"To the choirmaster: according to The Gittith. Of Asaph.
Sing aloud to God our strength;
shout for joy to the God of Jacob!
2 Raise a song; sound the tambourine,
the sweet lyre with the harp.
3 Blow the trumpet at the new moon,
at the full moon, on our feast day.
4 For it is a statute for Israel,
a rule of the God of Jacob.
5 He made it a decree in Joseph
when he went out over the land of Egypt.
I hear a language I had not known:
6 “I relieved your shoulder of the burden;
your hands were freed from the basket.
7 In distress you called, and I delivered you;
I answered you in the secret place of thunder;
I tested you at the waters of Meribah. Selah
8 Hear, O my people, while I admonish you!
O Israel, if you would but listen to me!
9 There shall be no strange god among you;
you shall not bow down to a foreign god.
10 I am the Lord your God,
who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.
Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it.
11 “But my people did not listen to my voice;
Israel would not submit to me.
12 So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts,
to follow their own counsels.
13 Oh, that my people would listen to me,
that Israel would walk in my ways!
14 I would soon subdue their enemies
and turn my hand against their foes.
15 Those who hate the Lord would cringe towards him,
and their fate would last for ever.
16 But he would feed you with the finest of the wheat,
and with honey from the rock I would satisfy you.”
Psalm 81
Following on what was said at the end of yesterday's Note, the words in 10b must surely mean that the response of obedience to God from a redeemed people will always lead to fulness. Giving God undisputed first place in our lives will secure the fulfilment of the boldest wishes, and satisfy the most clamant of desires. Here is a lesson for us! The best defence against the temptation to stray from God is the possession by experience of His rich gifts that meet all desires. Therefore, the wider our mouths open, the more we shall experimentally receive from Him. What a word for hungry hearts, especially when we realise that obedience is the opening of the mouth to God! In 11, 12 we have the Divine lament at the people's failure. It is an expression of sorrow but, we must never forget, and are not allowed to forget, that it is holy sorrow. God is holy: and disobedience has a price. To sin, to continue in sin, means to withdraw oneself from the sphere of the Divine protection and grace - to 'our own counsels' (12). In 13-16, the lessons are applied by God. He exhorts these worshippers, who are commemorating the feast, to give Him the obedience of their hearts, as their forebears failed to do. One is reminded in these verses of the famous words in Isaiah 48:18, 'O that thou hadst hearkened to My commandments! Then had thy peace been as a river...'. Similar benefits are spoken of here in 14-16: victory over enemies, and abundance of provision. The phrases in 16, 'finest of the wheat' and 'honey out of the rock' suggest incomparable abundance. Well might the Psalmist say, in another place, 'No good thing will He withhold from them that walk uprightly'.