Psalm 81

commentary by Kevin Watson, Ph.D.

To the choirmaster: according to The Gittith. Of Asaph.
1 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 toward him,
    and their fate would last forever.
16 But he would feed you with the finest of the wheat,
    and with honey from the rock I would satisfy you.”

This Psalm startled me! I want to pause to note that here because that is one of the things a prayerful reading of the Psalms will do from time to time. The honesty and variety of perspectives that are offered for different seasons of the soul can jar us when we read one that seems to give words to where we find ourselves.

But that is not what startled me about Psalm 81.

v. 1-5b (up to “when he went out over the land of Egypt.”)

Psalm 81 begins with joyous celebration.

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

This marks a significant shift from the previous Psalms we’ve been praying.

But then there is a dramatic shift at the end of verse 5 that carries through the rest of Psalm.

I hear a language I had not known:
‘I relieved your shoulder of the burden;
     Your hands were freed from the basket.
In distress you called, and I delivered you…
Hear, O my people, while I admonish you!
     O Israel, if you would but listen to me!...
But my people did not listen to my voice;
     Israel would not submit to me.
So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts,
     To follow their own counsels.

Several of the most recent Psalms we’ve been praying have been heart-rending cries for God to look, to see, to turn his face toward us. They express the agony of feeling that God is absent or uncaring in the midst of suffering.

Psalm 81 flips the script and at the end of verse 5 we are confronted with God’s perspective.

It is God, the Lord himself, who is in agony over his people’s faithlessness. Their unwillingness to listen. To submit to the creator of the heavens and the earth.

Listen to this cry from God:

Oh, that my people would listen to me,
   That Israel would walk in my ways!
I would soon subdue their enemies
     And turn my hand against their foes.
Those who hate the Lord would cringe toward him,
     And their fate would last forever.
But he would feed you with the finest of wheat,
     And with honey from the rock I would satisfy you.

This Psalm is startling reminder of what is obvious: We have a relationship with God. And that means that God has a perspective on our relationship with him.

Ask God if there is something he has been trying to say to you that you haven’t been willing to hear. Wait a moment in the Father’s presence. When he speaks, listen to his voice!