PSALM 81 COMME�TARYEDITED BY GLE�� PEASE

For the director of music. According to gittith.[b] Of Asaph.

I�TRODUCTIO�

SPURGEO�, "Title. To the Chief Musician upon Gittith. Very little is known of the meaning of this title. We have given the best explanation known to us in connection with Psalms 8:1-9 in Vol. 1 of this work. If it be intended to indicate a vintage song, it speaks well for the piety of the people for whom it was written; it is to be feared that in few places even in Christian countries would holy hymns be thought suitable to be sung in connection with the winepress. When the bells upon the horses shall be holiness unto the Lord, then shall the juice of the grape gush forth to the accompaniment of sacred song. A Psalm of Asaph. This poet here again dwells upon the history of his country; his great forte seems to be rehearsing the past in admonitory psalmody. He is the poet of the history and politics of Israel. A truly national songster, at once pious and patriotic.Divisions. Praise is called for to celebrate some memorable day, perhaps the passover; whereupon the deliverance out of Egypt is described, Psalms 81:1-7. Then the Lord gently chides his people for their ingratitude, and pictures their happy estate had they but been obedient to his commands.

ELLICOTT, "This is plainly a festival song, but by no means one of that jubilant class of festival songs that conclude the Psalter. The poet is in the truest sense a prophet, and, while calling on all the nation to join in the music of the feast, he tries to convince them of the sad lapse in religion from the ideal which the appointed feasts were intended to support. By a poetic turn of high order, he represents himself as catching suddenly, amid the blare of trumpets and clash of drums, the accents of a strange, unknown voice. He listens. It is God Himself speaking and recalling, by a few brief incisive touches, the history of the ancient deliverance from Egypt. The servitude, the storm passage of the Red Sea, the miraculous supply of water, with the revelation it made of the faithlessness of the people; the covenant at Sinai, the Decalogue, by its opening commandment—are all glanced at; and then comes the sad sequel, the stubbornness and perversity of the nation for which all had been done.

But the psalm does not end with sadness. After the rebuke comes the promise of rich and abundant blessing, upon the condition of future obedience.

The particular festival for which the psalm was composed, or which it celebrates, has been matter of controversy. The arguments in favour of the Feast of Tabernacles will be found stated in the �ote to Psalms 81:3. But the mode of treatment would equally well suit any of the great Israelite feasts. They were at once memorials of God’s goodness and witnesses of the ingratitude and perverseness which, with these significant records continually before them, the nation so sadly displayed. After the prologue the poem falls into two nearly equal strophes.

1 Sing for joy to God our strength; shout aloud to the God of Jacob!

BAR�ES, "Sing aloud unto God our strength - The strength and support of the nation; he from whom the nation has derived all its power. The word rendered sing aloud means to rejoice; and then, to make or cause to rejoice. It would be appropriate to a high festal occasion, where music constituted an important part of the public service. And it would be a proper word to employ in reference to any of the great feasts of the Hebrews.

Make a joyful noise - A noise indicating joy, as distinguished from a noise of mourning or lamentation.

Unto the God of Jacob - Not here particularly the God of the patriarch himself, but of the people who bore his name - his descendants.

CLARKE, "Sing aloud unto God our strength - There is much meaning here: as God is our strength, let that strength be devoted to his service; therefore, sing aloud! This is principally addressed to the priests and Levites.

GILL, "Sing aloud unto God our strength,.... The strength of Israel, who, by strength of hand, and a mighty arm, brought Israel out of Egypt, protected and upheld them in the wilderness, and brought them to, and settled and established them in the land of Canaan; and who is the strength of every true Israelite, from whom they have both their natural and spiritual strength; so that they can exercise grace, perform duty, bear afflictions, withstand temptations, fight with and conquer enemies, and hold on

and out unto the end; and therefore have reason to sing the praises of God with great fervour, zeal, and affection:

make a joyful noise unto the God of Jacob; or Israel, being the God that had made a covenant with them, had chosen them for his peculiar people, and had redeemed them out of the house of bondage, and bestowed peculiar favours upon them; and therefore were under obligation to show forth his praise vocally and audibly, and with strong expressions of joy; and the spiritual Israel of God much more so, who have an interest in the covenant of grace, and share in electing, redeeming, and calling grace, by all which he appears to be their God and Father, in a special sense.

HE�RY, "When the people of God were gathered together in the solemn day, the day of the feast of the Lord, they must be told that they had business to do, for we do not go to church to sleep nor to be idle; no, there is that which the duty of every day requires, work of the day, which is to be done in its day. And here,

I. The worshippers of God are excited to their work, and are taught, by singing this psalm, to stir up both themselves and one another to it, Psa_81:1-3. Our errand is, to give unto God the glory due unto his name, and in all our religious assemblies we must mind this as our business. 1. In doing this we must eye God as our strength, and as the God of Jacob, Psa_81:1. He is the strength of Israel, as a people; for he is a God in covenant with them, who will powerfully protect, support, and deliver them, who fights their battles and makes them do valiantly and victoriously. He is the strength of every Israelite; by his grace we are enabled to go through all our services, sufferings, and conflicts; and to him, as our strength, we must pray, and we must sing praise to him as the God of all the wrestling seed of Jacob, with whom we have a spiritual communion. 2. We must do this by all the expressions of holy joy and triumph. It was then to be done by musical instruments, the timbrel, harp, and psaltery; and by blowing the trumpet, some think in remembrance of the sound of the trumpet on Mount Sinai, which waxed louder and louder. It was then and is now to be done by singing psalms, singing aloud, and making a joyful noise. The pleasantness of the harp and the awfulness of the trumpet intimate to us that God is to be worshipped with cheerfulness and joy with reverence and godly fear. Singing aloud and making a noise intimate that we must be warm and affectionate in praising God, that we must with a hearty good-will show forth his praise, as those that are not ashamed to own our dependence on him and obligations to him, and that we should join many together in this work; the more the better; it is the more like heaven. 3. This must be done in the time appointed. No time is amiss for praising God (Seven times a day will I praise thee; nay, at midnight will I rise and give thanks unto thee); but some are times appointed, not for God to meet us (he is always ready), but for us to meet one another, that we may join together in praising Do. The solemn feast-day must be a day of praise; when we are receiving the gifts of God's bounty, and rejoicing in them, then it is proper to sing his praises.

JAMISO�, "Psa_81:1-16. Gittith - (See on Psa_8:1, title). A festal Psalm, probably for the Passover (compare Mat_26:30), in which, after an exhortation to praise God, He is introduced, reminding Israel of their obligations, chiding their neglect, and depicting the happy results of obedience.

our strength— (Psa_38:7).

CALVI�, "1Sing joyfully to God our strength. This psalm, it is probable, was appointed to be sung on the festival days on which the Jews kept their solemn assemblies. In the exordium, there is set forth the order of worship which God had enjoined. They were not to stand deaf and dumb at the tabernacle; for the service of God does not consist in indolence, nor in cold and empty ceremonies; but they were, by such exercises as are here prescribed, to cherish among themselves the unity of faith; to make an open profession of their piety; to stir up themselves to continual progress therein; to endeavor to join, with one accord, in praising God; and, in short, to continue steadfast in the sacred covenant by which God had adopted them to himself.

Such having been the use of festival days under the law, we may conclude, that whenever true believers assemble together at the present day, the end which they ought to have in view is to employ themselves in the exercises of religion — to call to their remembrance the benefits which they have received from God — to make progress in the knowledge of his word — and to testify the oneness of their faith. Men only mock God by presenting to him vain and unprofitable ceremonies, unless the doctrine of faith go before, stirring them up to call upon God; and unless, also, the remembrance of his benefits furnish matter of praise. Yea, rather it is a profanation of his name, when people quench the light of divine truth, and satisfy themselves with performing mere outward service. Accordingly, the faithful are here not only enjoined to come together to the tabernacle, but are also taught the end for which they are to assemble there, which is, that the free and gracious covenant which God has made with them may be brought anew to their remembrance, for increasing their faith and piety, that thus the benefits which they have received from him may be celebrated, and their hearts thereby moved to thanksgiving. With respect to the tabret, harp, and psaltery, we have formerly observed, and will find it necessary afterwards to repeat the same remark, that the Levites, under the law, were justified in making use of instrumental music in the worship of God; it having been his will to train his people, while they were as yet tender and like children, by such rudiments, until the coming of Christ. But now when the clear light of the gospel has dissipated the shadows of the law, and taught us that God is to be served in a simpler form, it would be to act a foolish and mistaken part to imitate that which the prophet enjoined only upon those of his own time. From this, it is apparent that the Papists have shown themselves to be very apes in transferring this to themselves. Under the new moon, by the figure synecdoche, is comprehended all the other high feasts. Sacrifices were daily offered; but the days on which the faithful met together at the tabernacle, according to the express appointment of the law, are called, by way of eminence, the days of sacrifice.

SPURGEO�, "Ver. 1. Sing, in tune and measure, so that the public praise may be in harmony; sing with joyful notes, and sounds melodious.Aloud. For the heartiest praise is due to our good Lord. His acts of love to us speak more loudly than any of our words of gratitude can do. �o dulness should ever stupefy our psalmody, or half heartedness cause is to limp along. Sing aloud, ye debtors to sovereign grace, your hearts are profoundly grateful: let your voices express your thankfulness.

Unto God our strength. The Lord was the strength of his people in delivering them out of Egypt with a high hand, and also in sustaining them in the wilderness, placing them in Canaan, preserving them from their foes, and giving them victory. To whom do men give honour but to those upon whom they rely, therefore let us sing aloud unto our God, who is our strength and our song.Make a joyful noise unto the God of Jacob. The God of the nation, the God of their father Jacob, was extolled in happy music by the Israelitish people; let no Christian be silent, or slack in praise, for this God is our God. It is to be regretted that the niceties of modern singing frighten our congregations from joining lustily in the hymns. For our part we delight in full bursts of praise, and had rather discover the ruggedness of a want of musical training than miss the heartiness of universal congregational song. The gentility which lisps the tune in well bred whispers, or leaves the singing altogether to the choir, is very like a mockery of worship. The gods of Greece and Rome may be worshipped well enough with classical music, but Jehovah can only be adored with the heart, and that music is the best for his service which gives the heart most play.EXPLA�ATORY �OTES A�D QUAI�T SAYI�GSTitle. It is remarkable that as Psalms 80:1-19 treats of the church of God under the figure of a vine, so the present is entitled, "upon Gittith, "literally upon the winepress. Whether the expression was meant to refer to a musical instrument, or to some direction as to the tune, is uncertain. In our Saviour's adoption of the figure of a vineyard to represent his church, he speaks of a winepress dug in it, Matthew 21:33. The idea refers itself to the final result in some sense, in a way of salvation of souls, as the same figure of a winepress is used in Revelation 16:1-21 of the final destruction of the ungodly. W. Wilson.

BE�SO�, "Verses 1-3Psalms 81:1-3. Sing aloud unto God our strength — Our refuge and defence against all our enemies. Bring hither the timbrel, &c. — All which instruments were then prescribed and used in their solemn meetings. Blow up the trumpet in the new-moon — Which was a sacred and festival time. But this may be understood, either, 1st, Generally of every new-moon; or, rather, 2d, Specially of that new-moon which began the seventh month, the month Tisri, when a solemn feast was kept, which was always proclaimed by the sound of trumpets. Compare this passage with Leviticus 23:24, and �umbers 29:1, where this day is called a day of blowing of trumpets; it being the first day of the Jewish civil year, and the time when the world was supposed to have been created, the fruits being then ripe. “The fixing of the time of the new-moon among the Jews, for want of astronomical tables, was done in this manner. The first persons who observed, or thought they observed, the new-moon, were to repair immediately to the grand council to give notice of it. Inquiry was then made into the credibility of the informers, and whether their information agreed with such computations as they were then able to make. After which the president proclaimed the new-moon, by saying, מקדש, mikdash, it is consecrated, or holy. This word was twice repeated aloud by the people, after which it was ordered to be proclaimed everywhere by the sound of the trumpet.” — Univ. Hist., vol. 3. p. 33.

COKE, "Title. ףלאס הגתית על למנצח lamnatseach al haggittith leasaph.] This psalm is

supposed to have been written for the feast of trumpets. See Leviticus 23:24. In the Jewish Liturgy it is still made use of upon this occasion. To this the blowing of the trumpet (Psalms 81:3.) refers; for the new moon in the month Tisri, when this feast was celebrated, was the first day of the Jewish year; at which time the world was supposed to have been created. See �umbers 29.

COFFMA�, "Verse 1PSALM 81

A HYM� A�D HOMILY AT HARVEST TIME

The title we have chosen is that of McCaw. Addis was sure that this psalm is a composite,[1] with no connection whatever between Psalms 81:1-5 and the rest of the chapter. Other scholars also have raised the possibility that what we have here is two fragments of independent productions. However, its seems to us that Yates' opinion on this is correct.

"The abrupt change at the end of verse 5 has suggested to many commentators that fragments of two psalms are joined together here. However, this view is not imperative, because a solemn festival would be a logical time for such a recital of God's relation to Israel as that which concludes the psalm."[2]Also, the fact of Israel's record of disobedience would have made such an exhortation as that which concludes the chapter most appropriate. McCaw's title, "Hymn and Homily"[3] supports Yates' view that the latter part of the psalm is actually an appropriate "sermon" that Israel needed to hear, especially at that time.

The psalm is of a general character; and efforts to tie it either to the feast of Tabernacles or the Feast of the Passover are rather futile. It would have been suitable at any of the great public festivals of Israel. However, the blowing of trumpets "at the full moon" (Psalms 81:3) brings to mind both the Passover and the feast of Tabernacles.

The date of the psalm was discussed by Maclaren.

"The evident existence of the full temple ceremonial shows that the psalm was not written in exile ... The warning against idolatry (v. 9) would have been unnecessary after the exile. Beyond these general indications we cannot go. Definiteness as to the date is unattainable."[4]Psalms 81:1-5

"Sing aloud unto God our strength:

Make a joyful noise unto the God of Jacob.

Raise a song, and bring hither the timbrel,

The pleasant harp with the psaltery.

Blow the trumpet at the new moon,

At the full moon, on our feast day.

For it is a statute for Israel,

An ordinance of the God of Jacob.

He appointed it in Joseph for a testimony,

When he went out over the land of Egypt."

For a discussion of the use of mechanical instruments of music in the ancient Jewish temple, see a full discussion of this at the end of Psalms 150. For the present, it needs to be remembered that the temple itself was contrary to the will of God, just like the monarchy; and, although God accommodated to both, he twice ordered the destruction of the temple and also repudiated and terminated the monarchy.

"Make a joyful noise unto the God of Jacob" (Psalms 81:1). "These words refer to the `blare of trumpets' in Leviticus 23:24; �umbers 29:1 ."[5]

"Blow the trumpet at the new moon ... at the full moon" (Psalms 81:3). Leupold tells us that the trumpets were blown both at the feast of Tabernacles and that of the Passover also, adding that the expression, "`Our feast day' could mean `any and every feast day.'"[6] This would mean that the Jews blew the trumpets every time they had any kind of an important celebration.

"It is a statute for Israel, an ordinance of the God of Jacob" (Psalms 81:4). "The feast, not the musical accompaniments, is appointed by God."[7] We especially appreciate this comment by Alexander Maclaren.

"Israel ... Jacob ... Joseph" (Psalms 81:4-5). "These words are synonymous,"[8] standing in each usage for all of the Chosen People. If the Passover was the feast in view here, Joseph as a term for all Israel might have been due to the prominent part Joseph had in the Jews' Egyptian sojourn. Otherwise, "Its use might express the psalmist's longing for the restoration of the shattered unity of the nation."[9]

"When he went out over the land of Egypt" (Psalms 81:5a). The marginal reference here for `over' is `against,' but neither rendition seems to make a clear statement. Perhaps Briggs was right who declared that, "This should read, `He went out from the land of Egypt.'"[10]

"Where I heard a language that I knew not" (Psalms 81:5b). This is the most difficult line in the whole psalm, and opinions differ sharply on what it means. Dahood stated that God is the speaker here and that when God said he heard a language unknown to him, it referred, "To the collective Israel in Egypt, before it

was chosen by God as his people."[11] In our view this is impossible to accept, because God chose Israel long before their sojourn in Egypt. He chose Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and specifically sent his "Chosen People" into Egypt for four hundred years, prophesying their ultimate departure with great wealth, all of which occurred exactly as God promised.

Barnes held a rather complicated view of the passage, supposing that the speaker here is the psalmist, who identifies himself with the people of Israel, and then projects himself backward in time to the days of Israel's sojourn in Egypt, thus making the strange language that of the Egyptians which Israel heard.[12]

There are other views which we shall not mention. To this writer, we cannot accept the words as the words of God, "Because it is impossible that God could hear anything unknown to him"! The expression therefore must be understood as the words of the psalmist. He could be saying that the current sins, rebellions, and pagan worship at that time being indulged by God's Israel were indeed "a language unknown to him," the same being as hard for him to understand as a foreign language with which he was not familiar. It was such bizarre, straying conduct on Israel's part that inspired the sermon that followed, in which God is indeed the Speaker.

CO�STABLE, "This psalm is a joyful celebration of God"s deliverance of His people. The Israelites probably sang it at the Feast of Tabernacles, since it is a review of God"s faithfulness and focuses especially on the wilderness wanderings. [�ote: A. Ross, p853.] The Feast of Tabernacles reminded the Israelites of this period in their history.

" Psalm 81is a close companion to Psalm 50. If anything, the lines of the argument are even clearer here." [�ote: Brueggemann, p92.]

EBC, "THE psalmist summons priests and people to a solemn festival, commemorative of Israel’s deliverance from Egypt, and sets forth the lessons which that deliverance teaches, the learning of which is the true way of keeping the feast. There has been much discussion as to which feast is in the psalmist’s mind. That of Tabernacles has been widely accepted as intended, chiefly on the ground that the first day of the month in which it occurred was celebrated by the blowing of trumpets, as the beginning of the civil year. This practice is supposed to account for the language of Psalms 81:3, which seems to imply trumpet blowing both at new and full moon. But, on other grounds, the Passover is more likely to be intended, as the psalm deals with the manifestations of Divine power attending the beginning of the Exodus, which followed the first Passover, as well as with those during the desert sojourn, which alone were commemorated by the feast of Tabernacles. True, we have no independent knowledge of any trumpet blowing on the first day of the Passover month (�isan); but Delitzsch and others suggest that from this psalm it may be inferred "that the commencement of each month, and more especially the commencement of the month (�isan), which was at the same time the commencement of the ecclesiastical year, was signalised by the blowing of horns."

On the whole, the Passover is most probably the feast in question.

Olshausen, followed by Cheyne, regards the psalm as made up of two fragments (Psalms 81:1-5 a, - and Psalms 81:5-16). But surely the exhortations and promises of the latter portion are most relevant to the summons to the festival contained in the former part, and there could be no more natural way of preparing for the right commemoration of the deliverance than to draw out its lessons of obedience and to warn against departure from the delivering God. Definiteness as to date is unattainable. The presupposed existence of the full Temple ceremonial shows that the psalm was not written in exile, nor at a time of religious persecution. Its warning against idolatry would be needless in a post-exilic psalm, as no tendency thereto existed after the return from captivity. But beyond such general indications we cannot go. The theory that the psalm is composed of two fragments exaggerates the difference between the two parts into which it falls. These are the summons to the feast (Psalms 81:1-5), and the lessons of the feast (Psalms 81:6-16).

Delitzsch suggests that the summons in Psalms 81:1 is addressed to the whole congregation; that in Psalms 81:2 to the Levites, the appointed singers and musicians; and that in Psalms 81:3 to the priests who are intrusted with blowing the Shophar, or horn. [Joshua 6:4, and 2 Chronicles 20:28] One can almost hear the tumult of joyful sounds, in which the roar of the multitude, the high-pitched notes of singers, the deeper clash of timbrels, the twanging of stringed instruments, and the hoarse blare of rams’ horns, mingle in concordant discord, grateful to Eastern ears, however unmusical to ours. The religion of Israel allowed and required exuberant joy. It sternly rejected painting and sculpture, blot abundantly employed music, the most ethereal of the arts, which stirs emotions and longings too delicate and deep for speech. Whatever differences in form have necessarily attended the progress from the worship of the Temple to that of the Church, the free play of joyful emotion should mark the latter even more than the former. Decorum is good, but not if purchased by the loss of ringing gladness. The psalmist’s summons has a meaning still.

PULPIT, "PROFESSOR CHEY�E regards this psalm as composed of "two distinct lyrical passages," accidentally thrown together (compare his theory of Psalms 19:1-14, Psalms 24:1-10, Psalms 36:1-12, Psalms 55:1-23, Psalms 77:1-20, etc.); and certainly there is more reason for this than can be adduced for his other separations. It is difficult to trace any connection between the joyous opening strophe (Psalms 81:1-5) and the sad and chastened monody which follows (Psalms 81:6-16).

Psalms 81:1-5 appear to be the preface of a song of thanksgiving, intended for public recitation at one of the great public festivals—either the Passover or the Feast of Tabernacles.

Psalms 81:6-16 are part of a psalm of complaint, wherein God expostulates with his people.

Psalms 81:1

Sing aloud unto God our Strength. "Loud" singing is regarded as indicative of earnestness and sincerity (see 2 Chronicles 20:19; �ehemiah 12:42; Psalms 33:3; Psalms 98:4, etc.). (On God as Israel's "Strength," see Psalms 27:1; Psalms 28:8; Psalms 46:1; Psalms 111:7.) Make a joyful noise unto the God of Jacob. The word translated "make a joyful noise" is especially used of the blare of trumpets (Le 23:24; �umbers 29:1).

K&D 1-5, "The summons in Psa_81:2 is addressed to the whole congregation,

inasmuch as is not intended of the clanging of the trumpets, but as in הריעו Ezr_3:11, and frequently. The summons in Psa_81:3 is addressed to the Levites, the appointed singers and musicians in connection with the divine services, 2Ch_5:12, and frequently. The summons in Psa_81:4 is addressed to the priests, to whom was committed not only the blowing of the two (later on a hundred and twenty, vid., 2Ch_5:12) silver trumpets, butwho appear also in Jos_6:4 and elsewhere (cf. Psa_47:6 with 2Ch_20:28) as the blowers of the shophar. The Talmud observes that since the destruction of the Temple the names

of instruments שופרא and א .are wont to be confounded one for the other (B חצוצרSabbath 36a, Succa 34a), and, itself confounding them, infers from Num_10:10 the duty and significance of the blowing of the shophar (B. Erachin 3b). The lxx also renders

both by σάλπιγξ; but the Biblical language mentions שופר and חצצרה, a horn (moreespecially a ram's horn) and a (metal) trumpet, side by side in Psa_98:6; 1Ch_15:28, and is therefore conscious of a difference between them. The Tôra says nothing of the employment of the shophar in connection with divine service, except that the

commencement of every fiftieth year, which on this very account is called בל� annus ,שנת�הbuccinae, is to be made known by the horn signal throughout all the land (Lev_25:9). But just as tradition by means of an inference from analogy derives the blowing of the shophar on the first of Tishri, the beginning of the common year, from this precept, so

on the ground of the passage of the Psalm before us, assuming that חרש", lxx #ν�νεοµηνί*,refers not to the first of Tishri but to the first of Nisan, we may suppose that the beginning of every month, but, in particular, the beginning of the month which was at the same time the beginning of the ecclesiastical year, was celebrated by a blowing of the shophar, as, according to Josephus, Bell. iv. 9, 12, the beginning and close of the Sabbath was announced from the top of the Temple by a priest with the salpinx. The poet means to say that the Feast of the Passover is to be saluted by the congregation with shouts of

joy, by the Levites with music, and even beginning from the new moon (neomenia) of the Passover month with blowing of shophars, and that this is to be continued at the Feast of the Passover itself. The Feast of the Passover, for which Hupfeld devises a gloomy physiognomy,

(Note: In the first of his Commentationes de primitiva et vera festorum apud Hebraeos ratione, 1851, 4to.)

was a joyous festival, the Old Testament Christmas. 2Ch_30:21 testifies to the exultation of the people and the boisterous music of the Levite priests, with which it was celebrated. According to Num_10:10, the trumpeting of the priests was connected with

the sacrifices; and that the slaying of the paschal lambs took place amidst the Tantaratan

of the priests (long-drawn notes interspersed with sharp shrill ones, וקיעה� is ,(תקיעה�תרועה

expressly related of the post-exilic service at least.

(Note: Vid., my essay on the Passover rites during the time of the second Temple in the Luther. Zeitschr. 1855; and cf. Armknecht, Die heilige Psalmidoe (1855), S. 5.)

