take the load from your shoulders; I will free your hands from their heavy tasks.

7 You cried to me in trouble, and I saved you; I answered out of the thundercloud and tested your faith when there was no water at Meribah. Interlude

8 “Listen to me, O my people, while I give you stern warnings. O Israel, if you would only listen to me!

9 You must never have a foreign god; you must not bow down before a false god.

10 For it was I, the LORD your God, who rescued you from the land of Egypt. Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it with good things.

11 “But no, my people wouldn’t listen. Israel did not want me around.

12 So I let them follow their own stubborn desires, living according to their own ideas.

Psalms 81:2-12 Meaning and Commentary

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."

Footnotes

• [a]. Hebrew for Joseph.