Salmos 81

1 CANTAD á Dios, fortaleza nuestra: Al Dios de Jacob celebrad con júbilo.

2 Tomad la canción, y tañed el adufe, El arpa deliciosa con el salterio.

3 Tocad la trompeta en la nueva luna, En el día señalado, en el día de nuestra solemnidad.

4 Porque estatuto es de Israel, Ordenanza del Dios de Jacob.

5 Por testimonio en José lo ha constituído, Cuando salió por la tierra de Egipto; Donde oí lenguaje que no entendía.

6 Aparté su hombro de debajo de la carga; Sus manos se quitaron de vasijas de barro.

7 En la calamidad clamaste, y yo te libré: Te respondí en el secreto del trueno; Te probé sobre las aguas de Meriba. (Selah.)

8 Oye, pueblo mío y te protestaré. Israel, si me oyeres,

9 No habrá en ti dios ajeno, Ni te encorvarás á dios extraño.

10 Yo soy Jehová tu Dios, Que te hice subir de la tierra de Egipto: Ensancha tu boca, y henchirla he.

11 Mas mi pueblo no oyó mi voz, E Israel no me quiso á mí.

12 Dejélos por tanto á la dureza de su corazón: Caminaron en sus consejos.

13 ¡Oh, si me hubiera oído mi pueblo, Si en mis caminos hubiera Israel andado!

14 En una nada habría yo derribado sus enemigos, Y vuelto mi mano sobre sus adversarios.

15 Los aborrecedores de Jehová se le hubieran sometido; Y el tiempo de ellos fuera para siempre.

16 Y Dios lo hubiera mantenido de grosura de trigo: Y de miel de la piedra te hubiera saciado.

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."