The phrase ף � directly נתן according to which ,נתן�קול proceeds from the phrase נתן

means: to attune, strike up, cause to be heard. Concerning 8סה (Pro_7:20 tradition (8סאis uncertain. The Talmudic interpretation (B. Rosh ha-Shana 8b, Betza 16a, and the Targum which is taken from it), according to which it is the day of the new moon (the first of the month), on which the moon hides itself, i.e., is not to be seen at all in the morning, and in the evening only for a short time immediately after sunset, and the interpretation that is adopted by a still more imposing array of authorities (lxx, Vulgate, Menahem, Rashi, Jacob Tam, Aben-Ezra, Parchon, and others), according to which a

time fixed by computation (from 8סס = 8סה, computare) is so named in general, are

outweighed by the usage of the Syriac, in which Keso denotes the full moon as the moon with covered, i.e., filled-up orb, and therefore the fifteenth of the month, but also the time from that point onwards, perhaps because then the moon covers itself, inasmuch as its shining surface appears each day less large (cf. the Peshîto, 1Ki_12:32 of the fifteenth day of the eighth month, 2Ch_7:10 of the twenty-third day of the seventh month, in both instances of the Feast of Tabernacles), after which, too, in the passage before us it is

rendered wa-b-kese, which a Syro-Arabic glossary (in Rosenmüller) explains festa quae

sunt in medio mensis. The Peshîto here, like the Targum, proceeds from the reading ינוAח, which, following the lxx and the best texts, is to be rejected in comparison with the

singular נוAח. If, however, it is to be read chgnw, and 8סה (according to Kimchi with Segol

not merely in the second syllable, but with double Segol (טנא = טנא after the form ,8סהsignifies not interlunium, but plenilunium (instead of which also Jerome has in medio

mense, and in Pro_7:20, in die plenae lunae, Aquila Cµέρ*�πανσελήνου), then what is

meant is either the Feast of Tabernacles, which is called absolutely החג in 1Ki_8:2 (2Ch_5:3) and elsewhere, or the Passover, which is also so called in Isa_30:29 and elsewhere. Here, as Psa_81:5 will convince us, the latter is intended, the Feast of unleavened bread,

the porch of which, so to speak, is סחJ� the ,(Exo_12:42) ליל�שMרים together with the ערבnight from the fourteenth to the fifteenth of Nisan. In Psa_81:2, Psa_81:3 they are called upon to give a welcome to this feast. The blowing of the shophar is to announce the commencement of the Passover month, and at the commencement of the Passover day

which opens the Feast of unleavened bread it is to be renewed. The � is not meant ליום of ל

temporally, as perhaps in Job_21:30 : at the day = on the day; for why was it not ביום? It

is rather: towards the day, but בכסה assumes that the day has already arrived; it is the same Lamed as in Psa_81:2, the blowing of the shophar is to concern this feast-day, it is to sound in honour of it.

BI 1-16, "Sing aloud unto God our strength: make a joyful noise unto the God of Jacob.

A revelation of three great subjects

I. True worship (verses1-5)

1. True worship is the highest happiness, which consists in—

(1) Right activity. Worthy of our nature. In harmony with all our faculties.

(2) The highest love.

(3) The sublimest hope.

2. True worship is a Divine ordinance, binding on all moral intelligences.

(1) Right in itself.

(2) Essential to their happiness.

II. Divine kindness (Psa_81:6-10). This appears in—

1. Their deliverance from thraldom. God’s mercy should inspire the soul with gratitude; and gratitude is an element of worship.

2. Answering their prayer.

3. Giving them direction.

III. Human foolishness (Psa_81:11-16). By disobedience they lost—

1. His superintending care.

2. Victory over enemies.

3. The choicest provisions. Disobedience to the Divine law is supreme folly. Sinners are fools. The Bible calls them so, and the experience of humanity proves them such. (Homilist.)

Exhortation to sing God’s praise

If you begin praising God you are bound to go on. The work engrosses the heart. It deepens and broadens like a rolling river. Praise is something like an avalanche, which may begin with a snowflake on the mountain moved by the wing of a bird, but that flake binds others to it and becomes a rolling ball: this rolling ball gathers more snow about it till it is huge, immense; it crashes through a forest; it thunders down into the valley; it buries a village under its stupendous mass. Thus praise may begin with the tear of gratitude; anon the bosom swells with love; thankfulness rises to a song; it breaks forth into a shout; it mounts up to join the everlasting hallelujahs which surround the throne of God. What a mercy is it that God by His Spirit will give us greater capacities by and by than we have here! for if we continue to learn more and more of the love of Christ we shall be driven to sore straits if confined within the narrow and drowsy framework of this mortal body. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

2 Begin the music, strike the timbrel, play the melodious harp and lyre.

BAR�ES, "Take a psalm - literally, “Lift up a psalm; perhaps, as we should say, “Raise the tune.” Or, it may mean, Take an ode, a hymn, a psalm, composed for the occasion, and accompany it with the instruments of music which are specified.

And bring hither the timbrel - For the purpose of praise. On the meaning of this

word rendered “timbrel” - tôph תף - see the notes at Isa_5:12.

The pleasant harp - On the word here rendered “harp” - kinnôr כנור - see also the

notes at Isa_5:12. The word translated “pleasant” - nâ‛ıUym נעים - means properly pleasant, agreeable, sweet, Psa_133:1; Psa_147:1. It is connected here with the word harp, as meaning that that instrument was distinguished particularly for a sweet or pleasant sound.

With the psaltery - On the meaning of the word used here - nebel נבל - see the notes at Isa_5:12. These were the common instruments of music among the Hebrews. They were employed alike on sacred occasions, and in scenes of revelry. See Isa_5:12.

CLARKE, "Take a psalm - zimrah. I rather think that this was the name of a זמרהmusical instrument.

Bring hither the timbrel - .toph; some kind of drum or tom tom תף

The pleasant harp - kinnor. Probably a sistrum, or something like it. A Stringed כנורinstrument.

With the psaltery - .nebel, the nabla. The cithara, Septuagint נבל

GILL, "Take a psalm,.... Or "lift one up" (y); hold up the book, and read and sing it; or rather, lift up the voice in singing a psalm:

and bring hither the timbrel; or "give one" (z), put the hand to one:

the pleasant harp with the psaltery; make use of all these musical instruments in singing, and so make an agreeable melody: these were used in the times of the Old Testament, and were typical of the spiritual joy and melody in the heart, expressed by vocal singing, under the New Testament; see Rev_5:8.

JAMISO�, "unites the most joyful kinds of music, vocal and instrumental.

SPURGEO�, "Ver. 2. Take a psalm. Select a sacred song, and then raise it with your hearty voices.And bring hither the timbrel. Beat on your tambourines, ye damsels, let the sound be loud and inspiriting. "Sound the trumpets, beat the drums." God is not to be served with misery but with mirthful music, sound ye then the loud timbrel, as of old ye smote it by "Egypt's dark sea."

The pleasant harp with the psaltery. The timbrel for sound, must be joined by the harp for sweetness, and this by other stringed instruments for variety. Let the full compass of music be holiness unto the Lord.EXPLA�ATORY �OTES A�D QUAI�T SAYI�GSVer. 2. Timbrel. The toph, English version tabret, timbrel, LXX., tumpanon, once qalthrion. It was what would now be called a tambourine, being played by the hand; and was specially used by women. It is thrice mentioned in the Psalms 81:2 Ps 149:3 150:4. Joseph Francis Thrupp.Ver. 2. The Psaltery. It is probably impossible to be sure as to what is intended by a psaltery. The Genevan version translates it viol, and the ancient viol was a six stringed guitar. In the Prayer book version, the Hebrew word is rendered lute, which instrument resembled the guitar, but was superior in tone. The Greek word "psalterion" denotes a stringed instrument played with the fingers. Cassidorus says that the psaltery was triangular in shape, and that it was played with a bow. Aben Ezra evidently considered it to be a kind of pipe, but the mass of authorities make it a stringed instrument. It was long in use, for we read of it in David's time as made of fir wood (2Sa 6:55), and in Solomon's reign, of algum trees (2 Chronicles 9:11), and it was still in use in the days of �ebuchadnezzar.

ELLICOTT, "(2) Take a psalm.—Rather, Strike up a tune (with voice and harp).

Bring hither the timbrel.—Literally, Give a timbrel (or, drum), which evidently means “sound the timbrel,” and may, perhaps, be explained by a phrase sometimes found in Hebrew—“Give a voice,” i.e., speak. Such phrases as “Let them have the drum,” “Give them the drum,” may illustrate the expression. (For the instrument, tôph, see Exodus 15:20, and consult Bible Educator, 2:214 seq.)

3 Sound the ram’s horn at the �ew Moon, and when the moon is full, on the day of our festival;

BAR�ES, "Blow up the trumpet - The word rendered blow means to make a clangor or noise as on a trumpet. The trumpet was, like the timbrel, the harp, and the psaltery, a common instrument of music, and was employed on all their festive occasions. It was at first made of horn, and then was made similar in shape to a horn. Compare Jos_6:5; Lev_25:9; Job_39:25.

In the new moon - On the festival held at the time of the new moon. There was a high festival on the appearance of the new moon in the month of Tisri, or October, which was the beginning of their civil year, and it is not improbable that the return of each new

moon was celebrated with special services. See the notes at Isa_1:13; compare 2Ki_4:23; Amo_8:5; 1Ch_23:31; 2Ch_2:4. It is not certain, however, that the word used here means new moon. Prof. Alexander renders it in the month; that is, in the month, by way

of eminence, in which the passover was celebrated. The word used - chôdesh חדש -means, indeed, commonly the new moon; the day of the new moon; the first day of the lunar month Num_29:6; 1Sa_20:5, 1Sa_20:18, 1Sa_20:24; but it also means a month; that is, a lunar month, beginning at the new moon, Gen_8:5; Exo_13:4; et al. The corresponding or parallel word, as we shall see, which is rendered in our version, in the time appointed, means full moon; and the probability is, as Professor Alexander suggests, that in the beginning of the verse the month is mentioned in general, and the particular time of the month - the full moon - in the other part of the verse. Thus the language is applicable to the passover. On the other supposition - the supposition that the new moon and the full moon are both mentioned - there would be manifest confusion as to the time.

In the time appointed - The word used here - keseh כסה - means properly the full moon; the time of the full moon. In Syriac the word means either “the first day of the full

moon,” or “the whole time of the full moon.” (Isa Bar Ali, as quoted by Gesenius, Lexicon) Thus, the word means, not as in our translation, in the time appointed, but at the full moon, and would refer to the time of the Passover, which was celebrated on the fourteenth day of the lunar month; that is, when the moon was at the full. Exo_12:6.

On our solemn feast day - Hebrew, In the day of our feast. The word solemn is not necessarily in the original, though the day was one of great solemnity. The Passover is doubtless referred to.

CLARKE, "Blow up the trumpet - shophar, a species of horn. Certainly a שופרwind instrument, as the two last were stringed instruments. Perhaps some chanted a psalm in recitativo, while all these instruments vere used as accompaniments. In a representative system of religion, such as the Jewish, there must have been much outside work, all emblematical of better things: no proof that such things should be continued under the Gospel dispensation, where outsides have disappeared, shadows flown away, and the substance alone is presented to the hearts of mankind. He must be ill off for proofs in iavour of instrumental music in the Church of Christ, who has recourse to practices under the Jewish ritual.

The feast of the new moon was always proclaimed by sound of trumpet. Of the ceremonies on this occasion I have given a full account in my Discourse on the Eucharist. For want of astronomical knowledge, the poor Jews were put to sad shifts to know the real time of the new moon. They generally sent persons to the top of some hill or mountain about the time which, according to their supputations, the new moon should appear. The first who saw it was to give immediate notice to the Sanhedrin; they closely examined the reporter as to his credibility, and whether his information agreed with their calculations. If all was found satisfactory, the president proclaimed the new

moon by shouting out מקדש mikkodesh! “It is consecrated.” This word was repeated twice aloud by the people; and was then proclaimed every where by blowing of horns, or what is called the sound of trumpets. Among the Hindoos some feasts are announced by the sound of the conch or sacred shell.

GILL, "Blow up the trumpet in the new moon,.... Either in every new moon, or first day of the month, which was religiously observed by the Jews, 2Ki_4:23 or rather the new moon, or first day of the seventh month, the month Tisri, which day was a memorial of blowing of trumpets, Lev_23:34, and so the Targum,

"blow the trumpet in the month of Tisri,''

when their new year began, and was typical of the year of the redeemed of the Lord, of the acceptable year of our God, of the famous new year, the Gospel dispensation, when old things passed away, and all things became new. The Jews say this blowing of trumpets was in commemoration of Isaac's deliverance, a ram being sacrificed for him, and therefore they sounded with trumpets made of rams' horns; or in remembrance of the trumpet blown at the giving of the law; though it rather was an emblem of the Gospel, and the ministry of it, by which sinners are aroused, awakened and quickened, and souls are charmed and allured, and filled with spiritual joy and gladness:

in the time appointed; so Aben Ezra, Jarchi, and Kimchi, interpret the word of a set fixed time; see Pro_7:20, the word (a) used has the signification of covering; and the former of these understand it of the time just before the change of the moon, when it is covered, which falls in with the former phrase; and so the Targum,

"in the moon that is covered;''

though the Latin interpreter renders it,

"in the month which is covered with the days of our solemnities,''

there being many festivals in the month of Tisri; the blowing of trumpets on the first day of it, the atonement on the tenth, and the feast of tabernacles on the fifteenth. But De Dieu has made it appear, from the use of the word in the Syriac language, that it should be rendered "in the full moon", and so directs to the right understanding of the feast next mentioned;

on our solemn feast day, which must design a feast which was at the full of the moon; and so must be either the feast of the passover, which was on the fourteenth day of the month Nisan, and was a type of Christ our Passover, sacrificed for us, on which account we should keep the feast, Exo_12:6, or else the feast of tabernacles, which was on the fifteenth of the month Tisri, kept in commemoration of the Israelites dwelling in booths, Lev_23:34 and which is called the feast, and the solemn feast, emphatically; see 1Ki_8:2, and was typical of the state of God's people in this world, who dwell in the earthly houses of their tabernacles, and have no continuing city; and of the churches of Christ, which are the tabernacles in which God and his people dwell, and will abide in this form but for a time, and are moveable; and also of Christ's tabernacling in human nature, Joh_1:14.

JAMISO�, "the new moon— or the month.

the time appointed— (Compare Pro_7:20).

SPURGEO�, "Ver. 3. Blow up the trumpet in the new moon. Announce the sacred month, the beginning of months, when the Lord brought his people out of the house of bondage. Clear and shrill let the summons be which calls all Israel to adore the Redeeming Lord.In the time appointed, on our solemn feast day. Obedience is to direct our worship, not whim and sentiment: God's appointment gives a solemnity to rites and times which no ceremonial pomp or hierarchical ordinance could confer. The Jews not only observed the ordained month, but that part of the month which had been divinely set apart. The Lord's people in the olden time welcomed the times appointed for worship; let us feel the same exultation, and never speak of the Sabbath as though it could be other than "a delight" and "honourable." Those who plead this passage will keep such feasts as the Lord appoints, but not those which Rome or Canterbury may ordain.EXPLA�ATORY �OTES A�D QUAI�T SAYI�GSVer. 3. Blow up the trumpet, etc. The Jews say this blowing of trumpets was in commemoration of Isaac's deliverance, a ram being sacrificed for him, and therefore they sounded with trumpets made of ram's horns: or in remembrance of the trumpet blown at the giving of the law; though it rather was an emblem of the gospel and ministry of it, by which sinners are aroused, awakened and quickened, and souls are charmed and allured, and filled with spiritual joy and gladness. John Gill.Ver. 3 The trumpet. The sound of the trumpet is very commonly employed in Scripture as an image of the voice or word of God. The voice of God, and the voice of the trumpet on Mount Sinai, were heard together (Exodus 19:5; Exodus 19:18-19), first the trumpet sound as the symbol, then the reality. So also John heard the voice of the Lord as that of a trumpet (Re 1:10 4:1), and the sound of the trumpet is once and again spoken of as the harbinger of the Son of Man, when coming in power and great glory, to utter the almighty word which shall quicken the dead to life, and make all things new (Matthew 24:31, 1 Corinthians 15:52; 1 Thessalonians 4:16). The sound of the trumpet, then, was a symbol of the majestic, omnipotent voice or word of God; but of course only in those things in which it was employed in respect to what God had to say to men. It might be used also as from man to God, or by the people, as from one to another. In this case, it would be a call to a greater than usual degree of alacrity and excitement in regard to the work and service of God. And such probably was the more peculiar design of the blowing of trumpets at the festivals generally, and especially at the festival of trumpets on the first day of the second month. Joseph Francis Thrupp.Ver. 3 "In the new moon, "etc. The feast of the new moon was always proclaimed by sound of trumpet. For want of astronomical knowledge, the poor Jews were put to sad shifts to know the real time of the new moon. They generally sent persons to the top of some hill or mountain about the time which, according to their supputations, the new moon should appear. The first who saw it was to give immediate notice to the Sanhedrim; they closely examined the reporter as to his credibility, and whether his information agreed with their calculations. If all was found satisfactory, the president proclaimed the new moon by shouting out, wdqm mikkodesh! "It is consecrated." This word was repeated twice aloud by the people; and was then

proclaimed everywhere by blowing of horns, or what is called the sound of trumpets. Among the Hindus some feasts are announced by the sound of the conch, or sacred shell. Adam Clarke.Ver. 3 In the time appointed. The word rendered the time appointed, signifies the hidden or covered period; that is, the time when the moon is concealed or covered with darkness. This day was a joyful festival, returning every month; but the first day of the seventh moon was most solemn of the whole; being not only the first of the moon, but of the civil year. This was called the feast of trumpets, as it was celebrated by the blowing of trumpets from sunrising to sun setting; according to the command, "It shall be a day of the blowing of trumpets to you." This joy was a memorial of the joy of creation, and the joy of giving the law; it also preindicated the blowing of the gospel trumpet, after the dark, the covered period of the death of Christ, when the form of the church changed, and the year of the "redeemed" began; and finally, it prefigured the last day, when the trumpet of God shall sound, and the dead shall be raised. Alexander Pirie.

ELLICOTT, "(3) Trumpet.—Heb., shôphar. (See Exodus 19:16; Psalms 47:5.) In connection with this festival psalm the mention of the shôphar is especially interesting as being the only ancient Hebrew instrument of which the use is still on solemn occasions retained. (See Bible Educator, Vol. ii. 242.)

In the new moon.—Standing by itself this might mean the beginning of every month (comp. �um. x 10), and so many scholars are inclined to take it here. Others render “in this month.” But see next �ote.

In the time appointed.—This is the rendering given of the Hebrew kçseh by a long array of authorities. But in Proverbs 7:20, the only other place where the word is found, the Vulg. gives “after many days;” and while the English margin has “new moon” Aquila and Jerome give “full moon.” This latter meaning is supported by the fact that the Syrian version gives keso for the 15th day of the month (1 Kings 12:32). But in 2 Chronicles 7:10 the same word is used for the 23rd day; hence, it is supposed to denote the whole time of the moon’s waning from the full. It seems, therefore, hardly possible that keseh as well as chadesh can mean new moon here as some think, though it is strange to find both the new and the full moon mentioned together. Some remove the difficulty by reading with the Syriac, Chaldee, and several MSS. feast-days in the plural, but the authority of the LXX. is against this reading. But apparently the festival in question was the Feast of Tabernacles. The word chag here used is said by Gesenius to be in the Talmud used pre-eminently of this feast, as it is in 2 Chronicles 5:3; 1 Kings 8:2 (comp. Psalms 42:4), and the Jews, always tenacious of ancient tradition, regularly use this psalm for the office of the 1st day of Tisri. Thus the new moon is that of the seventh month, which in �umbers 29:1 is called especially “a day of trumpet blowing” (sec �ote Psalms 81:1), and the full moon denotes this feast, (See �umbers 29:12; Leviticus 23:24.

COKE, "Psalms 81:3. Blow up the trumpet, &c.— Blow up the trumpet on the first day of the month, on the new moon, on the day of our feast. The feast of the new moon was always proclaimed by the sound of trumpets. The fixing the time of the

new moon, for want of astronomical tables, was done in the following manner: the first persons who observed, or thought they observed, the new moon, were to repair immediately to the grand council to give notice of it. Inquiry was then made into the credibility of the informers, and, secondly, whether their information agreed with such computations as they were then able to make. After which the president proclaimed the new moon by saying מקדש mekaddesh; i.e. it is consecrated: this word was twice repeated aloud by the people; after which it was ordered to be proclaimed every where by the sound of the trumpet. See Univ. Hist. vol. i 2: p. 33. 8vo.

CO�STABLE, "Verses 3-5He called on them to participate in a festival. The Israelites blew trumpets and offered sacrifices at the beginning of each new month, and each month began with the new moon ( �umbers 10:10; �umbers 28:11-15). The Feast of Tabernacles was a joyous occasion that began on the fifteenth day of the seventh month (September-October) when the moon was full ( Leviticus 23:34). God required the Israelites to observe these occasions. He began to specify these national festivals when He gave the Israelites instructions concerning the Passover ( Exodus 12). Back then, this instruction was completely new to the nation, as though it was a voice they had never heard before.

PULPIT, "Blow up the trumpet in the new moon. There was a Mowing of trumpets at the beginning of every month (�umbers 10:10), in connection with the appointed sacrifices (Leviticus 28:11-15); so that the month intended cannot, so far, i.e. fixed. As, however, the chief blowing of trumpets was on the first day of the seventh month (Le 23:24), most commentators regard the psalm as composed for this occasion. There are some, however, as Hengstenberg, Professor Cheyne, and Professor Alexander, who consider it to be a Passover psalm. In the time appointed; rather, at the full moon; i.e. on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when the Feast of Tabernacles was opened (see �umbers 29:12). Trumpets were probably blown then also. On our solemn feast day. The Feast of Tabernacles is called κατ ἐξοχὴν, "the feast," in many passages of the Old Testament.

4 this is a decree for Israel, an ordinance of the God of Jacob.

BAR�ES, "For this was a statute for Israel ... - See Exo_12:3. That is, it was a law for the whole Jewish people, for all who had the name Israel, for all the descendants

of Jacob. The word was is not in the original, as if this had been an old commandment which might now be obsolete, but the idea is one of perpetuity: it is a perpetual law for the Hebrew people.

A law of the God of Jacob - Hebrew, a judgment; or, right. The idea is, that it was what was due to God; what was his right. It was a solemn claim that he should be thus acknowledged. It was not a matter of conventional arrangement, or a matter of convenience to them; nor was it to be observed merely because it was found to be expedient and conducive to the welfare of the nation. It was a matter of right and of claim on the part of God, and was so to be regarded by the nation. The same is true now of the Sabbath, and of all the appointments which God has made for keeping up religion in the world. All these arrangements are indeed expedient and proper; they conduce to the public welfare and to the happiness of man; but there is a higher reason for their observance than this. It is that God demands their observance; that he claims as his own the time so appropriated. Thus he claims the Sabbath, the entire Sabbath, as his own; he requires that it shall be employed in his service, that it shall be regarded as his day; that it shall be made instrumental in keeping up the knowledge of himself in the world, and in promoting his glory. Exo_20:10. People, therefore, “rob God” (compare Mal_3:8) when they take this time for needless secular purposes, or devote it to other ends and uses. Nor can this be sinless. The highest guilt which man can commit is to “rob” his Maker of what belongs to Him, and of what He claims.

CLARKE, "This was a statute for Israel - See the statute, Num_10:10 (note), and Lev_23:24 (note).

GILL, "For this was a statute for Israel,.... It was not a piece of will worship, or device of the children of Israel, but was of divine institution; that the passover should be kept at the time it was; and that the trumpets should be blown on the new moon, or first of Tisri; and that the feast of tabernacles should be kept on the fifteenth of the same month:

and a law of the God of Jacob; and therefore to be observed by Jacob's posterity: the law for the one is in Exo_12:18 and for the other is in Lev_23:24 and so all the ordinances of Christ, and of the Gospel dispensation, are to be regarded on the same account, because they are the statutes and appointments of God; and the feast of tabernacles is particularly put for them all, Zec_14:16.

HE�RY, " They are here directed in their work. 1. They must look up to the divine institution which it is the observation of. In all religious worship we must have an eye to the command (Psa_81:4): This was a statute for Israel, for the keeping up of a face of religion among them; it was a law of the God of Jacob, which all the seed of Jacob are bound by, and must be subject to. Note, Praising God is not only a good thing, which we do well to do, but it is our indispensable duty, which we are obliged to do; it is at our peril if we neglect it; and in all religious exercises we must have an eye to the institution as our warrant and rule: “This I do because God has commanded me; and therefore I hope he will accept me;” then it is done in faith

JAMISO�, "

CALVI�, "4For this is a statute to Israel. To give the more effect to the preceding exhortation, it is here taught that this law or ordinance had been prescribed to God’s ancient people, for the purpose of ratifying the everlasting covenant. And as in covenants there is a mutual agreement between the parties, it is declared that this statute was given to Israel, and that God, in contracting, reserved this for himself, as a right to which he was justly entitled.

SPURGEO�, "Ver. 4. For this was a statute for Israel, and a law of the God of Jacob. It was a precept binding upon all the tribes that a sacred season should be set apart to commemorate the Lord's mercy; and truly it was but the Lord's due, he had a right and a claim to such special homage. When it can be proved that the observance of Christmas, Whitsuntide, and other Popish festivals was ever instituted by a divine statute, we also will attend to them, but not till then. It is as much our duty to reject the traditions of men, as to observe the ordinances of the Lord. We ask concerning every rite and rubric, "Is this a law of the God of Jacob?" and if it be not clearly so, it is of no authority with us, who walk in Christian liberty.

BE�SO�, "Verse 4-5Psalms 81:4-5. For this was a statute for Israel — This is no human device, but a divine institution; God hath appointed and commanded this solemn feast to be announced and observed in this manner. This — �amely, the blowing of trumpets; he ordained in Joseph — Among the posterity of Joseph, namely, the people of Israel, as is evident both from the foregoing verse, where they are called Israel, and from the following words of this verse, where they are described by their coming out of Egypt, which was common to all the tribes of Israel, who are sometimes called by the name of Joseph. For a testimony — For a law, often called a testimony; or, rather, for a witness and memorial of the glorious deliverance here referred to. When he — That is, he who ordained, as was now said, namely, God; went out through the land of Egypt — As a captain at the head, or on the behalf of his people, to execute his judgments upon that land; or, against that land, namely, to destroy it. Or, as many ancient and modern interpreters read it, out of the land. And so understood, this text signifies the time when this and the other feasts were instituted, namely, soon after their coming out of Egypt, even at Sinai. Where I heard, &c. —That is, my progenitors heard, for all the successive generations of Israel make one body, and are sometimes spoken of as one person; a language which I understood not — Either the language of God himself, speaking from heaven at Sinai, which was strange and terrible to them; or, rather, the Egyptian language, which at first was both very disagreeable and unknown to the Israelites, Genesis 42:23, and probably continued so for some considerable time, because they were much separated, both in place and conversation, from the Egyptians, through Joseph’s pious and prudent appointment. This exposition of the passage is confirmed by Psalms 114:1, where this very thing is mentioned as an aggravation of their misery; and by other places of Scripture, where it is spoken of as a curse and calamity to be with a people of a strange language. See Deuteronomy 28:49; Jeremiah 5:15.

EBC, "The reason for it is given in Psalms 81:4-5 a. It-i.e., the feast (not the musical

accompaniments)-is appointed by God. The psalmist employs designations for it, which are usually applied to "the word of the Lord"; statute, ordinance, testimony, being all found in Psalms 19:1-14 and Psalms 119:1-176, with that meaning. A triple designation of the people corresponds with these triple names for the feast. Israel, Jacob, and Joseph are synonyms, the use of the last of these having probably the same force here as in the preceding psalm - namely, to express the singer’s longing for the restoration of the shattered unity of the nation. The summons to the feast is based, not only on Divine appointment, but also on Divine purpose in that appointment. It was "a testimony," a rite commemorative of a historical fact, and therefore an evidence of it to future times. There is no better proof of such a fact than a celebration of it, which originates contemporaneously and continues through generations. The feast in question was thus simultaneous with the event commemorated, as Psalms 81:5 b tells. It was God, not Israel, as is often erroneously supposed, who "went forth." For the following preposition is not "from," which might refer to the national departure, but "over" or "against," which cannot have such a reference, since Israel did not, in any sense, go "over" or "against" the land. God’s triumphant forth-putting of power over the whole land, especially in the death of the firstborn, on the night of the Passover, is meant to be remembered forever, and is at once the fact commemorated by the feast, and a reason for obeying His appointment of it.

So far the thoughts and language are limpid, but Psalms 81:5 c interrupts their clear flow. Who is the speaker thus suddenly introduced? What is the "language" (lit., lip) which he "knew not"? The explanation implied by the A.V. and R.V., that the collective Israel speaks, and that the reference is, Psalms 114:1, to the "strange language" of the Egyptians, is given by most of the older authorities, and by Ewald and Hengstenberg, but has against it the necessity for the supplement "where," and the difficulty of referring the "I" to the nation. The more usual explanation in modern times is that the speaker is the psalmist, and that the language which he hears is the voice of God, the substance of which follows in the remainder of the psalm. As in Job 4:16 Eliphaz could not discern the appearance of the mysterious form that stood before his eyes, and thus its supernatural character is suggested, so the psalmist hears an utterance of a hitherto unknown kind, which he thus implies to have been Divine. God Himself speaks, to impress the lessons of the past, and to excite the thoughts and feelings which would rightly celebrate the feast. The glad noises of song, harp, and trumpet are hushed; the psalmist is silent, to hear that dread Voice, and then with lowly lips he repeats so much of the majestic syllables as he could translate into words which it was possible for a man to utter. The inner coherence of the two parts of the psalm is, on this explanation, so obvious, that there is no need nor room for the hypothesis of two fragments having been fused into one.

5 When God went out against Egypt,

he established it as a statute for Joseph.I heard an unknown voice say:

BAR�ES, "This he ordained in Joseph for a testimony - literally, he placed this; that is, he appointed it. The word Joseph here stands for the whole Hebrew people, as in Psa_80:1. See the notes at that verse. The meaning is, that the ordinance for observing this festival - the Passover - was to be traced back to the time when they were in Egypt. The obligation to observe it was thus enhanced by the very antiquity of the observance, and by the fact that it was one of the direct appointments of God in that strange and foreign land.

When he went out through the land of Egypt -Margin, against. Or rather, In his going out of the land of Egypt. Literally, In going upon the land of Egypt. The allusion is, undoubtedly, to the time when the Hebrews went out of the land of Egypt - to the Exodus; and the exact idea is, that, in doing this, they passed over a considerable portion of the land of Egypt; or, that they passed over the land. The idea in the margin, of its being against the land of Egypt, is not necessarily in the original.

Where I heard a language that I understood not - literally, “The lip, that is, the language, of one that I did not know, I heard.” This refers, undoubtedly, not to God, but to the people. The author of this psalm identifies himself here with the people - the whole nation - and speaks as if he were one of them, and as if he now recollected the circumstances at the time - the strange language - the foreign customs - the oppressions and burdens borne by the people. Throwing himself back, as it were, to that time (compare the notes at 1Th_4:17) - he seems to himself to be in the midst of a people speaking a strange tongue - a language unintelligible to him - the language of a foreign nation. The Jews, in all their long captivity in Egypt - a period of four hundred years (see the notes at Act_7:6) - preserved their own language apparently incorrupt. So far as appears, they spoke the same language, without change, when they came out of Egypt, that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had used. The Egyptian was entirely a foreign language to them, and had no affinity with the Hebrew.

CLARKE, "I heard a language I understood not - This passage is difficult. Who heard? And what was heard? All the Versions, except the Chaldee, read the pronoun in the third person, instead of the first. “He heard a language that he understood not.” And

to the Versions Kennicott reforms the text, ישמע��sephath שפת�לא�ידעהlo�yadah�yisma; “a language which he did not understand he heard.” But what was that language? Some say the Egyptian; others, who take Joseph to signify the children of Israel in general, say it was the declaration of God by Moses, that Jehovah was the true God, that he would deliver their shoulder from their burdens, and their hands from the pots - the moulds and furnaces in which they formed and baked their brick.

GILL, "This he ordained in Joseph for a testimony,.... That is, this law

concerning the blowing of trumpets on the new moon, and the keeping the solemn feast at the full of the moon, was made to be observed by all Israel, who are meant by Joseph, for a testimony of God's good will to them, and of their duty and obedience to him:

when he went out through the land of Egypt, or "over it" (b); which some understand of Joseph, who is said to go over all the land of Egypt, to gather in provision against the seven years of famine, Gen_41:45 and Jarchi says that his deliverance from prison was at the beginning of the year, and was advanced in Pharaoh's court: and the meaning is, either "when he", the Lord, "went out against the land of Egypt", so Arama, in order to slay their firstborn; and when he passed over Israel, and saved them; marched through the land in his indignation, and went forth for the salvation of his people, Exo_11:4 then was the ordinance of the passover appointed: or when Israel went out of Egypt, designed by Joseph, some little time after, while in the wilderness, and dwelling in tents, the feast of tabernacles was instituted; but rather this shows that the feast of passover is before meant, which was instituted at the time of Israel's going out of Egypt, and was the solemn feast day ordained for a statute, law and testimony in Israel; and that the new moon, or month rather, on which the trumpet was to be blown, was the month Abib, the beginning of months, by an ordinance of God, Exo_12:2.

where I heard a language that I understood not; here the prophet represents the people of Israel in Egypt; though the Septuagint, Vulgate Latin, Syriac, and Arabic versions, read,

he heard, and he understood not and the language is either the voice of God out of the fire, which before was never heard in this unusual manner, nor understood, Deu_5:24 or the speech of Moses, who had Aaron for his mouth and spokesman; or rather the Egyptian language, which was not understood by the Israelites without an interpreter, Gen_42:23 which sense is confirmed by Psa_114:1, and this is mentioned as an aggravation of their affliction in Egypt; see Jer_5:15.

HE�RY, "They must look back upon those operations of divine Providence which it is the memorial of. This solemn service was ordained for a testimony (Psa_81:5), a standing traditional evidence, for the attesting of the matters of fact. It was a testimony to Israel, that they might know and remember what God had done for their fathers, and would be a testimony against them if they should be ignorant of them and forget them. (1.) The psalmist, in the people's name, puts himself in mind of the general work of God on Israel's behalf, which was kept in remembrance by this and other solemnities, Psa_81:5. When God went out against the land of Egypt, to lay it waste, that he might force Pharaoh to let Israel go, then he ordained solemn feast-days to be observed by a statute for ever in their generations, as a memorial of it, particularly the passover, which perhaps is meant by the solemn feast-day (Psa_81:3); that was appointed just then when God went out through the land of Egypt to destroy the first-born, and passed over the houses of the Israelites, Exo_12:23, Exo_12:24. By it that work of wonder was to be kept in perpetual remembrance, that all ages might in it behold the goodness and severity of God. The psalmist, speaking for his people, takes notice of this aggravating circumstance of their slavery in Egypt that there they heard a language that they understood not; there they were strangers in a strange land. The Egyptians and the Hebrews understood not one another's language; for Joseph spoke to his brethren by an interpreter (Gen_42:23), and the Egyptians are said to be to the house of Jacob a people of a strange language, Psa_114:1. To make a deliverance appear the more gracious, the more glorious, it is good to observe every thing that makes the trouble we are delivered

from appear the more grievous.

JAMISO�, "a testimony— The feasts, especially the Passover, attested God’s relation to His people.

Joseph— for Israel (Psa_80:1).

went out through— or, “over,” that is, Israel in the exodus.

I heard— change of person. The writer speaks for the nation.

language— literally, “lip” (Psa_14:1). An aggravation or element of their distress that their oppressors were foreigners (Deu_28:49).

CALVI�, "5He set it for a testimony in Joseph. The Hebrew word עדוה , eduth, is by some derived from עדה , adah, which signifies to adorn; and they translate it the honor or ornament of Joseph. But it rather comes from the verb עוד , ud, to testify; and the scope of the passage requires that it should be translated a testimony or covenant. Farther, when Joseph is named in particular, there is a reference to the first original of the chosen people, when, after the death of Jacob, the twelve tribes were distinguished. As the sovereignty had not at that time come to the tribe of Judah, and as Reuben had fallen from his right of primogeniture, the posterity of Joseph justly had the pre-eminence, on account of the benefits which he had been instrumental in conferring; having been the father and nourisher of his brethren and of the whole nation. Moreover, the sacredness of the covenant is commended by a special appeal to the fact, that at the time when God stipulated that this honor should be yielded to him, he had purchased that people to himself; as if it had been said, The condition upon which the people were delivered was, that they should assemble together on the days appointed for renewing the remembrance of the grace which had been exercised towards them. The words when he went forth will apply equally to God and to the people. (406) It is a common form of expression to speak of God as going forth before his people, as a shepherd goes before his flock, or as a general before his army. When it is said ABOVE the land of Egypt, some think there is an allusion to the situation of Judea, which was higher than that of Egypt; so that those who come out of Egypt to Judea ascend. But I understand the language as meaning simply, that the people, having God for their conductor, passed freely and without obstruction through the land of Egypt, the inhabitants having been so discouraged and dismayed as not to dare to make any opposition to their passage. (407) The prophet enhances the blessing of their deliverance, when, speaking in the name of the whole people, he affirms that he had been rescued from profound barbarism: I heard a language which I understood not. (408) �othing is more disagreeable than to sojourn among a people with whom we can hold no communication by language, which is the chief bond of society. Language being, as it were, the image and mirror of the mind, those who cannot employ it in their mutual intercourse are no less strangers to one another than the wild beasts of the forest. When the Prophet Isaiah (Isaiah 33:19) intends to denounce a very dreadful punishment, he says, “Thou shalt see a fierce people, a people of a deeper speech than thou canst perceive; of a stammering tongue, that thou canst not understand.” Thus the people acknowledge that the benefit which God conferred was so much the more to be valued, because they were delivered from the Egyptians, with whose

language they were unacquainted. (409)

SPURGEO�, "Ver. 5. This he ordained in Joseph for a testimony. The nation is called Joseph, because in Egypt it would probably be known and spoken of as Joseph's family, and indeed Joseph was the foster father of the people. The passover, which is probably here alluded to, was to be a standing memorial of the redemption from Egypt; and everything about it was intended to testify to all ages, and all peoples, the glory of the Lord in the deliverance of his chosen nation.When he went out through the land of Egypt. Much of Egypt was traversed by the tribes in their exodus march, and in every place the feast which they had kept during the night of Egypt's visitation would be a testimony for the Lord, who had also himself in the midnight slaughter gone forth through the land of Egypt. The once afflicted Israelites marched over the land of bondage as victors who trample down the slain.Where I heard a language that I understood not. Surely the connection requires that we accept these words as the language of the Lord. It would be doing great violence to language if the "I" here should be referred to one person, and the "I" in the next verse to another. But how can it be imagined that the Lord should speak of a language which he understood not, seeing he knows all things, and no form of speech is incomprehensible to him? The reply is, that the Lord here speaks as the God of Israel identifying himself with his own chosen nation, and calling that an unknown tongue to himself which was unknown to them. He had never been adored by psalm or prayer in the tongue of Egypt; the Hebrew was the speech known in his sacred house, and the Egyptian was outlandish and foreign there. In strictest truth, and not merely in figure, might the Lord thus speak, since the wicked customs and idolatrous rites of Egypt were disapproved of by him, and in that sense were unknown. Of the wicked, Jesus shall say, "I never knew you; "and probably in the same sense this expression should be understood, for it may be correctly rendered, "a speech I knew not I am hearing." It was among the griefs of Israel that their taskmasters spake an unknown tongue, and they were thus continually reminded that they were strangers in a strange land. The Lord had pity upon them, and emancipated them, and hence it was their bounden duty to maintain inviolate the memorial of the divine goodness. It is no small mercy to be brought out from an ungodly world and separated unto the Lord.EXPLA�ATORY �OTES A�D QUAI�T SAYI�GSVer. 5. I heard a language that I understood not. The language that he then heard—the religious worship of idolaters, —vows offered up "to birds and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things, "Romans 1:23, and strength and mercy sought from every object in nature, except himself, —was a language unknown to him—"he knew it not." William Hill Tucker.

ELLICOTT, "(5) Joseph.—The prominence given to this name indicates, according to some critics, that the author belonged to the northern kingdom:. but when a poet was wishing to vary his style of speaking of the whole people—the names Israel and Jacob have just been used—the name Joseph would naturally occur, especially with the mention of Egypt, where that patriarch had played such a conspicuous part.

Through the land of Egypt.—The Hebrew means either upon, over, or against, but none of these meanings will suit with Israel as the subject of the verb. Hence, the LXX., in disregard of use, give “out of Egypt.” But God is doubtless the subject of the verb, and we may render, over the land of Egypt, in allusion to Exodus 12:23, or against the land of Egypt, in reference to the Divine hostility to Pharaoh.

Where I heard . . .—The insertion of the relatival adverb, where, makes this refer to the Egyptian tongue (comp. Psalms 114:1), giving an equivalent for, “when I was in a foreign country.” So apparently the LXX. and Vulg. But the expression, words unknown to me I heard, when followed by an apparent quotation, most naturally introduces that quotation. The poet hears a message, which comes borne to him on the festival music, and this he goes on to deliver.

COKE, "Psalms 81:5. This he ordained in Joseph— A solemn charge, which he laid on Joseph when he marched out in the face of the land of Egypt. I heard a language I did not know: Psalms 81:6. I removed, &c. God is asserting his title to their obedience, from three very remarkable providences towards them: his saving them when they cried to him in their distress, ver.7 whether in Egypt, or at the Red Sea; his speaking to them on mount Sinai, from the midst of thunder, where he was hid in darkness; and his giving them water out of the rock. He begins with saying he had heard a language which he did not understand. That is, (as some explain it) they did not speak the true genuine Hebrew, but a corrupted language, perhaps, with a mixture of Egyptian. This (according to them) is said to shew that contemptible state of barbarism to which they were reduced in Egypt before he rescued them. Others, by this language, understand the voice of God, which the Israelites soon after their departure from Egypt heard from mount Sinai, to their great astonishment, as having never before been acquainted with it: and, accordingly, what the purport of that voice or language was, we see in the following verses, even to the end of the psalm, where God is introduced as speaking in his own person, and instructing the Israelites concerning the design of this solemnity; and withal complaining of their forgetfulness of his benefits, in giving them so great a deliverance from Egyptian slavery.

PULPIT, "This he ordained in Joseph for a testimony. The special mention of "Joseph" here is strange. Professor Cheyne explains, "God appointed the Law to be valid in northern as well as southern Israel." Hengstenberg and Professor Alexander account for the expression by the pre-eminence of Joseph during the sojourn in Egypt. When he went out through the land of Egypt. When he (Joseph) went out over (or, across) the land," i.e. at the time of the Exodus. Where I heard a language that I understood not. It can scarcely be supposed that this clause belongs properly to Psalms 81:5. It is rather an introduction to the monody wherewith the psalm (as it has come down to us) concludes—the mournful complaint of God against his people. So Professor Cheyne, who translates, "The discourse of no whom I had not known (i.e. of God) did I hear."

6 “I removed the burden from their shoulders; their hands were set free from the basket.

BAR�ES, "I removed his shoulder from the burden - The burden which the people of Israel were called to hear in Egypt. The reference is undoubtedly to their burdens in making bricks, and conveying them to the place where they were to be used; and perhaps also to the fact that they were required to carry stone in building houses and towns for the Egyptians. Compare Exo_1:11-14; Exo_5:4-17. The meaning is, that he had saved them from these burdens, to wit, by delivering them from their hard bondage. The speaker here evidently is God. In the previous verse it is the people. Such a change of person is not uncommon in the Scriptures.

His hands were delivered from the pots -Margin, as in Hebrew, passed away. That is, they were separated from them, or made free. The word rendered pots usually has that signification. Job_41:20; 1Sa_2:14; 2Ch_35:13; but it may also mean a basket. Jer_24:2; 2Ki_10:7. The latter is probably the meaning here. The allusion is to baskets which might have been used in carrying clay, or conveying the bricks after they were made: perhaps a kind of hamper that was swung over the shoulders, with clay or bricks in each - somewhat like the instrument used now by the Chinese in carrying tea - or like the neck-yoke which is employed in carrying sap where maple sugar is manufactured, or milk on dairy farms. There are many representations on Egyptian sculptures which would illustrate this. The idea is that of a burden, or task, and the allusion is to the deliverance that was accomplished by removing them to another land.

GILL, "I removed his shoulder from the burden,.... These are the words of God, declaring how he had delivered the Israelites from the oppression and cruelty of the Egyptians; who made their lives bitter in hard bondage, and obliged them to carry heavy loads of bricks upon their shoulders:

his hands were delivered from the pots, or "baskets" (c); into which the bricks were put when made, and carried on their shoulders; or from making of pots, as Kimchi, who thinks the Israelites were employed in making pots of clay as well as bricks; see Psa_68:13, the Targum is,

"his hands withdrew themselves from casting clay into the pots:''

the whole is typical of the saints' deliverance by Christ from the bondage of sin, Satan, and the law.

HE�RY, "The psalmist, in God's name, puts the people in mind of some of the particulars of their deliverance. Here he changes the person, Psa_81:6. God speaks by him, saying, I removed the shoulder from the burden. Let him remember this on the

feast-day, [1.] That God had brought them out of the house of bondage, had removed their shoulder from the burden of oppression under which they were ready to sink, had delivered their hands from the pots, or panniers, or baskets, in which they carried clay or bricks. Deliverance out of slavery is a very sensible mercy and one which ought to be had in everlasting remembrance. But this was not all. [2.] God had delivered them at the Red Sea; then they called in trouble, and he rescued them and disappointed the designs of their enemies against them, Exo_14:10. Then he answered them with a real answer, out of the secret place of thunder; that is, out of the pillar of fire, through which God looked upon the host of the Egyptians and troubled it, Exo_14:24, Exo_14:25. Or it may be meant of the giving of the law at Mount Sinai, which was the secret place, for it was death to gaze (Exo_19:21), and it was in thunder that God then spoke. Even the terrors of Sinai were favours to Israel, Deu_4:33. [3.] God had borne their manners in the wilderness: “I proved thee at the waters of Meribah; thou didst there show thy temper, what an unbelieving murmuring people thou wast, and yet I continued my favour to thee.” Selah -Mark that; compare God's goodness and man's badness, and they will serve as foils to each other. Now if they, 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 Jesus Christ from worse than Egyptian bondage, and the many gracious answers he has given to us, notwithstanding our manifold provocations.

CALVI�, "6I have removed his shoulder from the burden. Here God begins to recount the benefits which he had bestowed upon the Israelites, and the many ways in which he had laid them under obligations to him. The more galling the bondage was from which they had been delivered, the more desirable and precious was their liberty. When, therefore, it is affirmed that their burdens were so heavy that they stooped under them, and that they were doomed to the labor of making bricks, and to other slavish and toilsome occupations, the comparison of this their first state with their condition afterwards is introduced to illustrate the more strikingly the greatness of the blessing of their deliverance. Let us now apply this to ourselves, and elevate our minds to a higher subject, of which it was an image. As God has not only withdrawn our shoulders from a burden of brick, and not only removed our hands from the kilns, but has also redeemed us from the cruel and miserable tyranny of Satan, and drawn us from the depths of hell, the obligations under which we lie to him are of a much more strict and sacred kind than those under which he had brought his ancient people.

SPURGEO�, "Ver. 6. I removed his shoulder from the burden. Israel was the drudge and slave of Egypt, but God gave him liberty. It was by God alone that the nation was set free. Other peoples owe their liberties to their own efforts and courage, but Israel received its Magna Charta as a free gift of divine power. Truly may the Lord say of everyone of his freed men,I removed his shoulder from the burden. His hands were delivered from the pots. He was no longer compelled to carry earth, and mould it, and bake it; the earth basket was no more imposed upon the people, nor the tale of bricks exacted, for they came out into the open country where none could exact upon them. How typical all this is of the believer's deliverance from legal bondage, when, through faith, the burden of sin glides into the Saviour's sepulchre, and the servile labours of self

righteousness come to an end for ever.EXPLA�ATORY �OTES A�D QUAI�T SAYI�GSVer. 6. Pots, or burden baskets. Compare Exodus 6:6-7. Rosellini gives a drawing of these baskets from a picture discovered in a tomb at Thebes. "Of the labourers, "says he, "some are employed in transporting the clay in vessels, some in intermingling it with straw; others are taking the bricks out of the form, and placing them in rows; still others with a piece of wood upon their backs, and ropes on each side, carry away the bricks already burned or dried. Their dissimilarity to the Egyptians appears at the first view: their complexion, physiognomy and beard permit us not to be mistaken in supposing them to be Hebrews." Frederic Fysh.Ver. 6. Pots. The bricklayer's baskets; hanging one at each end of a yoke laid across the shoulders. William Kay.HI�TS TO THE VILLAGE PREACHERVer. 6. The emancipation of believers. Law work is burdensome, servile, never completed, unrewarded, more and more irksome. Only the Lord can deliver us from this slavish toil, and he does it by grace and by power. We do well to remember the time of our liberation, exhibit gratitude for it, and live consistently with it.

ELLICOTT, "(6) Pots.—Deriving from a root to boil, and with allusion to potteries, which, probably, together with the brick-kilns, formed the scene of the forced labour of Israel. The LXX. and Vulg. have “slaved in the basket,” but the basket, which is represented on Egyptian monuments, is doubtless meant by the burden of the last clause.

BE�SO�, "Verse 6-7Psalms 81:6-7. I removed his shoulder — That is, the shoulder of my people; from the burden — I delivered them from the burdensome slavery of Egypt. His hands were delivered from the pots — Hebrew, מדוד תעברנה, his hands passed from the pots, or, as Chandler renders it, his hands from the pots, through which they had passed. Thus God reminds Israel of their redemption, by his mercy and power, from the burdens and drudgery imposed on them in Egypt. And from this verse to the end of the Psalm, it is evident God is the speaker. Thou calledst in trouble — At the Red sea, Exodus 14:10-12 ; and I delivered thee — In an unexpected and extraordinary way, and disappointed the designs of thy enemies. I answered thee in the secret place of thunder — From the dark and cloudy pillar, whence I thundered and fought against the Egyptians: see Exodus 13:21; and Exodus 14:19; Exodus 14:24. Some refer this to the thunder at Sinai; but at that time they were not in trouble, but in a safe and glorious condition. Be assured, reader, that God is as ready, at all times, to hear the prayers and relieve the distresses of his people, as he was when the Israelites cried unto him in Egypt, and in the wilderness, and received answers from the cloudy pillar. Believe this, and apply to him in thy troubles.

COFFMA�, ""I removed his shoulder from the burden ... his hands from the basket" (Psalms 81:6). This is a reference to the slavery in Egypt from which God had freed his people. `The basket' here was used by the slaves carrying clay for the making of bricks.

"I answered thee in the secret place of thunder" (Psalms 81:7). This seems to be a reference to the `cloud' which guided Israel in the day-time in the wilderness.

"I proved thee at the waters of Meribah" (Psalms 81:7). There were two instances in which God provided water for Israel at Meribah; and these are discussed fully in our Vol. II of the Pentateuch (Exodus), pp. 230-233, and in Vol. III, (Lev.-�um.), pp. 442-445.

"O Israel, if thou wouldest hearken" (Psalms 81:8). There seems to be an emotional factor in such pleading words as these; and they remind us of the words of the Christ: "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem ... how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not! (Matthew 23:37f)."

"There shall no strange god be in thee; neither shall thou worship any foreign god" (Psalms 81:9). From these words it may be inferred that idolatrous, pagan worship was being indulged by God's people. Otherwise, no warning would have been necessary. This identifies the times of the psalm as prior to the exile, after which Israel did not worship pagan gods.

"Open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it" (Psalms 81:10). The imagery here is that of a nest of small birds opening their mouths wide at the appearance of the mother bird. There is a deep spiritual lesson in this. "God's gifts, both spiritual and temporal, are proportioned to our eager longing for them. Christ could do no miracles in one place because of the people's unbelief (Mark 6:5); and God cannot give lavishly unless we desire eagerly."[13] Tiny birds that never open their mouths are never fed.

"My people hearkened not to my voice ... Israel would none of me" (Psalms 81:11). Israel paid no attention to the Word of God; they did not obey the Lord; they did not wish to have anything at all to do with God.

"So I let them go after the stubbornness of their heart" (Psalms 81:12). "So I let them go"! �o sadder words were ever spoken of a people. This expression is the equivalent of what God did to the hardened Gentile nations of the pre-Christian era. "God gave them up ... God gave them up ... God gave them up" (Romans 1:24,26,28). All of the terrible things that later happened to Israel were due to only one thing: "God let them go."

There is a lesson in this for every man. God's Spirit will not always strive with sinful men; when it becomes evident that men love evil, God will eventually withdraw his influence and allow them to wallow in it.

"That they might walk in their own counsels" (Psalms 81:12). As Alexander Maclaren stated it, "There is no worse fate for a man than to be allowed to do as he chooses. `The ditch' sooner or later receives the man who follows his own understanding, which he himself has blinded by forbidding it to receive the truth

from that One who alone is The Light."[14]

"Oh that my people would hearken unto me" (Psalms 81:13). "One's entire relationship to God is always a matter of listening to Him,"[15] and that simply means studying and meditating day by day upon the Word of God as revealed to mankind in the Holy Bible. There is no other way to "hearken unto God."

These last four verses (Psalms 81:13-16) provide a statement of what God "would have done for Israel" if they had only been willing to heed his word and walk in God's ways. Barnes summarized these as follows.

(1) Their enemies would have been subdued (Psalms 81:14); (2) the haters of God would have turned to the Lord (Psalms 81:15);(3) God would have given them abundant prosperity (Psalms 81:16).[16]SIZE>

This being true of the Old Israel, is it any less true of the �ew? The answer is negative. As Barnes expressed it, "This psalm is of special importance to the church now, reminding God's people of their obligation derived from the past mercies of God, and showing what would be the consequences if they should be wholly dedicated to the service of God."[17]

"With honey out of the rock would I satisfy thee" (Psalms 81:16). "This verse looks back to Deuteronomy 32:13-14 `Honey from the rock is not a natural product.' The parallel from Deuteronomy, where we have, `oil out of the flinty rock,' shows that we are `not here on the ground of the actual, but of the ideal.' The expression is hyperbole for incomparable abundance."

What a glorious thing it would be for all of God's people to devote themselves without reservation to the love and service of God. Should anyone be afraid that God either could or would fall to provide abundant blessings for his people who might do such a thing? Has not Christ himself said, "Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world"?

CO�STABLE, "Verse 6-7God had told His people that He was freeing them from their bondage as slaves in Egypt. They had cried out to Him in their distress, and He answered them from heaven.

"To judge by this model, it is good to recall God"s answers with some sharpness of detail." [�ote: Kidner, Psalm 73-150 , p294.]

Then He tested them at the waters of Meribah to see if they would trust Him ( Exodus 17:1-7), and in order to train them to do so.

PULPIT, "Psalms 81:6-16

The "discourse" is now given. It commences somewhat abruptly, and is, perhaps,

itself a fragment, the beginning of which is lost. God reminds Israel of his past favours (Psalms 81:6, Psalms 81:7), exhorts them to faithfulness (Psalms 81:8, Psalms 81:9), promises them blessings (Psalms 81:10), complains of their waywardness (Psalms 81:11, Psalms 81:12), and finally makes a last appeal to them to turn to him, and recover his protection, before it is too late (Psalms 81:13-16).

Psalms 81:6

I removed his shoulder from the burden. In Egypt, burdens were borne upon the shoulder, either simply held upon it with both hands, or distributed between the two shoulders by means of a yoke. His hands were delivered from the pots; rather, from the basket; i.e. the basket in which the clay was carried before it was made into bricks.

K&D 6-10, "It is a gentle but profoundly earnest festival discourse which God the Redeemer addresses to His redeemed people. It begins, as one would expect in a

Passover speech, with a reference to the סבלות of Egypt (Exo_1:11-14; Exo_5:4; Exo_6:6.), and to the duwd, the task-basket for the transport of the clay and of the bricks (Exo_1:14; Exo_5:7.).

(Note: In the Papyrus Leydensis i. 346 the Israelites are called the “Aperiu (עברים), who dragged along the stones for the great watch-tower of the city of Rameses,” and in the Pap. Leyd. i. 349, according to Lauth, the “Aperiu, who dragged along the stones for the storehouse of the city of Rameses.”)

Out of such distress did He free the poor people who cried for deliverance (Exo_2:23-

25); He answered them רעם� i.e., not (according to Psa_22:22; Isa_32:2): affording ,"סתרthem protection against the storm, but (according to Psa_18:12; Psa_77:17.): out of the thunder-clouds in which He at the same time revealed and veiled Himself, casting down the enemies of Israel with His lightnings, which is intended to refer pre-eminently to the

passage through the Red Sea (vid., Psa_77:19); and He proved them (� with ŏ ,אבחנך

contracted from ō, cf. on Job_35:6) at the waters of Merîbah, viz., whether they would trust Him further on after such glorious tokens of His power and loving-kindness. The

name “Waters of MerıUbah,” which properly is borne only by MerıUbath Kadesh, the place of the giving of water in the fortieth year (Num_20:13; Num_27:14; Deu_32:51; Deu_33:8), is here transferred to the place of the giving of water in the first year, which was

named Massah u-MerıUbah (Exo_17:7), as the remembrances of these two miracles, which took place under similar circumstances, in general blend together (vid., on Psa_95:8.). It is not now said that Israel did not act in response to the expectation of God, who had son wondrously verified Himself; the music, as Seal imports, here rises, and makes a long and forcible pause in what is being said. What now follows further, are, as the further progress of Psa_81:12 shows, the words of God addressed to the Israel of the desert, which at the same time with its faithfulness are brought to the remembrance of the

Israel of the present. �"� as in Psa_50:7; Deu_8:19, to bear testimony that concerns ,העיד

him against any one. אם (according to the sense, o si, as in Psa_95:7, which is in many ways akin to this Psalm) properly opens a searching question which wishes that the thing asked may come about (whether thou wilt indeed give me a willing hearing?!). In

Psa_81:10 the key-note of the revelation of the Law from Sinai is struck: the fundamental command which opens the decalogue demanded fidelity to Jahve and

forbade idol-worship as the sin of sins. זר� is an idol in opposition to the God of Israel אל

as the true God; and נכר� a strange god in opposition to the true God as the God of ,אלIsrael. To this one God Israel ought to yield itself all the more undividedly and heartily as it was more manifestly indebted entirely to Him, who in His condescension had chosen

it, and in His wonder-working might had redeemed it (�.part ,הMעלך Hiph. with the eh

elided, like � g8, Exo_33:3); and how easy thisה from ,אכלך� Deu_13:6, and ,הJדךsubmission ought to have been to it, since He desired nothing in return for the rich abundance of His good gifts, which satisfy and quicken body and soul, but only a wide-opened mouth, i.e., a believing longing, hungering for mercy and eager for salvation (Psa_119:131)!

7 In your distress you called and I rescued you, I answered you out of a thundercloud; I tested you at the waters of Meribah.[c]

BAR�ES, "Thou calledst in trouble - The people of Israel. Exo_2:23; Exo_3:9; Exo_14:10.

And I delivered thee - I brought the people out of Egypt.

I answered thee in the secret place of thunder - That is, in the lonely, retired, solemn place where the thunder rolled; the solitudes where there was no voice but the voice of thunder, and where that seemed to come from the deep recesses of the mountain gorges. The allusion is doubtless to Sinai. Compare Exo_19:17-19. The meaning is, that he gave a response - a real reply - to their prayer - amid the solemn scenes of Sinai, when he gave them his law; when he recognized them as his people; when he entered into covenant with them.

I proved thee - I tried you; I tested your fidelity.

At the waters of Meribah -Margin, as in Hebrew, strife. This was at Mount Horeb. Exo_17:5-7. The trial - the proof - consisted in his bringing water from the rock, showing that he was God - that he was their God.

CLARKE, "Thou calledst in trouble - They had cried by reason of their burdens,

and the cruelty of their task-masters; and God heard that cry, and delivered them. See Exo_3:7, etc.

In the secret place of thunder - On Mount Sinai; where God was heard, but not seen. They heard a voice, but they saw no shape.

At the waters of Meribah - See this transaction, Exo_17:1 (note), etc.

GILL, "Thou calledst in trouble, and I delivered thee,.... That is, when Israel were in trouble in Egypt, as the Targum adds, and they cried unto the Lord in their distress, he heard them, and answered them, and sent them a deliverer, and brought them out of all their troubles, Exo_3:7.

I answered thee in the secret place of thunder; by bringing the plague of thunder and lightnings upon the Egyptians, when the Israelites were hidden from them; a sense given by some, as Kimchi observes: or rather this was done when the Lord looked out of the pillar of cloud at the Red sea upon the Egyptian host, and troubled them; at which time the voice of his thunder was heard in heaven, Psa_77:16. Some think this has reference to the thunder at the giving of the law on Mount Sinai; but the sense before given is best:

I proved thee at the waters of Meribah; by withholding water from them to try them, and see whether they would behave patiently, and put their trust and confidence in the Lord, or not; see Exo_17:4.

JAMISO�, "secret place— the cloud from which He troubled the Egyptians (Exo_14:24).

proved thee— (Psa_7:10; Psa_17:3) - tested their faith by the miracle.

CALVI�, "7Thou didst cry in trouble, and I delivered thee. Here the same subject is prosecuted. By their crying when they were in distress, I understand the prayers which they then offered to God. It sometimes happens that those who are reduced to extremity bewail their calamities with confused crying; but as this afflicted people still had in them some remains of godliness, and as they had not forgotten the promise made to their fathers, I have no doubt that they directed their prayers to God. Even men without religion, who never think of calling upon God, when they are under the pressure of any great calamity, are moved by a secret instinct of nature to have recourse to Him. This renders it the more probable that the promise was, as it were, a schoolmaster to the Israelites, leading them to look to God. As no man sincerely calls upon Him but he who trusts in him for help; this crying ought the more effectually to have convinced them that it was their duty to ascribe to Him alone the deliverance which was offered them. By the secret place of thunder some, in my opinion, with too much refinement of interpretation, understand that God by thundering rendered the groanings of the people inaudible to the Egyptians, that by hearing them the Egyptians might not become the more exasperated. But the meaning simply is, that the people were heard in a secret and wonderful manner,

while, at the same time, manifest tokens were given by which the Israelites might be satisfied that they were succoured by the Divine hand. God, it is true, was not seen by them face to face; but the thunder was an evident indication of his secret presence among them. (410) To make them prize more highly this benefit, God upbraidingly tells them that they were unworthy of it, having given such a manifest proof at the waters of Meribah, (411) that they were of a wicked and perverse disposition, Exodus 17:7. Your wickedness, as if he had said, having at that time so openly shown itself, surely it must from this be incontrovertible that my favor to you did not proceed from any regard to your good desert. This rebuke is not less applicable to us than to the Israelites; for God not only heard our groanings when we were afflicted under the tyranny of Satan, but before we were born appointed his only begotten Son to be the price of our redemption; and afterwards, when we were his enemies, he called us to be partakers of his grace, illuminating our minds by his gospel and his Holy Spirit; while we, notwithstanding, continue to indulge in murmuring, yea, even proudly rebel against Him.

SPURGEO�, "Ver. 7. Thou calledst in trouble, and I delivered thee. God heard his people's cries in Egypt, and at the Red Sea: this ought to have bound them to him. Since God does not forsake us in our need, we ought never to forsake him at any time. When our hearts wander from God, our answered prayers cry "shame" upon us.I answered thee in the secret place of thunder. Out of the cloud the Lord sent forth tempest upon the foes of his chosen. That cloud was his secret pavilion, within it he hung up his weapons of war, his javelins of lightning his trumpet of thunder; forth from that pavilion he came and overthrew the foe that his own elect might be secure.I proved thee at the waters of Meribah. They had proved him and found him faithful, he afterwards proved them in return. Precious things are tested, therefore Israel's loyalty to her King was put to trial, and, alas, it failed lamentably. The God who was adored one day for his goodness was reviled the next, when the people for a moment felt the pangs of hunger and thirst. The story of Israel is only our own history in another shape. God has heard us, delivered us, liberated us, and too often our unbelief makes the wretched return of mistrust, murmuring, and rebellion. Great is our sin; great is the mercy of our God: let us reflect upon both, and pause a while.Selah. Hurried reading is of little benefit; to sit down a while and meditate is very profitable.EXPLA�ATORY �OTES A�D QUAI�T SAYI�GSVer. 7. To answer in the secret place of thunder, refers us to the pillar of cloud and fire, the habitation of the awful Majesty of God, whence God glanced with angry eyes upon the Egyptians, filled them with consternation and overthrew them. Venema.

ELLICOTT, "(7) Thou calledst.—The recital of God’s past dealings with the people usual at the Feast of the Tabernacles (Deuteronomy 31:10-13; �ehemiah 8:18) appears to follow here as if the feast were actually in progress and the crowd were listening to the psalmist.

I answered thee in the secret place of thunder.—Mr. Burgess is undoubtedly right in taking the verb as from ânan, “to cover,” instead of ânah, “to answer.” I sheltered thee in the thundercloud, with plain allusion to the “cloudy pillar.” The same verb is used in Psalms 105:39, “He spread out the cloud for a covering.”

EBC, "The Divine Voice begins with recapitulating the facts which the feast was intended to commemorate-namely, the act of emancipation from Egyptian bondage (Psalms 81:6), and the miracles of the wilderness sojourn (Psalms 81:7). The compulsory labour, from which God delivered the people, is described by two terms, of which the former (burden) is borrowed from Exodus, where it frequently occurs, [Exodus 1:11; Exodus 5:4; Exodus 6:6] and the latter (basket) is by some supposed to mean the wicker work implement for carrying, which the monuments show was in use in Egypt (so LXX, etc.), and by others to mean an earthen vessel, as "an example of the work in clay in which the Israelites were engaged" (Hupfeld). The years of desert wandering are summed up, in Psalms 81:7, as one long continuance of benefits from God. Whenever they cried to Him in their trouble, He delivered them. He spoke to them "from the secret place of thunder" ("My thunder covert, " Cheyne). That expression is generally taken to refer to the pillar of cloud, but seems more naturally to be regarded as alluding to the thick darkness, in which God was shrouded on Sinai. when He spoke His law amid thunderings and lightnings. "The proving at the waters of Meribah" is, according to the connection and in harmony with Exodus 17:6, to be regarded as a benefit. "It was meant to serve the purpose of binding Israel still more closely to its God" (Baethgen). It is usually assumed that, in this reference to "the waters of Meribah," the two similar incidents of the miraculous supply of water-one of which occurred near the beginning of the forty years in the desert, at "Massah and Meribah," [Exodus 17:7] and the other at "the waters of Meribah," near Kadesh, in the fortieth year - have been blended, or, as Cheyne says, "confused." But there is no need to suppose that there is any confusion, for the words of the psalm will apply to the latter miracle as well as to the former, and, if the former clause refers to the manifestations at Sinai, the selection of an incident at nearly the end of the wilderness period is natural. The whole stretch of forty years is thereby declared to have been marked by continuous Divine care. The Exodus was begun, continued, and ended amid tokens of His watchful love. The Selah bids the listener meditate on that prolonged revelation.

PULPIT, "Thou calledst in trouble, and I delivered thee (see Exodus 2:23; Exodus 3:7; Exodus 14:10, etc.). I answered thee in the secret place of thunder. The pillar of the cloud seems to be meant. In this, and from this, God answered the cry of his people (Exodus 14:24). I proved thee at the waters of Meribah (Exodus 17:7). The "selah" after these words marks a pause, during which the people addressed might reflect on the manifold mercies which God had vouchsafed to them in Egypt, in the wilderness, and elsewhere.

8 Hear me, my people, and I will warn you— if you would only listen to me, Israel!

BAR�ES, "Hear, O my people, and I will testify unto thee ... - See the notes at the similar passage in Psa_50:7. God calls their attention to what he required of them; to what his law demanded; to what was the condition of their being his people and of securing his favor. What the demanded was, that they should acknowledge him; obey him; serve him; that there should be no strange god among them, and that they should worship no false god, Psa_81:9.

CLARKE, "Hear, O my people - These are nearly the same words with those spoken at the giving of the law, Exo_20:2.

GILL, "Hear, O my people, and I will testify unto thee,.... Of himself, his being, and perfections; what he was unto them, had done for them, and would do for them, as in the following verses: or "testify in thee" (d), bear witness to their spirits, that they were his people, and he was their God; this is a witness which the people of God have in themselves; it is the inward testimony of the Spirit; besides which, there is the outward testimony of the word, and which also may be here meant; for it may be rendered,

I will give a testimony to thee: the law is a testimony of the will of God to his people, what he would have done, or not done; and the Gospel is a testimony of his grace, and the whole word testifies of Christ, his person, offices, obedience, sufferings, and death: some render it, "testify against thee" (e), for their murmurings, rebellion, and idolatry, as in Psa_50:7 and they are called upon to hear the voice of God in his word, and in his providences, being his people; and as such he addresses them, which bespeaks interest in them, affection to them, and an acknowledgment of them, and carries in it a reason why they should hear him:

O Israel, if thou wilt hearken unto me; this explains who are meant by the Lord's people, Israel, the posterity of Jacob, a chosen and special people, who are exhorted not only to hear, but to hearken and to obey; suggesting, it would be well with them, if they did as in Psa_81:13, and some (f) take these words to be a wish, as there; "Israel, O that thou wouldest hearken unto me": see Isa_48:18.

HE�RY, "God, by the psalmist, here speaks to Israel, and in them to us, on whom the ends of the world are come.

I. He demands their diligent and serious attention to what he was about to say (Psa_81:8): “Hear, O my people! and who should hear me if my people will not? I have heard

and answered thee; now wilt thou hear me? Hear what is said with the greatest solemnity and the most unquestionable certainty, for it is what I will testify unto thee.Do not only give me the hearing, but hearken unto me, that is, be advised by me, be ruled by me.” Nothing could be more reasonably nor more justly expected, and yet God puts an if upon it: “If thou wilt hearken unto me. It is thy interest to do so, and yet it is questionable whether thou wilt or no; for thy neck is an iron sinew.”

JAMISO�, "(Compare Psa_50:7). The reproof follows to Psa_81:12.

if thou wilt hearken— He then propounds the terms of His covenant: they should worship Him alone, who (Psa_81:10) had delivered them, and would still confer all needed blessings.

CALVI�, "8Hear, O my people! The more effectually to touch the hearts of the people, God is here invested with the character of a teacher, and introduced as speaking familiarly in the midst of the congregation; and this is done for the purpose of instructing them, that all assemblies are unprofitable and trifling in which the voice of God stirring up men to faith and true godliness is not uttered. But let us proceed to the consideration of the words. This preface was intended to teach in a few words, that festival days were not purely and rightly observed unless the people listened with attention to the voice of God. In order to consecrate their hands, feet, eyes, and their whole persons, to his service, it behoved them, in the first place, to open their ears to his voice. Thus the lesson is taught that he acknowledges as his servants those only who are disposed to become learners. By the word protest he intimates that he covenants after a solemn manner, thereby to give his words the greater authority. The clause which follows, O Israel! if thou wilt hearken to me, is, I presume, an abrupt expression, similar to what is frequently employed in pathetic discourses, the ellipse serving to express the greater earnestness. Some connect it with the following verse in this way, O Israel! if thou wilt hearken to me, there will be no strange god in thee But it is rather to be viewed as the language of regret on the part of God. He indirectly intimates that he distrusts this obstinate and rebellious people, and can hardly indulge the hope that they will prove obedient and teachable.

SPURGEO�, "Ver. 8. Hear, O my people, and I will testify unto thee. What? Are the people so insensible as to be deaf to their God? So it would seem, for he earnestly asks a hearing. Are we not also at times quite as careless and immovable?O Israel, if thou wilt hearken unto me. There is much in this "if." How low have they fallen who will not hearken unto God himself! The deaf adder is not more grovelling. We are not fond of being upbraided, we had rather avoid sharp and cutting truths; and, though the Lord himself rebuke us, we fly from his gentle reproofs.

BE�SO�, "Verses 8-10Psalms 81:8-10. Hear, O my people — And who should hear me if my people will not? I have heard and answered thee, now wilt thou hear me? Hear what is said, with the greatest solemnity, and the most unquestionable certainty, for it is what I,

the God of truth and love, thy lawgiver and thy judge, declare for thy profit. And I will testify unto thee — Concerning my will and thy duty. I will give thee statutes and judgments, in the execution of which thou mayest live and be happy for ever. This God did presently after he brought them from Meribah, even at Sinai. There shall no strange god be in thee — Thou shalt renounce all false gods, and false ways of worship, and shalt worship me only, and only in the manner which I shall prescribe. Thus, in effect, God addressed himself to Israel at Sinai, and thus he addressed himself to them when this Psalm was written, and thus he addresses his people in every age. He thus put them in remembrance of the first and great command, Thou shalt have no other gods before me; and of his claim to their obedience as their God and Saviour. Open thy mouth wide — That Isaiah , 1 st, Pray for my mercies; ask freely, and abundantly, and boldly, whatsoever you need, or in reason can desire. 2d, Receive the mercies which I am ready to give you. And I will fill it — I will grant them all upon condition of your obedience. Here then he testifies, that he is both able and willing to satisfy the utmost desires and wishes of such as would apply to him for blessings, especially spiritual blessings and comforts. “Behold then the rebellion, the ingratitude, and the folly of that man, who says to any creature, ‘Thou art my God;’ who bestoweth on the world that fear, love, and adoration, which are due only to its Creator and Redeemer; who wasteth his days in seeking after happiness, where all, by their inquietude, acknowledge that it is not to be found.” — Horne.

EXPOSITORS DICTIO�ARY OF TEXTS, "Consecration and Expectation

Psalm 81:8-10

I. The duty of religion flows directly from the fact of God. Wherever God is acknowledged there religion is obligatory. To us then who admit that there is a God of whom we know something religion cannot be optional. God Isaiah , and it is our duty to honour and obey Him. Full obedience, then, is one fundamental element of religion, as it is brought before us in our text We might find a ground for demanding obedience to God further back than any special experience of God"s redemptive working. A sufficient stringency of duty arises, for instance, from the relation of the creature to the Creator. The demand that we should perfectly obey and wholly consecrate ourselves to the Lord our God comes to us as it did to Israel. �or can we pretend to have complied faithfully with it. Under the uniformity of our worship our fickleness has been every whit as real as that of Israel long ago. Might not an impartial observer conclude that we worshipped at least two Gods? A God of this world six days and a God of the world to come, whom we seek to placate, on the odd seventh day, with no great earnestness, by certain acts of worship of no long duration? The truth is that we fail in the fundamental element of religion which I have called obedience, unless we do all things, week-day and Sunday, to the glory of the only God. There is an interesting parallel between us and the Israelites. As Israel traced its origin to God"s redemptive grace working by Moses, so we may trace the origin of our Christian Church to God"s redemptive grace working by Christ.

II. We pass now to the second element of religion which our text gives us—the

element of expectation. We fail in this duty of expectancy as much as in the duty of obedience. A large expectation is as much a duty as a complete consecration. The religion of redemption is emphatically the religion of hope. Our prayers disappoint us, not because we ask more than we had a right to expect, but because we ask too little. If we ask of the greater things we shall get all we need of the less. All sin is unreasonable, but no sin has so little to say for itself as the sin of those who profess to lament their failure, and yet refuse to admit those words of salvation which are ever sounding in their ears, and which, if believed, would make all things new.

—P. J. Maclagan, The Gospel View of Things, p187.

9 You shall have no foreign god among you; you shall not worship any god other than me.

BAR�ES, "There shall no strange god be in thee -Worshipped by thee; or recognized and regarded as a god. This was a condition of his favor and friendship.

Compare Deu_32:12; Isa_43:12. The word here rendered “strange” - zār זר - has reference to one of a foreign nation; and the meaning is, that they were not to worship or adore the gods that were worshipped by foreigners. This was a fundamental law of the Hebrew commonwealth.

Neither shalt thou worship any strange god - The Hebrew word here is

different - nêkâr נכר - but means substantially the same thing. The allusion is to gods worshipped by foreign nations.

GILL, "There shall no strange god be in thee,.... Or in the midst of thee, owned and worshipped as God; or in thine heart, for whatever engrosses the affection, or a man puts his trust and confidence in, that he makes his god, and is a strange one: thus, if any friend or relation, father or mother, wife or children, are loved more than God, they are set up as such in his place; thus the epicure, that seeks the gratification of his carnal lusts, makes his belly his god; and the covetous man his money, in which he trusts, and therefore is called an idolater; and the self-righteous man his righteousness, on which he depends for salvation: hence we read of idols set up in the heart, from which they are disengaged in conversion, and kept from, Eze_14:7.

neither shall thou worship any strange god; only the Lord God is to be worshipped, Mat_28:19 and there is but one God; though this is to be understood not to the exclusion of the Son and Spirit, who are with the Father the one God, and to be worshipped equally with him, and are; see Mat_28:19.

HE�RY, "He gives them an abstract both of the precepts and of the promises which he gave them, as the Lord and their God, upon their coming out of Egypt. 1. The great command was that they should have no other gods before him (Psa_81:9): There shall no strange god be in thee, none besides thy own God. Other gods might well be called strange gods, for it was very strange that ever any people who had the true and living God for their God should hanker after any other. God is jealous in this matter, for he will not suffer his glory to be given to another; and therefore in this matter they must be circumspect, Exo_23:13. 2. The great promise was that God himself, as a God all-sufficient, would be nigh unto them in all that which they called upon him for (Deu_4:7), that, if they would adhere to him as their powerful protector and ruler, they should always find him their bountiful benefactor: “Open thy mouth wide and I will fill it, as the young ravens that cry open their mouths wide and the old ones fill them.” See here, (1.) What is our duty - to raise our expectations from God and enlarge our desires towards him. We cannot look for too little from the creature nor too much from the Creator. We are not straitened in him; why therefore should we be straitened in our own bosoms? (2.) What is God's promise. I will fill thy mouth with good things, Psa_103:5. There is enough in God to fill our treasures (Pro_8:21), to replenish every hungry soul (Jer_31:25), to supply all our wants, to answer all our desires, and to make us completely happy. The pleasures of sense will surfeit and never satisfy (Isa_55:2); divine pleasures will satisfy and never surfeit. And we may have enough from God if we pray for it in faith. Ask, and it shall be given you. He gives liberally, and upbraids not. God assured his people Israel that it would be their own fault if he did not do as great and kind things for them as he had done for their fathers. Nothing should be thought too good, too much, to give them, if they would but keep close to God. He would moreover have given them such and such things, 2Sa_12:8.

CALVI�, "9Let there be no strange god (414) in thee. Here there is propounded the leading article of the covenant, and almost the whole sum of it, which is, that God alone must have the pre-eminence. Some may prefer this explanation: O Israel! if thou wilt hearken to me, there is nothing which I more strictly require or demand from thee than that thou shouldst be contented with me alone, and that thou shouldst not seek after strange gods: and of this opinion I am far from disapproving. God by this language undoubtedly confirms the truth which he so frequently inculcates elsewhere in the law and the prophets, that he is so jealous a God as not to allow another to be a partaker of the honor to which he alone is entitled. But at the same time he teaches us that true religious worship begins with obedience. The order which Moses observes is different, Exodus 20:2, and Deuteronomy 5:6. In these passages God sets out with declaring that he is the God of Israel; and then he forbids them to make for themselves any new gods. But here the prohibition is put first, and then the reason of it is subjoined, which is, that the people ought to be abundantly satisfied with the God who had purchased them to be his people. Perhaps also he sets this in the front to prepare the way for his obtaining the throne of their hearts. He would first withdraw the people from superstitions, as these must necessarily be plucked up and cleared away before true religion can take root in our hearts.

SPURGEO�, "Ver. 9. There shall no strange god be in thee. �o alien god is to be tolerated in Israel's tents.

�either shalt thou worship any strange god. Where false gods are, their worship is sure to follow. Man is so desperate an idolater that the image is always a strong temptation: while the nests are there the birds will be eager to return. �o other god had done anything for the Jews, and therefore they had no reason for paying homage to any other. To us the same argument will apply. We owe all to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ: the world, the flesh, the devil, none of these have been of any service to us; they are aliens, foreigners, enemies, and it is not for us to bow down before them. "Little children keep yourselves from idols, "is our Lord's voice to us, and by the power of his Spirit we would cast out every false god from our hearts.

ELLICOTT, "(9) Open . . .—A condensed statement of God’s gracious promise (Deuteronomy 7:12-13; Deuteronomy 8:7; Deuteronomy 8:9; Deuteronomy 11:13; Deuteronomy 11:16, &c). It is said to have been a custom in Persia, that when the king wishes to do a visitor especial honour he desires him to open his mouth wide, and the king then-crams it full of sweetmeats, and sometimes even with jewels. And to this day it is a mark of politeness in Orientals to tear off the daintiest bits of meat for a guest, and either lay them before him, or put them in his mouth. (See Thomson, Land and Book, p. 127.)

10 I am the Lord your God, who brought you up out of Egypt.Open wide your mouth and I will fill it.

BAR�ES, "I am the Lord thy God ... - See Exo_20:2. The meaning is, “I am Yahweh, that God; the God to be worshipped and honored by thee; I only am thy God, and no other god is to be recognized or acknowledged by thee.” The foundation of the claim to exclusive service and devotion is here laid in the fact that he had brought them out of the land of Egypt. Literally, had caused them to ascend, or go up from that land. The claim thus asserted seems to be twofold:

(a) that in doing this, he had shown that he was God, or that he had performed a work which none but God could perform, and had thus shown his existence and power; and

(b) that by this he had brought them under special obligations to himself, inasmuch as they owed all that they had - their national existence and liberty - entirely to him.

Open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it - Possibly an allusion to young birds,

when fed by the parent-bird. The meaning here is, “I can amply supply all your needs. You need not go to other gods - the gods of other lands - as if there were any deficiency in my power or resources; as if I were not able to meet your necessities. All your needs I can meet. Ask what you need - what you will; come to me and make any request with reference to yourselves as individuals or as a nation - to this life or the life to come - and you will find in me all abundant supply for all your needs, and a willingness to bless you commensurate with my resources.” What is here said of the Hebrews may be said of the people of God at all times. There is not a want of our nature - of our bodies or our souls; a want pertaining to this life or the life to come - to ourselves, to our families, to our friends, to the church, or to our country - which God is not able to meet; and there is not a real necessity in any of these respects which he is not willing to meet. Why, then, should his people ever turn for happiness to the “weak and beggarly elements of the world” (compare the notes at Gal_4:9), as if God could not satisfy them? Why should they seek for happiness in vain amusements, or in sensual pleasures, as if God could not, or would not, supply the real needs of their souls?

CLARKE, "Open thy mouth wide - Let thy desires be ever so extensive, I will gratify them if thou wilt be faithful to me. Thou shalt lack no manner of thing that is good.

GILL, "I am the Lord thy God,.... The true Jehovah, the Being of beings, in whom all live and move and have their beings, the covenant God of his people; and is a reason why they should hear him, and worship him, and no other:

which brought thee out of the land of Egypt; this, with what goes before, is the preface to the ten commands, the first and principal of which is urged in the preceding verse; and this is another reason why the Lord God should be had and worshipped, and not a strange god; and redemption from worse than Egyptian bondage, from the bondage of sin, Satan, and the law, and a deliverance from worse than Egyptian darkness, and from a state of wickedness and impiety, should lay under greater obligations still to serve the Lord, and worship him only; who adds, as a further reason for it,

open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it; which may be understood of opening the mouth either in prayer or in praise: to open the mouth wide in prayer is to pray with great freedom, to pour out the soul to God, lay open its whole case, and tell him all his mind and wants; to pray with great boldness, and with much importunity and fervency, and in full assurance of faith, pleading with great strength the promises of God, and asking in faith for much, according to them; and God may be said to fill this wide mouth of faith in prayer, when he grants the desires of the heart, gives his people what they will, even very largely and abundantly, yea, more than they can ask or think: to open the mouth wide in praise is to be abundantly thankful for mercies received; and when persons are so, the Lord fills them with more abundant matter for praise and thanksgiving; see Psa_71:8, or this may be interpreted of opening the mouth wide in expressions of desire after spiritual food, hungering and thirsting after spiritual things, when the Lord fills or satisfies the mouths of his people with good things, Psa_103:5, with the sincere milk of the word which they desire, and with the ordinances, the breasts of consolation they long for, and so satisfies them with the goodness and fatness of his

house, Psa_64:4, the metaphor seems to be taken from the young of birds, which open their mouths, and are filled by the old ones: the Targum is,

"open thy mouth to the words of the law, and I will fill it with every good thing.''

HE�RY, ". He puts them in mind of their obligation to him as the Lord their God and Redeemer (Psa_81:10): I am the Lord thy God, who brought thee out of the land of Egypt; this is the preface to the ten commandments, and a powerful reason for the keeping of them, showing that we are bound to it in duty, interest, and gratitude, all which bonds we break asunder if we be disobedient.

JAMISO�, "CALVI�, "10.I am Jehovah thy God, who brought thee out of the land of Egypt: open thy mouth wide. God, by making mention of the deliverance which he had wrought for the people, put a bridle upon those whom he had taken under his protection, by which he might hold them bound to his service; and now he assures them, that with respect to the time to come, he had an abundant supply of all blessings with which to fill and satisfy their desires. The three arguments which he employs to induce the Israelites to adhere exclusively to him, and by which he shows them how wickedly and impiously they would act in turning aside from him, and having recourse to strange gods, are worthy of special attention. The first is, that he is Jehovah. By the word Jehovah, he asserts his claims as God by nature, and declares, that it is beyond the power of man to make new gods. When he says I am Jehovah, the pronoun I is emphatic. The Egyptians, no doubt, pretended to worship the Creator of heaven and of earth; but their contempt of the God of Israel plainly convicted them of falsehood. Whenever men depart from Him, they adorn the idols of their own invention with His spoils, whatever the specious pretexts may be by which they attempt to vindicate themselves. After having affirmed that he is Jehovah, he proves his Godhead from the effect and experience, — from the clear and irrefragable evidence of it in his delivering his people from Egypt, and especially, from his performing at that time the promise which he had made to the fathers. This is his second argument. The power which was displayed on that occasion ought not to have been contemplated apart by itself, since it depended upon the covenant, which long before he had entered into with Abraham. By that deliverance he gave a proof not less of his veracity than of his power, and thus vindicated the praise which was due to him. The third argument is, that he offers himself to the people for the time to come; assuring them, that, provided they continue to persevere in the faith, he will be the same towards the children as the fathers experienced him to be, his goodness being inexhaustible: Open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it. By the expression open wide, he tacitly condemns the contracted views and desires which obstruct the exercise of his beneficence. “If the people are in penury,” we may suppose him to say, “the blame is to be entirely ascribed to themselves, because their capacity is not large enough to receive the blessings of which they stand in need; or rather, because by their unbelief they reject the blessings which would flow spontaneously upon them.” He not only bids them open their mouth, but he magnifies the abundance of his grace still more highly, by intimating, that however enlarged our desires may be, there will be

nothing wanting which is necessary to afford us full satisfaction. Whence it follows, that the reason why God’s blessings drop upon us in a sparing and slender manner is, because our mouth is too narrow; and the reason why others are empty and famished is, because they keep their mouth completely shut. The majority of mankind, either from disgust, or pride, or madness, refuse all the blessings which are offered them from heaven. Others, although they do not altogether reject them, yet with difficulty take in only a few small drops, because their faith is so straitened as to prevent them from receiving an abundant supply. It is a very manifest proof of the depravity of mankind, when they have no desire to know God, in order that they may embrace him, and when they are equally disinclined to rest satisfied with him. He undoubtedly here requires to be worshipped by external service; but he sets no value upon the bare name of Deity — for his majesty does not consist in two or three syllables. He rather looks to what the name imports, and is solicitous that our hope may not be withdrawn from him to other objects, or that the praise of righteousness, salvation, and all blessings, may not be transferred from him to another. In calling himself by the name Jehovah, he claims Godhead exclusively to himself, on the ground that he possesses a plenitude of all blessings with which to satisfy and fill us.

SPURGEO�, "Ver. 10. I am the Lord thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt. Thus did Jehovah usually introduce himself to his people. The great deliverance out of Egypt was that claim upon his people's allegiance which he most usually pleaded. If ever people were morally bound to their God, certainly Israel was a thousand times pledged unto Jehovah, by his marvellous deeds on their behalf in connection with the Exodus.Open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it. Because he had brought them out of Egypt he could do great things for them. He had proved his power and his good will; it remained only for his people to believe in him and ask large things of him. If their expectations were enlarged to the utmost degree, they could not exceed the bounty of the Lord. Little birds in the nest open their mouths widely enough, and perhaps the parent birds fail to fill them, but it will never be so with our God. His treasures of grace are inexhaustible,"Deep as our helpless miseries are,And boundless as our sins."The Lord began with his chosen nation upon a great scale, doing great wonders for them, and offering them vast returns for their faith and love, if they would but be faithful to him. Sad, indeed, was the result of this grand experiment.EXPLA�ATORY �OTES A�D QUAI�T SAYI�GSVer. 10. Open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it. Surely this teaches us, that the greater and more valuable the blessings are which we implore from the divine beneficence, the more sure shall we be to receive them in answer to prayer...But, though men are to be blamed, that they so seldom acknowledge God in any thing, yet they are still more to be blamed, that they seek not from him the chief good. Men may, however, possibly cry to God for inferior things, and apply in vain. Even good men may ask for temporal blessings, and not receive them; because the things we suppose good, may not be good, or not good for us, or not good for us at present. But none shall seek God for the best of blessings in vain. If we ask enough, we shall have it. While the worldling drinks in happiness, if it will bear the name, with the

mouth of an insect, the Christian imbibes bliss with the mouth of an angel. His pleasures are the same in kind, with the pleasure of the infinitely happy God. John Ryland.Ver. 10. Open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it. You may easily over expect the creature, but you cannot over expect God: "Open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it; "widen and dilate the desires and expectations of your souls, and God is able to fill every chink to the vastest capacity. This honours God, when we greaten our expectations upon him, it is a sanctifying of God in our hearts. Thomas Case (1598-1682), in "Morning Exercises."Ver. 10. Open thy mouth wide. This implies,1. Warmth and fervency in prayer. To open the mouth is in effect to open the heart, that it may be both engaged and enlarged... We may be said to open our mouths wide when our affections are quick and lively, and there is a correspondence between the feelings of the heart and the request of the lips; or when we really pray, and not merely seem to do so. This is strongly and beautifully expressed in Psalms 119:131 : I opened my mouth, and panted: for I longed for thy commandments.2. It implies a holy fluency and copiousness of expression, so as to order our cause before him, and fill our mouths with arguments. When the good man gets near to God, he has much business to transact with him, many complaints to make, and many blessings to implore; and, as such seasons do not frequently occur, he's the more careful to improve them. He then pours out his whole soul, and is at no loss for words; for when the heart is full, the tongue overflows. Sorrow and distress will even make those eloquent who are naturally slow of speech.3. Enlarged hope and expectation. We may be too irreverent in our approaches to God, and too peremptory in our application; but if the matter and manner of our prayer be right, we cannot be too confident in our expectations from him... Open thy mouth wide then, O Christian; stretch out thy desires to the uttermost, grasp heaven and earth in thy boundless wishes, and believe there is enough in God to afford the full satisfaction. �ot only come, but come with boldness to the throne of grace: it is erected for sinners, even the chief of sinners. Come to it then, and wait at it, till you obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Those who expect most from God are likely to receive the most. The desire of the righteous, let it be ever so extensive, shall be granted. Benjamin Beddome.Ver. 10. I will fill it. Consider the import of the promise: Open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it. "Ask, and ye shall receive; seek, and ye shall find." Particularly,1. If we open our mouths to God in prayer, he will fill them more and more with suitable petitions and arguments. When we attempt to open the mouth, God will open it still wider. Thus he dealt with Abraham when he interceded for Sodom; the longer he prayed, the more submissive and yet the more importunate he became. By praying we increase our ability to pray, and find a greater facility in the duty. "To him that hath shall be given, and he shall have more abundantly."2. God will fill the mouth with abundant thanksgivings. Many of David's psalms begin with prayer, and end with the most animated praises. �o mercies so dispose to thankfulness as those which are received in answer to prayer; for according to the degree of desire will be the sweetness of fruition...3. We shall be filled with those blessings we pray for, if they are calculated to promote our real good and the glory of God. Do we desire fresh communications of

grace, and manifestations of divine love; a renewed sense of pardoning mercy, and an application of the blood of Christ? Do we want holiness, peace, and assurance? Do we want to hear from God, to see him, and be like him? The promise is, My God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus, Philippians 4:19. You shall have what you desire, and be satisfied: it shall be enough, and you shall think it so. "The Lord will give grace and glory: no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly." Benjamin Beddome.Ver. 10. The custom is said still to exist in Persia that when the king wishes to do a visitor, an ambassador for instance, especial honour, he desires him to open his mouth wide; and the king then crams it as full of sweetmeats as it will hold; and sometimes even with jewels. Curious as this custom is, it is doubtless referred to in Psalms 81:10 : Open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it; not with baubles of jewels, but with far richer treasure. John Gadsby.

SIMEO�, "PRAYER EFFECTUAL, TO A�Y EXTE�T

Psalms 81:10. I am the Lord thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt: open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it.

ACCESS to God, and a certainty of acceptance with him, have been amongst the most distinguished privileges of the Lord’s people in all ages. To his ancient people the Jews, God said, “What nation is there so great, who hath God so nigh unto them as the Lord our God is in all things that we call upon him for?” To us, under the Christian dispensation, it is promised, that “wherever two or three are gathered together in the name of Jesus, there will that blessed Saviour be in the midst of them.” �one shall “draw nigh to him in prayer, but he will also draw nigh to them,” to answer their prayers. In the psalm before us, God most affectionately encourages his people to come to him, and to enlarge their requests to the utmost extent of their necessities: “Hear, O my people! and I will testify unto thee, O Israel, if thou wilt hearken unto me.” “I am the Lord thy God, who brought thee out of the land of Egypt; open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it.”

Here, Brethren, let me call your attention to,

I. The invitation given us—

How comprehensive the words in which it is contained!

[Here is no limit to our petitions. On the contrary, we are encouraged to extend them to every thing that our souls can desire. �or is there any limit assigned, beyond which we are not to expect an answer. Whatever we want for body or for soul, for time or for eternity, it shall all be given us, if only we will “approach unto God,” and “make our requests known unto him.”]

And how marvellous the invitation, as sent by God to sinful man!

[God can receive nothing from us: “our goodness can never extend to him.” He is

altogether independent of us: and if the whole human race were annihilated this very moment, God would suffer no loss. �either his honour nor his happiness were in the least diminished, when the fallen angels were cast out of heaven into the bottomless abyss of hell: nor if we were all plunged into the same abyss of misery, would God be in the least affected by it. Yet, behold, He deigns to send us the gracious invitation which we have just heard, and permits even the vilest amongst us to regard it as addressed personally to himself. To every soul amongst us he says, “Open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it.”]

Listen then with wonder to,

II. The consideration with which it is enforced—

Surprising encouragement! Mark it,

1. As referring to God’s ancient people—

[God had brought them out of Egypt with a mighty hand and a stretched-out arm. What an evidence was this of his power! and what a pledge was this of his willingness to do for them all that their necessities might require! Behold the sea opening before them, to give a dry path to them, and to overwhelm in one common ruin every one of their pursuers! Behold the bread given them for forty years by a daily miraculous supply from heaven, and the water from the rock following them in all their way! See them at last established in the Promised Land! Could they ask more than had already been done for them? And if these things had been done notwithstanding all their rebellions, what should they not obtain if they would implore it with all humility from God?]

2. As comprehending that more wonderful redemption vouchsafed to us—

[If the typical redemption from Egypt afforded such encouragement to prayer, what must we think of that redemption which it shadowed forth, even the redemption of our souls from death and hell, by the precious blood of God’s only dear Son? Hear Jehovah saying, ‘I am the Lord thy God, who became a man for thee; who died upon the cross for thee; who bore thy sins in my own body on the tree, that thou mightest be freed from the condemnation due to them, and mightest inherit a throne of glory!’ What a claim is this to our gratitude! what an incentive to the utmost possible enlargement of our petitions! and what an encouragement to our most unshaken affiance! Take the invitation by itself, and it expresses all that we can wish: but take it in connexion with this consideration with which it is enforced, and methinks there will not be one amongst us that will not most cordially accept it, and most thankfully avail himself of the liberty, the inestimable liberty, thus accorded to him.]

But, seeing that this invitation has been so often sent to us,

1. How amazing is it that any of us can live without prayer!

[Methinks it were almost a libel upon human nature to suppose that there should be any one so stupid and so brutish as to live without prayer; and I ought to make an apology for suggesting even a possibility that such an one may be found in this assembly. Well; forgive me, if in this I have erred: yet I would affectionately put it home to the consciences of all who are here present, and ask, Have you, my Brethren, and you, and you, really sought after God, and spread your wants before him, and implored mercy at his hands, and wrestled with him, as it were, in prayer, for an out-pouring of his Spirit upon you? Have you done it this week past? Have you done it this very morning? Can you call God to witness that you have thus opened your mouth wide before him, in the hope that he would fill and satisfy you with the abundance of his grace? Is there no one amongst you that stands reproved for his neglect of this duty? Yea, rather, are there not some amongst you who have never poured out their souls before God in prayer during their whole life, or, at all events, only under the pressure of some great calamity, which, when it was past, left them in the same careless and obdurate state as before? Perhaps some of you may have repeated some form which you learned in carly life, or may have read some form out of a book: but this is not prayer, if it be unattended with the real desires of the heart: prayer, is not a mere service of the lip and knee, but the effusion of the soul before God in earnest supplication. I lament to think how many there are utter strangers to such holy wrestlings, such sweet communion with their God. Let me, then, remind such persons what sad regret they excite in the bosom of Jehovah; and what bitter regret they themselves also will one day experience in their own bosoms. God says, “O that my people had hearkened to me, and Israel had walked in my ways!” And will not you also, ere long, adopt a similar language, and say, “O that I had hearkened to the voice of my God, and had walked in the ways to which he called me!” And if God contemplate with such regret the blessings which he would have bestowed [�ote: ver. 13–16.], with what sad regret will you one day view the blessings you have lost! Be wise in time; and now avail yourselves of the opportunity that is afforded you, “seeking the Lord whilst he may be found, and calling upon him whilst he is near.”]

2. How lamentable is it that any one should yield to discouragement in prayer!

[What could God say to you, more than he has said; or do for you, more than he has done? St. Paul says, “He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with Him also freely give us all things?” Only reflect on what he has done, and how impossible it was any fallen creature should dare to ask such things at God’s hands, and you need not fear to enlarge your petitions, to the utmost extent of language to express, or of imagination to conceive. You are not straitened in him; be not straitened in yourselves [�ote: 2 Corinthians 6:12.]. Only spread your wants before him freely, and you shall find that “He is able to do for you exceeding abundantly above all that you can ask or even think [�ote: Ephesians 3:20.].” Go to him, then, and “pray to him with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit;” yea, “pray without ceasing,” and “give him no rest” till he has answered your requests. But be not hasty to imagine that he will not hear; because he may already have heard and answered in the way most conducive to your good, whilst you are

doubting whether he will so much as listen to your petitions. Of course you cannot expect to receive, unless you ask according to his will [�ote: 1 John 5:14.]; but, with that reserve only, I assure you, that “ye may ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you [�ote: John 15:7.].” Only “ask in faith,” and “according to your faith it shall be done unto you.”

PULPIT, "I am the Lord thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt. The reminder was continually needed (see Exodus 20:2; Le Exodus 26:13; Deuteronomy 5:6; Hosea 12:9; Hosea 13:4). Open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it. God's gifts, both temporal and spiritual, are proportioned to our eager longing for them. As Christ could not do his miracles in one place because of their unbelief, so God cannot give lavishly unless we desire largely.

11 “But my people would not listen to me; Israel would not submit to me.

BAR�ES, "But my people ... - See Psa_78:10-11, Psa_78:17-19. “And Israel would none of me.” Literally, “Did not will me;” that is, “did not incline to me; were not attached to me; were not disposed to worship me, and to find happiness in me.” Compare Isa_1:19; Job_39:9; Pro_1:25. They refused or rejected him. See Exo_32:1; Deu_32:15, Deu_32:18.

CLARKE, "Israel would none of me - �lo לא�אבה�ליabah�li, They willed me not, they would not have me for their God.

GILL, "But my people would not hearken to my voice,.... Neither as exhorting them to the above duties, nor as promising the above favours; would neither hearken to the voice of the law, nor to the voice of the Gospel; but were like the deaf adder, which stops its ear to the voice of the charmer, charming never so wisely:

and Israel would none of me; would not attend to his word, acquiesce in his will, nor delight themselves in him, and in his worship and service; would have none of his

salutary doctrines, or wholesome reproofs, nor of his laws and government; would not have him to reign over them, nor to be their Saviour, though the only one, and there is none beside him; though the chiefest good, and from whom all good things come, and is the portion and exceeding great reward of his people: see Pro_1:25.

HE�RY, " He charges them with a high contempt of his authority as their lawgiver and his grace and favour as their benefactor, Psa_81:11. He had done much for them, and designed to do more; but all in vain: “My people would not hearken to my voice, but turned a deaf ear to all I said.” Two things he complains of: - 1. Their disobedience to his commands. They did hear his voice, so as never any people did; but they would not hearken to it, they would not be ruled by it, neither by the law nor by the reason of it. 2. Their dislike of his covenant-relation to them: They would none of me. They acquiesced not in my word (so the Chaldee); God was willing to be to them a God, but they were not willing to be to him a people; they did not like his terms. “I would have gathered them, but they would not.” They had none of him; and why had they not? It was not because they might not; they were fairly invited into covenant with God. It was not because they could not; for the word was nigh them, even in their mouth and in their heart. But it was purely because they would not. God calls them hi people, for they were bought by him, bound to him, his by a thousand ties, and yet even they had not hearkened, had not obeyed. “Israel, the seed of Jacob my friend, set me at nought, and would have none of me.” Note, All the wickedness of the wicked world is owing to the wilfulness of the wicked will. The reason why people are not religious is because they will not be so.

JAMISO�, "They failed, and He gave them up to their own desires and hardness of heart (Deu_29:18; Pro_1:30; Rom_11:25).

CALVI�, "11.But my people hearkened not to my voice. God now complains, that the Israelites, whom he endeavored gently to allure to him, despised his friendly invitation; yea, that although he had for a long time continued to exhort them, they always shut their ears against his voice. It is not a rebellion of one day which he deplores: he complains, that from the very beginning they were always a stupid and hardened people, and that they continued to persevere in the same obstinacy. It is assuredly monstrous perverseness to exclude God from obtaining access to us, and to refuse to give him a hearing, when he is ready to enter into covenant with us, making the terms almost equal on both sides. To leave them no room for extenuating their guilt under the pretense of ignorance, he adds, that he was rejected with avowed and deliberate contempt:Israel would none of me. From this it is evident, that their minds were bewitched by the god of this world.

This is the reason why, as is stated in the following verse, he gave them up to the hardness of their own heart, or, as others translate it, to the thoughts of their own heart. The root שרר, shorer, from which the word rendered thoughts is derived, signifies properly the navel Accordingly, the translation is very appropriate, which takes this word either for the thoughts which are wrapped up in the hearts of men, or for the hardness which possesses the heart. It being, however, as is well known, a usual thing in the Psalms for the same thing to be twice repeated, I have preferred the word thoughts, because it follows immediately after, They shall walk in their

own counsels. Besides, by these words, God testifies, that he justly punished his people, when he deprived them of good and wholesome doctrine, and gave them over to a reprobate mind. As in governing us by means of his word, he restrains us, as it were, with a bridle, and thereby prevents us from going astray after our own perverse imaginations, so, by removing his prophets from the Jews, he gave loose reins to their froward and corrupt counsels, by which they were led into devious paths. It is assuredly the most dreadful kind of punishment which can be inflicted upon us, and an evidence of the utter hopelessness of our condition, when God, holding his peace, and conniving at our perverseness, applies no remedy for bringing us to repentance and amendment. So long as he administers reproof to us, alarms us with the dread of judgment, and summons us before his tribunal, he, at the same time, calls upon us to repent. But when he sees that it is altogether lost labor to reason any longer with us, and that his admonitions have no effect, he holds his peace, and by this teaches us that he has ceased to make our salvation the object of his care. �othing, therefore, is more to be dreaded, than for men to be so set free from the divine guidance, as recklessly to follow their own counsels, and to be dragged by Satan wherever he pleases. The words, however may be viewed in a more extensive sense, as implying that the patience of God being worn out, he left his people, who, by their desperate perverseness, had cut off all hope of their ever becoming better, to act without restraint as they chose. It is a very absurd inference which some draw from this passage, that the grace of God is bestowed equally upon all men until it is rejected. Even at that time, God, while he passed by all the rest of the world, was graciously pleased to bring the posterity of Abraham, by peculiar and exclusive privilege, into a special relation to himself. At the present day, this distinction, I admit, has been abolished, and the message of the gospel, by which God reconciles the world to himself, is common to all men. Yet we see how God stirs up godly teachers in one place rather than in another. Still the external call alone would be insufficient, did not God effectually draw to himself those whom he has called. Further, as this passage teaches us, that there is no plague more deadly than for men to be left to the guidance of their own counsels, the only thing which remains for us to do is to renounce the dictates of carnal wisdom, and to follow the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

SPURGEO�, "Ver. 11. But my people would not hearken to my voice. His warnings were rejected, his promises forgotten, his precepts disregarded. Though the divine voice proposed nothing but good to them, and that upon an unparalleled scale of liberality, yet they turned aside.And Israel would none of me. They would not consent to his proposals, they walked in direct opposition to his commands, they hankered after the ox god of Egypt, and their hearts were bewitched by the idols of the nations round about. The same spirit of apostacy is in all our hearts, and if we have not altogether turned aside from the Lord, it is only grace which has prevented us.EXPLA�ATORY �OTES A�D QUAI�T SAYI�GSVer. 11. My people would not hearken to my voice; and Israel would none of me. Know, sinner, that if at last thou missest heaven, which, God forbid! the Lord can wash his hands over your head, and clear himself of your blood: thy damnation will be laid at thine own door: it will then appear there was no cheat in the promise, no

sophistry in the gospel, but thou didst voluntarily put eternal life from thee, whatever thy lying lips uttered to the contrary: My people would have none of me. So that, when the jury shall sit on thy murdered soul, to inquire how thou camest to thy miserable end, thou wilt be found guilty of thy own damnation. �o one loseth God, but he that is willing to part with him. William Gurnall.Ver. 11. And Israel would none of me. It is added, and Israel would none of me, more closely, was not borne to me by a natural bent. For this is the original force of the word hka, as it still survives in Job 9:1-35, where it is used of the ships borne outward by a favourable wind and tide. Venema.Ver. 11. Israel would none of me. That is, would not be content alone with me, would not take quiet contentment in me (as the Hebrew word signifies); the Lord was not good enough for them, but their hearts went out from him to other things. Thomas Sheppard, 1605-1649.

BE�SO�, "Psalms 81:11. My people would not hearken to my voice — But turned a deaf ear to all I said. “Two things,” says Henry, “the Lord complains of; 1st, Their disobedience to his commands. They did hear his voice, and that in such a manner as no people ever did; but they would not hearken to it; they would not be governed by it, neither by the law, nor by the reason of it, namely, that he was Jehovah their God, who brought them out of the land of Egypt. 2d, Their dislike of his covenant-relation to them: They would none of me. They acquiesced not in my word: so the Chaldee. God was willing to be to them a God, but they were not willing to be to him a people. They did not like his terms. I would have gathered them, but they would not. They had none of him; and why had they not? It was not because they might not; they were fairly invited into covenant with God: it was not because they could not; for the word was nigh them, even in their mouth, and in their heart: it was purely because they would not. �ote, the reason why people are not religious is because they will not be so.

EBC, "That retrospect next becomes the foundation of a Divine exhortation to the people, which is to be regarded as spoken originally to Israel in the wilderness, as Psalms 81:11 shows. Perowne well designates these verses (Psalms 81:8-10) "a discourse within a discourse." They put into words the meaning of the wilderness experience, and sum up the laws spoken on Sinai, which they in part repeat. The purpose of God’s lavish benefits was to bind Israel to Himself. "Hear, My people," reminds us of Deuteronomy 5:1; Deuteronomy 6:4. "I will bear witness to thee" here means rather solemn warning to, than testifying against, the person addressed. With infinite pathos, the tone of the Divine Speaker changes from that of authority to pleading and the utterance of a yearning wish, like a sigh. "Would that thou wouldest hearken!" God desires nothing so earnestly as that; but His Divine desire is tragically and mysteriously foiled. The awful human power of resisting His voice and of making His efforts vain, the still more awful fact of the exercise of that power, were clear before the psalmist, whose daring anthropopathy teaches a deep lesson, and warns us against supposing that men have to do with an impassive Deity. That wonderful utterance of Divine wish is almost a parenthesis. It gives a moment’s glimpse into the heart of God, and then the tone of command is resumed. "In Psalms 81:9 the keynote of the revelation of the law from Sinai is given; the fundamental

command, which opens the Decalogue demanded fidelity towards Jehovah, and forbade idolatry, as the sin of sins" (Delitzsch). The reason for exclusive devotion to God is based in Psalms 81:10, as in Exodus 20:2, the fundamental passage, on His act of deliverance, not on His sole Divinity. A theoretic Monotheism would be cold; the consciousness of benefits received from One Hand alone is the only key that will unlock a heart’s exclusive devotion and lay it at His feet. And just as the commandment to worship God alone is founded on His unaided delivering might and love, so it is followed by the promise that such exclusive adhesion to Him will secure the fulfilment of the boldest wishes, and the satisfying of the most clamant or hungry desires. "Open wide thy mouth, and I will fill it." It is folly to go to strange gods for the supply of needs, when God is able to give all that every man can wish. We may be well content to cleave to Him alone, since He alone is more than enough for each and for all. Why should they waste time and strength in seeking for supplies from many, who can find all they need in One? They who put Him to the proof, and find Him enough, will have, in their experience of His sufficiency, a charm to protect them from all vagrant desire to "go further and fare worse." The best defence against temptations to stray from God is the possession by experience, of His rich gifts that meet all desires. That great saying teaches, too, that God’s bestowals are practically measured by men’s capacity and desire. The ultimate limit of them is His own limitless grace; but the working limit in each individual is the individual’s receptivity, of which his expectancy and desire are determining factors.

In Psalms 81:11-12, the Divine Voice laments the failure of benefits and commandments and promises to win Israel to God. There is a world of baffled tenderness and almost wondering rebuke in the designation of the rebels as "My people." It would have been no cause of astonishment if other nations had not listened; but that the tribes bound by so many kindnesses should have been deaf is a sad marvel. Who should listen to "My voice" if "My people" do not? The penalty of not yielding to God is to be left unyielding. The worst punishment of sin is the prolongation and consequent intensifying of the sin. A heart that wilfully closes itself against God’s pleadings brings on itself the nemesis, that it becomes incapable of opening, as a self-torturing Hindoo fakir may clench his fist so long, that at last his muscles lose their power, and it remains shut for his lifetime. The issue of such "stubbornness" is walking in their own counsels, the practical life being regulated entirely by self-originated and God-for-getting dictates of prudence or inclination. He who will not have the Divine Guide has to grope his way as well as he can. There is no worse fate for a man than to be allowed to do as he chooses. "The ditch," sooner or later, receives the man who lets his active powers, which are in themselves blind, be led by his understanding, which he has himself blinded by forbidding it to look to the One Light of Life.

SIMEO�, "GOD GIVI�G UP OBSTI�ATE TRA�SGRESSORS

Psalms 81:11-12. My people would not hearken to my voice, and Israel would none of me: so I gave them up.

THE history of the Jews is not a mere record of times and persons far distant from

us, but a display of the Divine procedure towards others, as a pledge of a similar procedure towards us. The Jews were intended as examples to the Church of God in all ages: their prosperity whilst serving God, and their adversity when they had departed from him, were designed to shew us what blessings we may expect at God’s hands, if we serve him acceptably; and what judgments, if we rebel against him [�ote: See 1 Corinthians 10:1-11 and Hebrews 3:16-19; Hebrews 4:1.]. In this view it will be profitable to consider the words before us; and,

I. The perverseness complained of—

�othing could exceed the kindness of God towards his people of old—

[How tender and affectionate is his address to them [�ote: ver. 8.]! — — — He entreats them not to look to any strange god, since he alone has an exclusive right to their regard [�ote: ver. 9, 10.] — — — He assures them also, that whatsoever they shall ask at his hands, he will do it for them [�ote: ver. 10. with Deuteronomy 4:7.] — — —

And is it not precisely in the same way that he addresses us? He invites us to look to him [�ote: Isaiah 45:22; Isaiah 55:1-3.], and to come unto him [�ote: Matthew 11:28.], and to ask of him whatsoever we will, with an assurance that we shall not be disappointed of our hope [�ote: John 14:13-14; John 15:7.]. There is no limitation or exception, provided only the things we desire be agreeable to his holy will. If we plead with him in earnest, there is no sin that shall not be forgiven [�ote: Isaiah 1:18.], no corruption that shall not be mortified [�ote: Micah 7:19.], no want that shall not be supplied [�ote: Philippians 4:19.]. He engages, that, to whatever temptation we may be exposed, his grace shall be sufficient for us [�ote: 2 Corinthians 12:8-9.].]

But their obstinacy was incorrigible—

[The Jews, with but few exceptions, “would not hearken to his voice.” His precepts, his promises, his threatenings, were alike disregarded by them. “They would none of him;” but said to his messengers whom he sent to reclaim them, “Make the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us” — — —

And is it not thus with us? Is not his authority trampled on by us? and are not both his mercies and judgments almost universally despised? We will have other objects of our affections in preference to him — — — We will not open our mouths in prayer, though we know that nothing is to be obtained without it — — — The language of our hearts and actions is, “We will not have this man to reign over us [�ote: Luke 19:14.]” — — — �otwithstanding all that he has done to “redeem” us from death and hell, we will not take upon ourselves his light and easy yoke.]

While we thus imitate the perverseness of the Jews, let us tremble for fear of,

II. The judgments inflicted on account of it—

Consider,

1. What a loss they sustained—

[He would have preserved them in Canaan, and loaded them with all imaginable blessings, even as he had done in former times [�ote: Deuteronomy 32:29.] — — —

But this was a very faint shadow of what he would do for us. What victory would he have given us over all our spiritual enemies! — — — What a fulness of consolation and joy also would he have bestowed upon us, in the communications of his grace, and the manifestations of his love! Surely his Spirit, as “a Spirit of adoption,” should have “witnessed with our spirits that we were his,” and should have “sealed us unto the day of redemption” — — —]

2. What misery they incurred—

[God gave them up to idolatry, and to their own hearts’ lusts; and left them to “walk in their own counsels [�ote: See Romans 1:24; Romans 1:26; Romans 1:28. “So I gave them up.”]” — — —

And this is the curse which he denounces against us also. “His spirit will not always strive with us.” If he see that we are bent upon our evil ways, he will abandon us to our own delusions [�ote: 2 Thessalonians 2:10-12.], and will say, “He is joined to idols, let him alone [�ote: Hosea 4:17.]” — — — A greater curse than this God cannot inflict, because our remaining days will be occupied only in augmenting our guilt and aggravating our condemnation [�ote: Romans 2:5.] — — — Were the judgment only to deliver our bodies to Satan now, that might load to our final salvation: but to give us over to the uncontrolled influence of self, is a certain prelude to our everlasting damnation. It is, in fact, the very beginning of hell, where it will be said to the unhappy souls, “He that is filthy, let him be filthy still; and he that is unjust, let him be unjust still [�ote: Revelation 22:11.].”]

Hence it appears,

1. Whose will be the fault, if any be lost—

[�one can lay it to the charge of God that he is unwilling to save them. He has sworn with an oath that he willeth not the death of any sinner [�ote: Ezekiel 33:11. 1 Timothy 2:4.]. And in the psalm before us he takes up a lamentation over those who obstinately compel him to give them up [�ote: ver. 13.]. Thus did our blessed Lord over the murderous Jerusalem [�ote: Luke 19:40-41.]: and thus does he over all impenitent transgressors; “Ye will not come unto me that ye may have life [�ote: John 5:40.].” “Often would I have gathered you, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings; but ye would not [�ote: Matthew 23:37.].” And what a bitter source of self-condemnation will this be to us, that God would have saved us, but we would not be saved by him! The language which God now uses over us, we

shall then use in reference to ourselves: “O that I had hearkened to his voice! O that I had walked in his ways!” How should I have been at this instant triumphing over my cruel adversary, and feasting on all the richest fruits of paradise, instead of dwelling with everlasting burnings, without one drop of water to cool my tongue! Surely this reflection will bo the bitterest ingredient in that bitter cup, which they who perish will be drinking of to all eternity.]

2. Whose will be the glory, if any be saved—

[We never come to Christ, till the Father, by the mighty working of his power, draws us to him. Such is the pride of the human heart, that no man will submit to be saved by grace alone, till God has made him “willing in the day of his power.” If therefore we have been brought to hearken to his voice, let us remember Who it is that has unstopped our ears.

If it be said, We prayed for these blessings; and therefore we at least may glory that the blessings do not come to us unsolicited; we would ask, Who inclined or enabled us to pray? We should never have been inclined to pray, if God had not given us a spirit of grace and of supplication; “nor should we have known what to pray for as we ought, if He by his Spirit had not helped our infirmities.” If still it be said, “Yet we prayed;” Be it so: but how long were you before you prayed at all? And what have been your prayers since ever you began to pray? Are you not amazed when you review your prayers, and see how cold, and dead, and formal they have been? What if a beggar had asked of you in the way that you have but too often asked of God? Would you have granted his request? or, if you had granted his request, and not only relieved his present necessities, but conferred upon him one half of your fortune, would you not be surprised, if he, instead of admiring your unequalled generosity, were taking credit to himself for asking relief from you? Know then, that if you are partaking of God’s mercy, you are no other than “beggars, who have been taken from the dunghill, and set among the princes.” Know, that ye are altogether debtors to the grace of God, and must ascribe to him “the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever and ever.”

K&D 11-16, "The Passover discourse now takes a sorrowful and awful turn: Israel's disobedience and self-will frustrated the gracious purpose of the commandments and promises of its God. “My people” and “Israel” alternate as in the complaint in Isa_1:3.

followed by the dative, as in Deu_13:9 לא־jבה ([8], ου�ʆ �συνθελήσεις�αoτq). Then God

made their sin their punishment, by giving them over judicially (חgש as in Job_8:4) into

the obduracy of their heart, which rudely shuts itself up against His mercy (from שרר,

Aramaic שרר, Arabic sarra, to make firm = to cheer, make glad), so that they went on (cf. on the sequence of tense, Psa_61:8) in their, i.e., their own, egotistical, God-estranged determinations; the suffix is thus accented, as e.g., in Isa_65:2, cf. the borrowed passage Jer_7:24, and the same phrase in Mic_6:16. And now, because this state of unfaithfulness in comparison with God's faithfulness has remained essentially the same even to to-day, the exalted Orator of the festival passes over forthwith to the generation of the present, and that, as is in accordance with the cheerful character of the feast, in a

charmingly alluring manner. Whether we take לו in the signification of si (followed by

the participle, as in 2Sa_18:12), or like אם above in Psa_81:9 as expressing a wish, o si (if

but!), Psa_81:15. at any rate have the relation of the apodosis to it. From 8מעט (for a little, easily) it may be conjectured that the relation of Israel at that time to the nations did not correspond to the dignity of the nation of God which is called to subdue and rule

the world in the strength of God. השיב signifies in this passage only to turn, not: to again lay upon. The meaning is, that He would turn the hand which is now chastening His people against those by whom He is chastening them (cf. on the usual meaning of the phrase, Isa_1:25; Amo_1:8; Jer_6:9; Eze_38:12). The promise in Psa_81:16 relates to Israel and all the members of the nation. The haters of Jahve would be compelled reluctantly to submit themselves to Him, and their time would endure for ever. “Time” is equivalent to duration, and in this instance with the collateral notion of Prosperity, as elsewhere (Isa_13:22) of the term of punishment. One now expects that it should

continue with אכילהוrו, in the tone of a promise. The Psalm, however, closes with an

historical statement. For אכילהו� cannot signify et cibaret eum; it ought to be ו

pronounced ויאכילהו. The pointing, like the lxx, Syriac, and Vulgate, takes v. 17a (cf. Deu_32:13.) as a retrospect, and apparently rightly so. For even the Asaphic Ps 77 and 78 break off with historical pictures. V. 17b is, accordingly, also to be taken as retrospective. The words of the poet in conclusion once more change into the words of God. The

closing word runs � .r, as in Psa_50:8, Deu_4:31, and (with the exception of the futtש"יעך

Hiph. of Lamed He verbs ending with ekka) usually. The Babylonian system of pointing

nowhere recognises the suffix-form ekka. If the Israel of the present would hearken to the Lawgiver of Sinai, says v. 17, then would He renew to it the miraculous gifts of the time of the redemption under Moses.

SBC, "It cannot be doubted that very often when people get into wrong courses they think they shall be able to stop when they please. And this notion tends very much to quiet their consciences, and to make them tolerably easy and cheerful even whilst they are doing things they know to be wrong or neglecting duties they know to be right.

I. This life is a course of trial, proof, and preparation for a lasting state of good or evil beyond the grave. God having put it in our power to choose for ourselves, leaves it to ourselves to make the choice, at the same time plainly warning us that if we choose the right path and follow it on, He will help us, but if we choose the wrong path and refuse to listen to His voice, He will, however unwillingly, give us up, leave us to go our own way.

II. The notion that a wrong habit is not dangerous, because we may reform it when we please, seems to have its root in want of love to God, the Author of all good, want of pure, devoted charity, that without which "all our doings are nothing worth." If true religion consisted in the mere outward performance of certain good actions or the mere inward indulgence of certain good feelings, if this were all that is required in the true Christian, then our need of watchfulness and self-suspicion would not be so great. But is it not true that the law of the Christian is love, devoted love to his God and Saviour; and that for the want of this love nothing can make up? Is it not also true that we have no way of evincing this our love to be sincere but by a thorough and earnest anxiety to give up our whole wills, under all circumstances and on every occasion, to the will of Him

who is our only hope? This, then, is the question: Are we sincerely obeying Him? do we give up our wills to His? will we and do we submit to any loss, shame, or mortification rather than grieve His Holy Spirit? If not, we have reason to fear lest God should give us up to walk in our own counsels, and at length should "swear in His wrath that we shall not enter into His rest."

Plain Sermons by Contributors to "Tracts for the Times" vol. i., p. 134.

12 So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts to follow their own devices.

BAR�ES, "So I gave them up unto their own hearts’ lust -Margin, as in Hebrew, to the hardness of their own hearts. Literally, “I sent them, or I dismissed them, to the hardness of their hearts.” I suffered them to have what, in the hardness of their hearts they desired, or what their hard and rebellious hearts prompted them to desire: I indulged them in their wishes. I gave them what they asked, and left them to themselves to work out the problem about success and happiness in their own way - to let them see what must be the result of forsaking the true God. The world - and the church too - has been often suffered to make this experiment.

And they walked in their own counsels - As they thought wise and best. Compare Act_7:42; Act_14:16; Rom_1:24; Psa_78:26-37.

CLARKE, "Unto their own hearts’ lust - To the obstinate wickedness of their heart.

In their own counsels - God withdrew his restraining grace, which they had abused; and then they fulfilled the inventions of their wicked hearts.

GILL, "So I gave them up unto their own hearts' lust,.... Sometimes God gave them up, when they sinned, into the hands of the Moabites, or Ammonites, or Philistines, or other neighbouring nations, for their chastisement; but to be delivered up unto their own hearts' lust is worse than that; nay, than to be delivered to Satan: salvation may be the consequence of that, but damnation of this; and yet it is a righteous judgment; for as men like not to retain God in their knowledge, it is but just with him to give them up to vile affections, to a reprobate mind, to do things not convenient, Rom_1:24 there is nothing men are more desirous of than to have their hearts' lusts; and there is no greater judgment can befall them than to be left to the power of them, which must unavoidably issue in their ruin here and hereafter: and they walked in their own

counsels; which were bad; after the imagination of their own evil hearts, and not after the counsels and directions of God in his word, and by his servants.

HE�RY, "He justifies himself with this in the spiritual judgments he had brought upon them (Psa_81:12): So I gave them up unto their own hearts' lusts, which would be more dangerous enemies and more mischievous oppressors to them than any of the neighbouring nations ever were. God withdrew his Spirit from them, took off the bridle of restraining grace, left them to themselves, and justly; they will do as they will, and therefore let them do as they will. Ephraim is joined to idols; let him alone. It is a righteous thing with God to give those up to their own hearts' lusts that indulge them, and give up themselves to be led by them; for why should his Spirit always strive? His grace is his own, and he is debtor to no man, and yet, as he never gave his grace to any that could say they deserved it, so he never took it away from any but such as had first forfeited it: They would none of me, so I gave them up; let them take their course. And see what follows: They walked in their own counsels, in the way of their heart and in the sight of their eye, both in their worships and in their conversations. “I left them to do as they would, and then they did all that was ill;” they walked in their own counsels, and not according to the counsels of God and his advice. God therefore was not the author of their sin; he left them to the lusts of their own hearts and the counsels of their own heads; if they do not well, the blame must lie upon their own hearts and the blood upon their own heads.

SPURGEO�, "Ver. 12. So I gave them up unto their own hearts' lust. �o punishment is more just or more severe than this. If men will not be checked, but madly take the bit between their teeth and refuse obedience, who shall wonder if the reins are thrown upon their necks, and they are let alone to work out their own destruction. It were better to be given up to lions than to our hearts' lusts.And they walked in their own counsels. There was no doubt as to what course they would take, for man is everywhere wilful and loves his own way, —that way being at all times in direct opposition to God's way. Men deserted of restraining grace, sin with deliberation; they consult, and debate, and consider, and then elect evil rather than good, with malice aforethought and in cool blood. It is a remarkable obduracy of rebellion when men not only run into sin through passion, but calmly "walk in their own counsels" of iniquity.EXPLA�ATORY �OTES A�D QUAI�T SAYI�GSVer. 12. So I gave them up. The word give up suggests the idea of a divorce, whereby a husband sends away a capricious wife, and commands her to live by herself...Transferred to God, it teaches us nothing else than that God withdraws his protecting and guiding hand from the people, and leaves them to themselves; so that he ceases to chasten and defend them, but, on the other hand, suffers them to become hardened and to perish. Venema.Ver. 12. So I gave them up unto their own hearts' lusts, etc. A man may be given up to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the soul may be saved, but to be given up to sin is a thousand times worse, because that is the fruit of divine anger, in order to the damnation of the soul; here God wounds like an enemy and like a cruel one, and we may boldly say, God never punished any man or woman with this spiritual judgment in kindness and love. John Shower (1657-1715), in "The Day of Grace."

Ver. 12. I gave them up unto their own hearts' lusts. O dreadful word! The same will the Spirit do upon our rejecting or resisting of his leading. He may long strive, but he will "not always strive, " Genesis 6:3. If the person led shall once begin to struggle with him that leads him, and shall refuse to follow his guidance, what is then to be done, but to leave him to himself? Continued, rooted, allowed resistance to the Spirit, makes him so to cast off a person as to lead him no more... Let it be your great and constant care and endeavour to get the Spirit's leading continued to you. You have it; pray keep it. Can it be well with a Christian, when this is suspended or withdrawn from him? How does he wander and bewilder himself, when the Spirit does not guide him! How backward is he to good, when the Spirit does not bend and incline him thereunto! How unable to go, when the Spirit does not uphold him! What vile lusts and passions rule him, when the Spirit does not put forth his holy and gracious government over him! O, it is of infinite concern to all that belong to God, to preserve and secure to themselves the Spirit's leading! Take a good man without this, and he is like a ship without a pilot, a blind man without a guide, a poor child that has none to sustain it, the rude multitude that have none to keep them in any order. What a sad difference is there in the same person, as to what he is when the Spirit leads him, and as to what he is when the Spirit leaves him! ...OBJECTIO�. —"But does the Spirit at any time do this to God's people? Does he ever suspend and withdraw his guidance from persons who once lived under it?"A�SWER. —Yes; too often. It is what he usually does, when his leadings are not followed. This is a thing that grieves him; and when he is grieved he departs, withholds, and recalls his former gracious influences, though not totally and finally; yet for a time and in such a degree. As a guide, that is to conduct the traveller; if this traveller shall refuse to follow him, or shall give unkind usage to him, what does the guide then do? Why, he receded, and leaves him to shift for himself. It is thus in the case in hand: if we comply with the Spirit, in his motions, and use him tenderly, he will hold on in his leading of us; but if otherwise, he will concern himself no more about us. O, take heed how you carry yourself towards him: not only upon ingenuousness, it is base to be unkind to our Guide, (Hast thou not procured this unto thyself, in that thou hast forsaken the Lord thy God, when he led thee by the way?, Jeremiah 2:17,)but also upon the account of self love: for "as we behave ourselves to him, so he will behave himself to us:" "Ita nos tractat, ut a nobis tractatur." Thomas Jacombe (1622-1687), in "Morning Exercises."Ver. 12. I gave them up...and they walked in their own counsels. That was to give them up to a spirit of division, to a spirit of discontent, to a spirit of envy, and jealousy, to a spirit of ambition, of self seeking and emulation, and so to a spirit of distraction and confusion, and so to ruin and destruction. Such, and no better, is the issue, when God gives a people up to their own counsels; then they soon become a very chaos, and run themselves into a ruinous heap. As good have no counsel from man, as none but man's. Joseph Caryl.Ver. 12. God calls upon Israel to hear and obey him, they will not: But my people would not hearken to my voice; and Israel would none of me. What was the result of their refusal? So I gave them up unto their own hearts lust: and they walked in their own counsels. God doth not testify his anger for their contempt of him be sending plague, or flames, or wild beasts among them. He doth not say, Well, since they thus

slight my authority, I will be avenged on them to purpose; I will give them up to the sword, or famine, or racking diseases, or greedy devouring lions, which would have been sad and grievous; but he executes on them a far more sad and grievous judgment, when he saith, So I gave them up unto their own hearts' lust: and they walked in their own counsels. God's leaving one soul to one lust, (One's soul to one's lust?) is far worse than leaving him to all the lions in the world. Alas! it will tear the soul worse than a lion can do the body, and rend it in pieces, when there is none to deliver it. God's giving them up to their own wills, that they walked in their own counsels, is in effect a giving them up to eternal wrath and woe. George Swinnock.Ver. 12. God moves everything on his ordinary providence according to their particular natures, God moves everything ordinarily according to the nature he finds it in. Had we stood in innocency, we had been moved according to that originally righteous nature; but since our fall we are moved according to that nature introduced into us with the expulsion of the other. Our first corruption was our own act, not God's work; we owe our creation to God, our corruption to ourselves. �ow since God will govern his creature, I do not see how it can be otherwise, than according to the present nature of the creature, unless God be pleased to alter that nature. God forces no man against his nature; he doth not force the will in conversion, but graciously and powerfully inclines it. He doth never force nor incline the will to sin, but leaves it to the corrupt habits it hath settled in itself: So I gave them up unto their own hearts' lust: and they walked in their own counsels; counsels of their own framing, not of God's. He moves the will, which is sponte mala, according to its own nature and counsels. As a man flings several things out of his hand, which are of several figures, some spherical, tetragons, cylinders, conics, some round and some square, though the motion be from the agent, yet the variety of their motions is from their own figure and frame; and if any will hold his hand upon a ball in its motion, regularly it will move according to its nature and figure; and a man by casting a bowl out of his hand, is the cause of the motion, but the bad bias is the cause of its irregular motion. The power of action is from God, but the viciousness of that action from our own nature. As when a clock or watch hath some fault in any of the wheels, the man that winds it up, or putting his hand upon the wheels moves them, he is the cause of the motion, but it is the flaw in it, a deficiency of something, is the cause of its erroneous motion; that error was not from the person that made it, or the person that winds it up, and sets it on going, but from some other cause; yet till it be mended it will not go otherwise, so long as it is set upon motion. Our motion is from God, —Acts 17:28, In him we move, —but not the disorder of that motion. It is the fulness of a man's stomach at sea is the cause of his sickness, and not the pilot's government of the ship. God doth not infuse the lust, to excite it, though he doth present the object about which the lust is exercised. God delivered up Christ to the Jews, he presented him to them, but never commanded them to crucify him, nor infused that malice into them, nor quickened it; but he, seeing such a frame, withdrew his restraining grace, and left them to the conduct of their own vitiated wills. All the corruption in the world ariseth from lust in us, not from the objects which God in his providence presents to us: 2 Peter 1:4, The corruption that is in the world through lust. Stephen Charnock.

BE�SO�, "Psalms 81:12. So I gave them up, &c. — Upon their obstinate and oft-

repeated acts of disobedience, and their rejection of my grace and mercy offered to them, I withdrew all the restraints of my providence, and my Holy Spirit and grace from them, and wholly left them to follow their own vain and foolish imaginations, and wicked lusts. And they walked in their own counsels — The consequence of my thus giving them up to their own depraved inclinations was, that they practised all those things, both in common conversation and in religious worship, which were most agreeable, not to my commands or counsels, but to their own fancies and lusts, as appeared in the affair of the golden calf, and many other things.

�ISBET, "ABA�DO�ED OF GOD‘So I gave them up unto their own hearts’ lust: and they walked in their own counsels,’ etc.Psalms 81:12-13I. God showed His love to the Israelites by giving them a law more strict than any which had gone before it; He revealed Himself as a jealous God, Who would be obeyed; He curbed all their actions, and He punished them severely for all transgressions of His law.—It was only as a last step, when the people were determined to rebel, that He granted to them that prime blessing, as a worldly mind would consider it, namely, leisure to follow their own hearts’ lust and to do according to their own imaginations.

II. God’s principles of government are ever the same; He changes not: and if it was only in being governed by Him, in wearing His yoke, in carrying His burdens, that the people of Israel could escape bondage, and be lifted up, and be noble and free, then beyond doubt the same is true of ourselves, and we too shall be slaves as long as we are free, and shall only be free when we become in heart and soul the servants of God.

III. The man who wears Christ’s yoke feels that he must keep a watch over his life and over his thoughts.—(1) He bridles his tongue; (2) he is particular in the choice of his company; (3) he puts a curb upon his appetite; (4) he thinks it right to be particular about his devotions and his attendance on ordinances.

Bishop Harvey Goodwin.Illustration

‘The tender affection of God in pleading with men to avoid sin is very impressive; but more impressive still are His exclamations of grief when the final step has been taken, and when, for many, recovery is impossible. Thus when Jesus looked down from Olivet upon the guilty metropolis, and knew that the die was cast, He nevertheless wept and said, “How often would I have gathered your children, as a hen her brood; but ye would not! Behold, your house is left unto you desolate!” So God here speaks: “O that My people had hearkened unto Me! that Israel had walked in My ways!” The measure of God’s love transcends all known limits; its forms are infinite in their variety! When every re edial measure has been tried in vain love can only weep.’

PULPIT, "So I gave them up unto their own hearts' lust. God's Spirit will not always strive with men (Genesis 6:3). After a time, if they persist in evil courses and disobedience to his commands, he "gives them up," withdraws from them, leaves them to themselves, to the "lust," or rather "stubbornness" of their own hearts—to their own perverse wills and imaginations. And they walked in their own counsels (comp. Jeremiah 7:24). This result is inevitable. If God no longer guides their thoughts and enlightens their understandings, they can but follow their own foolish counsels, and the result cannot but be disastrous.

13 “If my people would only listen to me, if Israel would only follow my ways,

BAR�ES, "Oh that my people had hearkened unto me - This passage is designed mainly to show what would have been the consequences if the Hebrew people had been obedient to the commands of God, Psa_81:14-16. At the same time, however, it expresses what was the earnest desire - the wish - the preference of God, namely, that they had been obedient, and had enjoyed his favor. This is in accordance with all the statements, all the commands, all the invitations, all the warnings, in the Bible. In the entire volume of inspiration there is not one command addressed to people to walk in the ways of sin; there is not one statement that God desires they should do it; there is not one intimation that he wishes the death of the sinner. The contrary is implied in all the declarations which God has made - in all his commands, warnings, and invitations - in all his arrangements for the salvation of people. See Deu_5:29; Deu_32:29-30; Isa_48:18; Eze_18:23, Eze_18:32; Eze_33:11; 2Pe_3:9; Luk_19:42.

And Israel had walked in my ways! - Had kept my commandments; had been obedient to my laws. When people, therefore, do not walk in the ways of God it is impossible that they should take refuge, as an excuse for it, in the plea that God desires this, or that he commands it, or that he is pleased with it, or that he approves it. There is no possible sense in which this can be true; in every sense, and on every account, he prefers that people should be obedient, and not disobedient; good, and not bad; happy, and not miserable; saved, and not lost. Every doctrine of theology should be held and interpreted in consistency with this as a fundamental truth. That there are things which are difficult to be explained on the supposition that this is true, must be admitted; but what truth is there in reference to which there are not difficulties to be explained? And is there anything in this, or in any of the truths of the Bible, which more demands explanation than the facts which are actually occurring under the government of God: the fact that sin and misery have been allowed to come into the universe; the fact that

multitudes constantly suffer whom God could at once relieve?

CLARKE, "O that my people had hearkened unto me, - Israel had walked inmy ways - Nothing can be more plaintive than the original; sense and sound are surprisingly united. I scruple not to say to him who understands the Hebrew, however learned, he has never found in any poet, Greek or Latin, a finer example of deep-seated grief, unable to express itself in appropriate words without frequent interruptions of sighs and sobs, terminated with a mournful cry.

yl�(m#�ym(�wl

ישראי�בדרכי�יהלכו

Lo�ammi�shomea�li

Yishrael�bidrachi�yehallechu!

He who can give the proper guttural pronunciation to the letter ע ain; and gives the ו

vau, and the י yod, their full Asiatic sound, not pinching them to death by a compressed and worthless European enunciation; will at once be convinced of the propriety of this remark.

GILL, "O that my people had hearkened unto me,.... This might have been expected from them, as they were his professing people; and it would have been to their advantage if they had hearkened to him, as well as it would have been well pleasing to him; for that is what is designed by this wish, which does not express the purposing will of God; for who hath resisted that? if he had so willed, he could have given them ears to hear; but his commanding will, and what is his approving one: to hearken to him is not only to hearken to what he commands, but to what he approves of; it is the good and acceptable will of God that men should hearken to the declarations of his will in the law, and to the declarations of his grace in the Gospel; and indeed it is the voice of Christ, the Angel of God's presence, who went before the children of Israel in the wilderness, which they were to hearken to and obey, that is here meant; see Exo_23:20, and Heb_3:6,

and Israel had walked in my ways; which he marked out and directed them unto, meaning his ordinances and commandments; which to walk in, as it denotes progress and continuance, and supposes and requires life and strength, so it is both pleasant and profita

HE�RY, "He testifies his good-will to them in wishing they had done well for themselves. He saw how sad their case was, and how sure their ruin, when they were delivered up to their own lusts; that is worse than being given up to Satan, which may be in order to reformation (1Ti_1:20) and to salvation (1Co_5:5); but to be delivered up to their own hearts' lusts is to be sealed under condemnation. He that is filthy, let him be filthy still. What fatal precipices will not these hurry a man to! Now here God looks upon them with pity, and shows that it was with reluctance that he thus abandoned them to their folly and fate. How shall I give thee up, Ephraim?Hos_11:8, Hos_11:9. So here, O

that my people had hearkened! See Isa_48:18. Thus Christ lamented the obstinacy of Jerusalem. If thou hadst known, Luk_19:42. The expressions here are very affecting (Psa_81:13-16), designed to show how unwilling God is that any should perish and desirous that all should come to repentance (he delights not in the ruin of sinful persons or nations), and also what enemies sinners are to themselves and what an aggravation it will be of their misery that they might have been happy upon such easy terms. Observe here,

JAMISO�, "Obedience would have secured all promised blessings and the subjection of foes. In this passage, “should have,” “would have,” etc., are better, “should” and “would” expressing God’s intention at the time, that is, when they left Egypt.

CALVI�, "13.O if my people had hearkened to me! By the honorable designation which God gives to the people of Israel, He exposes the more effectually their shameful and disgraceful conduct. Their wickedness was doubly aggravated, as will appear from the consideration, that although God called them to be his people, they differed nothing from those who were the greatest strangers to him. Thus he complains by the Prophet Isaiah,

“The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master’s crib: but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider.” (Isaiah 1:3)

The Hebrew particle לו, lu, which I have rendered O if! is not to be understood as expressing a condition, but a wish; and therefore God, I have no doubt, like a man weeping and lamenting, cries out, O the wretchedness of this people in wilfully refusing to have their best interests carefully provided for! He assumes the character of a father, and observing, after having tried every possible means for the recovery of his children, that their condition is utterly hopeless, he uses the language of one saddened, as it were, with sighing and groaning; not that he is subject to human passions, but because he cannot otherwise express the greatness of the love which he bears towards us. (416) The Prophet seems to have borrowed this passage from the song of Moses in Deuteronomy 32:29, where the obstinacy of the people is bewailed in almost the same words: “Oh that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end!” He means tacitly to upbraid the Jews, and to impress upon their minds the truth, that their own perverseness was the only cause which prevented them from enjoying a state of great outward prosperity. If it is objected, that God in vain and without ground utters this complaint, since it was in his power to bend the stiff necks of the people, and that, when he was not pleased to do this, he had no reason to compare himself to a man deeply grieved; I answer, that he very properly makes use of this style of speaking on our account, that we may seek for the procuring cause of our misery nowhere but in ourselves. We must here beware of mingling together things which are totally different — as widely different from each other as heaven is distant from the earth. God, in coming down to us by his word, and addressing his invitations to all men without exception, disappoints nobody. All who sincerely come to him are received,

and find from actual experience that they were not called in vain. At the same time, we are to trace to the fountain of the secret electing purpose of God this difference, that the word enters into the heart of some, while others only hear the sound of it. And yet there is no inconsistency in his complaining, as it were, with tears, of our folly when we do not obey him. In the invitations which he addresses to us by the external word, he shows himself to be a father; and why may he not also be understood as still representing himself under the image of a father in using this form of complaint? In Ezekiel 18:32, he declares with the strictest regard to truth, “I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth,” provided in the interpretation of the passage we candidly and dispassionately take into view the whole scope of it. God has no pleasure in the death of a sinner: How? because he would have all men turned to himself. But it is abundantly evident, that men by their own free-will cannot turn to God, until he first change their stony hearts into hearts of flesh: yea, this renovation, as Augustine judiciously observes, is a work surpassing that of the creation itself. �ow what hinders God from bending and framing the hearts of all men equally in submission to him? Here modesty and sobriety must be observed, that instead of presuming to intrude into his incomprehensible decrees, we may rest contented with the revelation which he has made of his will in his word. There is the justest ground for saying that he wills the salvation of those to whom that language is addressed, (Isaiah 21:12,) “Come unto me, and be ye converted.” In the second part of the verse before us, we have defined what it is to hear God. To assent to what he speaks would not be enough; for hypocrites will grant at once that whatever proceeds from his mouth is true, and will affect to listen just as if an ass should bend its ears. But the clause is intended to teach us that we can only be said to hear God, when we submit ourselves to his authority.

יל עמש ימע ולוכלהי יכרדב לארשיLoo-ghammee-shomeagh-lee Yishrael-bid’ rakee-yehallekoo!

“He who can give the proper guttural pronunciation to the letter ע, ayin; and gives the ו, vau, and the י,yod, their full Asiatic sound; and does not pinch them to death by a compressed and worthless European enunciation; will at once be convinced of the propriety of this remark.”

SPURGEO�, "Ver. 13. O that my people had hearkened unto me, and Israel had walked in my ways! The condescending love of God expresses itself in painful regrets for Israel's sin and punishment. Such were the laments of Jesus over Jerusalem. Certain doctrinalists find a stumbling stone in such passages, and set themselves to explain them away, but to men in sympathy with the divine nature the words and the emotions are plain enough. A God of mercy cannot see men heaping up sorrow for themselves through their sins without feeling his compassion excited toward them.EXPLA�ATORY �OTES A�D QUAI�T SAYI�GSVer. 13. Oh that my people had hearkened unto me, etc. God sometimes doth not mind his children when they cry, that they may hereby take occasion to remember

how oft he hath cried and they have not minded him. Doth not the Lord cry out to his people of duty and they do not hear him? Doth he not complain here of this neglect, not only as a dishonour, but as a grief unto him? �o marvel then if God let his people cry out of misery, and doth not hear them. The Lord shuts his ear that we might consider how we have shut our ears; yea, he shuts his ears that he may open ours. We are moved to hear and answer the call and command of God, though we find that he doth not hear nor answer our call and cry. If the Lord should always be swift to hear us, how slow should we be in hearing him, and while we have our desires, forget most of our duties. Abraham Wright.Ver. 13. Oh that my people had hearkened, etc. God speaks as if he were comforted when he is but heard, or as if we comforted him when we hear him. God beseecheth us, and speaks entreaties to us, that his counsels and commands may be heard: Oh that my people had hearkened unto me. The Lord tells them indeed it would have proved their consolation (Psalms 81:14): I should soon have subdued their enemies, and turned my hand against their adversaries. Yet while he speaks so pathetically, he seems to include his own consolation in it as well as theirs. Oh that my people had hearkened unto me: it would have been good for them, and it would have given high content to myself. Joseph Caryl.Ver. 13. Oh that my people had hearkened unto me, etc. There is to us a deep mysteriousness in all this; but the desire of God for our salvation and right moral state, is here most obviously manifested: and let us proceed on that which is obvious, not on that which is obscure. Thomas Chalmers.Ver. 13. Walked in my ways. �one are found in the ways of God, but those who have hearkened to his words. W. Wilson.

BE�SO�, "Psalms 81:13. O that my people had hearkened unto me — In this way does God testify his good-will to, and concern for, the welfare and happiness of these most refractory, disobedient, and obstinate sinners. The expressions are very affecting, and much like those he uttered by Moses concerning them, Deuteronomy 5:29, “O that there were such a heart in them, that they would fear me, and keep all my commandments always, that it might be well with them, and with their children for ever.” Or like those which Christ breathed forth over the same people, when, beholding the city, he wept over it, and said, “If thou hadst known in this thy day the things which belong to thy peace,” &c. Or those other words of similar import, “O Jerusalem! Jerusalem! how often would I have gathered thy children together,” &c. All these, and such like passages, manifest the tender mercies of God, and show that he is not only careful to provide for mankind the means of salvation, but that he grieves, speaking after the manner of men, and mourns, with paternal affection, over them, when their frowardness and obstinacy disappoint the efforts of his love. They demonstrate two things; 1st, How unwilling he is that any should perish, and how desirous that all should come to repentance; and, 2d, What enemies sinners are to themselves; and what an aggravation it will be of their misery, that they might have been happy on such easy terms, but would not\.

CO�STABLE, "Verses 13-16Asaph continued to relate God"s account of Israel"s history since the Exodus. If only His people would obey Him, He would subdue their enemies and adversaries.

He would also bless them abundantly with prosperity (cf. Deuteronomy 32:13-14). The last verse addresses Israel in the second person and constituted a call to the present generation of readers to follow God faithfully.

It is important to review God"s past grace periodically and regularly, because recalling His faithfulness will challenge His people to remain faithful to Him. This is one of the values of attending church services regularly.

EBC, "In Psalms 81:13 the Divine Voice turns to address the joyous crowd of festal worshippers, exhorting them to that obedience which is the true keeping of the feast, and holding forth bright promises of the temporal blessings which, in accordance with the fundamental conditions of Israel’s prosperity, should follow thereon. The sad picture of ancient rebellion just drawn influences the language in this verse, in which "My people," "hearken," and "walk" recur. The antithesis to walking in one’s own counsels is walking in God’s ways, suppressing native stubbornness, and becoming docile to His guidance. The highest blessedness of man is to have a will submissive to God’s will, and to carry out that submission in all details of life. Self-engineered paths are always hard, and, if pursued to the end, lead into the dark. The listening heart will not lack guidance, and obedient feet will find God’s way the way of peace which steadily climbs to unfading light.

14 how quickly I would subdue their enemies and turn my hand against their foes!

BAR�ES, "I should soon have subdued their enemies - This is one of the consequences which, it is said, would have followed if they had been obedient to the laws of God. The phrase rendered soon means literally like a little; that is, as we might say, in a little, to wit, in a little time. The word rendered subdued means to bow down; to be curved or bent; and the idea is, that he would have caused them to bow down, to wit, by submission before them. Compare Deu_32:29-30.

And turned my hand against their adversaries - Against those who oppressed and wronged them. The act of turning the hand against one is significant of putting him away - repelling him - disowning him - as when we would thrust one away from us with aversion.

CLARKE, "I should soon have subdued - If God’s promise appeared to fail in behalf of his people, it was because they rejected his counsel, and walked in their own.

While they were faithful, they prospered; and not one jot or tittle of God’s word failed to them.

GILL, "I should soon have subdued their enemies,.... The Canaanites, and others: this he would have done in a very little time, or at once, and that easily, and without any trouble; he would quickly have humbled them, and brought them on their knees, as the word (g) signifies, to terms of peace; for when a man's ways please the Lord, he makes his enemies to be at peace with him, Pro_16:7 so those that hearken to the voice of Christ, and walk in his ways, he subdues their iniquities, and will bruise Satan under their feet shortly, and make them more than conquerors: through himself, over the world; the men and things of it he has overcome:

and turned my hand against their adversaries; that troubled, distressed, and oppressed them; and it is a righteous thing with God to render tribulation to them that trouble his people; he turns his chastising hand off of them, which sometimes is heavy upon them, and presses them sore, and turns it in a way of wrath and vindictive justice against their adversaries; and so the Targum,

"and turned the stroke of my power against their adversaries;''

this is the lighting down of his arm with the indignation of his anger, which is intolerable, Isa_30:30.

HE�RY 14-16, ". The great mercy God had in store for his people, and which he would have wrought for them if they had been obedient. (1.) He would have given them victory over their enemies and would soon have completed the reduction of them. They should not only have kept their ground, but have gained their point, against the remaining Canaanites, and their encroaching vexatious neighbours (Psa_81:14): I should have subdued their enemies; and it is God only that is to be depended on for the subduing of our enemies. Not would had have put them to the expense and fatigue of a tedious war: he would soon have done it; for he would have turned his hand against their adversaries, and then they would not have been able to stand before them. It intimates how easily he would have done it and without any difficulty. With the turn of a hand, nay, with the breath of his mouth, shall he slay the wicked, Isa_11:4. If he but turn his hand, the haters of the Lord will submit themselves to him (Psa_81:15); and, though they are not brought to love him, yet they shall be made to fear him and to confess that he is too hard for them and that it is in vain to contend with him. God is honoured, and so is his Israel, by the submission of those that have been in rebellion against them, though it be but a forced and feigned submission. (2.) He would have confirmed and perpetuated their posterity, and established it upon sure and lasting foundations. In spite of all the attempts of their enemies against them, their time should have endured for ever, and they should never have been disturbed in the possession of the good land God had given them, much less evicted and turned out of possession. (3.) He would have given them great plenty of all good things (Psa_81:16): He should have fed them with the finest of the wheat, with the best grain and the best of the kind. Wheat was the staple commodity of Canaan, and they exported a great deal of it, Eze_27:17. He would not only have provided for them the best sort of bread, but with honey out of the rock would he have satisfied them. Besides the precious products of the fruitful soil, that

there might not be a barren spot in all their land, even the clefts of the rock should serve for bee-hives and in them they should find honey in abundance. See Deu_32:13, Deu_32:14. In short, God designed to make them every way easy and happy.

2. The duty God required from them as the condition of all this mercy. He expected no more than that they should hearken to him, as a scholar to his teacher, to receive his instructions - as a servant to his master, to receive his commands; and that they should walk in his ways, those ways of the Lord which are right and pleasant, that they should observe the institutions of his ordinances and attend the intimations of his providence. There was nothing unreasonable in this.

3. Observe how the reason of the withholding of the mercy is laid in their neglect of the duty: If they had hearkened to me, I would soon have subdued their enemies.National sin or disobedience is the great and only thing that retards and obstructs national deliverance. When I would have healed Israel, and set every thing to-rights among them, then the iniquity of Ephraim was discovered, and so a stop was put to the cure, Hos_7:1. We are apt to say, “If such a method had been taken, such an instrument employed, we should soon have subdued our enemies:” but we mistake; if we had hearkened to God, and kept to our duty, the thing would have been done, but it is sin that makes our troubles long and salvation slow. And this is that which God himself complains of, and wishes it had been otherwise. Note, Therefore God would have us do our duty to him, that we may be qualified to receive favour from him. He delights in our serving him, not because he is the better for it, but because we shall be.

JAMISO�, "Obedience would have secured all promised blessings and the subjection of foes. In this passage, “should have,” “would have,” etc., are better, “should” and “would” expressing God’s intention at the time, that is, when they left Egypt.

CALVI�, "14.I would soon have brought their enemies low. Here the Israelites are taught, that all the calamities which had befallen them were to be imputed to their own sins; for their enemies did not fight against them with any other strength than that with which they were supplied from above. God had promised that under his leading the chosen people would prove victorious over all their enemies; and now to take away all ground for charging him with violating his word, he affirms that he would not have failed to enable them to do this had he not been prevented by their sins. He doubtless intends tacitly to remind them that the victories which they had formerly achieved were not owing to their own military valor, but to Him under whose conduct they had been placed. �ow, he tells them that he was not only kept back by their sins from putting forth his power to defend them, but that he was also compelled by their perverseness to rush against them with the sword in his hand, while he left their enemies to remain in undisturbed tranquillity.

SPURGEO�, "Ver. 14. I should soon have subdued their enemies. As he did in Egypt overthrow Pharaoh, so would he have baffled every enemy.And turned my hand against their adversaries. He would have smitten them once, and then have dealt them a return blow with the back of his hand. See what we lose by sin. Our enemies find the sharpest weapons against us in the armoury of our transgressions. They could never overthrow us if we did not first overthrow

ourselves. Sin strips a man of his armour, and leaves him naked to his enemies. Our doubts and fears would long ago have been slain if we had been more faithful to our God. Ten thousand evils which afflict us now would have been driven far from us if we had been more jealous of holiness in our walk and conversation. We ought to consider not only what sin takes from our present stock, but what it prevents our gaining: reflections will soon show us that sin always costs us dear. If we depart from God, our inward corruptions are sure to make a rebellion. Satan will assail us, the world will worry us, doubts will annoy us, and all through our own fault. Solomon's departure from God raised up enemies against him, and it will be so with us, but if our ways please the Lord he will make even our enemies to be at peace with us.EXPLA�ATORY �OTES A�D QUAI�T SAYI�GSVer. 14. Turned my hand. God expresseth the utter overthrow of the enemies of his people, but by the turning of a hand: if God do but turn his hand, they are all gone presently, soon subdued. If he do but touch the might, the pomp, the greatness, the riches and the power of all those in the world that are opposers of his church, presently they fall to the ground: a touch from the hand of God will end our wars. Joseph Caryl.

BE�SO�, "Verse 14-15Psalms 81:14-15. I would soon have subdued their enemies — Both those remaining Canaanites, whom now, for their unbelief and apostacy, I have left in the land, to be snares and plagues to them, and also all their encroaching and vexatious neighbours, who have so often invaded and laid waste their country. The haters of the Lord — The enemies of God’s people, such as the neighbouring nations were; should have submitted themselves — Should have owned and professed their subjection to them, if not also have become proselytes to the true religion. He terms them haters of the Lord, partly because they hated the Israelites for God’s sake, and on account of the singularity of their worship, as the heathen often declared; and partly to show the close union and solemn league and covenant which were between God and them, by virtue of which God had declared he would account their friends to be his friends, and their enemies to be his enemies. But their time — That is, Israel’s time, meaning, either, 1st, Their happy time, life being often put for a happy life or state; or, rather, 2d, The duration of their commonwealth; should have endured for ever — Should have lasted for a long time; whereas now their latter and doleful end is hastening toward them. It may be proper to observe here the original expression, rendered, should have submitted themselves to him, is, יכחשו לו, jecachashu lo, which, as we have more than once had occasion to observe, signifies, should have lied unto him, that is, spoken fair, fawned, and pretended great respect to the Jewish people and their God, though in reality they hated them both. In this sense the words are understood by Bishop Patrick, whose paraphrase upon the verse is well worth transcribing. “All that maligned their prosperity,” (the prosperity of Israel,) “and set themselves against the design of the Lord, to make them victorious over their enemies, should have been so daunted, that they should have dissembled their inward hatred, and been forced, at least, to counterfeit submission; but his people should have seen blessed days, and have enjoyed a substantial and durable happiness without any interruption."

PULPIT, "I should soon have subdued (rather, I should won subdue) their enemies. Israel is still surrounded by enemies, anxious for his destruction. God could subdue them and sweep them away in a moment, if he pleased; and would do so, if Israel would repent and return to him. The appeal is to the living Israel—the Israel of the psalmist's time, which is given one more chance of triumph over its enemies. And turned my hand against their adversaries. Logically, the two clauses should have been inverted, since the subjugation of Israel's enemies would be the effect of God's hand being turned against them.

15 Those who hate the Lord would cringe before him, and their punishment would last forever.

BAR�ES, "The haters of the Lord - The enemies of the Lord, often represented as those who hate him - hatred being always in fact or in form connected with an unwillingness to submit to God. It is hatred of his law; hatred of his government; hatred of his plans; hatred of his character. See Rom_1:30; Joh_7:7, Joh_15:18, Joh_15:23-25. Compare Exo_20:5.

Should have submitted themselves unto him -Margin, yielded retained obedience. Hebrew, lied. See the phrase explained in the notes at Psa_18:44. The meaning is, that they would have been so subdued as to acknowledge his authority or supremacy, while it is, at the same time, implied that this would have been forced and not cordial. No external power, though it may so conquer as to make people outwardly obedient, can affect the will, or subdue that. The grace of God alone can do that, and it is the special triumph of grace that it can do it.

But their time - The time of his people. They would have continued to be a happy and a flourishing nation.

Should have endured for ever - Perpetually - as long as they continued to be obedient. If a nation were obedient to the will of God; if it wholly obeyed his laws; if it countenanced by statute no form of sin; if it protected no iniquity; if it were temperate, just, virtuous, honest, there is no reason why its institutions should not be perpetual, or why it should ever be overthrown. Sin is, in all cases, the cause of the ruin of nations, as it is of individuals.

CLARKE, "Their time should have endured for ever - That is, Their prosperity

should have known no end.

GILL, "The haters of the Lord should have submitted themselves unto him,.... Or, "lied unto him" (h); feignedly submitted to him, flattered him, pretended friendship to him, and entered into a league with him; either Israel, mentioned Psa_81:13, our God, whom and whose worship and people they hated; as every natural man is an hater of God, and all that is good, and enmity itself unto him; but these shall all submit to Christ, sooner or later, in one way or another, and acknowledge him Lord, and that he is superior to them, and themselves not a match for him; as Julian the emperor when wounded, said, Thou hast overcome me, O Galilean:

but their time should have endured for ever; which Jarchi and Aben Ezra interpret of the calamities and vengeance that should come upon the haters of God, who will be punished with everlasting destruction; their worm will never die, nor their fire be quenched; it is everlasting, and the smoke of their torment will ascend for ever and ever; in which sense the word is used, Isa_13:22 or rather this is to be understood of the time, or happy state and condition, of the Israelites, which would have been of long continuance, had they hearkened to the Lord, and walked in his ways; particularly, they would have long enjoyed the land of Canaan, which was given to Abraham and his seed for an everlasting possession, and which they held by the tenure of their obedience, Gen_17:8, and so all truly gracious souls, that hearken to the voice of Christ, and walk in his ways, are in a happy state, which will endure for ever; they are blessed with all spiritual blessings, and those are for ever; the heavenly land of Canaan they shall dwell in for ever; their mansions or habitations in Christ's Father's house are everlasting; their house, not made with hands, is eternal in the heavens; their estate, possession, and inheritance is an eternal one; it is incorruptible, and fades not away; their being with Christ is for ever; and their happiness is often expressed by eternal life and eternal glory.

CALVI�, "15.The haters of Jehovah would have lied to him. Here the same thought is pursued, when the Israelites are informed that their enemies would have humbly submitted to their authority had not their impiety emboldened them to run to excess, when they shook off the yoke of God, and waxed wanton against him. In calling these enemies the enemies of Jehovah, it is intended to censure the folly of the Israelites in breaking the bond of the covenant made between God and them, and thereby separating themselves from him, and preventing him from forthwith engaging in war in their behalf against those who were alike their and his enemies. As earthly princes, when they are disappointed of the assistance promised by their allies, are excited to enter into terms of agreement with their enemies, and in this way avenge themselves on those who have been found to be guilty of perjury and covenant-breakers; so God declares that he had spared his own enemies, because he had been treacherously and wickedly deceived by the people of Israel. Why does he permit his avowed enemies to remain unpunished, and cease for a time to maintain his own glory, if it is not because his object is to set them in contrast with his own rebellious and disobedient people, whom, by this means, he intends to subdue? The meaning of the word כחש, cachash, which we have rendered lied, has been explained in a previous psalm (417). It is here intimated that peace with the reprobate cannot

be looked for except in so far as God restrains their rage by hidden chains. A lion shut up in an iron cage still retains his own nature, but he is kept from mangling and tearing in pieces those who are not even more than five or six feet distant from him. Thus it is with respect to the wicked. They may greedily desire our destruction; but they are unable to accomplish what their hearts are set upon; yea God humbles and abases their fierceness and arrogance, so that they put on the appearance of gentleness and meekness. The amount of the whole is, that it was the fault of the Israelites themselves that their enemies prevailed against them, and insolently triumphed over them; whereas, had they continued the humble and obedient children of God, these enemies would have been in a state of subjection to them. When it is said, their time should have been everlasting, (418) the expression is to be referred to the promises; and so must the abundance of wheat and of honey, with which they would have been fully satisfied. God had solemnly declared that he would be their protector and guardian even to the end. The change, then, which so suddenly befell them is set before them as a matter of reproach, inasmuch as they had deliberately cast away all at once their happy state. The same remarks are applicable to the fruitfulness of the land. How is it to be accounted for that they suffered hunger in the land in which God had promised them abundance of wheat and honey, but because the blessing of God had been withheld on account of their iniquity? By the fat of corn (419) is meant, metaphorically, pure grain, unless it may be thought preferable to understand it of the finest wheat. Some are of opinion that the expression, honey out of the rock, is hyperbolical, implying that honey would have flowed from the very rocks rather than that God would have failed to satisfy his people. But as it is evident from sacred history that honey was found everywhere in the hollows of the rocks (420) so long as they enjoyed the blessing of God, the meaning simply is, that the grace of God would have continued to flow in an unbroken and uniform course, had it not been interrupted by the perverseness and wickedness of the people.

SPURGEO�, "Ver. 15. The haters of the Lord should have submitted themselves unto him. Though the submission would have been false and flattering, yet the enemies of Israel would have been so humiliated that they would have hastened to make terms with the favoured tribes. Our enemies become abashed and cowardly when we, with resolution, walk carefully with the Lord. It is in God's power to keep the fiercest in check, and he will do so if we have a filial fear, a pious awe of him.But their time should have endured for ever. The people would have been firmly established, and their prosperity would have been stable. �othing confirms a state or a church like holiness. If we be firm in obedience we shall be firm in happiness. Righteousness establishes, sin ruins.

COKE, "Psalms 81:15. The haters of the Lord should have submitted themselves—The haters of the Lord should have lied to him. "The enemies of the Lord; or, (passively, by a different pointing,) the hated of the Lord, who were at the same time enemies of the Jewish nation should have been obliged to speak, fawn, and pretend great respect to him; i.e. to the Jewish people." The course of the sense requires it to be thus understood. The singular number is no objection; for that recurs in the next verse, and there is through this whole speech of God a frequent change of number

and person.

EBC, "The blessings attached in the psalm to such conformity with God’s will are of an external kind, as was to be expected at the Old Testament stage of revelation. They are mainly two-victory and abundance. But the precise application of Psalms 81:15 b is doubtful. Whose "time" is to "endure forever"? There is much to be said in favour of the translation "that so their time might endure forever," as Cheyne renders, and for understanding it, as he does, as referring to the enemies who yield themselves to God, in order that they "might be a never-exhausted people." But to bring in the purpose of the enemies’ submission is somewhat irrelevant, and the clause is probably best taken to promise length of days to Israel. In Psalms 81:16 the sudden change of persons in a is singular, and, according to the existing vocalisation, there is an equally sudden change of tenses, which induces Delitzsch and others to take the verse as recurring to historical retrospect. The change to the third person is probably occasioned, as Hupfeld suggests, by the preceding naming of Jehovah, or may have been due to an error. Such sudden changes are more admissible in Hebrew than with us, and are very easily accounted for, when God is represented as speaking. The momentary emergence of the psalmist’s personality would lead him to say "He," and the renewed sense of being but the echo of the Divine Voice would lead to the recurrence to the "I," in which God speaks directly. The words are best taken as in line with the other hypothetical promises in the preceding verses. The whole verse looks back to Deuteronomy 32:13-14. "Honey from the rock" is not a natural product; but, as Hupfeld says, the parallel "oil out of the flinty rock," which follows in Deuteronomy, shows that "we are here, not on the ground of the actual, but of the ideal," and that the expression is a hyperbole for incomparable abundance. Those who hearken to God’s voice will have all desires satisfied and needs supplied. They will find furtherance in hindrances, fertility in barrenness; rocks will drop honey and stones will become bread.

PULPIT, "The haters of the Lord. Israel's enemies are always spoken of as God's enemies also (comp. Psalms 3:2, Psalms 3:7; Psalms 9:3; Psalms 68:1; Psalms 79:6, Psalms 79:7, etc.). They "hate" Jehovah (Psalms 21:8; Psalms 83:2), not merely as Israel's Protecter, but as the Source of all good, whereas they delight in evil. Should have submitted themselves unto him; rather, should submit themselves, or "should yield feigned obedience". But their time (i.e. Israel's time) should have endured forever; rather, should endure.

16 But you would be fed with the finest of wheat; with honey from the rock I would satisfy you.”

BAR�ES, "He should have fed them also - He would have given them prosperity, and their land would have produced abundantly of the necessities - even of the luxuries - of life. This is in accordance with the usual promises of the Scriptures, that obedience to God will be followed by national temporal prosperity. See Deu_32:13-14; 1Ti_4:8; Psa_37:11. Compare the notes at Mat_5:5.

With the finest of the wheat -Margin, as in Hebrew, with the fat of wheat. The meaning is, the best of the wheat - as the words fat and fatness are often used to denote excellence and abundance. Gen_27:28, Gen_27:39; Job_36:16; Psa_36:8; Psa_63:5; Psa_65:11.

And with honey out of the rock should I have satisfied thee - Palestine abounded with bees, and honey was a favorite article of food. Gen_43:11; Deu_8:8; Deu_32:13; 1Sa_14:25-26; Isa_7:15; Eze_16:13; Mat_3:4. Much of that which was obtained was wild honey, deposited by the bees in the hollows of trees, and as it would seem in the caverns of the rocks. Much of it was gathered also from rocky regions, and this was regarded as the most delicate and valuable. I do not know the cause of this, nor why honey in high and rocky countries should be more pure and white than that obtained from other places; but the whitest and the most pure and delicate honey that I have ever seen I found at Chamouni in Switzerland. Dr. Thomson (land and the Book, vol. ii. p. 362) says of the rocky region in the vicinity of Timnath, that “bees were so abundant in a wood at no great distance from this spot that the honey dropped down from the trees on the ground;” and that “he explored densely-wooded gorges in Hermon and in Southern Lebanon where wild bees are still found, both in trees and in the clefts of the rocks.”

The meaning here is plain, that, if Israel had been obedient to God, he would have blessed them with abundance - with the richest and most coveted productions of the field. Pure religion - obedience to God - morality - temperance, purity, honesty, and industry, such as religion requires - are always eminently favorable to individual and national prosperity; and if a man or a nation desired to be most prospered, most successful in the lawful and proper objects of individual or national existence, and most happy, nothing would tend more to conduce to it than those virtues which piety enjoins and cultivates. Individuals and nations, even in respect to temporal prosperity, are most unwise, as well as most wicked, when they disregard the laws of God, and turn away from the precepts and the spirit of religion. It is true of nations, as it is of individuals, that “Godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is,” 1Ti_4:8.

CLARKE, "With the finest of the wheat - �mecheleb מחלב�חטהchittah; literally, with the fat of wheat, as in the margin.

Honey out of the rock - And he fed thaim of the grese of whete: And of the hony stane he thaim filled. Old Psalter. Thus paraphrased: “He fed thaim with the body of Criste and gastely understandyng; and of hony that ran of the stane, that is, of the wisedome that is swete to the hert.” Several of the fathers understand this place of Christ.

GILL, "He should have fed them also with the finest of the wheat,.... Or the "fat of the wheat (y)"; see Deu_32:14, with the finest flour of it: the Targum is,

"with the best bread of wheat;''

with the best of wheat, and the best bread that can be made of it: Aben Ezra interprets it of the manna, which was better than the fat, or finest, of the wheat, being the corn of heaven, and angels' food, Psa_78:24, but it rather respects what the Israelites would have been continued to be fed with in the land of Canaan, which was a land of wheat, Deu_8:8, and such who hearken to the Lord, and walk in his ways, are fed by him with the Gospel, which is comparable to wheat, and the finest of it, for its choiceness and excellency, for its solidity and substantiality, for its purity and cleanness, and for its being of a nourishing and strengthening nature, see Jer_38:28, and especially Christ, the sum and substance of the Gospel, may be figuratively meant, with whom the saints are fed, and who is compared to a corn of wheat, Joh_12:24 for his preciousness and excellency, for his purity and fruitfulness, and for being the food of his people, the bread of life, for which he was prepared by his sufferings and death; which may be fitly expressed by the threshing, winnowing, and grinding of wheat, and then of kneading the flour, and baking the bread:

and with honey out of the rock would I have satisfied thee; the land of Canaan abounded with hills and rocks, in which bees had their hives, and from whence honey dropped to lower places; and hence the land is said to flow with milk and honey, Exo_3:8, nor is it unusual in other places to find honey in rocks; at Guadaloupe, in the West Indies, we are told (z), honey was found in trees and caves of rocks. Aben Ezra interprets this of the water which flowed out of the rock at Horeb, which was sweeter than honey; but the former sense is best: the rock spiritually and mystically designs Christ, the Rock of salvation, 1Co_10:4, the honey out of the rock, the fulness of grace in him, and the blessings of it, the sure mercies of David, and the precious promises of the everlasting covenant; and the Gospel, which is sweeter than the honey or the honeycomb; and with these such are filled and satisfied, who hearken to Christ, and walk in his ways; for, as the whole of what is here said shows what Israel lost by disobedience, it clearly suggests what such enjoy who hear and obey.

SPURGEO�, "Ver. 16. He should have fed them also with the finest of the wheat. Famine would have been an unknown word, they would have been fed on the best of the best food, and have had abundance of it as their every day diet.And with honey out of the rock should I have satisfied thee. Luxuries as well as necessaries would be forthcoming, the very rocks of the land would yield abundant and sweet supplies; the bees would store the clefts of the rocks with luscious honey, and so turn the most sterile part of the land to good account. The Lord can do great things for an obedient people. When his people walk in the light of his countenance, and maintain unsullied holiness, the joy and consolation which he yields them are beyond conception. To them the joys of heaven have begun even upon earth. They can sing in the ways of the Lord. The spring of the eternal summer has commenced with them; they are already blest, and they look for brighter things. This shows us by contrast how sad a thing it is for a child of God to sell himself into captivity to sin, and bring his soul into a state of famine by following after another god. O Lord,

for ever bind us to thyself alone, and keep us faithful unto the end.EXPLA�ATORY �OTES A�D QUAI�T SAYI�GSVer. 16. Honey out of the rock. The rock spiritually and mystically designs Christ, the Rock of salvation, 1 Corinthians 10:4; the honey out of the rock, the fulness of grace in him, and the blessings of it, the sure mercies of David, and the precious promises of the everlasting covenant; and the gospel, which is sweeter than the honey or the honeycomb, and with these such are filled and satisfied who hearken to Christ and walk in his ways; for, as the whole of what is here said shows what Israel lost by disobedience, it clearly suggests what such enjoy who hear and obey. John Gill.Ver. 16. Honey out of the rock. God extracts honey out of the rock—the sweetest springs and pleasures from the hardness of afflictions; from mount Calvary and the cross, the blessings that give greatest delight; whereas the world makes from the fountains of pleasure stones and rocks of torment. Thomas Le Blanc.Ver. 16. Honey out of the rock. Most travellers who have visited Palestine in summer have had their attention directed to the abundance of honey, which the bees of the land have stored up in the hollows of trees and in crevices of the rock. In localities where the bare rocks of the desert alone break the sameness of the scene, and all around is suggestive of desolation and death, the traveller has God's care of his chosen people vividly brought to mind, as he sees the honey which the bees had treasured up beyond his reach, trickling in shining drops down the face of the rock. John Duns.Ver. 16. When once a people or a person are accepted of God, he spares no cost, nor thinks anything too costly for them. He would have fed them also with the finest of the wheat: and with honey out of the rock should I have satisfied thee. I would not have fed thee with wheat only, that's good; but with the finest wheat, that's the best. We put in the margin, with the fat of wheat; they should not have had the bran, but the flour, and the finest of the flour; they should have had not only honey, but honey out of the rock, which, as naturalists observe, is the best and purest honey. Surely God cannot think anything of this world too good for his people, who hath not thought the next world too good for them; certainly God cannot think any of these outward enjoyments too good for his people, who hath not thought his Son too good for his people; that's the apostle's argument, Romans 8:32 : He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? even the best of outward good things, when he seeth it good for us. Joseph Caryl.

ELLICOTT, "(16) Finest of the wheat.—See margin, and comp. Psalms 147:14. The construction of this verse is matter of difficulty. Properly we should render, And he fed them with the finest of the wheat, and with honey out of the rock satisfied thee. The change of person is harsh, though perhaps it may be illustrated by Psalms 22:27, &c, but the past tense seems out of keeping with the context. The conclusions of Psalms 77, 78 are hardly analogous. The pointing should be slightly changed to give, “And I would feed them also,” &

BE�SO�, "Psalms 81:16. He should have fed them with the finest wheat — He would have made their country exceedingly fruitful and productive, especially of

wheat and other grain, in the highest perfection. And with honey out of the rock should I have satisfied thee — That is, with all pleasant and precious fruits, and with all delights; as all necessaries may be expressed in the former clause under the name of wheat. Or honey may be here taken literally; for the land of Canaan abounded with excellent honey; and the bees used to be collected in the clefts and holes of the rocks, as in hives, and there made their honey in such plenty that it often flowed down upon the ground in considerable quantities: see Deuteronomy 32:13; 1 Samuel 14:25-26.

PULPIT, "He should have fed them also; rather, he should feed. With the finest of the wheat; literally, with the fat of the wheat (comp. Deuteronomy 32:14 and Psalms 147:14). And with honey out of the rock should I have satisfied thee; rather, would I satisfy thee. The expression, "honey out of the rock," is taken from Deuteronomy 32:13. It evidently means "honey of the best"—native honey, stored by the bees in clefts of the rocks. Of course, both the "wheat" and the "honey" are metaphors, which we are to regard as shadowing forth all temporal and spiritual blessings.

COKE, "Psalms 81:16. He should have fed them—with the finest of the wheat— i.e. "He would have blessed thee with such plenty, that in the desarts thou shouldst have found the sweetest refreshments; and, without any care of thine, bees should have laid up honey for thee in the rocks, and holes of trees." In Judaea, the bees used the rocks and ground as hives to lay up their honey. This verse is not to be understood of miraculous feeding; but is a poetical description of the land of Canaan. Green, after Houbigant, reads, I would have fed them with the finest wheat, and satisfied them with the choicest honey.

REFLECTIO�S.—1st, Before we join the songs of angels, the work of praise should be our joyful employment here below. The Psalmist therefore excites the people of God to unite heart and voice in adoring their covenant God, the rock of their salvation; by whose strength every faithful Israelite is enabled to grapple with all the enemies of his soul, to fulfil every service, and endure every suffering to which the Lord is pleased to call him. To raise the concert high, sweet instruments of music are employed, and the loud trumpet's sound proclaims, on the solemn feast-day, the appointed season for the general assembly, the great Jehovah's praise. �ote; The more we regard God as our strength, the surer is our stability.

2nd, When the eternal Jehovah speaks, let every mortal ear attend. Hear, O my people, peculiarly bound to be advised and governed by him; O Israel, if thou wilt, or, O that thou wouldst, hearken unto me. It was their duty, and God wishes it might be their desire to do so. His peculiar charge to them is,

1. Flee from idolatry. There shall no strange god be in thee; neither shalt thou worship any strange god. This is the first and great commandment: God must be made the supreme object of our faith, fear, and love: whatever creature rivals him in our heart, makes us spiritual idolaters.

2. He enforces the command by two considerations. [1.] His right in them, and their

obligations to him. I am the Lord thy God, the only object of worship, standing in a peculiar relation to them, and therefore especially demanding it from them; which brought thee out of the land of Egypt, and therefore from gratitude are they most bound to love and serve him. [2.] It would be their highest interest also to cleave to him alone; Open thy mouth wide and I will fill it: he will be their all-sufficient portion; and they cannot ask more than he is willing to bestow on them, provided they continue faithful. �ote; (1.) God's service is our highest interest, as well as duty. (2.) If we had no future promises in view, past obligations should engage our hearts to him. (3.) The prayer of faith can never ask too much. (4.) They who now have God for their portion, have all that heart can wish.

3. He charges them with their disobedience and ingratitude. But my people, from whom he had such just expectations, would not hearken to my voice, inattentive and perverse; and Israel would none of me; foolishly as wickedly rejecting their own mercies, and neither willing to serve God as their master, nor content with his love as their portion.

4. Justly God visited their iniquities. So I gave them up unto their own hearts' lust; which is of all judgments the most terrible; for, his grace withdrawn, we are then abandoned to sin and misery, and rush on our destruction, as the horse into the battle: and they walked in their own counsels. Since they were headstrong and obstinate, he left them to their own devices, and the dreadful consequences which must ensue. �ote; They who resist God's word and Spirit, have only their own wilfulness to blame, when their destruction cometh.

5. He expresses his kind wishes for them, and his gracious designs towards them, had they been faithful. Oh that my people, bound by every tie to approve themselves to him, had hearkened unto me, obeyed my law, and attended to my warnings, and Israel had walked in my ways, so much their interest as well as duty. For then, [1.] They would have been for ever victorious over their foes, and God himself would have appeared to fight their battles, and make them more than conquerors. [2.] They would have uninterruptedly enjoyed the possession of their good land; and all who hated God and his worship, should have submitted themselves unto him, or, lied unto him; so that, though it might be a feigned and forced submission, they should not be able to disturb them. [3.] They would have been blest with plenty of every earthly good: the finest wheat, and honey ready provided for them in the rock, where the bees had formed their hive, would have been their food; of all which, their folly and sin would deprive them, and leave them as wretched as they might have been happy. �ote; (1.) Sinners are the greatest enemies to their own souls. (2.) They who attend to the voice of Christ will see all their foes become their footstool. (3.) The supplies of his grace to his faithful people are more strengthening than bread, and sweeter than honey. (4.) If any perish, it is not through want of compassion in God, but through the hardness and impenitence of their own hearts.